Category Archives: Uncategorized

So, the issue seems to be that my notes have p-name, p-summary, and e-content, all set to the same thing (that being the full text of the note). Removing the p-summary solves the problem, and my notes display correctly in Indigenous. Thanks to Zegnat for the helpful explanation of how readers generally use these properties as part of post type discovery.

At HWC London tonight, looking into why the content of my notes appear twice in Indigenous Reader. Using pin13.net to check the microformats, and cross-checking it in Monocle (where it seems to appear correctly – content only included once.)

Chomsky makes a good point about a contradiction in neoclassical economics: if the market functions best on the principle of rational actors, why is so advertising so dedicated to triggering our irrational desires?

A really great long-form article (and accompanying visualisation) looking at the life of an Amazon Echo. In terms of extraction of resources, human labour, and data that goes into making, running, and disposing of such a device, and the social, environmental, economic and political consequences.

https://anatomyof.ai

A few snippets from the article:

Put simply: each small moment of convenience – be it answering a question, turning on a light, or playing a song – requires a vast planetary network, fueled by the extraction of non-renewable materials, labor, and data

All these batteries have a limited lifespan, and once consumed they are thrown away as waste. Amazon reminds users that they cannot open up and repair their Echo, because this will void the warranty.

Vincent Mosco has shown how the ethereal metaphor of ‘the cloud’ for offsite data management and processing is in complete contradiction with the physical realities of the extraction of minerals from the Earth’s crust and dispossession of human populations that sustain its existence.

Looking from the perspective of deep time, we are extracting Earth’s history to serve a split second of technological time, in order to build devices than are often designed to be used for no more than a few years.

[watch]

The Century of the Self - Part 4: "Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering"

by Adam Curtis

Final episode of Century of the Self. The culmination of psychoanalysis and public relations inserting themselves into politics, with Clinton and Blair basing most of their policies on feelings-based focus groups of swing voters. Selfish desires trumping feelings of altruism, denigration of welfare, individualism over society. The populace treated as needy consumers, not engaged citizens.

Really good documentary by Adam Curtis. Entertaining and informative.

"The copyright extremists have told us that internet freedom is the same thing as piracy. A generation of proud, self-identified pirates can't be far behind. When you make copyright infringement into a political act, a blow for freedom, you sign your own artistic death-warrant."

Can’t help but feel that this is one set of laws that, in answer to Thoreau’s question, surely must be transgressed, en masse.

I enjoyed the London Design Festival this weekend. Design informs everything that we make, it’s part of the fabric of society. While I can appreciate good design that’s simply functional or aesthetic (or better, both), I’m really most interested in that which is sociopolitical, raising awareness about a social or political issue, or even better, helping to solve it. There was a good number of pieces fitting that description – my favourites were probably the Institute of Patent Infringement, and the Anatomy of an AI. Also MultiPly and PlasticScene, which were discussing alternative and sustainable material usage. For aesthetics alone I still love the computational art and sculpture, whether it’s the geometric or the organic, but can’t help but want to know what problems it can solve.

[watch]

Four Horsemen

by Renegade Inc from Renegade Inc
Four Horsemen is an award winning independent feature documentary made by the Renegade Inc. team which lifts the lid on how the world really works. As we will never return to ‘business as usual’ 23 international thinkers, government advisors and Wall Street money-men break their silence and expl...

Watched the Four Horsemen documentary. It’s a bit heavy-handed, maybe a bit disjointed, but an interesting selection of interviews and a decent broad brush at the damage neoliberalism is causing. It felt like there was a lot radical rhetoric, not so much in the way of concrete praxis, but I guess it probably works best as an eye-opener film. The presence of Joseph Stiglitz would suggest it’s a more reformist than revolutionary message. But then Noam Chomsky was in there too. Female voices were somewhat underrepresented. I didn’t particular like the small segment of ‘we just need a different type of capitalism’. And sometimes it felt like a focus on the individual more than society as the vector of change. But if it causes some people to question the current sociopolitical system, then all power to it.

New initiatives often have a tipping point where they start off more expensive, but eventually become the cheaper option. An example being recycling. A project starts, then diffuses into systemic chamce. Government is placed within a wider system of economic development.

https://soundcloud.com/upstreampodcast/robin-murray-interview [00:22:46]