The hottest Information Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

The Internet Needs to Be Smashed and Rebuilt

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 10189 implied HN points • 22 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Internet Media Government Information Empowerment
  1. The Internet has become a barrier to understanding and access to information. It used to help people, but now it's harder to find reliable news.
  2. Many people question the trustworthiness of news sources, indicating a general distrust in media. This makes it tough to locate credible information.
  3. There's a call for a major overhaul of the Internet to make it a better tool for knowledge and empowerment again. The idea is to rebuild it from the ground up.

Note on "Timelines"

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 10237 implied HN points • 22 Feb 25
📰 News Journalism Media Information Current Events
  1. A new interactive library is being created to help people find important news documents much more easily. This project aims to gather primary sources that are often hard to locate.
  2. There is a problem with many news outlets not linking to original documents in their stories, making it tough for readers to find the truth. Having direct access to these sources can help people make better decisions.
  3. The project encourages readers to contribute by suggesting documents that deserve attention. It's a community effort to protect important information and combat the issue of disappearing online sources.

Introducing The Generalist's Reading and Deal Clubs

The Generalist • 260 implied HN points • 07 Feb 25
💼 Business Startups Investing Reading Community Information
  1. The Generalist has started two clubs: a Reading Club and a Deal Club to share interesting articles, books, and startups.
  2. Every Friday, members can participate in the Reading Club by sharing and discovering new information and insights together.
  3. On Mondays, the Deal Club will focus on interesting startups and funding news, allowing members to discuss and learn from each other.

Phone books

Internal exile • 77 implied HN points • 11 Jan 25
🎭️ Culture Nostalgia Communication Media Society Information
  1. Phone books used to be an important part of everyday life, providing a neutral source of information about people and businesses in a community. They helped people connect and get essential local information.
  2. Nostalgia for phone books comes from their role as simple, static resources that everyone had access to, unlike today's customized, often misleading online information. They once gave a sense of shared knowledge and community.
  3. With the decline of phone books, we have lost a common point of reference, and now most information can feel personalized and isolating. This change can sometimes lead to misunderstandings about what information is truly reliable.
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The Summary Edition

Why is this interesting? • 1387 implied HN points • 30 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Technology AI Media Information Content
  1. AI-driven summaries are becoming more prevalent, affecting how we consume information.
  2. Tech-enabled summarization tools can be helpful due to the abundance of content, but they may strip away depth and context.
  3. Relying too much on AI for distilling information raises questions about the loss of individual interpretation and meaning-making.

Why did we lose trust during the pandemic?

Your Local Epidemiologist • 1445 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Trust Public Health Communication Information Improvement
  1. Public health messaging sounded like a sales pitch, leading to a loss of trust due to data issues, messaging inaccuracies, and a mix of advocacy with scientific communication.
  2. Helpful information, like practical tips for care and specific risk factors, was missing, causing confusion and fear among the public.
  3. Opinions being treated as facts and a disconnect between personal experiences and the official narrative led to frustration and loss of trust, but some improvements are being made to address these issues.

Movers and Shakers - a Parkinson’s podcast

Rory’s Always On Newsletter • 1368 implied HN points • 18 Mar 23
🎙 Podcasts Health Entertainment Medicine Support Information
  1. A group with Parkinson's launched the podcast Movers and Shakers after meeting at a London pub.
  2. The podcast features individuals with media backgrounds, including a High Court judge, discussing Parkinson's.
  3. The aim of the podcast is to educate, inform, and entertain, reaching out to people with Parkinson's, their caregivers, and the general public.

The Only Three Products in the Universe

Ulysses • 159 implied HN points • 15 Dec 23
🕹 Technology Information Energy Software Industry AI
  1. The three primary products in the universe are information, matter, and energy. These are the fundamental components of economic activity.
  2. Software businesses focus on processing and disseminating information, which can disrupt social activities that involve thinking and language.
  3. The ultimate value in economic activity is derived from manipulating matter and energy efficiently, with the mastery of synthetic biology predicted to have a greater impact than AI.

Images are Biased

Never Met a Science • 77 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Media Communication Data Images Information
  1. Images are a biased form of communication compared to text because they inherently introduce bias by conveying more context and extra-textual information.
  2. Different communication modalities like images and text convey different amounts and types of information, impacting how we understand and interpret data and knowledge.
  3. Understanding the rise of visual communication technologies can lead to a deeper comprehension of the effects of information technology on society and help in decision-making for the future.

New decisions in a cloudy world

do clouds feel vertigo? • 99 implied HN points • 08 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Digital Media Copyright Society Information
  1. AI is creating new divisions in society, leading to more debates about our future and survival. It's making conversations about technology very heated and complex.
  2. Deepfakes and manipulated images are changing how we perceive reality. We can no longer trust everything we see, which can have big implications for privacy and reputation.
  3. In a world full of uncertainty, having a clear mind and being skeptical about information is essential. Embracing ambiguity instead of fearing it can help us navigate changes better.

