CategoryTechnology
America Must Be First to Beat the Looming Spectrum Crisis
AI and reconfigurable technology can help win the spectrum race
TikTok is Back, Thanks to Trump. The Battle Against Tech Addiction Continues
TikTok has gone through a chaotic whirlwind over the last few days
TikTok is on the Verge of a Ban. Now Users Are Flocking to Another Chinese App.
National security and the mental health of a generation are at stakeA federal ban of the wildly popular social media app TikTok is set to take effect on Sunday, unless a last-minute intervention occurs, or an American-owned business buys the company. The FBI, as well as several state authorities around the country, have said the app represents a national security threat, as it allows a foreign adversary to access the data of the 170 million Americans who use it. Apart from the issue of national security, plenty of people, particularly sociologist Jonathan Haidt, have pointed out TikTok’s profound negative impact on kids and users in general. TikTok uses an advanced algorithm system to hook its users. Haidt and his research assistant, Zach Rausch, list out the multiple harms: Executives within the Read More ›
2025: Rejecting Brain Rot
Toward a more embodied and human way of life
The Radio Frequency Spectrum: A Finite Natural Resource
The increasing demand for the radio frequency spectrum that our wireless technologies depend on is unsustainable long-term
Oxford Word of the Year: Brain Rot
The flood of online content deteriorates our mental and intellectual states
Are Phones to Blame for a Spiritual Crisis?
Technology is often impersonal magic. It makes things easy, but erodes personal formationPhones block access to spiritual depth. That’s what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes in his newest bestseller The Anxious Generation. The frenetic, distractible nature of the screen-based existence most of us live in every day is eroding our ability to pursue meaning, transcending values, and empathy for other people. Haidt was recently joined in conversation by Andy Crouch, a Christian author who has written extensively on technology and culture in books like The Tech-Wise Family and The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World. “My life is full of convenience,” Crouch writes in the latter title mentioned. It is full of transaction, at its best a mutually beneficial exchange of value, a kind of arm’s-length benign use Read More ›
Smartphone: The “Experience Blocker”
Experience is the key to emotional development and a fully human lifeSmartphones are distracting and addicting, but according to Jonathan Haidt, and supported by our common experience, they can also keep us from a basic ingredient of human life: Experience. Sometimes I wonder if the worst aspect of the “dopamine culture,” as culture critic Ted Gioia calls it, is not that we no longer have the attention spans to focus on our work, but that we no longer seem able to enjoy activities that aren’t based on screens. Simple pleasures like a good meal, meant to savor and digest at a slow pace, or going through a rich and complicated novel that yields real insight and literary joy, or even kissing an actual person in an affectionate way are all “old-school” Read More ›
The Dumbphone Revolution?
It's a crazy idea, but what if we just started using our phones to call and text people?
COSM: Ethernet Inventor Asks, Are We Ready for New IT Technology?
Bob Metcalfe will talk about new technologies like electromagnetic waves from the “dead zone” of the spectrum that are slowly becoming economically viable
COSM 2024: Learn More About the Tech That Will Replace the Chip
Tech philosopher George Gilder predicted the smartphone in the 1990s. His lineup of scitech greats can tell you what comes next
Carver Mead and the Computer That Couldn’t Possibly Work
Mead, who named Moore’s Law and played a key role in developing the computer chip will be honored at COSM November 1
Experience is Going Extinct
A review of Christine Rosen's "The Extinction of Experience"
Americans Are Lonely. Sometimes Even When They’re Together
Technology can obstruct our connection with others, but it can also train us to not even want friendship in the first place
The Smartphone is the Enemy of Learning
Digital devices are hijacking kids' ability to concentrate in the classroom
A Weekend Watch: Paul Kingsnorth and Louise Perry
Who is technology serving?
Growing Up on the Internet is Like Growing Up on Mars
We need to come back to Earth
Interstellar Space Travel: But Why Not Dream?
What would we need to trim the daunting energy requirement for space travel down to size? It's a challenge