Hello. It’s early fall 2026.

⭕ My name is Finn Brunton. I’m a professor at UC Davis, where I teach in Science and Technology Studies and Cinema and Digital Media. I work on the history of networked computing and digital communication, with a focus on the role of utopian and speculative ideas in technology design.

⭕ This fall I’m teaching two classes: Introduction to Science and Technology Studies (STS001) and Introduction to Technoculture (CDM002). I’m finishing a book manuscript about simulationism and the dead internet. In my spare time I’m working on a collection of essays about death and survival. I’m represented by the Brockman Agency.

⭕ I’ve written two books — Digital Cash and Spam — and cowritten Communication (with Mercedes Bunz and Paula Bialski) and Obfuscation (with Helen Nissenbaum). My latest academic paper, The Financial Millennium, is about an apocalyptic crypto cult, and I have a recent piece in Harper’s about prediction markets and crypto anarchy. Many of my papers are available to download, as is my CV.

⭕ My professional interests include internet architecture and protocol, cryptography and cryptocurrency, the history of telecommunications, alternative networks, hypertext and early digital media, and the history of artificial intelligence; I also spend a lot of time with interesting technological subcultures—Extropians, rationalists, transhumanists, cosmists, agorists, accelerationists, and others.

⭕ You can email me at f at finnb dot net.

⭕ In my personal time I am a passionate advocate for decentralized and federated networks; shadow libraries and solar servers; strong cryptography and privacy; co-ops, mutual aid networks, community organizing, and direct democracy; bodily autonomy and self-determination; home canning, preserving, and fermentation; powerlifting and kettlebells; the longevity of simple tools; and the Miyawaki Method of reforestation. I have a lifelong fascination with string figures, knots, mnemonics, and storytelling.

(these are all stories I’m going to get around to telling one day)