Futureproof
By Kevin Roose
issues
Facebook's strange data dunk
My Widely Viewed Content Report has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my Widely Viewed Content ReportOur first order of business today is Facebook's new "widely viewed content report," which came out yesterday and represents, among other th…
"Society if..."
What a meme says about the future
The many flavors of YOLO
Why are people risking it all on a dream?
What Amazon can learn from a 50-year-old factory strike
Amazon's union drive may have failed. But its workers will keep chafing at attempts to turn them into machines.
What does an automation consultant do?
"This is Geoff, he automates away people's jobs for a living."
Will I ever understand the world again?
The rest of my week was mostly a blur. There was a torrent of media requests, congratulations from long-lost friends, conversations with lawyers and accountants about how to handle the auction proceeds without completely screwing up my taxes, and jokes from c…
The bossware boom
Do you have experience with workplace surveillance? I've written a bit about it, but I'm hoping to write more in a column soon. I'd love to hear some up-to-date accounts of what it's actually like to work in a software-surveilled remote job. (And, executives,…
Human bait, Taylor Swift AI, and the Old Navy surveillance dystopia
Part of what I'm hoping to do with this newsletter is introduce readers to the people who have shaped my thinking on AI, automation, and other topics, and I'm starting with Jack Clark.I first got to know Jack when he was a reporter at Bloomberg, covering AI a…
How a book happens
2014(ish) -- I'm walking with my friend around Lake Merritt in Oakland. He's a tech nerd like me, and we're talking about AI, and how it's becoming an increasingly huge part of our lives, and maybe a threat to our jobs, and something we will probably need to …
We need better robots
It was a fun article to write -- I especially dug the designer's illustration of a suit-clad USB drive -- but it's a dicey topic to wade into, in part because there isn't a lot of room for nuance. When you write about robots and AI, people want you to be eith…
Spaghetti, meet wall
Hi, friends.This is the inaugural issue of my newsletter, Futureproof.tips. And you're here, reading it! What a trip.For context: Like every other writer in America, I am trying to figure out how best to get my ideas out into the world in the year 2021.There'…