We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed seeing the problems with single sign on, Google chrome forcefully downloading 4gig of a LLM and why on earth is meta smart glasses selling so well, despite privacy worries?
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 the dailyshow solve a male loneliness battle, Kindle owners jail breaking their devices and Flickr.org proving death is not a edge case.
The fed up partners of AI workers
Ian thinks: Although the piece about the wives of AI skilled workers Wired magazine makes clear the wider sad effect of everything centring around AI, is causing huge problems for partners, friendships and families. The domination of AI in every conversation is something I have noticed more and more. Sad times indeed.
Wrapped in optimistic from Doctorow?
Ian thinks: This piece titled comrade trump sums up a lot of the points have made about the Trump effect. Of course, its all side effects of some of the worst political policy’s in decades (it can be argued). But Cory and others are right, this disruption to the order does provide a green light for public value alternatives. Also worth watching Cory from Republica this year which touches on these these themes.
AI likely won’t cure cancer any time soon
Ian thinks: One of the biggest claims about AI is it will solve cancer. This episode breaks down the claims and puts everything in perspective. The idea of AI solving cancer gets thrown around a lot and its not just a lie but also takes resources away from existing efforts which shocked me.
The Fediverse built a bigger tent
Ian thinks: I didn’t get much time to be involved in this years Fediforum but Laurens, covered the event and pulls some good ties between it and 2mr.social. The interesting point is how its become a bigger tent for much more than the technology of the activitypub. Having the green party give a keynote and even larger conversations about sovereignty from American traditional social media; is a clear sign of maturity.
Ai psychosis one of many stories
Ian thinks: This is one so many true stories of the ongoing problem of AI psychosis. Its unreal but so dangerous. The analysis afterwards is good but doesn’t go into enough depth. You might look at it and shrug but the recent research isnt looking good either, with AI frying our brains in other ways.
The market certainly will not solve everything
Ian thinks: With the insanity of predication markets comes a crypto driven site called Dare market. Its exactly like Black Mirror’s common people. But comes from the madness of the memecoin era when people would do outrageous things to convince people to buy their memecoins. A time of corruption, foolishness and rug pulls.
Are you paying attention to the words coming out of my mouth?
Ian thinks: 404 interview the highly rated Natasha Dow Schüll, who’s excellent book Addicted by design, I quote a lot. Its great to see how relevant her book is during social media addiction then and now prediction markets. If you haven’t read her book go do it! I also noticed a lot uptick in this space with Mozilla, tech wont save us and even Jon Oliver talking about prediction markets (not available outside the USA, so here is a reaction video).
Jumping on the European sovereignty bandwagon
Ian thinks: When W Social jumped into the limelight and claimed to be the only European social network to fill a void. Many of us couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Elena’s uncovering post cuts the cord on the whole shambles which is W Social and is a clear reminder to work together not alone in darkness.
Designing for after the feed
Ian thinks: The New_public live events are always worth watching even before I started working for them. Tackling the AI monster with human and public thoughts is a good start for a conversation about a future most of us would rather make happen.
How I Became an Apocaloptimist?
Ian thinks: I recently watched the full titled AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. Watching with my partner and friends raised an interesting discussion. The AI doc really tears down the binary wall of AI boosters and doomers, with some practical suggestions we can all do.
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