republica – Cubicgarden.com…

The good things which come when putting your hand up?

The Panel at Republica 2024 recreating the Neuralink press conference

For a long while now (since my brush with death) I have been putting my hand up for many different things without really knowing whats going to happen. The one from TedXManchester is one I talk about a lot (8.9 million views!)

Just recently at Re:publica 2024, I took part in a panel titled Elon Musk Utopia.

Neuralink is one of the least known companies founded and headed by Elon Musk, this is his BCI initiative, a brain-chip that will make us one with the machine, one with one another, allow the blind to have superhuman vision, negate the need for language and make us all transhuman, just in time to contend with the AI gods we are creating simultaneously. If that sounds like (bad) science fiction, as well it should, but it’s also the vision of Neuralink’s founders.

Musk and Neuralink informed the public of their activities, early results and utopian aspirations in August 2020 on a live stream press event. Musk invited on stage the co-founders and leading team, scientists, engineers and venture capitalists, all answered questions about various technical aspects, and then they took one final question: one by one they all envisioned a “Neuralink future” and gave their personal aspiration, what is the use case they most highly expect and anticipate. The answers went from bewildering and bizarre to outright frightening.

The panel (with some audience participation) will read the different answers given at the Neuralink press event and discuss the future represented by these dreams/nightmares. A conversation about man/machine interfaces, artificial intelligence and religion, creativity, psychedelics, video games, telepathic consent, hope and death.

As you can see in the video which was filmed (not the conference filming), there is a request for someone to join the panel. Of course without even thinking, my hand was up and waving around. From memory I was the only one, just like the TedXManchester event.

I hadn’t really thought I’d be reading out a script, which is a bit of a nightmare for me with dyslexia. But regardless, I was committed, ultimately had good fun and enjoyed the Q&A afterwards.

If I had thought it through, I may not have put my hand up but so glad I did… again!

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (July 2024)

Picture taken from Mozhouse Amsterdam 2024 Woman sat talking to a crowd with a screen saying We are life: AI accountability during war

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed while seeing the ransomware attack on NHS hospitals, Meta’s EULA change to include feeding AI with your data and the terrible state of online shopping thanks to dropshipping and Temu.

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 publishers rethinking their online strategy, security services starting their own mini series and the introduction of the proton foundation.

The bigger impact of the law enforcement ANOM surveillance

Ian thinks: You might remember the ANOM take over? At the time I thought it was pretty clever but in this episode centred around Joseph Cox’s book Dark wire. I missed the bigger impact of surveillance and the chilling effect it had on encrypted messaging services/platforms.

Predicting the police and other artist AI visions

Ian thinks: I enjoyed this look at AI through the eyes of the different people in this episode. Critical in some parts and imaginative in others, its a good listen and gave me a base for many other thoughts.

How AI could threaten democracy, under our noses

Ian thinks: It was interesting to see Lawrence Lessig sound the alarm but also provide clear ideas of things which must change now. The talk is also from Germany which is deliberate as the advice is directly aimed at Europe, knowing it could trickle down into other countries like America.

Tech accountability during the time of war

Ian thinks: I didn’t get a chance to see this panel discussion live but I watched it streamed live while in Amsterdam for the Mozilla House festival. The experiences and descriptions really got me. Nearer the end I was energised while questioning where the accountability sits?

Mitigating GenAI hallucinations?

Ian thinks: Colleague Henry wrote a interesting analysis and guide to help with limiting the hallucinations found in the gen AI space. He’s not the only one looking, as this open access paper delves into this all too.

Is Microsoft tracking school kids a step too far?

Ian thinks: With strong laws like GDPR, it doesn’t take much to see companies like Microsoft potentially caught red handed. The question I do have is if they are potentially doing it for school kids, imagine whats happening to their customers?

Insight into the EU’s digital identity system

Ian thinks: I didn’t get the chance to be at this session at Re:publica but watching it back I am learned a quite bit and even more from the Q&A afterwards. Then looked to see how similar it is to Self Sovereign Identity?

Europe’s Path to Innovation in Public Interest

Ian thinks: Francesca Bria is great to watch again and incredible in person at the PublicSpaces conference. Centred around the idea of a 100 billion European digital sovereignty fund to ignite the innovation we all want to see. Its the kind of grand plan we all need and shes deadly serious.

AI is warping our love lives

Ian thinks: There has always been a industry interest in AI and love. The experts have varies of opinions and this insightful interview gives a good overview of the concerns and benefits of something which most won’t admit to or talk about.

Find the archive here

The Berlin donnerwetter mix

Google thunderstorm weather alert with map of Berlin and airport in background

Recently I took a last minute flight to Berlin for Republica 2024. Although I mainly escaped the thunderstorm by going via Copenhagen it was touch and go on the Copenhagen to Berlin leg of the journey.

Of course I had lots of time to record this mix on the pacemaker device, which attracted the eye and question of a fellow passenger who asked what it was and how it worked. Gladly explained, not sure if he took it all on board but good to have interesting in this very aged device.

