Dramatic visual changes are afoot off the Sussex coast. In a stretch of coastline that sits more or less directly offshore from Brighton, work is underway raising more than one hundred metal towers above waves that until now have seen only passing fishing boats, freighters, and the occasional whale. When completed in 2018, the Rampion …
Teslas, Milk Floats, and Cultural Change
On Thursday last week, Elon Musk released a design for a battery-powered semi-truck. The sleek nose profile and promise of semi-autonomous electric convoys moving quietly down the highway did not create quite the sensation of Tesla’s earlier Model S and Model 3 cars. The truck, however, spelled the future in a way that nothing else …
Wrapping Glaciers, Making Clouds, and Reflecting Sunlight
An image in the online Encyclopaedia Britannica illustrating the various strategies for climate engineering has always bothered me. Alongside the highly technical and speculative proposal of placing orbiting mirrors in space to intercept the sun’s rays sits the highly unsophisticated and low-tech proposal of wrapping melting glaciers with huge sheets of white fabric. The juxtaposition …
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Albert Borgmann Reflecting on Facebook and the iPhone
On occasions this blog will have guest posts by authors who have expertise in areas related to our central themes. We are lucky to hear today from Albert Borgmann, a world renowned philosopher of technology and author of Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. Here Borgmann reflects on Facebook and the iPhone and the hidden …
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Christopher J. Preston 