Clive Thompson: Tales of Technology

Episode 136I spoke with Clive Thompson about:* How he writes* Writing about the climate and biking across the US* Technology culture and persistent debates in AI* PoetryEnjoy—and let me know what you think!Clive is a journalist who writes about science and technology. He is a contributing writer forWired magazine, and is currently writing his next book about micromobility and cycling across the US.Find me on Twitter for updates on new episodes, and reach me at [email protected] for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions. Subscribe to The Gradient Podcast:  Apple Podcasts  | Spotify | Pocket Casts | RSSFollow The Gradient on TwitterOutline:* (00:00) Intro* (01:07) Clive’s life as a Tarantino movie* (03:07) Boring life and interesting art, life as material for art* (10:25) Cycling across the US — Clive’s new book on mobility and decarbonization* (15:07) Turning inward in writing* (27:21) Including personal experience in writing* (31:53) Personal and less personal writing* (36:08) Conveying uncertainty and the “voice from nowhere” in traditional journalism* (41:10) Finding the natural end of a piece* (1:02:10) Writing routine* (1:05:08) Theories of change in Clive’s writing* (1:12:33) How Clive saw things before the rest of us* (1:27:00) Automation in software engineering* (1:31:40) The anthropology of coders, poetry as a framework* (1:43:50) Proust discourse* (1:45:00) Technology culture in NYC + interaction between the tech world and other worlds* (1:50:30) Technological developments Clive wants to see happen (free ideas)* (2:01:11) Clive’s argument for memorizing poetry* (2:09:24) How Clive finds poetry* (2:18:03) Clive’s pursuit of freelance writing and making compromises* (2:27:25) OutroLinks:* Clive’s Twitter and website* Selected writing* The Attack of the Incredible Grading Machine (Lingua Franca, 1999)* The Know-It-All Machine (Lingua Franca, 2001)* How to teach AI some common sense (Wired, 2018)* Blogs to Riches (NY Mag, 2006)* Clive vs. Jonathan Franzen on whether the internet is good for writing (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2013)* The Minecraft Generation (New York Times, 2016)* What AI College Exam Proctors are Really Teaching Our Kids (Wired, 2020)* Companies Don’t Need to Be Creepy to Make Money (Wired, 2021)* Is Sucking Carbon Out of the Air the Solution to Our Climate Crisis? (Mother Jones, 2021)* AI Shouldn’t Compete with Workers—It Should Supercharge Them (Wired, 2022)* Back to BASIC—the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing Wired, 2024) Get full access to The Gradient at thegradientpub.substack.com/subscribe