Ambient Co-Presence

From this perspective, one striking feature of our techno-social milieu is that it has become increasingly difficult both to receive the attention of our fellow human beings and to refuse the attention of the machines. The exchange of one for the other is, in certain cases, especially disheartening, as, for example, when surveillance becomes, in Al... See more

The cozy web is a turn of phrase describing the growing phenomena whereby web users seek refuge from public algorithm-driven social platforms and services that very often rely upon a surveillance business model. It’s characterised by comparatively small invite-only groups across a variety of applications many of which employ end-to-end encryption f... See more

I suppose it is better to say that the machine mediates the attention of others. But there is something about the nature of that mediation that transforms the experience of being the object of another’s attention to such a degree that it may be inadequate to speak merely of the attention of another. By comparison, if I discover that someone is usin... See more

The Multiplayer Internet needs a Gradient of Presence. We can be: ... Alone in Alone Spaces Alone in Together Spaces Together in Alone Spaces Together in Together Spaces but the presence is a spectrum: Lean In (Dominant) Leank Back (Ambient)

These are all spaces where depressurized conversation is possible because of their non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified environments. The cultures of those spaces have more in common with the physical world than the internet.