Six feet under a data centre, not enough storage available – Not enough storage available to access memories
How do we die online?
This is a big question and raises a lot of questions and thoughts including
🌷 The role of technology in grief and mourning
🥀 The technological and cultural shifts in how we die and remember
🌹 Possible approaches to preparing our digital afterlife.
From the use of AI for digital holograms of the dead, to poor infrastructure for managing deceased accounts, this is a problem that will only grow.
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.“
Ian thinks: There is so much about the worldwide outage due to Microsoft and Crowd strike. Zitron zooms out and points fingers at shareholders supremacy , recent tech layoffs and the silicon value of move fast and break things.
Ian thinks: In this thoughtful discussion Hickel outlines a number of key concepts of degrowth including, the assumption the rich countries should continue to increase growing for the rest of the century. Plus the metric of growth based on GDP, was never developed for this purpose warned the creator of it.
Ian thinks: This talk from Republica is raw and will caused a lot feelings. Deep down under the skin of the talk is the underlying understanding Tante has some very good points including the fact “we let tech take the politics out of innovation.”
Ian thinks: This video builds on the huge data privacy problem of modern cars. There is a huge problem of negotiability with the contracts you sign. Access to emergency service is important but that shouldn’t mean data being shared with an unknown amount of data brokers. Its time for a change.
Ian thinks: This short documentary about John Lewis and Waitrose is quite telling as their business model feels so obscure now, especially in the face of stakeholder capitalism or as others call it Shareholder Supremacy. You can see the same of public service broadcasting and likewise their are lessons and difficult decisions which need to be made before its too late.
Ian thinks: Interesting but sweary rant from a senior data scientist about the AI bubble and C-suite’s fascination with it. Good points made counting the business narrative of you need AI for everything.
Ian thinks: While watching this video about keeping contacts private, I couldn’t stop but think the whole notion of how apps, services and platforms interact with our personal data must change. Human data interaction is a step towards this but it needs standardisation and adopted very soon, because putting the burden on users through scope storage, permissions or installing GrapheneOS isn’t sustainable.
Ian thinks: The notion of a digital afterlife will either fill you with dread or joy. But what ever side you come down on, it’s clear existing power laws like enshitfication, surveillance capitalism, etc will be in full effort. Legal reform in this space to give agency to the user is essential and must come soon.
Ian thinks: The story of Kat Torres is a hard one to watch but a important one to see. There will always be influencers but could human scale social networks change this, I wonder?
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Ian thinks: Although the conversation is mainly about piracy or lack of it. There is a interesting discussion about the current idea of web3 and how the protocols used in piracy are closer to decentralisation.
Ian thinks: I love the idea of chatterbox, and the values behind the project are spot on. Just perfect for a generation growing up with voice assistants and always being listened to.
Ian thinks: This very thoughtful piece from Branch is something I think about a lot. It will have you rethinking all the recent news about space, the metaverse, web3, etc in a very different light.
Ian thinks: Ethan Zuckerman joins the EFF to discuss ways forward for public and private spaces online. Lots of mentions about the importance of interoperability
Ian thinks: There is a number of view points on this news, but its worth remembering GDPR does not apply to security agencies. Meaning the news stories are not necessarily as clean cut as the headlines say.
Ian thinks: The EFF with their bigger interest in whats happening in Europe, outline what the Digital Services Act (DSA) got right and whats missing. Its a thoughtful blog from the EFF in Europe
Ian thinks: Digital legacy is a really messy area and this wired piece covers quite a bit before ending up in the world of Black Mirror. Interesting place for public services nonetheless.
Ian thinks: What a selection of resources for tech workeds who decide to speak out on issues related to public interest, like the ones you will see in the press and across this newsletter.
Not sure what it is about Amazon’s Upload but it feels like the Good Place? (maybe the early days of the good place?)
Just like the good place, it full of comedy and silliness but there is something deeper underneath the jokes and smiles. Yes the subject matter is similar, the afterlife? But there is also something emotional interesting about the show and its good to hear there will be a another season.
I did think there is plenty which can be taken from Black mirror’s San junipero and it seems Amazon got right in there with this. Originally I thought it would be awful but I expect to run for another few seasons.
