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...
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...
The Tea Chronicles – Wabi Cha
"Though you wipe your hands and brush off the dust and dirt from the vessels, what is the use of all this fuss if the heart is still impure?"...
The Tea Chronicles
Tea and Football
At my grandmother's house, the kettle went on before the coats came off. It was the first thing you did after answering the door — before the news, before the...
Sons of Ceylon
Tea with Thierry
The pot arrives first. It always does now.
For eighteen years, Phnom Penh has been my home, and for most of those years there has been a standing appointment in my...
A Cinnamon Life
Sri Lanka is cinnamon: the birthplace of this spice, and its natural producer in its finest form, taste, and scent. Cinnamon permeates all life in Sri Lanka — the island produces over...
