A Short Distance Ahead Substack by David Williams | Insights from Sidestack

A Short Distance Ahead

About the Substack

A chronicle of humanity's evolving relationship with artificial minds that each week examines how one singular year's events shaped our digital destiny.

Free Subscription Benefits

All 75 weekly essays from The Year Was 1950 to The Year Was 2025

Paid Subcription Benefits

Supplemental content and features that examines co-writing with AI
Essays outside of, but adjacent to AI history, written without AI
Curated bi-weekly round-up of AI related articles that influence SDA essays

Paid Subscription Plans

$55 a year
$5 a month

About David Williams

I write A Short Distance Ahead, an experimental newsletter exploring the history of AI and humanity's evolving relationship with artificial minds.

A Short Distance Ahead's recommended Substacks

Jon Haidt

After Babel

A free weekly newsletter from Jonathan Haidt and his team using moral psychology to explain why so much is going wrong

#13 in 🏥 Health & Wellness

1000+
paid subscribers

147K+
free subscribers

Ethan Mollick

One Useful Thing

Trying to understand the implications of AI for work, education, and life. By Prof. Ethan Mollick

#5 in 🕹 Technology

1000+
paid subscribers

303K+
free subscribers

George Saunders

Story Club with George Saunders

A place to explore the way the short story works.

#1 in 📚 Literature

10K+
paid subscribers

310K+
free subscribers

Etgar Keret

Alphabet Soup

Stories, poems, thoughts & more stories: the Alphabet Soup in my mind just keeps simmering.

#53 in 📚 Literature

100+
paid subscribers

26K+
free subscribers

Azeem Azhar

Exponential View

“The best for understanding how tech can solve our biggest problems, shape our society and bridge cultural divides.“ - Daniel Ek

#23 in 🕹 Technology

1000+
paid subscribers

124K+
free subscribers