Collision Detection
collisiondetection.net · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Clive Thompson writes about technology and culture, covering topics like early telegraph romance, reading on phones, and social media habits.
What HN saysHN links it for posts like the 1880 novel Wired Love and reading on smartphones; one commenter prefers it over a Boing Boing summary.
23HN people shared it
7linked it in comments
19stories submitted
396story points
4 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Wired Love: a novel from 1880 that could have been written last week4 people · 155 points · first shared 2013 · 14 comments on HN
- 2Why 18th century books looked like smartphone screens (2014)3 people · 107 points · first shared 2014 · 35 comments on HN
- 3We're all cyborgs now3 people · 5 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 4Clive Thompson: Paper explains how the "engineering mentality" produces terrorists2 people · 1 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 5Study: Teams work best when members are physically close together1 people · 65 points · first shared 2011 · 32 comments on HN
- 6Why "trending topics" are so spectacularly useless1 people · 20 points · first shared 2010 · 9 comments on HN
- 7At Amherst college, 1% of first-year students have landlines, 99% have Facebook accounts1 people · 17 points · first shared 2008 · 10 comments on HN
- 8Sex chat bots that pass the turing test?1 people · 5 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 9Molecular secrets of the iron-plated snail1 people · 4 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
- 10How DIYers Just Might Revive Western Innovation1 people · 3 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 11What 'Sent From My iPhone' Really Means1 people · 3 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 12The neurobiology of the Mona Lisa's smile1 people · 3 points · first shared 2008 · 1 comments on HN
- 13Should automobile software be open-sourced?1 people · 2 points · first shared 2010 · 1 comments on HN
- 14How “making” leads to “fixing”1 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 1541% of museums don't know how dogs actually walk1 people · 2 points · first shared 2009 · 2 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
Osmium · 2015-05-12
There's a charming book about a long-distance relationship between telegraph operators called Wired Love by Ella Cheever Thayer. The writing itself isn't anything special, but it is remarkably prescient.
Here's a particularly insightful quotation:
> ... we will soon be able to do everything by electricity; who knows but some genius will invent something for the especial use of lovers? something, for instance, to carry in their pockets, so when they are far away from each other, and pine for a sound of 'that beloved voice,' they will have only to take up this electrical apparatus, put it to their ears, and be happy. Ah! blissful lovers of the future!
Note that this was published in 1879!
http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2013/07/wired_love_a_ta.… [via Boing Boing]
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24353
ada1981 · 2015-01-11
Did you ever read the book Wired Love? It's about two telegraph operators falling in love via morse code. It's from the late 1800's.
http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2013/07/wired_love_a_ta.…
jgrahamc · 2013-07-29
Better to read the original article: http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2013/07/wired_love_a_ta.… and not the Boing Boing summary.
starpilot · 2012-06-28
> Human grandmasters don’t work that way. They do not necessarily “see” the game several moves out. Indeed, they can’t — as Kasparov points out, chess is so complex that “a player looking eight moves ahead [faces] as many possible games as there are stars in the galaxy.”... “As for how many moves ahead a grandmaster sees,” as Kasparov concludes, the real answer is: “Just one, the best one.”
http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2010/02/why_cyborgs_are.…
NoGravitas · 2016-04-28
Smartphones are actually a terrific medium for casual reading [1].
[1]: http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2014/02/_thats_one_of_t.…
tripzilch · 2012-12-31
The Gilette Singularity
The interesting curve is the hyperbolic one, for two reasons: One, it matches the
real-world data. And two, it goes to infinity in 2015. And how are you going to
get an asymptotically-accelerating number of blades onto a razor? Why, you’d need
godlike super-technology to do that.
http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2006/06/the_gillette_si.…
codewhisperer · 2008-01-30
I liked Clive Thompson's summary of the paper: http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2008/01/this_means_that.…