"humanity" entries

Editor’s Note: 2014 has been a contentious year in the world around technology. I started a few times this week to write about it, but everything I wrote felt like a footnote to this clear piece from Pete Warden, which Pete has given us permission to repost. While I hope we can avoid the “nuking the entire thing from orbit” option, he lays out how things have changed — without changing enough — as nerd culture has reached new heights of influence. — Simon St. Laurent

My first girlfriend was someone I met through a MUD, and I had to fly 7,000 miles to see her in person. I read a paper version of the Jargon File at 15, and it became my bible. Just reading its descriptions of the Internet, I knew it was world-changing, even before the web, and as soon as I could, I snuck into the local university computer labs with a borrowed account to experience the wonder of Usenet, FTP, and Gopher. I chose my college because Turing had once taught there, and the designer of the ARM chip would be one of my lecturers. My first job out of college was helping port the original Diablo to the first Playstation, and I spent five years writing games. I’ve dived deep into GPU programming. I’ve worked for almost two decades at both big tech companies and start-ups. I’ve spent countless hours writing about coding for the pure love of it. I’m a grown man who still plays Dungeons and Dragons! Read more…