Spam: Birth of a Monster
Spam Spam Spam, glorious Spam! Who invented Spam Emails? Just how much Spam activity is there online? And how will we survive once Spam AI gets going?
Spam has been the nemesis of the internet since its earliest days. And soon AI-powered spambots will force us to radically change our online behavio…
72 Why Would People Trust Crypto? with Finn Brunton and Molly White (Trust episode 2)
Cryptocurrency is supposedly the basis of trustless economy, but in the past few years there were a lot of everyday people who entrusted it with everything. How did this happen? In this episode of our miniseries on trust, we talk to Finn Brunton about the deep history of crypto and Molly White abou…
Finn Brunton, “Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet” (MIT Press, 2013)
Finn Brunton‘s Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet (MIT Press, 2013) is a cultural history of those communications that seek to capture our attention for the purposes of exploiting it. From pranks on early computer networks in the 1970s to commercial nuisances in the 1990s to the global criminal…
298. The Libertarian Roots of Cryptocurrency feat. Finn Brunton
If you start to dig into the origin story of cryptocurrency, don’t be surprised if you find the ideas and values of the American Libertarian movement all over it.
Finn Brunton teaches science and technology studies at UC Davis and is fascinated by the historical narratives and subcultures behind m…
Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet
The vast majority of all email sent every day is spam, a variety of idiosyncratically spelled requests to provide account information, invitations to spend money on dubious products, and pleas to send cash overseas. Most of it is caught by filters before ever reaching an in-box. Where does it come …
Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet
The vast majority of all email sent every day is spam, a variety of idiosyncratically spelled requests to provide account information, invitations to spend money on dubious products, and pleas to send cash overseas. Most of it is caught by filters before ever reaching an in-box. Where does it come …
Protecting Privacy and Dissent in an Age of Authoritarianism and AI
Helen Nissenbaum, a philosopher, is a professor at Cornell Tech and in the Information Science Department at Cornell University. She is director of the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell Tech, which was launched in 2017 to explore societal perspectives surrounding the development and application of…
The Apple II Age
In The Apple II Age, historian Laine Nooney tells the story of the computer that helped launch Apple, and reshape personal computing. Introduced in 1977, the Apple II became a cultural phenomenon not just because of its hardware, but because of the vibrant software ecosystem that grew around it, fr…
Cashing In on Chaos: Finn Brunton on Polymarket, Polycrisis and the Casinoification of American Life
“If a society cannot find a way to deal with something that is actively melting it from within, then that is a terminal symptom.” — Finn Brunton
A couple of days ago, Donald Trump Jr.’s investment firm, 1789 Capital, led a billion-dollar funding round in Polymarket. As today’s guest, the fintech …
The Revolution Won’t Be Meatless: Erin Somers Finds the Beef
“You can’t talk people out of wanting a burger.” — Erin Somers
In February, Bruce Friedrich came on the show to explain how lab-grown meat would save the planet. Today’s guest is less sanguine about this revolution. Erin Somers — author of the bestselling novel The Ten Year Affair and a twenty-ye…
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