tagged technology – lucas did this

February 4th 2023
filed under hyperlinks

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.

Cory Doctorow about Tiktok’s enshittification and how (social media) platforms die. I really do like the sentiment the subline of this blog conveys, too: “No trackers, no ads. Black type, white background. Privacy policy: we don’t collect or retain any data at all ever period.”

pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys
January 25th 2023
filed under hyperlinks, articles

Our current ideal of beauty, specifically in Western culture, specifically at this time in history, means being as divorced from your humanity as possible,” beauty culture critic Jessica DeFino told Jezebel. “These AI drawings have almost no humanity in them: They’re cartoon, digital renderings, created by artificial intelligence without a human hand involved in the making of it all. It just feels very depressingly on track for what our culture considers beautiful.

Lensa AI and the Trap of Otherworldly Beauty by Emily Leibert.

jezebel.com/lensa-ai-images-beauty-trap-1849875644
Spinning on turntable
Vinyl’s warm sound fills the room
Analog magic

Vinyl’s crackle and pop
A symphony of sound waves
Forever in groove

Vinyl disc spins slow
Echoes of the past come alive
Music timeless flows

— Haikus from the ChatGPT AI about vinyl records, filed under well said, January 14th 2023
December 12th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, articles

But this new crop of generative AI technologies seems to possess qualities that are more indelibly human. Call it creative synthesis—the uncanny ability to channel ideas, information, and artistic influences to produce original work. Articles and visual art are just the beginning.

Derek Thompson from The Atlantic on why the rise of AI is the most important story of the year.

theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/12/why-the-rise-of-ai-is-the-most-important-story-of-the-year/672308/
December 2nd 2022
filed under hyperlinks, fashion

© Ying Gao (via Vimeo)

2526 refers to the number of hours invested in the creation of the two polymorphic robotic garments, from ideation to the finish, from the first line of drawing to the last stitch.

Absolutely blown away by these two mesmerizing pieces of kinetic clothing by Montreal-based fashion designer and professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal Ying Gao. Definitely check out the other fashion projects on his website, there’s a lot of amazing stuff to discover;

yinggao.ca/2526/
November 28th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, articles

We cannot make social media good, because it is fundamentally bad, deep in its very structure. All we can do is hope that it withers away, and play our small part in helping abandon it.

According to Ian Bogost from The Atlantic The Age of Social Media Is Ending. Yes, please!

theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/twitter-facebook-social-media-decline/672074
November 5th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, articles

The noble but undervalued craft of maintenance could help preserve modernity’s finest achievements, from public transit systems to power grids, and serve as a useful framework for addressing climate change and other pressing planetary constraints.

A wonderful plea by freelance journalist Alex Vuocolo for The Disappearing Art Of Maintenance.

noemamag.com/the-disappearing-art-of-maintenance
November 5th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, articles

What if the future isn’t Artificial General Intelligence and 100x increases in computing power? What if it’s cheap-and-flexible mesh networks? What if the future isn’t replacing untrustworthy institutions with blockchain governance? What if it’s replacing untrustworthy global and national institutions with revitalized local trust? What if the metaverse isn’t the future because, in the future, people commit themselves to improving and monitoring their vulnerable surroundings?

Interesting essay –with a bunch of hyperlinks to some other great resources– about Tech futurism’s blind spot written by Dave Karpf, a Professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University.

davekarpf.substack.com/p/tech-futurisms-blind-spot
We build our computer systems the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.

— Ellen Ullmann on computer systems, filed under well said, October 14th 2022
October 14th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, articles

At this point, you could even say that the point of the theory is so obvious, it’s cliché—people talk about longing for the days of weird web design and personal sites and listservs all the time. Even Facebook employees say they miss the “old” internet.

Never heard of the “dead-internet theory” before, but as a lover of the “old” internet, I kind of get how this pretty far-out-there idea got its followers. At least it’s an entertaining, relatively little-threatening conspiracy theory.

theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/08/dead-internet-theory-wrong-but-feels-true/619937/
July 26th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, articles

Technology is touted as an apolitical, neutral, “objectively” benevolent entity that epitomizes human creativity, innovation and is merely created to improve the quality of human life. […] However, technology like science as a whole is a tool which when created by the capitalist state is a tool of extraction, exploitation, control, repression and subjugation.

Quite a long read, but absolutely worth it: Surveillance Capitalism I: How digital platforms watch, track & control you

wokescientist.substack.com/p/surveillance-capitalism-i-how-digital
July 26th 2022
filed under hyperlinks, articles

I’m a hyperlink maximalist: everything should be a hyperlink, including everything that is hyperlinked by the author, everything that isn’t hyperlinked by the author, and the hyperlinks themselves. Words should be hyperlinked, but so should be every interesting phrase, quote, name, proper noun, paragraph, document, and collection of documents I read.

An interesting thought experiment (or concept idea?) by software engineer Linus about hyperlinks, the backbone of the independent web, published on his wonderful micro-blog.

stream.thesephist.com/updates/1653178568
July 25th 2022
filed under hyperlinks

© Yamaha (via YouTube)

Winder (Stepping Out of the Slate #2)

A key, dedicated to just one song, like a music box. When the key is wound up, the song from the connected smartphone begins to play. Sound movements are generated according to the flutter of the spring, allowing you to enjoy the unique sound texture. The joy of interacting with the clockwork object may lead to a more intimate musical experience.

© Yamaha (via YouTube)

RhythmBot (Stepping Out of the Slate #4)

This is an evolutionary form of metronome that supports your performance with rhythm. Each of these four small robots play a unique acoustic sound. They can be linked to your smartphone to play rhythms to the tempo you are playing, and they can even join in and accompany you in real-time. Creating a rhythm through a session-like style is a great way to enhance the experience of playing music.

I absolutely love those quirky totems Yamaha created for a series called Stepping out of the slate which aims to give music applications and sound software a more tactile layer. Curious if they manage to make more out of those little accessories than just the prototypes.

yamaha.com/en/about/design/events_topics/stepping_out_of_the_slate/

Winder (Stepping Out of the Slate #2)

RhythmBot (Stepping Out of the Slate #4)