There’s an image that haunts me, in a good way, because it visualizes a tendency that I want to avoid. It comes from a group of researchers at the University of…
By Will Rinehart | December 9, 2024
When people talk about Illinois politics, they often reference Chicago. But when Chicagoans talk about politics, they talk about Springfield, the state capital where I was born and raised. Quite…
By Will Rinehart | November 18, 2024
This is the fourth presidential election cycle that I’ve worked as a tech policy analyst and it’s easily been my least busy. Normally, a presidential candidate would suggest a crazy…
By Will Rinehart | November 11, 2024
Economist Deirdre McCloskey opens The Narrative of Economic Expertise with an observation that blew me away when I read it as an undergraduate: It is pretty clear that an economist, like a…
By Will Rinehart | November 4, 2024
As president, Bill Clinton had failures, both personal and professional, but one thing he got right during his time in office was the Framework for Global Electronic Commerce. Released in July…
By Will Rinehart | October 28, 2024
26 years ago, Virginia Postrel published The Future and Its Enemies, which I still consider one of the most insightful books of our time. The book’s subtitle, The Growing Conflict Over Creativity,…
By Lynne Kiesling | October 24, 2024
The July 17, 1916, edition of The Asheville Citizen could have easily been reprinted late last month and maintained its relevance: “Asheville today is absolutely isolated from the outside world, is a city…
By Will Rinehart | October 21, 2024
This summer I experienced a cruelty I hope no one should have to endure. On Saturday my mother passed away, just three months and two days after my dad did…
By Will Rinehart | September 30, 2024
Last week, SpaceX pushed back its timetable for the launch of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, and singled out government regulations as the cause: Unfortunately, we continue to be…
By Will Rinehart | September 23, 2024
Political scientist Francis Fukuyama is right, at least about one thing. The American political system is a vetocracy, a system ruled by vetoes. And in recent decades, this excessive power…
By Will Rinehart | September 16, 2024
Last week, the California State Assembly passed SB 1047, a controversial AI safety bill that supporters contend would regulate advanced AI models to reduce the possibility of AI going haywire and…
By Will Rinehart | September 9, 2024
For a time, when I wanted to make a point that AI hype was overblown, I would just cite Elon Musk’s various predictions about autonomous vehicles (AV). In 2013, Musk predicted…
By Will Rinehart | September 2, 2024
Earlier this year, NASA’s most advanced lunar rover—the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover or VIPER—seemed to be on track to the moon. Engineers integrated the VIPER’s final instrument of four in February.…
By Will Rinehart | August 26, 2024
It is memory-holed now, but acid rain was the largest environmental threat in the 1980s. Grisly pictures emerged, prompting research and then action by the government to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen…
By Will Rinehart | August 19, 2024
In the groundbreaking case U.S. v. Google, Judge Amit Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the tech giant has been using its…
By Will Rinehart | August 12, 2024