A Million Tiny Pieces: Descent into Epistemological Crisis
The 77 percent was gone, and it was not coming back, and no exhortation about trusting the experts could possibly retrieve it, because the people had not made an error. They had learned.
Category: Media Theory
The Long Dissolution
A few did not put it aside, and from 1962 forward there existed in America a small population of people who had understood something the majority had declined to understand — and who would be proved right again, and again, and again, for sixty years, all the while being called cranks the entire time.
How We Got Here: The Hollow Stasis
It was an age, aptly titled the ‘Wonder Years’ by a nostalgic show of my childhood, where the question ‘How would we know?’ was on everyone’s minds, confident that they would continue to answer it with little miracles of modern life.
AI Art Is Not the Problem—It’s Our Taste
Earlier this month, an AI-generated song climbed all the way to the top of the country charts. Some were amazed by this milestone, which seemed
Flipping the Script: How John Lasseter Revolutionized Media
The first step in solving the problem is to define the problem, and, to do that, sometimes we have to flip the script.
The Absolute Best Albums for Each Week of the Year According to Science
Music fans know that songs have a season. This is obviously true for Christmas music, Halloween music, and even Fourth of July music, but also for songs and albums that don’t have such clear seasonal affiliation.
Baby, It’s Culturally Vapid Outside
I realize the controversy is old. In Internet years, it’s already a relic. But the public discourse has missed some key points that merit review.
Fake News Isn’t the Problem, Relativism Is
When the soon-to-be-president Trump called a CNN reporter ‘fake news’ to his face, it was both entertaining and ironic. First of all, it was great
On Mourning Celebrities
I might be a humbug, but I don’t get the grief over celebrity deaths. Yes, death is bad and it is especially sad to think
If You Think This Is About Sexism and Racism, You’re Missing the Point
At first, it was entertaining to watch the talking heads try to make sense of the election results that they had been so wrong in
The Moral Obligation to Be Beautiful
Recently, the folks at Boundless posted a provocative article titled ‘Where Have All the Beautiful Women Gone?’ The idea? That our culture, with its Photoshopped
It’s ‘Put me in cold’, people, not ‘Put me in, coach’
Ah, springtime. The season of flowers, rain showers, and baseball. And, with Opening Day upon us, it is also the season of mangling the lyrics
The Superhero Heresy
March 5, 2016 With several blockbuster superhero films out every year, there can be little doubt that supers are hotter than ever. Batman, Iron Man,