Society

Written pieces, talks, and other bits by Zach Holman.

In around 90 days, millions of Americans will learn about out-of-pocket cost hikes of more than 75 percent on average.

Law journal article that looks at the Dual_EC_PRNG backdoor from a US constitutional perspective: Abstract: The National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly paid and pressured technology companies to trick their customers into using vulnerable encryption products. This Article examines whether any of three theories removed the Fourth Amendment’s requirement that this be reasonable. The first is that a challenge to the encryption backdoor might fail for want of a search or seizure. The Article rejects this both because the Amendment reaches some vulnerabilities apart from the searches and seizures they enable and because the creation of this vulnerability was itself a search or seizure. The second is that the role of the technology companies might have brought this backdoor within the private-search doctrine. The Article criticizes the doctrine­ particularly its origins in Burdeau v. McDowell­and argues that if it ever should apply, it should not here. The last is that the customers might have waived their Fourth Amendment rights under the third-party doctrine. The Article rejects this both because the customers were not on notice of the backdoor and because historical understandings of the Amendment would not have tolerated it. The Article concludes that none of these theories removed the Amendment’s reasonableness requirement...

The skies overhead are already teeming with satellites. But their orbiting numbers will skyrocket in the near future as the commercial and international space race takes off. Three projects alone — SpaceX’s Starlink, China’s Guowang megaconstellation, and Donald Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system — will launch tens of thousands of new satellites. Today’s […]

Hacked data obtained by 404 Media reveals dozens more people on deportation flights to El Salvador who are unaccounted for. “We have not heard from these people’s families, so I think perhaps even they don’t know," one lawyer said.

What experts say can save lives.

Hello premium subscribers! Today I have the first guest post I've ever commissioned (read: paid) on Where's Your Ed At - Nik Suresh, one of the greatest living business and tech writers, best-known for his piece I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again, probably my favourite piece

In recent decades, America has seen economic opportunities concentrated in superstar cities. Manufacturing boosters hope reshoring factories could help change that. We look at the theory and evidence.

Leaders from both major political parties have been working to bring back manufacturing. But American manufacturers say they are struggling to fill the manufacturing jobs we already have.

More than half of American workers don't have a college degree. Is manufacturing a ticket for them to the middle class?

Over the last year or so I’ve seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump t…

A Conversation with ChatGPT and Gemini About Job Losses from AI

The decision to shut down Stephen Colbert’s long-running late-night show suggests it might be time to work around the studios for our comedic commentary.

Elon Musk's Neuralink filed as 'disadvantaged business' before being valued at $9 billion: Elon Musk's health tech company Neuralink labeled itself a "small disadvantaged business" in a federal filing with the U.S. Small Business Administration, shortly before a financing round valued the company at $9 billion. [..] Neuralink's filing, dated April 24, would have reached the SBA at a time when

The Trump administration sees an AI-driven federal workforce as more efficient. Instead, with chatbots unable to carry out critical tasks, it would be a diabolical mess

Create network visualizations in the tradition of Mark Lombardi. A tool for exploring the covert relationships between individuals and corporations.

History seems to have settled Buckminster Fuller’s reputation as a man ahead of his time.

Valve have added a new rule to the Onboarding guide for game developers, noting that payment processors get a say in what stays on Steam.

First Google and Facebook, then the world. Under Trump 2.0, US statecraft is starting to mimic the worst tendencies of Big Tech.

Real reform in American politics won’t come from a new party — but from breaking investors' grip and rebuilding power from the ground up.

ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

The Pentagon bans foreign citizens from accessing highly sensitive data, but Microsoft bypasses this by using engineers in China and elsewhere to remotely instruct American “escorts” who may lack expertise to identify malicious code.