Petervan's Delicacies - Issue #131

Mar 04, 2020

The very best

About the four-period sequence in creating (architecture): Modularity, Computational Design, Parametricism and finally Artificial Intelligence. A real delicacy

About simulating traffic with AI around SF Golden Gate. Fascinating!

About the return of simple/more complex ways to communicate with pure text. Death V9 of the blog?

About L.A.'s micromobility open-API to become the air traffic controller of the streets. Very interesting.

About an experimental workshop on urban spaces, interactions, and institutions by Dan Hill and Bryan Boyer.

Not only were bodies competing for space along a single wall, the drawings themselves took on a physicality by virtue of their size, layers, and floppiness. What could earlier be managed by one pair of hands now required two, three or more to be relocated. The wall was constantly being touched by a ballet of hands, straight edges, and drawing implements—somewhat frenzied but never a scrum.

Laurene Powell Jobs spent two decades as the partner of one of the world’s most influential men. Now she’s taking the fortune he left her and using it to shape her future—and the world’s.

There has been a lot of gnashing of teeth recently over the Government decision to involve Huawei in 5G and China’s National Rail company in HS2 (High Speed Rail) with endless concerns over human…

Every year, a personal Upfront Summit highlight is getting to sit down with experts in a field I care about. Sometimes that’s venture capital generally (like last year’s conversation with Reid…

Data and Society

Inrupt, the company behind the open-source Solid project, hires experts in its drive to let users control their data.

Opinion: We've been assured that facial recognition technology is secure, reliable, and accurate. That's far from certain.

Lawmakers told technology is disrupting governance and if left unchecked could render liberal democracy obsolete

A once-taboo policy backed by Russia and China is on the cards as Brussels embraces data protectionism — to Silicon Valley’s dismay.

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives.

Zeitgeist

What happens to a society that loses its capacity for awe and wonder at things to come?

A growing number of China’s private companies have cut wages, delayed paychecks or stopped paying staff completely, saying that the economic toll of the coronavirus has left them unable to cover their labor costs.

How Amazon is causing us to drown in trademarks.

Innovation

BGI says it will lower the cost of genome sequencing to $100

The Internet startup Tillable wants to match farmers with farmland available for rent. The problem? Farmers already on that land fear their farm data is being used against them.

3D Printing has made some important advances in the Medical field recently. From the creation of living skin to producing functional “mini livers,” it has shown how technology can be used for the…

The props on today’s aircraft are inefficient, noisy & dangerous — but an innovative new bladeless propulsion system offers an alternative for 21st century aviation. We’re joined by Dr. Denis…

Future of work

Activists inside companies like Google, Lyft, and Uber tell their stories

Some of its employees tried to stop their company from doing work they saw as unethical. It blew up in their faces.

The Target-owned grocery delivery company Shipt is rolling out a new algorithmic pay model that is already draining paychecks. And workers are terrified to speak out.

Internet Culture

Spotify Technology SA revived the music business. Now it wants the industry to return the favor.

FinTech

Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING, will step down from his position and leave ING as of 30 June 2020. After 29 years at ING he will join UBS on 1 September 2020 and will become Group Chief Executive Officer per 1 November 2020.

AI, Robots, Algorythms

Warnings about job-stealing robots miss the other automation crisis: in warehouses, call centers, and other sectors, intelligent machines are managing humans, and they’re making work more stressful, grueling, and dangerous.

The long read: For decades it has been the dominant metaphor in neuroscience. But could this idea have been leading us astray all along?

About an exhibition focused on artificial intelligence and featuring works created by more than a dozen artists. The exhibition asks the question: What constitutes intelligence, and if and how can intelligence can be constructed by algorithms and machines?

What a website that generates infinite fake humans tells us about modern life

Digital Ethics

A new system uses software to dictate quarantines — and appears to send personal data to police, in a troubling precedent for automated social control.

Post Capitalism

Sup y’all — How’s everybody doing today? Everybody good? Last month I was on the road giving talks and workshops around my book. During my travels I met with a number of CEOs, investors, and other business leaders, and in many of these meetings climate change came up.

Weird (Cyber)Space

I do wonder though, if the weirding is merely in my head, as a middle-aging X’er, or whether there is something real going on that’s affecting everybody. On balance, I think there’s something real going on. People much younger than me, everywhere in the world, seem as shell-shocked and disoriented as older people. This was not the case in the 80s when Toffler’s works were zeitgeisty.

Look through the eyes of someone with synesthesia: See letters and numbers as colors.

Fifteen years ago, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s audacious public art installation debuted in New York City's Central Park. We’ll never see anything like it again.