Tech bros with tech woes at MIT Media Lab

In today’s New York Times Noam Cohen writes about another scandal, other than the Epstein money, bubbling along at M.I.T. Media Lab. But it’s related, since the vector in the Venn diagram of this project should be colored with your “ambition” and “recklessness” Crayolas: At the center of the project — the Open Agricultural Initiative, … More Tech bros with tech woes at MIT Media Lab

Why Taking a Stand on the Internet Can Turn a Problem Into a Catastrophe

Back in the 1970s, when I was leaving for college, my mother gave me a piece of advice: “Don’t sign anything.” Her skepticism was forged in the 1950s, when petitions that public figures had signed as students, and organizations they had belonged to, had sometimes destroyed their lives. In college, however, I discovered the thrill … More Why Taking a Stand on the Internet Can Turn a Problem Into a Catastrophe

What Affirmative Action Didn’t Change

The mass hiring of women into higher education, beginning in the 1970s, is one of the great affirmative-action success stories. Although universities have simultaneously done a remarkably poor job of cultivating, hiring, and promoting scholars of color, and although the natural sciences, economics, and philosophy remain defiantly male, the status of women in higher education … More What Affirmative Action Didn’t Change