Prologue
On Inle Lake…
The long boat was narrow, and it moved fast.
There was a large single-cylinder diesel engine at the back, and a man I had not yet met was steering it. On a seat...
Part Two — Licklider’s Dream
Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network
— J. C. R. Licklider, memorandum, 23 April 1963
Chapter Five: Rise of the Machines
In a few years, men will be able to communicate...
Elsewhere
In Search of Lost Attention
Part One — The View from Out Here
At that moment I seem somehow to understand the extraordinary saying that there shall be no more time.
— Prince Myshkin, in Fyodor Dostoevsky,...
Holding Still: Julie Battisti, 2026.
We live in a culture that competes relentlessly for our attention. Algorithms anticipate what might keep us scrolling, feeds refresh without end, and the boundaries between one stimulus and the...
A Quacking Good Merlot
Decoy Limited, Alexander Valley, Merlot, 2022
The Duckhorns have been turning out exceptional Merlot almost from the very beginning in 1978, releasing their first vintage just two years later. Their Duckhorn ‘Three...
The Armagh: Eight Acres of Ambition
The First Qualified Man
Jim Barry came to the Clare Valley in 1947 carrying a piece of paper that nobody else in the district possessed. He had begun studying oenology...
When the Devil Comes to Town
Melbourne, the early nineties. I was a brash young salesman on the floor of an upmarket wine boutique, and Chilean Merlot was one of the easiest sales in the...
Things of Stone & Soil
Saison d'octobre
Over thirty years ago I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon at the National Gallery of Victoria, meandering through an exhibition of paintings by Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition also...
