Episode #10: Mark Coatney on A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Mark Coatney, long-suffering digital media pioneer (Time! Newsweek! Tumblr! Al Jazeera!), gets me to finally read a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin and I loved it. Topics include our changing world, what the world is for, preindustrial longing, why we should maybe recognize that media companies are ephemeral things, the perils and pitfalls of power, lame AI, floating orbs of light, humans imitating machines, why humans like things, leaky boats as a metaphor for a lot of software, and the fact that any human power can be changed by human beings – including, possibly, the power contained within ourselves.

Many thanks to Mark for coming out to record with me at Yale. Huge treat to get some time with him in real life.

Tons of shownotes!