Trump, Musk and Kanye Are Twitter Poisoned The New York Times, Opinion Guest Essay, Jaron Lanier, Nov. 11, 2022 ‘Extinction is on the table’: Jaron Lanier warns of tech’s existential threat to humanity, The Guardian, Edward Helmore, Sun 27 Nov 2022. Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist who pioneered research in virtual reality and whose … [Read more…]
I’ve been working on my syntax, my commands, my interaction with my new toy, stable-diffusion. I’m like a few hundred thousand others tonight, all working away at how best to communicate with this software to get the images we think we might want, but we won’t know until the machine comes back with them, completed. … [Read more…]
Interview – Peter Kalmus: ‘As a species, we’re on autopilot, not making the right decisions’ Ian Tucker May 21, 2022 The Nasa data scientist explains why inaction on the climate crisis pushed him to chain himself to an LA bank – and why trusting in the ‘people in charge’ is so dangerous: ==================================== Do you … [Read more…]
In the Guardian, May 7, 2022, an article on hate speech Hate speech online has escalated to unprecedented levels. Matthew Williams, a professor of criminology, is shining a scientific light on who is behind it and why. “It is no coincidence that soaring hate-crime figures are found in countries where the extreme right is rising … [Read more…]
In the Guardian: Abolish internet shopping in Belgium, says leader of party in coalition Paul Magnette, the Socialist party leader, describes e-commerce as ‘social and ecological degradation’ There are no options for commenting on this idea on the Guardian itself, so after you read it, come back here and let us know what you think.
In the Atlantic, Ed Yong writes about the impact of the current COVID variants and the state of the health care system. There is a lot to take in here and his summary is most telling: “Some experts are hopeful that Omicron will peak quickly, which would help alleviate the pressure on hospitals. But what … [Read more…]
A NYT guest essay with some interesting and sobering facts on the current state of global battery technology. By Steve LeVine – Mr. LeVine is editor of The Electric, a publication focused on batteries and electric vehicles. His most recent book is “The Powerhouse: America, China and the Great Battery War.”
In the 11/04/21 New York Times, Farhad Manjoo wrote an opinion piece on what to do about Facebook. In that article, he references a system called SIFT; “Mike Caulfield, an expert on digital literacy at the University of Washington, has developed a four-step process called SIFT to assess the veracity of information. After Caufield’s process … [Read more…]
Crashing computers, three-week delays tracking infections, lab results delivered by snail mail: State officials detail a vast failure to identify hotspots quickly enough to prevent outbreaks. In POLITICO is a look at how the information management for Health Departments country wide failed under pressure from COVID-19.
In the Guardian, Yep, it’s bleak, says expert who tested 1970s end-of-the-world prediction, A controversial MIT study from 1972 forecast the collapse of civilization – and Gaya Herrington is here to deliver the bad news