Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
I didn’t see this session live because it was originally in German and it clashes with another session I wanted to see.
There is so much in this session but it was a good reminder of why I was keen to setup making the familiar strange podcast. The nuance of intimacy and the sessions final point is something which comes up in the AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist.
I spent a good amount of time in Berlin, Germany recently for the fantastic Republica conference.
This was recorded on a Ryanair flight (I luckily booked my flights over 3 months ago) using a number of even newer tunes. I had to do quite a bit of editing from the different times when my arm was knocked but it turned out pretty well.
I tried to recreate it on the way back but honestly, the first one was better although I did prefer some of the second mix tunes but it didn’t flow as much. I especially love the mix from Remember the future – Ripsaw!
All recorded on my ageing Pacemaker device, but the drift DJ alpha testing is getting better everyday. So look out, a whole mix might be coming soon.
The cover art comes from a shot I took of Liquidrome, near the hotel I was at. There was a football game happening and so I used Gemini to remove the football match then touched up the colours, etc myself. It was hot in Berlin all week and it was great to have the long bright nights.
The playlist is…
00:00:00 Voices In My Head x Insomnia (Stephani B Mashup) – Faithless
00:01:34 Mandy (extended mix) – 2nd Phase
00:04:38 Dare me – Hayley Parsons
00:08:54 Extortion (Extended mix) – Everlight
00:15:07 Remember The Future (Extended Mix) – Ferry Tayle & TonKs pres. Mirage
00:19:17 Never (H3rtz Bootleg Rework) – The Roc Project Feat. Tina Arena
00:24:02 Seven cities (V-one’s living cities mix) – Solar Stone
00:30:11 Ripsaw – Everlight
00:34:09 La Verità (Extended Mix) – Alex Merk & U-Mount
00:38:14 Catch Me (Aumak Extended Remix) – Ormus
00:42:57 Rise Again (Extended Mix) – Adam Lumina
00:46:02 Stresstest (John Askew Remix) – John O’callaghan
00:52:34 Adagio In G Minor (Extended Mix) – DIM3NSION
Anyway enjoy the mix on peertube either on my own mixgarden or on rankett at a lower quality.
I finally found sometime after working with the Drift Zero team, to install the latest alpha build. Things have been hectic for a while but one night I got some time to play.
It was great, although I didn’t really know all the buttons, so I was just working it out by pressing and playing. Its only today I seen the video explaining it all (although I should have spent more time on the discord group)
Anyway with me feeling around, I was able to create a few mixes but found a problem where some of my tunes were cooked/garbled but I had no idea why. This is obviously the bug and should be fixed pretty soon.
Honestly the device is excellent and I’m looking forward to more time with it, especially now I know what the buttons should do and I can use the recorder. I have a flight to Berlin for Republica 2026 and a series of long trains to Amsterdam for PublicSpaces, so plenty of time to really play.
Being optimistic, I also entered a session into EMFCamp 2026 to potentially DJ live using the Zero or Pacemaker Device as a backup. Considered a DJ hackday at EMFCamp but decided maybe next time.
Things are moving quickly right now, with a 5th trip to Europe over the last 2 months booked. Republica was fantastic again and for the first time, I spent time with new and old friends from the Netherlands and Germany.
One of the highlights from Republica is finally getting on stage after 4 different visits and myself and Leanne being selected in 2020 but not being able speak due to the Covid pandemic.
Last year I really found the talks from Linn and Identity 2.0 great and my natural ability to bring them together resulted in Six feet under the data centre. We did submit it to SxSW London but refined it for Republica 2025.
How do we die online? Innovation, hypes, and glitches – the shifting tech landscape chips away at the taboos surrounding death and reshapes how we address loss and legacy. Join a candid conversation about digital death care, forever-promises, AI ‘seances’ and a new dimension of digital rights.
The whole session was filmed and is now online.
At the very end I mentioned the notion of a machine readable letter of wishes. Its something which I’m looking to pursue this further. If you are interested in hear more, so get in touch. Honestly, if you are interested in Digital legacy, get touch.
I have great news I will be at Republica in Berlin this year. Its such a great festival/conference and vast in size. But better still is the subjects covered.
Last year I went to 2 great sessions about death and legacy by Linn Friedrichs, and then Savena Surana and Arda Awais from Identity 2.0. Last year Linn gave this talk and the Identity 2.0 women this one.
I enjoyed both and felt like they needed to be introduced, so I connected them, along my own interests in digital legacy. Now we’re on a stage together talking digital legacy a super important subject which doesn’t get enough attention.
How do we die online? Innovation, hypes, and glitches – the shifting tech landscape chips away at the taboos surrounding death and reshapes how we address loss and legacy. Join a candid conversation about digital death care, forever-promises, AI ‘seances’ and a new dimension of digital rights.
See you all there!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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?
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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?”
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?
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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