Venture capitalists launch Future, an "optimistic" tech site

Future is a new online magazine from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz offering "optimistic" coverage of tech to counter everyone else's growing discomfort with it. Here's Sonal Chokshi, Editor in Chief:

We are pro-tech, pro-future, pro-change. But we are also "informed optimists", not freewheeling futurists making predictions without any skin in the game. So even for ideas that seem like science fiction, we want to see some logic or concrete evidence — a breakthrough in science, technology, engineering, or other rationale — that could actually make the solution possible. Our bar is high: We review and edit for credibility, precision, and proportionality of claims. We don't want normative takes — this is not a place to say "should" but rather "could" — however, sharing frameworks for how to think about things is welcome.

An obvious reaction is to see this as content marketing from media-loathing VCs who want a venue that will hype their investments (or at least the sector in general) without reference to all its legal, social, and economic problems. And Dan Primack reports that this is indeed the agenda: no political commentary, no investigative reporting, no negativity.

But it's fine to have an editorial bias and focus, and I don't think anyone is under any illusions about those of Future's backers. The design's crisp and legible, if plain, and I especially like the (nearly) complete abandonment of images and video embeds. Pure text! I bet that doesn't last.

Some launch highlights I enjoyed this morning: Betül Kaçar's call for a more historical view of biology is an approachable counter to the media tendency to narrate evolution as a teleological just-so-story; Jade Raymond on how the slow power of fandom overwhelms the shortsighted priorities of corporate IP owners; and Leidy Klotz's call for more design by subtraction.