Helpful new report from Fathom.org out this week, framing up the spectrum and quadrants of debate about AI and labor displacement. It demonstrates some interesting gaps, including e.g. no leading indicators yet for job displacement from AI, so difficult to be predictive. substack.com/home/post/p-...

"How do we measure the number of sunrises that have ever happened on earth?" Beautiful short video on @longnow.org Council member Katie Paterson's cross-medium, cross disciplinary art practice exploring themes of atmosphere, space, light, and time. vimeo.com/1206273605?f...

Happy Bday Canada 🇨🇦 ❤️ You’re incomparable.

Apparently ride receipts are now prime lobbying real estate…

Using the latest / highest cost frontier model for low level tasks because you can: a modern Veblen good.

Biggest 21st century governance challenge + opportunity: swarm coordination

Just remember...

~40% of our @longnow.org Labs applications have come in within the last 24 hours...and we are still accepting submissions until midnight PST tonight, so the percentage will likely go higher. Apparently a huge number of us are procrastinators! Solidarity to all of you out there.

Wild times. Law as futuring & economic prospecting... Argentina's PM arguing for limited liability for agentic companies: "the creation of a new corporate category in Argentine law: the non-human corporation. These are entities operated by AI agents or robots." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Some sort of disassociation happening whereby Silicon Valley types are increasingly obsessed with consciousness and ethereal notions of eschatology, at the same time the material world exerts ever-increasing limits or checks on the Computation as Everything agenda.

1 week left to submit!

Important framing piece from Planet Labs’ Will Marshall out today. Planetary Intelligence and Large Earth Models as the necessary successors to AI and LLMs, providing real-time, embodied intelligence / sapience. will4planet.substack.com/p/planetary-...

Happy pub day to @ericries.bsky.social! This is an incredibly important book for anyone who care about the future of commerce. @longnow.org was lucky to host Eric's first official book event in April. Watch us in conversation: longnow.org/talks/02026-... www.simonandschuster.com/books/Incorr...

Pinch me! What an exceptional group of reviewers. Deadline for our Book of Time Lab is two weeks today (June 5) – if you have a quirky, playful, imaginative, or monumental idea about time, this project is for you. longnow.org/labs/001/1/

Excited to host a 3 part virtual workshop series with postactivist philosopher, poet, and storyteller Bayo Akomolafe starting Thursday, May 21 9-11am PT! In collaboration with the wonderful @interintellect.bsky.social + @annagat.bsky.social. Come join us! interintellect.com/series/the-u...

www.nytimes.com/interactive/... Pair with: www.the-interstitium.com for self-identifying “interstitionaries”!

How does one engage with the arduous and existential task of long-term thinking? How can we work on civilizational durability without dissolving into ambiguities? @protocolized.bsky.social + @denisehearn.bsky.social explain how we're putting long-term thinking into practice with Long Now Labs ->

What if we redefined “profit” as maximizing human flourishing? @ericries.bsky.social has seen the corrosive effects of shareholder primacy at every company he's worked with. What's keeping us from building differently? Watch the full conversation with @denisehearn.bsky.social here ->

Exciting announcement + opportunity to collaborate with @longnow.org! Today we are launching Long Now Labs: where long-term thinking becomes long-term practice. Our inaugural Lab, Protocols of the Long Now, is a collaboration with the Protocol Institute. Learn more + apply: www.longnow.org/labs/001

MIT researchers discovered the first direct evidence that plant seeds can sense natural sounds. Rice seeds were submerged in shallow water –the seeds exposed to the sound of falling droplets germinated 30-40% faster than seeds in identical conditions without rain sounds. news.mit.edu/2026/plants-...

Timeline cleanse — bald eagle livecam 🦅 vinsweb.org/exhibits-act...

“I know what these models are capable of. I also know what they are not. I look at the investment thesis that is supposedly supporting the valuations, the gap between the two is the biggest mispricing I have seen in my professional lifetime.“ — Mike Brock www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-capita...

Another banger from @nilsgilman.bsky.social: "The new cold war is a contest between competing metabolisms. On one side, the Green Entente: China and an emerging electrostate bloc, which has bet its industrial future on solar panels, batteries... foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/23/c...

Loved visiting @archive.org today. Fun facts: - the US Government is the largest publisher in the world by volume – IA has archived over 1 trillion webpages on their Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) – at tv.archive.org, they do 24 hour continuous recording of over 70 channels from 45 countries

What if a constitution could molt? "The fundamental principle to be learned from bugs is that resilience in a variable environment can be successfully managed by development in stages." - Jonathon Keats longnow.org/ideas/democr...

