We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed seeing Gran-parents doom-scrolling, seeing Attie launching during the ATmosphere conference and the study showing people prefer sycophantic AI bots.
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.”
You are seeing aspects of this with Norway taking aim at Enshittification, graphene finally getting its time and the rush for a global human-made/non AI made logo.
Privacy is not negotiable
Ian thinks: Naomi’s points about privacy and how its been watered down year after year is key. I haven’t heard anyone say privacy is dead for a while, but they act like it is gone and not needed any-more.
Avoiding the eyes of the glass-holes?
Ian thinks: Resistance against smart glasses, is fair. Although I do find the Bluetooth signatures fascinating, I guess like MAC addresses sniffing could be used to filter/avoid all types of Bluetooth devices in the present and future?
Federated sharing isn’t easy going
Ian thinks: We are so use to the share this button on legacy social media sites but this careful critique of the new Mastodon share this post button, uncovers the difficulty of sharing with privacy and in a federated way.
Age verification law hits FLOSS
Ian thinks: This blog post from Linux distribution system76 – Pop!OS. Is a excellent read about the problems with age verification. Education is the corner stone of the argument and seems to be sadly forgotten in debates on high.
How are social media bans working out?
Ian thinks: The ban of social media and young people is everywhere right now. I have personal problems with the over reach and wider effects of this, including age verification as in the link above. Like above the call for education is echoed with better alternatives like safety by design and stronger regulation of design and practice.
Piracy is tipping the scale
Piracy never disappeared but is gain some momentum recently due in part to the enshittification of streaming services. What I find interesting about this post is the global look at countries and the concerns such as privacy and security in them.
Lego did the smart thing?
Ian thinks: In this tear down of Lego’s smart book, its clear Lego did a good job making it as simple and smart as possible. There was always a worry it would require a external service or completely locked down. Will it change the way Lego is seen is a bigger question
The weaponisation of psychology
Ian thinks: There is so much off the back of Meta and Google losing the first of many court cases following the landmark court case. I have tried to explain the underlying problems to friends without getting too technical or too fluffy. So I sent this video a few which seems to have worked much better.
Bernie vs Claude
Ian thinks: Bernie asks Claude the questions we should all be asking not just AI companies but each other. Wait for the long awkward pause from Claude AI as it comes back with a more realistic answer.
The AI doc interview
Ian thinks: In this podcast Tristan and friends talk about a new AI documentaries, comparing it to some very thoughtful docs from the past. I agree with the idea, just hope it turns out to be half of what they say it could be.
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