markhurst

tante, 15 days ago to random

“Empty Innovation” at Re:Publica 2024 #rp24

Under the motto "Who Cares" Re:Publica gathered a few thousand people in Berlin and I got to give a talk continuing the path I started out on with my last two talks in 2022 and 2023. Titled "Empty Innovation" I tried outlining my understanding of the patterns of the weird technological hypes we've gone through in the last years, why they happen and also what this mode of "innovation" does to us as people, communities and societies.

https://tante.cc/2024/05/28/empty-innovation-at-republica-2024-rp24/

markhurst, 1 month ago to random

“I guess it’s like Steve Jobs always said: ‘We’re going to build a bicycle for the mind . . . and then we’re going to crush the bicycle in a 2-ton press, just flatten it right in front of you, so you can feel our destructive power. Take that, bicycle lovers. You all suck.’”

A new outraged column from me –

“Apple made a terrible mistake: it told the truth”:
https://creativegood.com/blog/24/apple-tells-the-truth.html

sundogplanets, 1 month ago to random

I am talking o a reporter about this in a couple hours: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/from-outer-space-sask-farmers-baffled-after-discovering-strange-wreckage-in-field-1.6880353

This is about an hour away from my farm, so this'll be a fun conversation, and yet another great opportunity to tell a lot of people about what a huge problem we have with unregulated commercialization of orbit. (Also I just redid my slides for my public talk next week, this is going in!)

cory, 2 months ago to tech

📝: We've stopped making things anyone wants #Tech #SocialMedia #AI https://coryd.dev/posts/2024/weve-stopped-making-things-anyone-wants/

molly0xfff, 3 months ago to random

super cool that all these companies have decided to make customers opt OUT of having their data sold for AI training purposes

"but no one would do it if it was opt-in!"

yeah, THAT IS THE PROBLEM

adam, 3 months ago to random

Wow, wild news today. M&Ms vending machines have cameras in them and secretly run facial recognition on people.

We only know about it because shoddy programming exposed an error message that tipped off someone who happened to be walking by.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/vending-machine-error-reveals-secret-face-image-database-of-college-students/

I feel like this could be the plot of a dystopian movie.

markhurst, 3 months ago to random

A warning about Starlink satellites and space junk: astronomer Sam Lawler - @sundogplanets - joined me on https://techtonic.fm to discuss why we should be very worried about what's happening in space.

LISTEN: https://wfmu.org/archiveplayer/?show=136860&archive=248285&starttime=0:6:56

Links & comments: https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/136860

More Techtonic episodes:
https://techtonic.fm

Recommended listen. (And please share this with friends - we need to get the word out.)

Daojoan, 4 months ago to random

Breaking up with Slack and Discord: why it's time to bring back forums.
▸ https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/breaking-up-with-slack-and-discord-why-its-time-to-bring-back-forums

sundogplanets, 4 months ago to random

Today I've got a Skype a Scientist with a class in Illinois, the weekly international research group meeting that I lead, a podcast interview, a meeting to organize the workshop I'm leading next week on inviting Indigenous knowledge-keepers to your astronomy class, and a meeting to organize a workshop I'm leading on teaching climate change. And somewhere in there I need to do all my normal teaching stuff and telescope planning.

I have definitely volunteered for too many things... help...

markhurst, 4 months ago to random

To Big Tech, every crisis is an opportunity to sell more surveillance.

markhurst, 4 months ago to random

Big Tech takes away the things we take for granted – and then gives them back to us, one by one, as subscriptions.

sundogplanets, 4 months ago to random

I did not get a TED Fellowship. Perhaps not a big surprise since I've heard that awful billionaire that I hate goes to those things, and probably doesn't want to hear about how terrible tens of thousands of disposable satellites are for everything.

