Zyzzyva #120

ZYZZYVA #120: The Technology Issue, Stories, Dreams and Nightmares examines the various ways technology has shaped us, and imagines how it might do so in the near future. Noted reporter and author John Markoff shares an essay on the conflicted legacy of Stewart Brand. UC Berkeley doctoral student and technologist Xiaowei Wang discusses blockchain, the incorporation of tech in rural China, and asks, "What does it mean to live, to be human right now?" Fiction by Lee Conell, Juhea Kim, and Kate Reed Petty considers the impacts of technology and a changing environment upon communication and connection, and our sense of identity. In Troy Jollimore's essay, a rumination on the films of the Coen Brothers dovetails with urgent questions about how personal and cultural narratives are shaped by the media and technology with which they are told-and how the disastrous proliferation of conspiracy theories fostered by internet culture has deep roots in American history. Also includes fiction from Andrew Tonkovich and Kate Reed Petty; poetry from Sheryl Luna, Benjamin Voigt, Amanda Moore, William Brewer, art by Dave McClinton; and many others.