As various Read Max subjects and fascinations descend into chaos and recrimination, it feels like it’s time to take some reader questions.
Discussion topics are up to you: I’m looking for burning questions, incisive comments, great recommendations, and truly worthwhile shitposts. Last time we did a mailbag we discussed whether Facebook is still scary, the idea of the “Mom Thriller,” and how I organize my digital life; I get the feeling this time around people may have some questions or thoughts about, ohh, I don’t know, FTX? Twitter? EMSAM patches?
Please leave your queries and complaints below, or respond directly to this email.And thank you, as always, for your continued support of my worst instincts and stupidest ideas.
Is my disdain of new technologies like crypto and AI art like my parents disdain for MySpace and Napster or is technology actually getting more repugnant?
Between Twitter, Meta, the broader crypto shambles, am I right in feeling like this is the end of the Long 2010s in tech? Probably exactly coinciding with the age of very low interest rates enabling things to just be kind of silly for longer than you’d think?
We seem to be living through a cultural apex for the "Idiot CEO". (One hopes it's the apex!) They've been making messes at a rate that doesn't seem to be sustainable... something has to change, right? Is this a phase? Or (and this is the question) is the Idiot CEO an eternal character? If so, who were the Idiot CEOs of 50 years ago? 500 years ago?
Everyone is asking for an Elon movie or miniseries when what we really need is the Fincher/Sorkin Social Network 2. What era of Zuck should they use and what bullshit Sorkin framing device should be used?
When the steam engine was invented, people like Freud kinda assumed the mind was pneumatic too. Then came computers, and now all we can see are networks and processes.
Are we getting closer to the truth, or further away? And what are we still missing?
You can take any artist at the peak of their powers and will them to cover any subject you so choose. EG Don DeLillo from 1985 has to write a novel about the July Crisis of World War 1, or SBF and FTX; Caravaggio from 1600 must paint Trump in the White House surrounded by Big Macs? Etc Etc. Who goes to the top of the list, doing what?
What's your assessment of Mastodon and the other Twitter alternatives? Could a nonprofit, decentralized organization effectively moderate a massive, global social network? What would we want the next generation of social media to look like?
A friend went through a 70s movies phase. And recommended The Day of the Jackal. Which was loads of fun and surprisingly VERY methodical. Which really hit my enjoyment spot of these films that go through one step after another, sometimes in inane detail that is somehow gripping to watch. Spotlight, in theory a very dull movie that I CAN’T SWITCH OFF. Also All The President’s Men. These films where every scene is just advancing the plot just a teeny bit more and lots of rifling of documents and getting cards and shit off people on the other side of town. And they really get hung up on very dry details. I think the dryness of the plot points is key, even though the overall plot is very impactful (assassinations, conspiracy, etc)
Anyway, if this made any sense and you could recommend more films that just fly by but are hooked on dry investigative plots I’d love to hear it. Thanks!
Just finished your “what will the media do without Twitter” newsletter. In a post-Twitter landscape, what is the role or viability for independent news organizations on the left (big ones like huffPo or TPM)? Can their reporting drive narratives or are we going to have to rely on, like, Chris Hayes?
You were at Gawker, and generally starting in "tech" during the vaunted Web 2.0 era when small was supposed to be beautiful again (e.g. Flickr). Can small ever be beautiful again, or has the landscape in "the internet" been so dominated and commodified that online business/discourse/scenes are bound to be either owned or destroyed by the big guys? Can there be cool, weird things anymore?
Will The Fediverse ever be a thing? Can something so complex actually take foothold in the zeitgeist?
Follow up: Will people ever want to fuss with technology to get it to work again?
I feel that once upon a time you HAD to know intricate software details just to participate. Host your own blog -> blogspot -> Twitter microblogging. But as people use technology more, they tinker less (way less I think?).
What do you think? Is this good, bad, just the way technology goes?
Twitter Power Users are grasping to understand a Mastodon Instance. Could they ever make the jump to...PeerTube instead of Youtube? Friendica instead of Facebook? Matrix instead of Discord?
I read Gene Wolfe (Shadow of the Torturer, specifically) on your suggestion. I really enjoyed the read, and found your description of Wolfe’s particularly dense, moody style to be spot on. One thing you didn’t mention, though, is the many detours the book takes for Wolfe to write out his horny medieval-sexual fantasies.
Sexuality, and being horny on main is super prevalent in classic Sci-Fi fantasy, but is basically never mentioned (Niven, Heinlein come to mind) when we talk about the canon.
Is it a good thing that Wolfe always makes the time for Severian to bed a concubine between acts of violence? Is this all about the ego of a male author, or is there something worth reclaiming there?
Why is there almost no crypto in scifi and what does that say about the technology? (Only one I can think of is a reference in a Kim Stanley Robinson book that he later recanted)
Curious to hear your take on VR (and apologies if you’ve already covered this!). It seems like something companies over the past 40 years have pushed on a mostly uninterested public. Who is VR for? Why do we keep getting slightly (and only slightly) better versions of the Virtual Boy? Is there any potential there that us normals don’t see?
Let's say Twitter does crash and burn fully before the end of 2022 or very early 2023. What other industries/companies/media personalities will go with it?
