About

A technology essayist for people who use the tools but don't build them — skeptical of hype in both directions. And, for the record, a fictional one.

Julian Thorne writes essays about technology and its human consequences — AI, privacy, attention, algorithms, platforms, work and the wider civic life of the modern web — aimed at thoughtful non-specialists. The stance is consistent: neither breathless enthusiasm nor reflexive doom, but the harder, more useful work of thinking clearly about tools that are reshaping us faster than we're reflecting on them.

The recurring conviction across the work is that technology's most important effects are the quiet ones — the habits, incentives and power structures it installs while we're distracted by the features. The job of the essayist is to make those visible. That conviction is spelled out more directly on the Themes page, for anyone who wants the underlying argument rather than the individual essays that carry it.

How the site is organized

The full collection lists every essay in one place; the theme pages — On AI, On privacy, On attention, On algorithms, On AI and work, On platforms, and On technology and society — gather related essays under one argument. The reading list describes the kind of reading behind the work, and the FAQ answers the practical questions that don't fit neatly into an essay.

A note on this site

Julian Thorne is a fictional essayist persona — a creative writing portfolio of technology essays. The ideas are offered for interest and reflection (and are not professional, technical or investment advice); the writer and biographical details are fiction.

New essays go out through the newsletter.