copper.vision index
Copper Vision mark, three disks, copper between two onyx

COPPERVISION

About

Field Notes is a monthly audit of the numbers people repeat more often than they check.

Recent notes follow one watt from a data center forecast to a household bill, weigh the copper being pulled from under emergency phone lines, and count the handful of people maintaining the code under every browser.

Every note ships with its method, its limits and a numbered source list. Recent notes also publish the data and scripts behind their charts, so the work can be rerun.

Latest Field Note
VOL.07 · 2026.10
╴ the people under the libraries

Trace Elements

Thirty-three software libraries sit under nearly every phone, browser and server. Twenty are kept by two people or fewer, the median has not risen above two in a decade while the devices depending on them tripled, and the people doing it have carried the work for decades around day jobs. A periodic table of the libraries under everything, the people under them, and what would happen if they all vanished.