PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

AI Magazine Covers Throughout the Decades

Originally posted on Substack I previously posted my collection of privacy magazine covers. Here’s my collection of magazine covers involving AI, the internet, and related digital technologies. I collected more than 80 magazine covers from the 1950s to the present. I’m excited to share my collection with you. If you have any covers I’ve missed, please share […]

A Century Ago, E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” Predicted How AI and Digital Tech Are Hollowing Us Out

Originally Posted on Substack “We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now.” These lines are from E.M. Forster’s prescient story, “The Machine Stops” from 1909. Dystopian fiction has long warned us about the future, and we’re witnessing dire warnings from last century come true today. Forster’s […]

Dangerous Oracles: Minority Report, Philip K. Dick, and AI Predictions

Originally posted on Substack I’ve long found fiction to be one of the most fruitful ways to explore technology. This essay series grows out of my love for the humanities—as a consumer and creator. SPOILER ALERT: My discussion involves spoilers, so consider yourself warned.

Your Pacemaker Can Now Testify Against You and So Can Nearly Anything Else

Originally posted on Substack We’re increasingly bringing surveillance upon ourselves with the devices we use. These devices are gathering an enormous amount of our data, and this information is readily available for the government to access. Professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson tackles the implications of these developments in his new book, Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing […]

Accountability for Technology and AI

Originally posted on Substack AI and digital technologies have been unleashed upon us, with an unprecedented zeal and recklessness, and a reckoning is long overdue. The Meta and YouTube $6 million addiction verdict this week is an important milestone. I’m not an expert on the addiction issue, so I won’t opine on the merits of the case. […]