Clive Thompson

Coding was a preserve of elites, until BASIC hit the streets.

And how streaming is changing it again.

Weird, revealing, and incredibly fun to read.

Back in the 19th century, coal was the nation's newfangled fuel source—and it faced the same resistance as wind and solar today.

In the 1920s, the public hated cars. So the auto industry fought back — with language.

IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue was eclipsed by the neural-net revolution. Now, 25 years on, the machine may get the last laugh.

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, novels were regarded as the video games or TikTok of their age — shallow, addictive, and dangerous.

Apollo 11, the JPEG, the first pop-up ad, and 33 other bits of software that have transformed our world.

Long before parents freaked over the ubiquitous video game, they flipped out over another newfangled fad.

The shocking power of immersing oneself in another world was all the buzz once before—about 150 years ago.