Is my disdain of new technologies like crypto and AI art like my parents disdain for MySpace and Napster or is technology actually getting more repugnant?
Between Twitter, Meta, the broader crypto shambles, am I right in feeling like this is the end of the Long 2010s in tech? Probably exactly coinciding with the age of very low interest rates enabling things to just be kind of silly for longer than you’d think?
We seem to be living through a cultural apex for the "Idiot CEO". (One hopes it's the apex!) They've been making messes at a rate that doesn't seem to be sustainable... something has to change, right? Is this a phase? Or (and this is the question) is the Idiot CEO an eternal character? If so, who were the Idiot CEOs of 50 years ago? 500 years ago?
Everyone is asking for an Elon movie or miniseries when what we really need is the Fincher/Sorkin Social Network 2. What era of Zuck should they use and what bullshit Sorkin framing device should be used?
When the steam engine was invented, people like Freud kinda assumed the mind was pneumatic too. Then came computers, and now all we can see are networks and processes.
Are we getting closer to the truth, or further away? And what are we still missing?
Is there anything in tech that you are excited about?
Relatedly, looking at how Gen Z / Gen Alpha are using social media/tech, how do you foresee our usage of these evolving?
You can take any artist at the peak of their powers and will them to cover any subject you so choose. EG Don DeLillo from 1985 has to write a novel about the July Crisis of World War 1, or SBF and FTX; Caravaggio from 1600 must paint Trump in the White House surrounded by Big Macs? Etc Etc. Who goes to the top of the list, doing what?
What's your assessment of Mastodon and the other Twitter alternatives? Could a nonprofit, decentralized organization effectively moderate a massive, global social network? What would we want the next generation of social media to look like?
A friend went through a 70s movies phase. And recommended The Day of the Jackal. Which was loads of fun and surprisingly VERY methodical. Which really hit my enjoyment spot of these films that go through one step after another, sometimes in inane detail that is somehow gripping to watch. Spotlight, in theory a very dull movie that I CAN’T SWITCH OFF. Also All The President’s Men. These films where every scene is just advancing the plot just a teeny bit more and lots of rifling of documents and getting cards and shit off people on the other side of town. And they really get hung up on very dry details. I think the dryness of the plot points is key, even though the overall plot is very impactful (assassinations, conspiracy, etc)
Anyway, if this made any sense and you could recommend more films that just fly by but are hooked on dry investigative plots I’d love to hear it. Thanks!
Evangelion, thoughts?
Just finished your “what will the media do without Twitter” newsletter. In a post-Twitter landscape, what is the role or viability for independent news organizations on the left (big ones like huffPo or TPM)? Can their reporting drive narratives or are we going to have to rely on, like, Chris Hayes?
Dang, can I ask a second one -- is every tech crisis due to the fact that no tech leaders once read a history book?
FTX/any crypto meltdown <- 2008 crisis
every FAANG PR nightmare of the 2010s <- robber barons
Microsoft is cool now <- slashdot-era villianization of Bill Gates, circa 2000
You were at Gawker, and generally starting in "tech" during the vaunted Web 2.0 era when small was supposed to be beautiful again (e.g. Flickr). Can small ever be beautiful again, or has the landscape in "the internet" been so dominated and commodified that online business/discourse/scenes are bound to be either owned or destroyed by the big guys? Can there be cool, weird things anymore?
What will happen to our souls when we die?
Will The Fediverse ever be a thing? Can something so complex actually take foothold in the zeitgeist?
Follow up: Will people ever want to fuss with technology to get it to work again?
I feel that once upon a time you HAD to know intricate software details just to participate. Host your own blog -> blogspot -> Twitter microblogging. But as people use technology more, they tinker less (way less I think?).
What do you think? Is this good, bad, just the way technology goes?
Twitter Power Users are grasping to understand a Mastodon Instance. Could they ever make the jump to...PeerTube instead of Youtube? Friendica instead of Facebook? Matrix instead of Discord?
I read Gene Wolfe (Shadow of the Torturer, specifically) on your suggestion. I really enjoyed the read, and found your description of Wolfe’s particularly dense, moody style to be spot on. One thing you didn’t mention, though, is the many detours the book takes for Wolfe to write out his horny medieval-sexual fantasies.
Sexuality, and being horny on main is super prevalent in classic Sci-Fi fantasy, but is basically never mentioned (Niven, Heinlein come to mind) when we talk about the canon.
Is it a good thing that Wolfe always makes the time for Severian to bed a concubine between acts of violence? Is this all about the ego of a male author, or is there something worth reclaiming there?
Why is there almost no crypto in scifi and what does that say about the technology? (Only one I can think of is a reference in a Kim Stanley Robinson book that he later recanted)
Curious to hear your take on VR (and apologies if you’ve already covered this!). It seems like something companies over the past 40 years have pushed on a mostly uninterested public. Who is VR for? Why do we keep getting slightly (and only slightly) better versions of the Virtual Boy? Is there any potential there that us normals don’t see?
Let's say Twitter does crash and burn fully before the end of 2022 or very early 2023. What other industries/companies/media personalities will go with it?