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Charles F. Ritchell and his flying machine.

25 Years Before the Wright Brothers Took to the Skies, This Flying Machine Captivated America

First exhibited in 1878, Charles F. Ritchel's dirigible was about as wacky, dangerous and impractical as any airship ever launched.
by Erik Ofgang via Smithsonian on June 11, 2024
Emoji present on Sharp PA-8500 (1988).

Emoji History: The Missing Years

Tracing the origins of Japanese emoji symbolism and drawing technology.
by Matt Sephton via Gingerbeardman on June 4, 2024
Anna May Wong in the Toll of the Sea.

Chromatic Aberrations: The Toll of the Sea (1922)

Hollywood's first natural-color feature film and the breakout role for Anna May Wong, considered the first Chinese American movie star.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on May 21, 2024
partner

Alt Text

A brief history of the textfile, and the production of conspiracy theories on the internet.
by Walter J. Scheirer via HNN on May 8, 2024
Postal stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin.

Why We Still Use Postage Stamps

The enduring necessity (and importance) of a nearly 200-year-old technology.
by Andrea Valdez via The Atlantic on April 28, 2024
Alexis de Tocqueville.

American Nightmares

Wang Huning and Alexis de Tocqueville’s dark vision of the future.
by Tanner Greer via Scholar's Stage on March 28, 2024
The Doctors' House in Glendale.

Pieces of the Past at the Doctors House: Glendale, California

How one house can contain larger stories of American migration and growth, reckonings with exclusion, and the advent of new technologies.
by Katherine Hobbs via Public Books on March 21, 2024
Illustration of an AI machine reading a book.

How AI Can Make History

Large language models can do a lot of things. But can they write like an 18th-century fur trader?
by Josh Dzieza via The Verge on February 15, 2024
Silhouette of Oppenheimer wearing a fedora.

How Do We Know the Motorman Is Not Insane?

Oppenheimer and the demon heart of power.
by James Robins via The Dreadnought on December 20, 2023
Digitally altered portrait of a man in a suit with his face pixelated, framed by computer windows.

What the Doomsayers Get Wrong About Deepfakes

Experts have warned that utterly realistic A.I.-generated videos might wreak havoc through deception. What’s happened is troubling in a different way.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on November 13, 2023
"Addicted to Cool" spelled out with air conditioning units and ducts.

Addicted to Cool

How the dream of air conditioning turned into the dark future of climate change.
by Philip Kennicott via Washington Post on September 21, 2023
Black and white photos of news paper headlines about computers.

When the Mac 'Ruined' Writing

Quills were once the default writing tool, when pens rose to prominence their impact on writing would be a hot debate in the literary world, and now computers.
by Louis Anslow via Newart on September 19, 2023
Ripped green ScanTron sheet

The End of Scantron Tests

Machine-graded bubble sheets are the defining feature of American schools. Today’s kindergartners may never have to fill one out.
by Matteo Wong via The Atlantic on September 19, 2023
NY skyline including 33 Thomas Street, a skyscraper in the Tribeca neighborhood of Southern Manhattan, New York City.

Apocalypse-Proof

A windowless telecommunications hub, 33 Thomas Street in New York City embodies an architecture of surveillance and paranoia, an ideal set for conspiracy thrillers.
by Zach Mortice via Places Journal on September 12, 2023
The first electric car model.

Three Maintenance Philosophies Fought for Control of the Auto Industry

At the very beginning of the auto industry, no less than three radically different design-for-maintenance philosophies fought it out.
by Stewart Brand via Books In Progress on June 29, 2023
Ted Kaczynski, before and after terror attacks, with writings

The Tragedy of the Unabomber

Ted Kaczynski’s criticisms of environmental destruction and out-of-control technology were incisive, but his terroristic methods had no chance of solving those problems.
by Alex Skopic via Current Affairs on June 22, 2023
Ferris wheel at the Chicago World Fair of 1893.

The Magic Lantern Man

At every stop, he enthralled audiences with a device called a “stereopticon.”
by David Cecelski via davidcecelski.com on May 1, 2023
19th century mug shots in a book

A Brief History of the Mug Shot

Police have been using the snapshots in criminal investigations since the advent of commercial photography
by Ellen Wexler via Smithsonian on April 3, 2023
A police officer stands beside a crashed automobile, 1905. (Photo by Robert Alexander / Getty Images)

The Reckless History of the Automobile

In "The Car," Bryan Appleyard sets out to celebrate the freedom these vehicles granted. But what if they were a dangerous technology from the start?
by Paris Marx via The Nation on March 13, 2023
Panting of a woman lounging with a book, titled “Dolce far niente” (The Sweetness of Doing Nothing), by Auguste Toulmouche, 1877.

We’re Distracted. That’s Nothing New.

Ever since Thoreau headed to Walden, our attention has been wandering.
by Caleb Smith via The Chronicle of Higher Education on March 10, 2023
Roland Rhythm Composer

What Drum Machines Can Teach Us About Artificial Intelligence

As AI drum machines embrace humanising imperfections, what does this mean for ‘real’ drummers and the soul of music?
by Jack Stilgoe via Aeon on February 28, 2023
Technology and California graphic.

Blame Palo Alto

From Stanford to Silicon Valley, a small town in California spread tech’s gospel of data and control.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via The New Republic on February 6, 2023
Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

Escape Therapy

Hyperindividualism has infiltrated our economic, social, and political landscape.
by Raymond Craib via Los Angeles Review of Books on January 25, 2023
Bill Clinton presenting the V-chip, 1996.

Cold Controls

“National security” and the history of US export controls.
by Ella Coon via Phenomenal World on January 18, 2023
Bridge in Pittsburgh.

Life In The ’Burgh'

A Steel City bibliography of Pittsburgh.
by Drew Simpson, Dan Holland via The Metropole on January 11, 2023
John Von Neumann and computer charts.

The World John von Neumann Built

Game theory, computers, the atom bomb—these are just a few of things von Neumann played a role in developing, changing the 20th century for better and worse.
by David Nirenberg via The Nation on November 28, 2022
JFK and Jacqueline in the convertible limousine in Dallas.

A Weekend in Dallas

Revisiting political assassinations.
by Noah Kulwin via noahkulwin.substack on November 22, 2022
A 1955 AT&T publicity photo shows [in palm, from left] a phototransistor, a junction transistor, and a point-contact transistor.

How the First Transistor Worked

Even its inventors didn’t fully understand the point-contact transistor.
by Glenn Zorpette via IEEE Spectrum on November 20, 2022
The Police Beat Algorithm, along with its computational key. Illustrated by Kelly Chudler.

The 1960s Experiment That Created Today’s Biased Police Surveillance

The Police Beat Algorithm’s outputs were not so much predictive of future crime as they were self-fulfilling prophesies.
by Charlton D. McIlwain via Slate on November 11, 2022
Image of a young girl using an iPhone.

What Makes a Millennial?

The defining boundaries and problematic categorizations carried by our culture's treatment of the label "millennial."
by Sarah Wasserman via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 18, 2022
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