I lead technology at ProPublica and write speculative fiction. This is a personal account.
Every day, I write about tech, democracy, and society at https://werd.io.
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Ben Werdmuller
Midway through my drive to Pittsburgh. I’ve stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the Appalachians. There’s a deer head on the wall and everyone else has come to eat after church. Chairs and tables are simple and the building is metal. The bread is warm and delicious and everyone seems happy.
Ben Werdmuller
Having a small child has only further entrenched my anti-smacking position. What kind of person hits a three year old? It’s child abuse. The idea of it absolutely breaks my heart. If someone did that to my kid I’d call the police. And yet it still happens, and people still try to justify it.
I am deadly serious: while Doctor Who is resting, if someone is planning a New Adventures style line of books, I want to see the call for submissions.
And if someone *isn't* planning a New Adventures style line of books, I have a business deal I would like to make.
#doctorwho
"We’re publishing this blog post to explain our decision to refer to Delaney Hall as a “concentration camp” and clarify the term’s meaning." This is incredibly important. https://jerseybee.org/2026/06/11/why-were-calling-delaney-hall-a-concentration-camp/
Driving to Pittsburgh today because the public transit from Philly is so thin. I don’t mind driving (I’ll finish an audiobook) but it’s bananas that there isn’t a fast, good train.
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller
News tends to treat technology as something that happens to it, like an asteroid. To better navigate the future, we need to imagine what might come next. #Media https://werd.io/to-build-the-future-we-need-theories-of-change/
"The problem tends to show up when a CEO is handed an agentic tool like Claude Code, and has it create something, which will work just fine, and thinks “oh, wait, why do we need so many people, when I can just sit here and make things work?”
This is a bad CEO." #AI […]
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller
The introduction of mu.social today is a big deal, imo:
You can now create an account on the Bluesky / ATproto network and interact with anyone on it entirely without entering US jurisdiction.
That's important for two reasons:
1. It proves the decentralization of that network
2. It provides a […]
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller
Every so often my high school year book emerges, like a cicada. Today was one such day. Not sure how to feel about it.
