Tech for readers

Julian Dibbell has taken the widest possible view of what technology is (including Harvard professor Jill Lepore’s intriguing essay on the history of breast-pump technology and how it has changed mothering), which is a wise move indeed. Mixed in with writing about Facebook and attempting to erase an online identity are articles about the design of a stove that might be economical, efficient and sustainable; a piece from The New York Review of Books about an artist using his iPhone to create original works; and an attempt to overcome the fear of flying. The most intriguing—and frightening, for a print writer—is Clay Shirky’s essay “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable,” which never appeared in print until this collection was published. Oh, and one of the pieces? It’s a tweet from space by astronaut Michael James Massimino: “From orbit: Listening to Sting on my iPod and watching the world go by—literally.”