I have a new article up at Loyola University’s Center for Digital Ethics & Policy exploring the ethics of big data and pre-crime monitoring. Think Minority Report, but without Tom Cruise. Minority Report’s claims about free will could keep a philosophy class going for hours, but the real relevance of the film, as with any serious… Continue reading New piece for the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy
Tag: benjamin van loon
Finally have an official listing at the Poets & Writers Directory of Writers
Finally got my official listing in the Poets & Writers Directory of Writers. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe not. But it does make me more Googleable, and that’s something.
Am I selling out, buying in, or growing up?
A few years ago when I was working in marketing, I spent the day on a project with the CFO, a six-foot-something ex-varsity shooting forward with an economics degree from a little ivy somewhere in the northeast. He had kids on the hockey team and talked college basketball and was as eccentric as sheetrock. With my black dress… Continue reading Am I selling out, buying in, or growing up?
New cover story for Sync magazine
A few months ago I interviewed Ken Strasma of HaystaqDNA for Sync magazine and today in the mail I got the new issue with my story as the cover. As soon as the story is posted online I’ll link it, but meanwhile, feel free to oggle my jpeg.
Read more, talk better, be read, be better
In this post I’ll be sharing some of my favorite newsletters and publications I’m using to make myself a better, more professional writer. If you have any other suggestions, let me know! Your value as a writer is determined by your output, but your input sets the stage for your work. Just like that guy… Continue reading Read more, talk better, be read, be better
Tuck your shirt in, act like a professional
If you were to ask me ten years ago what I’d be doing now, it wouldn’t involve copywriting, public relations, and corporate reputations. Back then my future was communes, arts bacchanals, and late-night graffiti runs. But here I am; button-up shirts, dress boots, the word “executive” in my job title. And even though the white collar… Continue reading Tuck your shirt in, act like a professional
What I watched in 2015
The Year of Our Lord 2015 was a busy media year for me. On top of writing a graduate thesis project on 1980s counterculture and cult film, I spent roughly six months freelancing from my living room couch. Which meant a lot of hours sitting in my underwear, inoculating myself against emotional vacillations with hours… Continue reading What I watched in 2015
New piece at PopMatters
I have a new piece up at PopMatters: “Pro-Apocalyptic, or, Why We’re Bored With the Post-Apocalyptic.” It’s about FOX’s Last Man on Earth and our cultural obsession with the end. Here’s an excerpt: The second season of FOX’s post-apocalyptic comedy, Last Man on Earth, is now underway, and though its 27 September premiere was met with mixed… Continue reading New piece at PopMatters
New piece at The Guardian
I have a new op-ed featured at The Guardian today, “How did I stay normal when I was home-schooled? I watched a lot of TV.” Like the title says, the piece is about my upbringing as a homeschooler, and the importance TV played in making me ‘normal’—whatever normal means. The editors chopped the last two paragraphs,… Continue reading New piece at The Guardian
Books, Brian Dettmer, Jorge Borges, and “Antisocial Media”
The universe is a library, existing ab aeterno—from time immemorial—in Borges’ allegory of “The Library of Babel.” The library is an infinite architecture of hexagonal galleries whose shelves creak under the weight of books dusty and bound with gloom of incomplete knowledge. Leagues of searchers patrol these galleries, seeking the Total Book; the perfect medium… Continue reading Books, Brian Dettmer, Jorge Borges, and “Antisocial Media”
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