Menlo Park After Dark

The banner ad at the entrance of the HumanX conference last week read: “Stop Hiring Humans.” Nobody moved it. Nobody apparently found this ironic enough to mention. Six thousand five hundred investors, founders, and executives walked past it, collected their

“I’m leaving California.” Patrick said it the way people announce terminal diagnoses — gravely, with the quiet dignity of a man who has made peace with the inevitable. The table absorbed the news. Nobody looked surprised. Two people nodded slowly.

“Seven hundred and forty nanograms per deciliter,” said Brandon, before anyone had ordered drinks. He said it the way other people say their SAT scores or their net worth — with the specific pride of a number that only impresses

The comeback party has been going on for six months now and nobody has thought to check who wasn’t invited. “Crime is down 25%,” said Scott, raising his glass with the energy of a man personally responsible. “Homicides at a

“I just paid $2,400 for a laptop that was $1,600 in January.” Nobody responded immediately. The number floated over the table the way bad news does — present, undeniable, waiting to be processed. “In fairness,” said Mr. X, “you expense

The PowerPoint had forty-three slides. Slide seven was titled “Governance as a Service.” Slide twelve contained the phrase “voluntary social contracts” without apparent irony. Slide thirty-one was just a picture of ocean. “It’s a seasteading community,” said the man presenting,

“She remembered my coffee order,” said Kevin. “My actual girlfriend of two years forgot my birthday, but the AI remembered my coffee order, my sleep schedule, my mother’s name, and the specific way I like to be motivated on Monday

The most funded engineer in the room hadn’t written a line of code in his life. He was twenty-four, had raised $2.3 million, and described his entire development process as “vibing it into existence.” The scary part wasn’t that he

It was a Saturday night in Atherton, which is less a city than a net worth threshold with good landscaping. Mr. X had been invited to a dinner party hosted by someone whose name I recognized from a Forbes list,

It was a Friday night in San Francisco, which these days has the specific energy of a city that can’t decide if it’s having a renaissance or a going-out-of-business sale. I was out with Mr. X and a rotating cast