What we are reading, September 16, 2026
Reflecting on what has changed in the last 25 years as we attempt to explain the events of September 11, 2001, plus quantum mechanics and the news that got our attention this week.
9/11 Changed the World in Many Ways. It Also Spawned the Digital Media Era
With shock and awe, the attacks altered an already image-saturated media ecosystem—and so much more.
David Friend
EU opens door to unprecedented ‘associate member’ status for Canada amid US trade spat
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed making Canada the EU’s first “associate member” to integrate supply chains amid U.S. tariff tensions.
Bradford Betz
Cybernetic Attention: All Watched over by Machines We Learned to Watch
Before the attention economy consumed our lives, “pursuit tests” devised by the US military coupled man to machine with the aim of assessing focus under pressure. D. Graham Burnett explores these devices for evaluating aviators, finding a pre-history of the laboratory research that has relentlessly worked to slice and dice the attentional powers of human beings.
D. Graham Burnett
John Wheeler Saw the Tear in Reality | Quanta Magazine
Until his dying days, the giant of 20th-century physics obsessed over the underpinnings of space and time, and how we can all share the same version of them.
Amanda Gefter
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