In the chaos, it’s easy to forget how cool humans are. I’ve been reminded the last week. People making art, a woman swimming across the SF Bay in a long-distance swim attempt, people with amazing hidden talents, being kind, making jokes in long lines...it’s fun to be here together. Let’s keep it up.

This looks fantastic! If you're in SF on May 14, check it out. @annagat.bsky.social @interintellect.bsky.social interintellect.com/salons/ai-hu...

Great to be in conversation with @ericries.bsky.social last week at @longnow.org for the first stop on his Incorruptible book tour! There‘a a not-so-quiet revolution underway — companies embedding their values through economic and legal structures that advance human flourishing.

I've known EFF executive director Cindy Cohn for 27 years. I met her when I needed cyberlaw advice for a startup I'd helped found. We got along so well that I quit the startup and went to work at EFF. Now, Cindy's memoir, *Privacy's Defender*, is on the shelves: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205124... 1/

The first astronaut in history to speak French while en route to the moon — Canada’s very own Jeremy Hansen 🇨🇦

UTC, our universal clock, was only adopted in 1963. What if we measured time differently—not in hours and seconds, but in centuries, like a Bristlecone Pine? 🌲 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_XK...

A newly discovered jellyfish species that tracks 20 hour days. "The [jellyfish's molecular timer that counts down from sunrise until spawning time] suggests that scientists may be overlooking unconventional clocks across the tree of life." @longnow.org www.quantamagazine.org/the-jellies-...

We brake for nautilus! “We usually stopped what we were doing whenever we saw nautilus, b/c they are such amazing animals to watch,” said #VisioningCoralSea Chief Scientist Dr. Robin Beaman of James Cook University. This enigmatic cephalopod navigated the depths before dinosaurs roamed the Earth!

If you needed a reminder to slow down and breathe today, here it is. A timeline cleanse, courtesy of this lovely poem “Nature Does Not Ask Me” by our very own @denisehearn.bsky.social The poem calls you to show up, fully inhabited, no more and no less. Read it here: longnow.org/ideas/nature...

Dream come true to have my poetry published by @longnow.org today. longnow.org/ideas/nature...

"These are dark times, but they are also times that ask something of us." I could not be more proud of my friend Amanda Janoo who has launched her campaign for Vermont governor today! "WE are the people we have been waiting for." ✨ www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQiF...

That’s one way to commute…!

“Adopting this relational perspective reframes the entire debate and forces those dismissing the idea to reconsider. First, the user becomes a central figure—not a confused observer but a co-author of the emergent experience.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-a...

Written in late January, I found this analysis from Dr. Jeff Sachs and Sybil Fares helpful, which begins “The question is not if the US and Israel will attack Iran, but when.” www.commondreams.org/opinion/us-i...

Thanks @theglobeandmail.com for inclusion in this great list of ideas from leaders across Canada: www.theglobeandmail.com/business/rob...

A few years ago I became obsessed with this question: what delivers the best outcomes for human societies – market competition or collaboration? Obviously the answer is: it's complex!

When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured” www.reuters.com/investigatio...

[Ticket announcement] Author and professor Melody Jue asks: Does the ocean remember? Can the ocean’s memories teach us to better steward our planet? Wed, Mar 18 @ 7PM PT Guest hosted by professor Margaret Cohen of Stanford University. Tickets and more information: longnow.org/talks/02026-...

Currently hiring 1-2 postdocs to work on origins of life theory/experiment, assembly theory, life detection, with me and @leecronin.bsky.social, positions are mostly based at ASU but also some time could be spent at U. Glasgow, Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/176391 Please help us spread the word!

Just learned about Ekow Nimako's work – a Ghanaian Canadian Lego sculpturist and multidisciplinary artist: www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoZw... Absolutely stunning, thank you @ahmedbest.bsky.social for sharing!

Wonderful story and achievement www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/w...

I have no recollection of seeing this film as a child, but I must have because its concepts and perspective informed the rest of my life. Still an indelible classic: m.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKB...

Good morning! You woke up on a small, spinning rock, orbiting an ordinary star, one of hundreds of billions in a galaxy that’s been here for a long time. And somehow, in all that vastness, you’re here, making meaning out of a single day. Feels pretty miraculous to me. #sciart

Denise Hearn is a political economist and writer whose work sits at the fault lines between markets, power, and democracy. She is known for her clear-eyed analysis of corporate influence and the quiet ways economic systems shape everyday. @denisehearn.bsky.social