The Printed Word in Peril

In February, at an event at the 92nd Street Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center in New York, while sharing the stage with my fellow British writer Martin Amis and discussing the impact of screen-based reading and bidirectional digital media on the Republic of Letters, I threw this query … | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

Indistinguishable from Magic Dynamicland seeks to free us from our devices

Dynamicland seeks to free us from our devices—through technology | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

In Praise of Idleness, by Bertrand Russell (1932)

LIKE most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my co … | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

An anthropological dispatch from the landfill dig to unearth Atari’s E.T. (2014)

An anthropological dispatch from the landfill dig to unearth Atari’s E.T. | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

Harper’s Weekly Review

Omarosa publishes her White House memoir; US secretary of the interior blames California’s wildfires on environmental terrorists; avocado thefts sweep New Zealand | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

Stop Payment Stop Payment a homeowners’ revolt against the banks (2012)

The first slide was cryptic. QUIET TITLE: THE NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION, it said. The presenter, a former real estate broker named George Mantor, promised the words would make sense by the end of the two-hour workshop. “The revolution takes learning,” said Mantor. He was a wiry man … | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

In Praise of Idleness

LIKE most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my co … | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

Known Unknowns

Here’s a story about how machines learn. Say you are the US Army and you want to be able to locate enemy tanks in a forest. The tanks are painted with camouflage, parked among trees, and covered in brush. To the human eye, the blocky outlines of the tanks are indistinguishable fr … | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

The Death of a Once Great City: The Fall of NYC and the Crisis of Urban Wealth

The fall of New York and the urban crisis of affluence | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

The Pain Refugees: The forgotten victims of America’s opioid crisis

The forgotten victims of America's opioid crisis | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

The Death of a Once Great City

The fall of New York and the urban crisis of affluence | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

In Praise of Idleness

LIKE most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my co … | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago

The Sound of Madness

Can we treat psychosis by listening to the voices in our heads? | Continue reading


@harpers.org | 6 years ago