Hi all,
I'm Morry, one of the members of Reboot's editorial board, and the one with the pleasure of announcing the opening of our call for pitches for Kernel Magazine Issue 5!
TLDR: submit your pitches here (nonfiction) or here (creative) by 2/1.
KERNEL 5: RULES
Kernel 5 is all about RULES. Everything set, prescribed, enforced, and broken. It is the third of Kernel's named themes, following SUSTAIN and LUCK, and the appropriateness of the rule of threes is not lost on us.
What do we mean by rules?
Technology rules. It rocks, reigns, and restricts. Other things rule too: states (famously, and now repackaged into short form DnD content), ants, Elon Musk, Gordon Moore, platforms, protocols, and dril. Every day we operate under the layered, entangled, and frequently contradictory logic imposed on us from any number of these different sources. Sometimes they can be extremely generative: sheet music is a set of rules to produce a song, lines of code the same for a program. Just as often, however, they can become restrictive, encroaching, and unintelligible.
Vibes we would like to see: The NIST standard for lighting a cigarette. Three felonies a day. Getting a text and making yourself wait before responding. The move-fast-break-things to extremely-specific-content-moderation-policy pipeline. The internationally approved frequencies for amateur ham radio operators to contact the International Space Station. Not selling a painting, but selling the rules for how to make a painting. Surviving on the 2b2t anarchist Minecraft server.
Examples of things we’re interested in: Can we trace a rule from a minor de-facto technical issue to a society-defining standard? What’s with the self-imposed screen time helper device arms race? An entrepreneurship qua self-help face-off between Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life vs. Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power vs. Ray Dalio’s Principles vs. Andrew Huberman’s Protocols (throw any book about “agile” in too). The fine distinctions between rules, instructions, and recommendations. Is code still law? The Trial but with smart contracts. Governing bodies 7 letters acronyms or longer. Who are the W3C and what are they doing with my internet? The rules-driven pursuit of biohacked immortality. Trader Joe’s Brie importation gambit and other histories of business as regulatory arbitrage. The failure and/or reversal of the copyleft movement and the shifting party lines of the new IP debates. How you feel about the workwear guy. Rule-based art across disciplines. Who is saying when it’s okay to post what and why.
Some styles of inquiry we like: How do interpersonal relations (who’s friends? who’s enemies? who’s a “weirdo” and who’s “cool”?) shape macro-level politics, and what ultimately happens in the world materially? Where do values as stated conflict with values as practiced? Can theory be not just descriptive, but prescriptive in the real world? What concrete object or community can serve as a gateway to a larger point? How many things had to happen for this to exist? (It’s something like this, we think). Give us your hottest takes and your most ambitious manifestos — just do the work to back it up.
Some modes of creative expression that intrigue us: Experiments in form; works that traverse both the printed page and digital media; speculative stories that follow a contemporary phenomenon to its logical (or illogical) end; text-based games; source code; lists; satire. What about the microscopic evinces something of the macroscopic? How can fiction, poetry, or visual art get at a contemporary circumstance, historical condition, or possible future from an alternative vantage point?
We won’t be excited by: “X won’t save us” or “capitalism is the root cause” or “techno-solutionism is doomed to fail” style arguments. "This thing sucks, actually," sucks, actually. When thinking about what to write, we would rather plant a tree than visit a landfill — though, of course, soil can be fertilized by manure. Also, we’re not anti-AI (still regularly thinking about Optimal Path — when AI content is good, it can be really good), but just know that we’ll have a pretty high bar for quality and insight (unfortunately when AI content is not good, it can be really not good).
What formats are we looking for?
As in previous issues, we have a few separate content tracks with separate submission forms. All contributions will be compensated.
Nonfiction: essay, interview, or software criticism. Pitch here!
Essay: short (1000-2000 words, $250) or long (3000+ words, $350)
Software criticism: up to 2000 words, $250
Interview: $200
Creative: visual art, poetry, or fiction. Submit here!
For fiction and poetry, please specify if you are interested in your piece being workshopped/edited or if it is a final/completed piece.
Compensation will be $50-300 depending on the scale of the piece.
If you’re interested in contributing to Kernel as an editor, illustrator, or in any other role, let us know by emailing jacob@joinreboot.org with your interests and relevant experience. All roles will be stipended.
💝 closing note
Every time we put out a call for contributions for a new issue of Kernel, we are awed by the sheer range of pitches we receive — non-fiction, fiction, and those strange things between. We get pitches from every conceivable level of experience and perspective on technology, and feel genuinely grateful to read them all. If you have questions about contributing to Kernel or suggestions for future directions, we welcome your insight.
The Lead Editors of Issue 5 are Morry Kolman (morry@joinreboot.org), Kevin Baker (kevin@joinreboot.org), and Hannah Scott (hannah@joinreboot.org).
The Managing Editor of Issue 5 is Jacob Kuppermann; reach them at jacob@joinreboot.org.
The director of Reboot is Jasmine Sun; reach her at jasmine@joinreboot.org.
Have any questions? Read our guide on How to Pitch us, or send any of us an email. We eagerly await your pitches.
Reboot publishes free essays on tech, humanity, and power every week. If you want to keep up with the community, subscribe below ⚡️
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Hi! When will the next open pitch be?