Wednesday 5 August, 2026

Airstreamed surrealism This is a photograph of something that is both real and surreal. It’s of the reflections in the side of a beautiful Airstream food truck at Knepp, shot in bright sunshine with minimal post-processing. Quote of the Day ”The most important aspect of a new technology isn’t what the machine does, it’s who it does it for and who it does it to.” Cory Doctorow Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band | Thunder Road (Live In Barcelona) Link Long Read of the Day The future according to Silicon Valley My latest Observer column. Why do tech moguls seem so disconnected from the real world? Think, for example, of Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei saying that half of entry-level jobs could be wiped out by AI in a few years, while also predicting a 95% reduction in cancer mortality and incidence in the same time period. Or Elon Musk burbling on about how AI will make work “optional”. Why do these guys talk such nonsense? Is it just…