Essays
/ Post-Mortems
The Drone Operator's Commute
Every morning he drives past strip malls and coffee shops to kill people on the other side of the world. By lunch, he's back in the food court.
Read →02 / workThe Spreadsheet Eats Its Children
We built systems to measure productivity and they became our masters. Now we spend more time proving we're working than actually working.
Read →03 / otherThe Loneliness of Being Someone Else's Algorithm
We have become the other in our own lives — not strangers to ourselves, but data subjects optimized for machines that think they know us better than we know ourselves.
Read →04 / workThe Office Plants Are Dying and No One Will Water Them
In cube farms across the nation, decorative greenery wilts in real time while employees pretend not to notice. The dying ficus is a perfect oracle of our relationship to labor.
Read →05 / selfThe Self You Keep in Reserve
We maintain a pristine version of ourselves that never encounters the world — the person we'd be if circumstances were different, if we had time, if we weren't so tired. This ghost self absolves us of being who we actually are.
Read →06 / workThe Glitch Economy: When Every Job Became Customer Service
Somewhere between efficiency and madness, we deleted the middle of work. Now everyone who isn't managing algorithms is apologizing for them.
Read →07 / workThe Last Human Architect Is Bored
In the ruins of New Kyoto, an architect spends her days verifying the structural integrity of buildings designed by a rogue generative engine. They are beautiful, impossible, and completely uninhabitable for the human form.
Read →08 / warAlgorithmic Slaughter: A Field Report
The first fully autonomous engagement was over before any human commander knew it had begun. The after-action report was generated, classified, and forgotten in the same eleven seconds.
Read →09 / selfHow to Mourn Your Job
You will not get a funeral. You will get a Slack message and a calendar invite titled "Quick chat." This is a guide to the grief that follows.
Read →More dispatches from the ruins
New essays drop irregularly. Get notified when the next post-mortem lands.
