Contraptions

Contraptions

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Venkatesh Rao
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Join me in Jamverse
My first foray into contributing to a science fictional extended universe
21 hrs ago
Can the (Social) Oobleck Dance?
Temporal forcing of non-Newtonian precommodified ooze in the appropriate context tanks might lead to prescience
Jul 18 • Venkatesh Rao
The Taste Essay
Taste cultures, risk, cruelty, and kindness
Jul 12 • Venkatesh Rao
A Tale of Two Theories (of Coordination)
Leveraging and Deleveraging Toward Thick Sovereignty
Jul 9 • Venkatesh Rao
Dead Forest Theory
Internet darkness is turning into deadness and time is running out
Jul 5 • Venkatesh Rao
Monitoring the Situation: from 1950s-2020s
A ridiculous generated photo essay taking a meme much too far
Jul 1 • Venkatesh Rao

June 2026

Strange Knowledgeability
Human knowing in perspectival encyclopedicity
Jun 26 • Venkatesh Rao
Search, Discovery, Pills, and Portals
Solving the distribution crisis in marketing
Jun 22 • Venkatesh Rao
A Camera, Not an Engine II
Further thoughts on photography in latent space, now with agents!
Jun 20 • Venkatesh Rao
Touching Time
Or, the new adventures of Spaceship Earth
Jun 13 • Venkatesh Rao
Mindmap June 6, 2026
Stuff I'm thinking about
Jun 6 • Venkatesh Rao

May 2026

From Cannons to Chronometers to Factories
A Transmission Hypothesis for the French Precision Revolution and Its American Transformation
May 30 • Venkatesh Rao
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