Techocalypse
I Talked to the Cassandra of the Internet Age
archive.ph
Michael Goldhaber is the internet prophet you’ve never heard of. Here’s a short list of things he saw coming: the complete dominance of the internet, increased shamelessness in politics, terrorists co-opting social media, the rise of reality television, personal websites, oversharing, personal essay, fandoms and online influencer culture — along with the near destruction of our ability to focus.
I’d be even more aware from now on! I’d remember that machine learning has been defined by the people who want me to believe it works the way they say it does. But an algorithm can’t really observe anything. So it can’t really measure my behavior, and so it can’t really discover anything for me, or about me!
Are overnight oats ads proof that Instagram is changing reality?
Repair Manifesto
The manifesto advocates for repair as a sustainable, cost-effective practice that empowers individuals, promotes independence, teaches engineering, and emphasizes resource conservation over recycling and consumerism.
assets.cdn.ifixit.comright to repair manifesto
AI is entirely to blame for why most inboxes are useless.
The tech has made email marketers vastly more confident in their production to delivery pipeline, which means I’m receiving 5 emails when there used to be one - and getting 5 emails doesn’t 5X my interest in the sale. Of all things, it 1/5ths it with each message that arrives.
Even my text
After the forest expands, we will become deeply sceptical of one another’s realness . Every time you find a new favourite blog or Twitter account or Tiktok personality online, you’ll have to ask: Is this really a whole human with a rich and complex life like mine? Is there a being on the other end of this web interface I can form a relationship... See more
Maggie Appleton • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
AI now promises results without the reckoning, but frictionless creation leads to weightless rewards
Anu Atluru • Make Something Heavy.
Addressing those who are critical of using the technology in this way, Zuckerberg said, “If you think that something someone is doing is bad, and they think it’s really valuable, most of the time, in my experience, they’re right and you’re wrong, and you just haven’t come up with a framework yet for understanding why the thing that [they’re] doing... See more
Vincent Sanchez-Gomez • We’ve all bought into technosolutionism, but we can opt out.
So, I just haven’t figured out how to make AI work with my life? Lame.
Our strength should not be measured by our ability to push away our tech, but by our ability to hold and live with tech in peace.
Matt Klein • Unplugging Is Not the Solution You Want
If Aldous Huxley had known about endlessly scrolling short videos from a handheld device, he would have made it the preferred media interface of his Brave New World .
He wisely understood—unlike Orwell or Bradbury—that ruling elites don’t need censorship and book-burning if they can convince people to voluntarily abandon literacy.
He wisely understood—unlike Orwell or Bradbury—that ruling elites don’t need censorship and book-burning if they can convince people to voluntarily abandon literacy.