I write speculative fiction, cultural criticism, humor, and journalism, with a particular interest in retrofuturism, video games, fandom, and forgotten corners of pop culture history. My work has been published by Wired, Rolling Stone, Slate, McSweeney’s, Alta Journal, Flash Fiction Online, Underland Press, and Shacklebound Books. I also publish the newsletter Pop Cultural Precursors.
Found: Hitachi 2400 Smart Windshield
Found: Hitachi 2400 Smart WindshieldKeep your eyes on the road—through an overlay of maps, games, ads, chat windows, news reports, calendar alerts... One of my favorite projects when I was an editor at Wired magazine was the monthly back-page item Found: Artifacts From the Future. Each installment was a full-page image of some found object from a speculative near future. All explanation of what the object was and how it worked had to be diegetic—i.e., the page had to explain itself entirely through context and in situ text, with no annotation or caption. This was a great challenge for me as a writer/editor and for all of the designers, illustrators, and photographers I had the pleasure of working with. These pages never made much of an impact online because the fun was always in the fine print—which rarely came through at web resolution. I’m republishing them here to drill down on those cool details.
This piece ran in January 2008, and I think it’s maybe the best Found item. Most of the credit goes to photographer Erik Pawassar, who snapped this pic while driving up the 101, and the brilliant designer Carl DeTorres, who laid out the dizzying HUD on the windshield. (Carl makes a cameo as another driver, Santino, who appears in a live-video inset.) There are references to several other Wired designers in the string of text messages. I’m particularly proud of the location-based pop-up window exhorting you to take the next exit to get a discount at Starbucks—Waymo actually does that now. And the idea of scanning license plates to do a security check on other drivers is now actual tech that law enforcement has access to. Other funny details: Starbucks has an offering called ‘Espresso Poppers,’ San Mateo is suffering from cataclysmic global warming, and Google’s stock valuation has exploded.
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ONSCREEN DISPLAY TEXT HANDS-FREE TETRIS NASDAQ THURS // JAN 10 // 8:45 AM
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Genre Exercises
I write speculative fiction, cultural criticism, humor, and journalism, with a particular interest in retrofuturism, video games, fandom, and forgotten corners of pop culture history. My work has been published by Wired, Rolling Stone, Slate, McSweeney’s, Alta Journal, Flash Fiction Online, Underland Press, and Shacklebound Books. I also publish the newsletter Pop Cultural Precursors.
Read my dystopian sci-fi horror about End Times Reply Guys. "I don’t enjoy playing the role of That Annoying Internet Guy who reflexively replies with hectoring know-it-all comments like 'Why are you surprised?' or 'How is this news?' But people force me..." Read it here
Sorry, Villeneuve and David Lynch. This version wins even though it never made it past pre-production... Read about it in my newsletter.
NEW NEWSLETTER: In 1985, an ambitious game simulated the ruinous long-term effects of a conservative political agenda on a Midwestern city. It now feels less like dystopian sci-fi and more like current events. Read it here.