In 1949, George Orwell coined the term “Big Brother” in his (unfortunately) timeless novel 1984. The fear then — and now — was that mass surveillance would give totalitarian states even greater control over its people. As prescient as Orwell was, here’s something he missed: surveillance works both ways. Bodycams have proven a nuisance for… Continue reading

“They had no idea,” Percy realized. And so he resolved to remedy this. Percy Perceival Pierce lived in a time of miraculous inventions. There were computers to help design these inventions and robots to help build them. “Help” here is used the same sense that Thomas Jefferson “helped” tend his crops and build his home.… Continue reading

I’m ten years old, sitting in a little sunfish sailing dinghy in the bight of water behind Figure Eight Island, and the wind has died down to nothing. The sail sags. The water is a polished mirror. The shoreline is an agonizing distance away. The only way to get a becalmed sunfish to move in… Continue reading

Sigmund Freud had the hots for his mom. This is creepy, sure. But probably not too damaging. What’s damaging is that his inner demon got extrapolated to the general public and he spent a lifetime trying to convince everyone else that they wanna have sex with their mom. Resentment and confusion were created from thin… Continue reading