Essays on AI, software, and the world they're reshaping.
Mostly arguments about power, money, and attention — with notes on the systems I build in between. Grouped by what they are about; filter by stage for the date-ordered archive, or browse by topic.
SEEDLING Rough notes, still formingBUDDING Developing, partially revisedEVERGREEN Considered finished and maintained
Budding
49- BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Your Smart Home Is a Landlord's Dream
Smart apartment tech is marketed as convenience for tenants and works as surveillance for landlords. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Right to Repair Is a Civil Right
You bought it but you don't own it. Repair restrictions aren't a consumer inconvenience; they're a property rights crisis. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
AI Art and the Death of Process
The debate about AI art focuses on output quality. That misses the point entirely. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Open Source Has a Sustainability Problem
The entire internet runs on software maintained by exhausted volunteers. That's not a feature; it's a crisis. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
The Quantified Self Is a Prison
We turned our bodies into dashboards and our lives into optimization problems. The numbers aren't setting us free. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Attention Is Not a Resource
The 'attention economy' metaphor gets it wrong, and the error isn't academic. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
UBI Isn't Radical Enough
Universal basic income has gone mainstream, and that should make you suspicious of what it leaves untouched. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
GDP Is a Terrible Measure of Progress
We have been steering the economy by staring at the wrong dashboard for sixty years. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Rent-Seeking Is Eating Everything
Most wealth in America is not created but extracted, and the economy is increasingly about controlling gates rather than building roads. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Nobody Is Self-Made
The self-made billionaire is a myth that serves a political function, and it is time to retire it. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
Local Food Isn't Elitist
Local food looks expensive because industrial food is artificially cheap, and somebody is paying the hidden costs. - BUDDING — Developing, partially revised.
The Loneliness Epidemic Is Structural
Loneliness isn't a personal failing. It's what happens when you design cities for cars instead of people.