Thanks for coming to my not-TED talk.

gerrymcgovern, 4 months ago to random

Rapid groundwater depletion is widespread around the world, according to 2024 study of 170,000 wells located in over 40 countries. Rates of decline have accelerated in recent decades, with levels falling by 20 inches or more yearly in some locations.
https://theconversation.com/humans-are-depleting-groundwater-worldwide-but-there-are-ways-to-replenish-it-220816

Humanity’s groundwater pumping has altered Earth’s tilt
https://www.science.org/content/article/humanity-s-groundwater-pumping-has-altered-earth-s-tilt

The UN is predicting a 40% shortfall in freshwater resources by 2030.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/31/why-water-is-the-next-net-zero-environmental-target.html

dangillmor, 4 months ago to random

Almost five years ago, a prominent tech journalist told his readers to ditch Google Chrome for Firefox. Why? Because Chrome was turning into spyware.

This year, Chrome IS spyware, pure and simple.

The advice is more sound than ever.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/21/google-chrome-has-become-surveillance-software-its-time-switch/

clive, 4 months ago to random

It’s time to get back to basics in the US in elementary school

Teach kids the four R’s

Reading
Writing
‘Rithmetic
RSS

markhurst, 5 months ago to random

In the last few days of the year, Eventbrite has changed its Terms of Service to force arbitration and prevent class action lawsuits.
https://www.eventbrite.com/l/terms-of-service/

/cc @pluralistic

hrheingold, 5 months ago to technology

"Artifact/Ideas and Political Culture" Langdon Winner

Whole Earth Review, Winter 1991

#technology

https://www.wholeearth.info/p/whole-earth-review-winter-1991?format=spreads&index=19

Gargron, 5 months ago to threads

#Threads is testing federation for a few selected profiles. I'm now following @mosseri! It's one-way for now, but it's exciting. It's a step towards the interoperable social web that we've been advocating for 🙂

clive, 6 months ago to random

Good thread by @danilo about arriving in tech in the early 2010s only to find the scene overweighted with software CEOs excitedly exploiting externalities as a business model: https://hachyderm.io/@danilo/111551998357258259

He begins:

"When I got to San Francisco in 2010, I really wanted to do it all

Build a startup, create change through technology.

But the more I learned of the culture, the less I wanted to succeed according to its rubric. The turning point for me was Airbnb"

markhurst, 6 months ago to random

Last night on https://techtonic.fm I interviewed Kris De Decker, founder of Low-tech Magazine - a solar-powered website - about sustainable tech, simple solutions, and a "human power plant." Great chat.

• Stream the interview:
  https://wfmu.org/archiveplayer/?show=134134&archive=244329&starttime=0:7:9

• Episode links and listener comments:
  https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/134134

• Download the show as a podcast:
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kris-de-decker-founder-low-tech-magazine-from-nov-20-2023/id1285537944?i=1000635488454

• More Techtonic episodes:
  https://techtonic.fm

/cc @marieverdeil

markhurst, 6 months ago to random

"If Silicon Valley succeeds, many of us will soon experience life filtered through Zuck’s growth-at-any-cost psychosis, his ocular projectors beaming deceptions and manipulations into our retinas, spreading a thick layer of Zuck between us and everyone around us. Anything that scales will be left in. Anything that doesn’t scale will be left out. And love doesn’t scale."

From my new column, "Marc Andreessen is right – love doesn’t scale":
https://creativegood.com/blog/23/andreessen-love-doesnt-scale.html

openculture, 7 months ago to random

Jerry Garcia Explains How "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" Changed His Life (1995)

https://www.openculture.com/2023/10/jerry-garcia-explains-how-abbott-and-costello-meet-frankenstein-changed-his-life-1995.html

tante, 7 months ago to random

In the end the platforms we rely on have no standards for the content they profit off of. As long as it's legal (somewhere) they happily take a cut off of anything,
(Title: YouTube Is Monetizing Human Suffering at an Open Air Drug Market) https://www.404media.co/youtube-is-monetizing-the-suffering-of-an-open-air-drug-market/

efd, 7 months ago to random

In case last night’s post had you thinking today’s show would only be singles…
Tune in from noon to 3pm EDT TODAY as I bring back WNYU’s New Afternoon Show of the (very) early '80s to @WFMU!

video/mp4