Petervan's Delicacies - Issue #141

The very best

Very very long essay by Eugene Wei about social capital. Is social capital the same as status, or is there more?

An initial introduction to Assemblage Space, part of an ongoing body of work around information, innovation and futures. By John Willshire from the Smithery.

Amber Case hits the nail that payments have not evolved with creators' needs. It’s time for something new.

About the Great Weirding series, Software Eating the World, and Hypernormal Accidents. Fantastic post by Venkatesh Rao.

An app that generates coordinates for adventurers claims to turn your thoughts into reality. TikTok and YouTube creators want you to believe it — but you shouldn’t.

University education, particularly at the undergraduate level, should be primarily about helping students vividly imagine how what they learn creates…

Think 'sanctions' will trouble China? Then you're stuck in the politics of the past | China | The Guardian

About James C Scott "Seeing like a State". From 2020 by @vgr and so relevant today.

Data and Society

How technologies of population control are becoming techniques of pandemic response

Zeitgeist

A blast injury specialist explores the chemistry—and history—of explosions like the one captured in videos that swept across the world.

Since taking office in 2017, Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted he’s on the verge of replacing the extremely popular Affordable Care Act with “something so much better.” Usually, he claims the…

I love NYC. When I first moved to NYC it was a dream come true. Every corner was like a theater production happening right in front of me. So much personality, so many stories. Every subculture I…

Innovation

Traditional retail continues to go bankrupt but Pinduoduo is thriving by reinventing online shopping in China.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the quote before because it’s a great one. It’s from Jim Barksdale the then-CEO of Netscape while he was on the roadshow in London to take the company public. The context was…

Future of work

Three predictions for what the future might look like

Eager for an alternative to Zoom, executives are getting together in video games, to bond, brainstorm or rampage.

Internet Culture

Self-sovereign identity, supported by a heterarchical identity metasystem, creates a firm foundation for rich digital relationships that allow people to digitally embodied so they can act online as autonomous agents.

FinTech

Google and their first bank partners are announcing the arrival of digital bank accounts in the Google Pay app next year.

Facebook is determined not to take “no” for an answer when it comes to FinTech

Marcus will continue running Libra's Novi digital wallet as he takes on Facebook Financial.

Technology, money and payment systems have been interlinked from the earliest days of human civilization. But of late technology has reshaped money and payment

Banking for kids and teens, why the Rocket Mortgage IPO matters, and how the big banks are guarding against an extended recession.

Do not underestimate the importance of hardware in digital proposition. The tremendous success of smartphones has changed the way we live our virtual, on-line lives.

Money20/20 has always been about uniting the FinTech and Financial Services community, even in the toughest of times.

AI, Robots, Algorythms

Strelka Mag — Exploring new urban conditions. The online magazine of Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design.

Brain-to-brain interfaces promise to bypass language. But do we really want access to one another’s unmediated thoughts?

This is "Brain Navi Nasal Swab Robot" by Brain Navi on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Digital Ethics

Back-to-back Zooms and employee surveillance apps have seen work invade the home in sinister ways

Surveilling software is flourishing during the pandemic. And employees are finding creative ways of evading the company gaze

Post Capitalism

Technology is not driving itself. It doesn’t want anything. Rather, there is a market expressing itself through technology — an operating system beneath our various computer interfaces and platforms…

Weird (Cyber)Space

水母 WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE WATER AND THE MOON by Luo Jian Filmmaker Luo Jian’s magical realist tale about the complex range of emotions women are met with...

A Russian photographer snuck into the world’s only nuclear-capable, ground-effect vehicle and captured rare images of its interior.

Online events and meetings done well

I’ve worked remotely for the best part of a decade. Now that so many organisations have shifted to remote working and organising, I could share tips with you on how to facilitate an online meeting…

Art related

Fysiek contact heeft vandaag een andere betekenis gekregen. We willen elkaar vastpakken, maar we mogen niet. In Anepafa (Grieks voor 'contactloosheid') verbe...

A glimpse into the world of Bambi Naka and her personal dance vernacular

friedman benda's design in dialogue welcomed fashion innovator iris van herpen, who delved into a series of wide-ranging recent collaborations.

Aesthetics

Music/Sound

Amid The Breaker by Sunzoo Manley Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ozark+henry-75142349575 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/August+Parker+Maps+To+The+Sta...

Editorial Note: In this guest post, blogger Dan Jeffries discusses how he and his team used Piano Transformer to compose Ambient music.

Listen on Spotify: This playlist inspires me every time I write and need to disappear into the zone.

For real nerds

Located in the hills of Wuppertal Germany is a unique suspended railway which opened in 1901. This is the oldest monorail system in the world and the only on...