Untangled with Charley Johnson | Substack

Let's untangle our sociotechnical world & change it.

Oct 20, 2024 • Charley Johnson

Most Popular

🤖 AI isn’t ‘hallucinating.’ We are.

Jun 4, 2023 • Charley Johnson

Transparency! It’s, uh, complicated.

Oct 16, 2022

🎧 Unfollow your friends!

May 19, 2024 • Charley Johnson

What happens online when we die?

Jun 9, 2024 • Charley Johnson

Recent posts

Hope Is a Systems Skill

PLUS: Updates from Untangled HQ

Jan 10 • Charley Johnson

My Top 10 Posts of 2025

PLUS: The theme that will motivate Untangled in 2026.

Dec 21, 2025 • Charley Johnson

If You Want to Change a System, Follow the Information Flows

PLUS: AI 'fairness,' data centers & cancer, and what 'alignment' misunderstands.

Dec 14, 2025 • Charley Johnson

Responsible AI is Not a Principles Problem. It’s a Network Configuration Problem

PLUS: Prediction markets meet the news, a promising online space for social trust, and the group trying to "AGI pill" the Pope.

Dec 7, 2025 • Charley Johnson

Welcome to the Prediction Casino: Please Place Your Bets on the Future

PLUS: A new 3-part workshop on building responsible AI practices

Nov 30, 2025 • Charley Johnson

🧶 Deep Dives

The Age of Myth-Making

Digital technologies have changed the way we read and write — what comes next?

May 4, 2025 • Charley Johnson

There’s no such thing as ‘fully autonomous’ agents

Don’t ‘fully self-drive’ yourself to an early grave…

Apr 6, 2025 • Charley Johnson

8:20

The Infinite Manosphere

We need a positive vision of masculinity ASAP

Mar 2, 2025 • Charley Johnson

Trapped by the Pursuit of Efficiency

When tech is the end goal, we lose sight of everything that truly matters.

Feb 2, 2025 • Charley Johnson

The Church of Number Go Up

Is crypto a casino? A church? A new kind of infrastructure? The answer is: yes

Dec 1, 2024 • Charley Johnson

⚒️ Systems Change

How to do the next right thing

Chatbot speak, unreliable tools, and directions not targets.

Jun 26, 2025 • Charley Johnson

How to engage your system amidst uncertainty

A guide for working with uncertainty.

Jun 5, 2025 • Charley Johnson

How to determine if you’re dealing with a 'complex system'

A guide for embracing complexity & adaptive strategies

May 29, 2025 • Charley Johnson

How to define your system

A guide for identifying clear boundaries, and avoiding 'unintended consequences.'

May 22, 2025 • Charley Johnson

How to map backward from the future

PLUS: Get a free copy of my first e-book, AI Untangled

May 15, 2025 • Charley Johnson

🔮 Artificial Intelligence

Rethinking Goals in an Uncertain World

Why relationships—not rigid targets—are the key to meaningful systems change.

Aug 10, 2025 • Charley Johnson

Flattery as a Feature: Rethinking 'AI Sycophancy'

PLUS: Sam Altman says the quiet part out loud

Aug 3, 2025 • Charley Johnson

8:20

There’s no such thing as ‘fully autonomous’ agents

Don’t ‘fully self-drive’ yourself to an early grave…

Apr 6, 2025 • Charley Johnson

How to analyze the frames and metaphors that hide power in AI

A guide to interrogating rhetorical power in sociotechnical systems

Mar 9, 2025 • Charley Johnson

Trapped by the Pursuit of Efficiency

When tech is the end goal, we lose sight of everything that truly matters.

Feb 2, 2025 • Charley Johnson

35:29

Can we democratize AI?

My conversation with Divya Siddarth, Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Collective Intelligence Project

Dec 20, 2024 • Charley Johnson

41:47

Is AI snake oil?

An interview with Princeton Professor Arvind Narayanan

Nov 24, 2024 • Charley Johnson

39:40

The potential of public AI

An interview with Mozilla's Nik Marda and Jasmine Sun

Nov 17, 2024 • Charley Johnson and Jasmine Sun

📺 Media & Tech

The Infinite Manosphere

We need a positive vision of masculinity ASAP

Mar 2, 2025 • Charley Johnson

The Age of Participatory Media

Let's generate 'cold media,' shall we?

Jan 12, 2025 • Charley Johnson

29:54

Building healthy local communities online & off

A conversation with Deepti Doshi, Co-Director, New_Public

Dec 15, 2024 • Charley Johnson

31:35

Block, build, be

A conversation about the work ahead with Anya Kamenetz, creator of The Golden Hour

Dec 8, 2024 • Charley Johnson and Anya Kamenetz

Fragment the media! Embrace the shards!

For this election, think less about our ‘shared reality’ and more about information integrity

Nov 3, 2024 • Charley Johnson

24:14

🎧 Unfollow your friends!

An interview with Louis Barclay, creator of Unfollow Everything.

May 19, 2024 • Charley Johnson

🧠 Synthetic social media

Internet users, brace for the emergence of E-Swift

Jan 7, 2024 • Charley Johnson

36:10

Pretty privilege, appearance labor, and worthiness.

PLUS: Get a free, signed copy of Elise Hu's new book, Flawless.

Sep 24, 2023 • Charley Johnson and Elise Hu

🤑 Crypto

The Myth of the Crowd: How Prediction Markets Reflect Power, Not Wisdom

Trump's AI Action Plan, confident conspiracy theorists, and ChimpGPT.

Jul 27, 2025 • Charley Johnson

The $TRUMP Token

How 'social tokens' will turn influencers, celebrities, and apparently, politicians, into stocks

Jan 26, 2025 • Charley Johnson

The narrators of the "Tech Industrial Complex."

The problem of the techno-determinist mindset.

Jan 19, 2025 • Charley Johnson

Are blockchains immutable?

A dive into the collective belief that ‘yes, assets CAN be digital, and you CAN own them!’

Dec 29, 2024 • Charley Johnson

Crypto Untangled

A book about crypto for the curious skeptic.

Dec 18, 2024 • Charley Johnson

The Church of Number Go Up

Is crypto a casino? A church? A new kind of infrastructure? The answer is: yes

Dec 1, 2024 • Charley Johnson

🧠 In crypto, everything is a ponzi

…until sometimes, it’s not.

Mar 3, 2024 • Charley Johnson

A wonky romp through identity, classification, and power.

Dec 4, 2022 • Charley Johnson

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