Ben’s 2019
Twenty nineteen. The word of the year is “impunity.” Here’s a nice symbol of the moment: the founder of WeWork reportedly wanted to be the world’s first trillionaire, the president of the world and live forever — but all he succeeded in doing was evaporating $40bn of market capitalization on a fake business and getting […]
Ben’s 2018
2018—just the facts. Internet pioneer John Perry Barlow died—and with him, perhaps some of my internet utopian streak. Stephen Hawking died, leaving warnings about automation and capitalism. “Space Force” is a thing. Corruption and the murder of journalists in broad daylight. Contemporary writers describe “a new dark age” and “the elite charade of changing the […]