Just finished the second season of The Expanse. Not as good as the first series (which was really brilliant), but still enjoyable. The first series felt a bit more polished, and with a bit more focus on the geopolitics.
Read Can Basic Income Plus The Blockchain Build A New Economic System? (Fast Company)

To stop society’s unsustainable demand for ever-more resources, we need to decentralize and localize our economy. Combining the new ledger technology with UBI may be the way to make that happen.

I’m not clued up enough to know what the final result of the blockchain hype vs antihype ping pong match will be. Ditto UBI. This article is about both. Nevertheless, regardless of the means, I like the ends they’re aiming for: decentralization, degrowth, reinvigorated local communities, post-capitalism. https://www.fastcompany.com/40482312/can-basic-income-plus-the-blockchain-build-a-new-economic-system
I read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin recently. It’s quite a few weeks since I finished it, so my recollections are now a little hazy, but I wanted to take the time to write something about it, as it was very good.

It was indeed a great book. Beautifully written. The story revolves around the life of Shevek, an inhabitant of the world of Anarres. The central premise is that Anarres is a world where anarchism is the predominant political system, founded by individuals who splintered away from the neighbouring world of Urras many years ago to start a different society. The life and travels of Shevek serve as the vessel for contrasting full-blown anarchism with full-blown capitalism, as he visits and explores the country of A-Io on Urras. A-Io is patriarchy and individualism dialled up to 11. The book provides many moments of point and counterpoint on the merits and dismerits of individualism and communalism when both go to their extremes.

Continue reading “The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin”

Reading The Causal Angel at the moment. Enjoying it, but The Quantum Thief is the best of the trilogy. Also I’ve gotten this far and still don’t really know deep known who half of the species/races/deities/characters he refers to are. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention?
(Day 1 is here: IndieWebCamp Berlin 2017: Day 1, and Joshi has posted some photos from the weekend here)

So Day 2 was hack day, where each person worked on a problem that tickled their fancy.  At the start of the day we did a brief go-round, with everyone giving a short outline of what they planned to work on.  A good idea to do this, in case there was any overlap or someone willing to help with a particular problem.

After that, we got cracking (well, hacking.)

Hack hack hacking along – photo by tollwerk, click image for original

Continue reading “IndieWebCamp Berlin: Day 2”