Essays

Longer pieces from my blog Critical Maas, newest first. The monthly link roundups, comments and subscription live on Substack.10 essays, dated by first publication.

24 June 2026 Is the Illusion of Technology Loss an Illusion? Oh the Humanities / Modern Memory Palaces? / Forgotten vs. Withered tech branches 24 June 2026

23 June 2026 Technically Lost. When and how were innovations lost to history? 23 June 2026

19 May 2026 No True Scotland. Rule Technological Civilizations In, Not Out 19 May 2026

26 March 2026 Differential Patent Trolling as Law-Sensitive Innovation. Extending Differential Technology Development to the Legal Frontier 26 March 2026

4 March 2026 Past Tech Tree Divergence was not (just) Environmental or Extraneous. Possible objections to premodern tech variety #1 4 March 2026

20 February 2026 Premodern Tech Tree Divergence: A List. Did isolated civilizations historically converge on the same technologies? No 20 February 2026

5 February 2026 The Future of AI Is Not (Yet) Written. at least not by Mechanize 5 February 2026

19 December 2025 Infrequently asked questions about my new book 'Architectures of Global AI Governance'. The hard questions even my critics don't dare ask 19 December 2025

19 December 2025 Aligning AI to International Agreements? Why and How? Our new paper on the value and pitfalls of 'Treaty-Following' AI 19 December 2025

25 July 2025 Going Critical. Fast Takeoff for this Blog? 25 July 2025