This mix is recorded live and moves a long at 136ish BPM with some classic trance tunes. Turn this one up nice and loud! Hopefully in the sunshine not in the thunderstorm!

Enjoy here or on Peertube or in full quality on my mixgarden

The list of tunes used

Long Way Home – Gareth Emery
Aberration Of Light (Original Mix) – Michael Kaelios
Energy Crash (Extended Mix) – Maarten de Jong
Erase – Brooks Alexsander
Verdi – Mauro Picotto
Opium (Quivver Remix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
Beat (Da Boxx) – Laurent Garnier
Soundbar (extended mix) – Giuseppe Ottaviani
Running up the hill (jerome isma-ae bootleg) – Placebo
Whites Of Her Eyes (Original Mix) – Simon Patterson
Amino Acids (Original Mix) – Tau-Rine
Brush Strokes (Original Mix) – Simon Patterson
Certitude (original mix) – Thomas Bronzwaer
Floyd (extended mix) – Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor
Adam K & Soha Mix – Kaskade
Inception – Teminite

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (July 2023)

Woman typing on laptop while sitting on a sofa in a coffee shop

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed seeing students using AI to learn languages, the malicious use of AI and Meta’s Voice AI,

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 EU AI act, Amazon prime dark patterns finally being acted on and a look at the tangible risks of AI.

PublicSpaces: For a collective internet?

Ian thinks: I am biased as I took part in this years Publicspaces conference, however this is a conference worthy of watching once the 2023 ones are added to the others in peertube. Some highlights include Ruha Benjamin, Eli Pariser, Public broadcasters and private social networks, Building Digital Commons.

Who added the creepy?

Ian thinks: I found this interview with Dave Eggers worthy of a mention. The EFF push him on his thoughts and get quite a lot back. I was struck by the line “…but who decided to insert the creepy?”

What is the public service view on AI?

Ian thinks: This interview with Acemoglu is quite enlightening and highlights the critical question of how would AI & ML operate and look like if it wasn’t about increasing the bottom line or hoovering up data?

The link between AI and loneliness and isolation

Ian thinks: Murthy in this interview has so many good points and ultimately links the possibility of loneliness with basic needs like hunger and thirst. I’m sure many disagree but as described in Turkle’s Alone together, its clear there is an unbalanced use of technology directly contributing to something.

Ian thinks: Following the previous link, Mozilla’s research deserves more attention. Consent is critical for trust and you would have thought the mental health industry would trust as their top priority? Maybe I’m naive and the commercialisation of the industry is self-evident.

Re:publica 23, its all about Cash? (day 1, day 2, day 3)

Ian thinks: Every year I see such great talks and come from Republica, most are in German but there are also a number in English. I am pretty sure they will separate the talks in time.

Ian thinks: I needed to add my thoughts on this challenge against openness by those leading the charge for openness (yes confusing). I understand the potential but its more likely Meta will close their instances to the fediverse, lets not be that person ahead of time.

Digital nomads reshaping the cities

Ian thinks: As someone looking to be a digital nomad, this is a hard pill to digest. I certainly would like to see more meaningful exchange with the locals rather than dive in an carve out a new bubble?

Get Rich or Lie Trying

Ian thinks: This book has come up so many times, but it wasn’t till I met the author at MozHouse Amsterdam. I decided to put it on top of my list. Symeon digs deep into the social dumpster fire and clearly points out the damage which has been done at all levels.

Find the original here – https://cubicgarden.com/2023/07/01/public-service-internet-monthly-newsletter-july-2023/ and the archive here

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (July 2022)

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed reading about how Conti ransomware has issued in a new era and as always the sorry state of social in the Scientific America and the FT.

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 Mozilla rolling out total cookie protection worldwide, EU making USB-C the standard for mobile and the recent gains in Quantum technology.

The silence is deafening on Roe vs Wade

Ian thinks: America’s decision on Roe vs Wade is deeply shocking but can you hear the silence from the tech companies who are on the very sharp end of this all. Very few public announcements, even today.

Those scams are always there

Ian thinks: The new griftonomics podcast is something wotth subscribing to. In this episode there is a genuine discussion about how laws must catch up with the new range of cyrpto based ponzi schemes.

Re:publica is always worth the wait

Ian thinks: Re:publica is one of those conference full of thoughtful conversations. Its mainly in German but most have been translated into English and captured in a playlist.

The real issue is open vs closed

Ian thinks: The consistent bashing of RSS in podcasting has recently gotten pretty bad. Dave cuts right to the heart of debate and outlines the advantages of ownership.

Ending a monopoly is almost always a good thing

Ian thinks: I’m always interested in how the mainstream picks up subjects like tech monopolies. Jon Oliver would have made Cory Doctorow pround with well thought out arguments, many we could use.

W3C’s Ethical web principles

Ian thinks: I was not aware of this till someone pointed it out during a meeting. Really positive to see it develop and who is on board with these core principles.

Google is never far from controversy when it comes to AI

Ian thinks: What is it with Google and AI? LaMDA is a curious tale but there is a much deeper problem of AI Bias which hasn’t been picked up by the other outlets in connection with the story.

