Petervan's Delicacies - Issue #107

The very best

A brain frying update and reset of what you thought you knew about platform thinking. Many new concepts and dimensions.

Interesting concept of data legibility. And why users taking control of their data may be oversimplifying the challenge. The author calls for global standards for data legibility.

An excellent review by Nicolas Carr of Shoshana Zuboff's "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism"

About maps of memory spaces and memory grid cells. Emerging evidence suggests that the brain encodes abstract knowledge in the same way that it represents positions in space.

A critical view on the singularity, and what if intelligence becomes a singleton, alone and bored.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution presents an interesting paradox: the technologies it is unleashing contribute enormously to possible solutions to the critical threats faced by humankind and the…

Transhumanism will destroy the better parts of being human, says Douglas Rushkoff. The Singularity is a myth. It's popular with computer scientists, however neuroscientists don't know what consciousness is or where it is. So how will we upload our minds? Simulated reality can only be a flat imitation.

As we transition into the new year, I am sharing an abbreviated personal reflection that stems from the Spring, 2018 edition of MAS 756 — Joi Ito and Tenzin Priyadarshi’s course on Awareness — as…

Culture and the Real Impact of Change Agents - Part 3

Anxiety can discourage exploratory activity and risk-taking — and prolong a financial downturn.

Putting on some wait

Scott reviews his predictions for 2018 and dispatches a new crop for the coming year.

Kelleher built a business that put employees and customers at the center.

Data and Society

Opinion: The 2009 vs. 2019 profile picture trend may or may not have been a data collection ruse to train its facial recognition algorithm. But we can't afford to blithely play along.

How Microsoft Has (So Far) Avoided Tough Scrutiny Over Privacy Issues. The “original gangster of big tech” has managed to dodge the bad headlines and congressional grilling that have ensnared its rivals by…

“Data,” runs a common refrain, “is the new oil.” Like the sticky black stuff that comes out of the ground, all those 1s and 0s are of little use until they are processed into something more valuable…

You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get I

Zeitgeist

We’ve been conditioned to believe in the myth that evolution is about competition: the survival of the fittest. But evolution is every bit as much about cooperation as competition.

Many thought the internet would bring democracy to China. Instead it empowered rampant government oppression, and now the censors are turning their attention to the rest of the world.

Gradually, Then Suddenly

Innovation

Your Organization Needs a New Operating System, Not a New Management Theory

As a futurist, some patents really stand out. Here is one I’m really bullish on, as we enter a post-mobile world of Voice-AI controls and hand gestures. What if there was an invisible button between…

There are few modern-day scientific innovations with implications as profound as the gene-editing technology CRISPR, which allows scientists to precisely cut and alter the DNA of any cell…

If you want to see how platforms can save humanity, don’t look at Facebook. Look at pizza.

Future of work

About the myth of bossless organisations: "Far from making them obsolete, the flatter business organisations of today need managers more than ever but in new ways". @stoweboyd heavily disagrees and summarises his critique as "It’s bosses, all the way down."

Whether it comes to you all at once or in little moments, the realization that you need to shake things up can be a powerful force in shaping your career.

Internet Culture

The Apple CEO is calling on Congress to give Americans more control over their data.

The simulation hypothesis was put forth by Nick Bostrom. Many have discussed the implications and philosophy of the idea ever since. Are we living in the matrix? Can we test that this universe is simulated?

FinTech

While Theresa May faces a confidence vote after the biggest defeat in parliamentary history and the U.K. waits to see what the future holds for the Conservative Party, the question of if and how Brexit will impact the fintech industry still stands.

Human Leadership is the Bar, Consensus is the Vice

AI, Robots, Algorythms

Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect

Powerful technologies like deep data, AI and quantum computing should be introduced into society carefully, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty declared in opening remarks at CES. "These tools are so powerful they will solve some of the most enduring problems -- like food safety, waste," she said, "but like all powerful tools, we've got to usher them in safely into society."

Will robots take over, or will we experience a more benign “co-bot” future, with robots and humans co-existing in perfect harmony, and people allowed to…

Why 'upgrading' humanity is a transhumanist myth

How new developments in automation, machine deception, hardware, and more will shape AI.

Academic, Researcher, Writer & an Entrepreneur. Appointments at Duke and Stanford. Writes for Washington Post, LinkedIn Influencers

Digital Ethics

Experts say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will.

Writing about "technology and the moral dimension," tech writer and Gigaom founder, Om Malik made the following observation: "I can safely say that we in tech don’t understand the emotional aspect of our work, just as we don’t understand the moral imperative of what we do. It is not that all players are bad; it…

Sooner than you think, every facet of your life, from the car in your driveway to the lights in your living room, will be ruled by algorithms. The next version of Amazon won’t just suggest which book you should buy next—it will automatically re-stock your fridge with Amazon products that an algorithm has decided you’ll like or need. Sure, it sounds like a utopia to not have to go to the grocery store, but it will also mark the moment when we truly become slaves to the machines.

Is AI a danger for humanity?

In this conversation with Douglas, part two of a live Team Human show at Civic Hall, Pesce offers a thought-provoking frame through which we might better understand our relationship to algorithms and…

The areas where AI stand to benefit us the most also have the most potential to harm us

"Whether or not it draws on new scientific research technology is a branch of moral philosophy, not of science." Or so argued Paul Goodman in a 1969 essay for the New York Review of Books titled "Can Technology Be Humane?" I first encountered the line in Postman's Technopoly and was reminded of it a few years…

Post Capitalism

From four-day weeks to unconditional basic income to free education, it’s possible to imagine a future where society’s focus has moved from consumption to quality of life

Art related

China’s Tech Boom Has Inspired a Wave of Internet-Related Art. These artists are critiquing how technology promotes consumerism, shapes identity, and enables new forms of censorship.

Dries Van Noten | Fall Winter 2019/2020 by Dries Van Noten | Full Fashion Show in High Definition. (Widescreen - Exclusive Video/1080p - Menswear Collection ...

Dust-to-Digital

Colossal | Art, design, and visual culture

Aesthetics

Hundreds of faux chateaux being built for wealthy Gulf investors have just got their new residents. Ghosts. The Burj Al Babas project in Turkey's northern Bolu

Because of prevailing attitudes toward homosexuality, George Platt Lynes had to keep his groundbreaking male nudes hidden away.

Other

Dolby has been quietly testing a new mobile app for recording and cleaning up audio under the codename "234." The app cancels background noise, and then apply presets, with names like "Amped," "Thump," and "Bright," to theoretically make your audio sound more professional.

The country simply utilized its overabundance of snow.