On News-fasting

Charles Eisenstein • 3 implied HN points • 04 Dec 24
🕹 Technology AI Media Communication Information Digital Culture
  1. Taking a break from news can help clear your mind and reduce stress. It's important to focus on what really matters to you instead of getting overwhelmed by constant updates.
  2. Artificial intelligence is a significant technology that's changing our world. Understanding its impacts is crucial as we navigate through its early developments.
  3. Long-form writing can be challenging to share on platforms like Substack. It's sometimes better to break up big ideas into smaller pieces for clearer communication.

The Summary Problem, or why AI in search is attractive

The End(s) of Argument • 39 implied HN points • 17 May 23
🕹 Technology AI Search Information Platforms
  1. AI in search can help provide concise answers to specific queries, reducing cognitive load for users
  2. Platforms and users find AI attractive in search due to the potential of turning articles into direct answers, addressing user frustration and error
  3. Improving the user experience in search results, such as through summaries, snippets, and direct answers, remains a known but persistent challenge which AI aims to tackle

Rabbit Holes 🕳️ #68

Creative Destruction • 28 implied HN points • 21 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Media Sustainability Information Mindset Art
  1. In today's age of information overload, our curiosity now distracts us, leading to intellectual obesity in the form of a flood of low-quality 'junk info'. This 'junk info' is like fast food for thought - cheap to produce, satisfying to consume, but low in nutrition.
  2. The sustainability movement needs to focus on internal sustainability, not just external factors like ecosystems and technology. Our mind plays a crucial role in the climate crisis as it determines our relationships with ourselves, others, and nature.
  3. Immediacy, or the collapse of mediation, is a powerful and destructive driver in the modern world. It eliminates the middle ground of reflection and personal connection, affecting how we perceive and engage with information and culture.

Tyler Cowen is an Information Monster

Never Met a Science • 44 implied HN points • 23 Jul 23
🎭️ Culture Media Philosophy Ideology Information Politics
  1. Tyler Cowen is viewed as an information monster due to his exceptional capacity to process vast amounts of information and his focus on information density in media.
  2. Cowen's ideologies and arguments should be understood in the context of his information consumption habits, which prioritize speed and quantity over control and deliberation.
  3. There is a debate on whether society should prioritize consuming more information at a faster pace, as emphasized by Cowen, or slowing down to regain control and promote thoughtful decision-making.

The Technology Pressures on World Systems

The Digital Anthropologist • 19 implied HN points • 16 Jan 23
🕹 Technology Digital Economic Complex Systems Information
  1. Human societies are currently experiencing an unprecedented number of technological revolutions driven by digital technologies.
  2. The simultaneous arrival of multiple revolutionary technologies is putting immense pressure on sociocultural and socioeconomic systems.
  3. To navigate through the current period of immense change, collaboration between different fields like anthropology, sociology, and technology is crucial.

Information as Public Good

Something to Consider • 39 implied HN points • 13 Feb 22
📖 Philosophy Ethics Society Politics Information Law
  1. Information is a public good, meaning it spreads easily and people who discover new facts often don't get rewarded for their efforts. This can lead to less investment in finding important information.
  2. One idea to fix this is to allow people to be paid for revealing bad information, even if it sounds like blackmail. By doing this, we might prevent bad behavior from companies or individuals because they would pay to keep wrongdoings secret.
  3. Legalizing this kind of 'blackmail' could actually help society by making people more open about wrongdoing and allowing for better accountability. It could also adjust how we punish people based on what's really important to the public.

Attention Ecology

Soaring Twenties • 2 HN points • 14 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Media Information Communications Technology Novelty
  1. In the past, people had to carefully choose and condense information before sharing it, but with modern technology, we share vast amounts instantly without prior filtration.
  2. Today, we are bombarded with excessive information and have become indiscriminate in our sharing and consumption, prioritizing novelty over importance.
  3. Our current habits of constant information consumption resemble addiction, leading to information overload and a need to reevaluate our relationship with information for meaningful use.

VOL 57: From Gutenberg to Google: How the Printing Press Shaped the Digital Age

MAP's Tech Newsletter. • 4 implied HN points • 18 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Innovation Internet Communication Digital Information
  1. The printing press revolutionized access to knowledge by making books more affordable and paved the way for the development of the Internet.
  2. Both the printing press and the Internet facilitated rapid spread of information and decentralized gatekeeping, impacting society in unforeseen ways.
  3. The impact of innovations like the printing press and the Internet on society is closely related to the speed and scale of communication they enable, influencing human technology and knowledge sharing.

Basso Continuo & Internet Search

Crossfade • 1 HN point • 24 Apr 23
🎭️ Culture Music History Technology Philosophy Information
  1. AI is portrayed dramatically in media and technology, without reflecting reality.
  2. Internet search is where people first encounter AI in daily life, impacting how we access information.
  3. Transition from Baroque to Classical music notation can provide insights into the evolution of systems like internet search and AI, suggesting a focus on approximations rather than definitive answers.