Enough of the Web 3, its all about Web 5 now

Ian thinks Jack Dorsey’s raves about Web 5 is quite something. Although easily ignored as bluster, there is tiny bit of sustenance which shines some light on other community efforts. Just ignore the crypto stuff and focus on the decentralisation.

All about DIDs

Ian thinks: Talking about Web5 and other community efforts, Decentralized identifiers or DIDs is something the W3C have been working on for years. Explaining them is difficult but this does a good job trying to covering most questions.

The W3C become a public interest non-profit?

Ian thinks: Its a mouthful and I did wonder whats broken? But then reading through the future changes from a speed and adaptability point of view. It all started to make a lot more sense.

Find the archive here

The BBC R&D human values podcast series

Its rare when everything comes together like this but I have another thing I wanted to share.

Myself and Lianne Kerlin in mid summer interviewed a number of well respected people about the human values framework. Its something I blogged about previously.

BBC Research & Development is examining how core human values relate to digital media use, in order to enhance service design and improve impact measurement. Empirical research has identified fourteen core values, all underpinned by human needs and psychological drivers. These are the basis of the Human Values Framework, a new approach to the design of online services.

In this series of podcasts Lead Researcher Lianne Kerlin is joined by Senior Firestarter Ian Forrester to discuss the Human Values Framework from different contexts. They are joined by experts in design, social impact of technology and other disciplines.

Originally it was meant to be done live for Re:publica 2020 but the material we got was so good and of course covid19 ruled out republica, we decided to turn them into 5 separate edited podcasts.

Number one is about the human values framework, with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Solana Larson, Katja Bego, Paulien Dresscher, David Jay and Brian Suda

2LO rebooted · The Human Values Framework: Episode 1

Number two: Is about applying the human values framework, with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Katja Bego, Paulien Dresscher and Solana Larson

2LO rebooted · Human Values Framework: Episode 2

Keep an eye on the human values podcast playlist on 2LO’s soundcloud account for parts 3, 4 and 5. RSS feed is here if you are old skool like me. But in the meanwhile I’d like to thank my co-host Lianne Kerlin. Our guidance and podcast expert Bill Thompson and of course our gracious experts who without them it wouldn’t be the series its turned out to be… Massive thanks to…

All wonderful people, so what are you wanting for? Get listening and the news announcements don’t stop there…

Looking back at Republica 2019 and IndieWebCampBerlin

A personal view from republicamp

It was a while ago now since I was in Berlin for both IndieWebCampBerlin and Republica19. As I needed to report back to BBC R&D, I created a slide deck which I finally gave today at work. It would have been earlier in the month if I wasn’t sick when it was arranged.

I posted a modified version of the slide deck on slideshare, but its pretty much there. Of course like most of my presentations, its better with me delivering it but you can get a sense of what I found interesting and why.

The slides are divided into 2 parts. Indiewebcamp is slides 4-23 and Republica is slides 24-73.

Enjoy!

Google Titan key security problem?

I was sure I tooted/tweet a thank you to the Google team in Berlin’s Re:publica conference. But it looks like it never quite happened due to connectivity issues with the wifi at certain points of the day.

So first of all I want to say thanks for giving me a titan security key for spending time listening to what changes Google had made to their security as announced in Google IO 2019.

I was surprised to see Google there with all the ill feeling about the 5 stacks, their monopoly and business practice.

But before I could get home try the key/system, I saw a bunch of problems with the key.

Google Titan Bluetooth Security Key Can Be Used to Hack Paired Devices

Titan-ic disaster: Bluetooth blunder sinks Google’s 2FA keys, free replacements offered

Obviously I was a little concerned, although I had not added the titan key to my google 2 factor auth yet.

After a bunch of reading, it seems its not completely flawed. The Google security blog confirms my research.

The problem is with the Bluetooth fob which to be honest is super convenient wasn’t the most secure idea in the world. The bluetooth stack is limited in its range but because of that, its not got as much security as most things on the net.

Due to a misconfiguration in the Titan Security Keys’ Bluetooth pairing protocols, it is possible for an attacker who is physically close to you at the moment you use your security key — within approximately 30 feet — to (a) communicate with your security key, or (b) communicate with the device to which your key is paired. In order for the misconfiguration to be exploited, an attacker would have to align a series of events in close coordination:

When you’re trying to sign into an account on your device, you are normally asked to press the button on your BLE security key to activate it. An attacker in close physical proximity at that moment in time can potentially connect their own device to your affected security key before your own device connects. In this set of circumstances, the attacker could sign into your account using their own device if the attacker somehow already obtained your username and password and could time these events exactly.

Before you can use your security key, it must be paired to your device. Once paired, an attacker in close physical proximity to you could use their device to masquerade as your affected security key and connect to your device at the moment you are asked to press the button on your key. After that, they could attempt to change their device to appear as a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse and potentially take actions on your device.

This all being a big mistake, Google has offered a replacement key. However because my key hasn’t been added to my account yet, I get a message saying no action is required but a email to override this. However after double checking my key is a type T3 meaning it wasn’t effected.

Good work Google…