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My uncle was a typesetter.Leather trousers even in his fifties.Ears that stood out from his head.He lost his job. The machine did what he did, faster and cheaper.He opened a discotheque called Three Hearts in the center of Karlshamn. My sister-in-law was a proofreader at Hemmets Journal.Small and cute.Computers replaced her and she was let…
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Last week I visited a writer’s forum, a place where aspiring authors swap tips on “finding your voice,” debate the death of creativity at AI’s hands, and rally against the companies whose stated ambition is to privatize intelligence itself. The arguments were familiar. AI, they said, can maybe handle clerical tasks, maybe the utilitarian labor…
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On the resistance to new technology, and why it never changes The Church WindowIt was March 2019. I was sitting alone in my study in Malmö, on the third floor, a window facing St. Peter’s Church. The light at that hour in March in southern Sweden is very particular — low, pale, almost colourless, falling…
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It was 1995. A group of about fifty Europeans were touring the US, looking for new techniques we could bring back home. My boss and I were among them.So was a French professor. He was around sixty, with a salt-and-pepper beard that merged into his mustache. He didn’t just speak — he broadcasted. A continuous…
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In our bathroom, we have a corner shower caddy with three large shelves stacked on top of each other. They are completely occupied by my wife Anna’s shampoos. I use a 1.5 liter family shower gel that says in tiny print on the back: “Suitable for body, face, and hair. Since there is no place…
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I was sitting in Ove’s room. He is a colleague and we are always discussing various topics. “I do not see why some people get upset when someone accuses them. I mean words are just words and can be dismissed”, I said. “You think you’re so clever. Don’t think for one second that no one…
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My wife has a large family, and the gatherings are loud. One Christmas, after the dinner and drinks, the conversation turned to politics. Lars slams his hand on the table.“It’s not about hate, Elin! It’s about mathematics. You can’t have a welfare state and open borders at the same time. The bucket is full. Actually,…
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It was 1997. Sweden’s Social Democratic government had introduced employee funds in 1983. When the Conservatives won in 1991, they abolished them. But the funds still held a fortune, and it was to be redistributed—including to new technology. A group of eight Swedish leaders was sent to the US to meet top researchers. My boss…
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The guest house in Tannsjö is ten square meters. I built it myself, all wood, winter-insulated, a man cave really — the kind of place where the rest of the world stops mattering the moment you close the door. That night a tempest was moving through. I could hear it arriving in waves, the howling…
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I was lying in bed preparing for sleep, reading an article on my iPad mini. It described two things. The first was an experiment by Benjamin Libet. Participants sat in front of a clock with a moving dot. They were told to flex their wrist whenever they felt like it, and to note the exact…