This is a weird inflection point in history, when multiple people at multiple weekend gatherings ask you what to do when the humanoid AIs start to attack us in our homes. (This is also a side effect of working at WIRED.) If you’re worried about recent developments in surveillance and artificial intelligence and you’ve also watched Battlestar Galactica, you’ve probably considered starting to go analog and offline. Like reviewer Simon Hill, you can set your video doorbell to local storage. Like operations manager Scott Gilbertson, you can get off Google. I just have a Brick, the little device that bricks apps to get you off your phone.
|
I keep mine on the fridge. It’s magnetic! |
I do believe that thinking about going analog as a process of subtraction, rather than addition, is a mistake. You don’t have to cut things out. You can always just … start doing things that are not on a computer, like becoming obsessed with coffee in the Ratio Four coffee maker or my personal hobby, going running everywhere in gravel running shoes. If you need more analog ideas, check out our guide to buying for life (really old things don’t usually have a Wi-Fi connection). Have you started growing potatoes, building planter boxes, or embroidering? Let me know at adrienne_so@wired.com.
|
|
|
All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Learn more. |
Apologies to reviewer Matthew Korfhage, but I am, and always have been, a moka pot person (as, obviously, is reviewer Scott Gilbertson). |
You know what’s the best analog hobby? Sleeping. Sleeping really well on a custom Pluto pillow, like certified sleep coach and reviewer Julia Forbes. |
The Salomon Aero Glide 4 GRVL shoe just came out! Salomon makes some of our favorite gravel shoes, but if you’re more of a classic light hiker or trail runner person, you can check out our explainers here. |
Spring break is coming up in the next few weeks! |
- If you want to know what it was like to work at WIRED back in the day (I was there!), it is very thinly disguised as the magazine Signal in Janelle Brown’s new book What Kind of Paradise.
-
This weekend, my dad dragged me screaming into the garage to look for my old speakers for his new music streamer.
-
Disclosure: Violette sent me Boum-Boum Milk for inclusion in our travel coverage. If you find that putting stuff on your skin is annoying—I do!—a 3-in-1 spray saves a ton of time and effort.
|
|
|
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up for our Gear newsletters here.
Plus, find all of our newsletters, here. |
|
|
|
