For Polygon’s tenth anniversary issue, I wrote about the looming future of book bans, algospeak, and other threats to speech and artistic expression:
“People have grown up in an internet where if you see a pair of breasts, you’re like, Whoa, I’ve ended up in the wrong place.”
Have you checked out I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, the bizarre and genuinely disturbing ‘90s adventure game based on Harlan Ellison’s short story about the worst-case endgame for artificial intelligence? No? It’s currently $1.49 in GOG’s winter sale, so if you missed the free giveaway for it last year there’s no better time to change that. I played it a few years ago, and it’s a fascinating piece of retro gaming... but I don’t regret using a walkthrough for some puzzles.
[GOG.com]
Read Max Gadget Corner writer Dan Nosowitz has a very funny review of the Unihertz Jelly 2, a very very tiny crowdfunded smartphone that he dubs “the best phone for nobody”:
This phone is shockingly non-shitty. It is clear when using this phone that Unihertz is a very, very powerful company, filled with engineers with powerful brains; I don’t know if Apple or Samsung or Google could have made this thing. What it also means is that Unihertz is absolutely capable of making an extremely good normal phone, and that they have chosen instead to make Stupid Phone. I admire this.
I do, however, have misfortune of reporting: I am nobody! I backed the Jelly 2 Kickstarter out of curiosity and now use the phone regularly while running, because it’s phone-y enough to sync my Spotify playlists and small enough to not be obtrusive. Also, it comes with a wrist lanyard. Lanyards are cool.
[maxread.substack.com]
