A few weeks ago Imran Ali tweeted a modest proposal that Leeds' Temple Works needs a giant robot. As a fan of Miyazaki's Laputa, I thought this sounded quite cool. What I didn't realise until today is that Leeds already has a giant walking robot. If you're in the area for one of its rare … Continue reading Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me There Was A Giant Walking Robot?
I'm not sure where this is pointing, but I think it's the future. A strange cast of people have occupied my reading in recent months - English and French, writers and scientists, aristocrats and hackers. Now, like a Heroes season finale, I find them converging on a single year. To keep track of the people … Continue reading 1794, so much to answer for
A few weeks ago there was a "Twitter Makes Us Better People" meme doing the rounds. It reminded me why I'm suspicious of claims about technology changing behaviour. In particular some social media evangelists seem to appropriate the language of radical politics to describe the alleged impact of Facebook, Twitter and the rest in some … Continue reading One song to the tune of another: the 18th Century prophet of social media revealed
The words of radical orator and writer John Thelwall, 1796: "The fact is that the hideous accumulation of capital in a few hands, like all diseases not absolutely mortal, carries, in its own enormity, the seeds of a cure. Man is, by his very nature, social and communicative - proud to display the little knowledge … Continue reading “Whatever presses men together…”
Matt Edgar writes here 