How Technology Made Life Better, Broke a Few Things, and What We Refuse to Lose Human life looks like a split-screen now. On one side: 1985. A worker in a polyester tie inching down Highway 41, talk radio fuzzing through the dash. Paper forms stacked on every flat surface. Smoke
Human irrationality was always dangerous. Quantifying it was worse. __ The Sentiment Map looked calm enough to medicate a continent. Fifty states, thousands of cities, all tiled across the wall-size display. Each block pulsed in slow gradients tied to eight indices: anger, fear, calm, anticipation, fatigue, cohesion, tribalization, volatility. The colors
system notes
“Once markets start trading derivatives on green volatility, the system won’t need projects to succeed. It’ll just need them to fluctuate.”
He claimed the hour. That small republic between everyone else’s needs and sleep. The house understood the ritual; it had been trained. Lights eased down to 40% amber. The sofa recognized his weight and stopped trying to “ergonomically optimize” him, which was its way of saying please sit like