Weekly

This austere work by Jasper Johns doesn’t seem to invite much of a close read. But its cool surface belies a depth of feeling, which shows us all the power of artistic restraint.

COVID has always divided Americans. The Omicron wave is even dividing the vaccinated.

Despite considering myself a cryptographer, I have not found myself particularly drawn to “crypto.” I don’t think I’ve ever actually said the words “get off my lawn,” but I’m much more likely to click on Pepperidge Farm Remembers flavored memes about how “crypto” used to mean “cryptography” than ...

“The intention of deep listening and loving speech is to restore communication, because once communication is restored, everything is possible.”

Listen to this episode from The Deep End on Spotify. Bored Elon Musk  (one of Twitter's largest pseudonyms with 1.7 million followers) joins us to discuss the nature of pseudonyms and his investment activity. We also chat about the metaverse, the pseudonymous tech stack, the future of deep fakes, and much more.Pseudonyms are interesting because they are inherently meritocratic. Bias isn't possible because nobody knows who you really are. As the internet becomes more crypto-native and employment becomes more fluid, pseudonyms will only continue to rise in popularity. Already, DAOs are full of contributors that use pseudonyms.It's worth noting that pseudonymity is not anonymity. A pseudonym can build reputation that persists through interactions.Bored Elon is trying to make sure that as one of the first major pseudonyms, he sets the right example with his online reputation. Besides posting memes or tweeting fake startup ideas, Bored Elon is spending a lot of time investing in real companies with the bored fund. Many founders are happy to take his money without knowing who he is - a future where we can interact based on the merits of our activity over our identity is one that will benefit many.For full show notes, links, RSVPs to live podcast recordings and more, visit thedeepend.substack.com

Of the 37 new emojis approved this year, one has stood out as a visual proxy for our collective malaise.

“I don't think I will ever understand aging fully. And I don't think the field will. … But I also believe that we don't have to understand it fully to be able to have an impact on the biology of aging through interventions.” —Matt Kaeberlein

In an excerpt from his upcoming meta-“memoir,” the comedian recounts a show he performed at a hospital—for the criminally insane.

Kevin Kelly is the founder of Wired Magazine and author of several books, among them The Inevitable. For Warp News he presents his case for optimism.

It is possible to detect eerie echoes of the confessional state of yore

Alexandra Elbakyan is the founder of Sci-Hub, where you can download any scientific article you want. Journals are furious, but she doesn’t care.

A white-haired, green-eyed pixelated character known as a CryptoPunk 9998 just sold for more than half a billion U.S. dollars -- or so it appeared -- the latest wild development in the booming non-fungible token space. But the Ethereum blockchain shows the money from the NFT trade ended up right back where it started, raising the question of why anyone bothered.

Mirrortables are to cap tables what stablecoins are to fiat currencies. They streamline and internationalize the logistical mess of angel investing.

My students from the nineteen-nineties grew up in rural poverty. Now they’re in their forties, and their country is unrecognizable.

Many LastPass users report that their master passwords have been compromised after receiving email warnings that someone tried to use them to log into their accounts from unknown locations.

Social media didn’t invent apathy, but it has a particular genius for reproducing it. At times, scrolling through one’s feed feels like reading a rollicking, absorbing social novel, but in fragments…

And how the left learned to love psychiatry

The word game has gone from dozens of players to hundreds of thousands in a few months. It was created by a software engineer in Brooklyn for his partner.

This is my commencement speech to the inaugural graduating class of data scientists at Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, UC San Diego…

Users of popular open-source libraries 'colors' and 'faker' were left stunned after they saw their applications, using these libraries, printing gibberish data and breaking. Some surmised if the NPM libraries had been compromised, but it turns out there's more to the story.

Tiangong is China's space station in low Earth orbit.

the one where Marc Andreessen blocks me

Follow the Daoist way – reclaim your life and happiness by letting go of the need to produce, strive or serve a purpose

I waited in darkness for death. The interrogators were done with me. You aren’t valuable enough to keep alive, they said. I didn’t have the intelligence they wanted on al Qaeda’s chain of command. …

New research indicates the internet doesn't make people act like jerks, but it sure gives the jerks a big megaphone.

Zoom users to get $15 or $25 each in proposed settlement of class-action lawsuit.

Inside the Biden team’s five-day scramble as Afghanistan collapsed.

Resilience is a set of skills—and psychologists know how you can learn them.