I’m reading David Golumbia’s Cyberlibertarianism. Highly recommended, though I’m only about 10% through it. The thoughtful analysis is so refreshing.
It’s becoming painfully obvious to me how big tech and tech evangelists have for decades been invoking a leader like Trump. A shared inability to see this sooner, to put all assertions of open, free and ”better” in a broader context, led to a failure in resisting, a failure in laying them bare before the fact.
In the book Golumbia reveals how some of the people I’ve looked up to over the years also play into the harmful movement. I feel somewhat ashamed, but more than anything I’m glad I have enough humility to see and acknowledge some of my own missteps in the past 30 years.
Tagged: Akkoma
It was a short trip for Apple from rebelling against Big Brother in that 1984 video commercial to releasing the portable pocket device that enables global mass surveillance and mass manipulation of truth.
From supporting changemakers to encouraging average, probabilistic output in ads for Apple Intelligence.
From crushing conformity to crushing creativity.
It happened so fast very few had time to take note.
This is a nice read about the origins of that ”Here’s to the crazy ones…” campaign. As expected, Walter Isaacson’s book contains a bit of revisionist history.
https://brandingstrategyinsider.com/the-real-story-of-apples-think-different-campaign/
@polarisera This made me think of how the world came together to save the ozone layer.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/rebuilding-ozone-layer-how-world-came-together-ultimate-repair-job
@Maker Yes! All very good points and especially appreciate the one about how it’s technologists themselves who are refusing some of the garbarge being pushed on us.
I've been hearing this argument for a long while now:
"People criticised some tech in the 1900s and look it all turned out okay!"
1) How much was it really criticised?
2) Did it really turn out okay for everyone?
3) There was also tech that never got built because it harmed too much.
4) How is this even an argument for some current tech being okay?!
The big role Sweden plays in war: 2024 weapons exports amounted to 29 billion SEK.
37% of Swedish weapons exports are to non-democratic countries, and the biggest 2024 customer was United Arab Emirates.
This nordic, ”peaceful”, ”neutral”, ”progressive” country is one of the world’s biggest arms exporters, all while managing to not be particularly known for it.
https://swedenherald.com/article/new-record-for-swedish-arms-exports
Idag har jag bestämt att det ska drickas gin och tonic. Har dubbelkollat att det finns is, och tonic är uppskrivet på inköpslistan. Måste också bestämma om det ska bli gin från Bålsta, Härnö eller York. Men alla finns i alla fall hemma.
#fredagsfeeling
@tsvenson I'm honestly not even sure if this played a role in my contract not being renewed. Could well be. The fact that I'm outspoken on ethics may have mattered as well.
@shwnwllms
And it’s called "Unconditional Surrender” 😖 Real life always trumps fiction…
There is a famous photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on August 14, 1945.
I just saw someone post a Ghibli version of that photo.
'Abuse upon abuse' I thought, and it's worth understanding that the kiss was in no way reciprocated by the nurse. The sailor was George Mendonsa, who was witnessed to be just grabbing many random people on the street.
The nurse was Greta Zimmer Friedman, 21 years old at the time.
« She wandered into Times Square when a passing sailor locked her in an unexpected embrace. “I did not see him approaching, and before I know it I was in this vice grip,” she told CBS news in a 2012 interview.
“It wasn’t my choice to be kissed. The guy just came over and grabbed. That man was very strong. I wasn’t kissing him. He was kissing me”. »
When you know this, and see her limp arms in the photo, the photo takes on whole new meaning.
When someone uses that photo now to, in seconds without effort, generate a copy in a very recognizable cartoonish style made possible through pirated content from a true artist, it's a sad day.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/v-j-day-kiss-times-square-1945/
16 years ago I was interviewed by a journalist who then added me on LinkedIn.
12 years later one of my client organisations was laid bare by that journalist.
I was made to understand that I was suspected by management to be "the leak", given that visible connection.
Data can harm erroneously.
Companies are investing in automated recruitment systems that will turn out to be gravely unfair.
When, in five years, this is acknowledged, consultants will spend 10 years unsuccessfully trying to fix them.
Just my dystopian observation of the day.
Read The Algorithm by Hilke Schellmann.
@silhelm Ha, wow! Thank you for sharing. ☺️
@lps There is definitely something rotten in the state of DC… this particular intent feels far-fetched but so does everything else I'm seeing so I won't contribute a rebuttal. 😅
What people tend to forget about messaging services is that privacy isn't just about the content of your message. It is also about your metadata: the information about you, your message and your contacts.
https://axbom.com/signal-whatsapp/
#digitalethics #surveillance #signal #whatsapp
@angiebaby
D-oh, your fear, a growing fear
Ray, my laser-coupled gun
Mi, my face, now brace yourself
Fa(r), how long you’ll have to run
Sew, to fix where you have bled
La, take note of challenged foe
Tea, I’ll drink it when you’ve fled
Which will bring us back to d-oh, oh, oh, oh
Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do, So Do.
[Lyrics by Per Axbom 😁]
Did you know that there are many types of curiosity, and that the quick answers that 'AI' and the internet provide can be antithetical to deeper exploration, the exploration encouraged by Epistemic and Empathic curiosity.
Someone recently reached out to let me know they really enjoyed one of my 10-year old blog posts, about curiosity.
I love when this happens because it encourages me to revisit my thinking at the time and reflect on why I may or may not be living and acting in accordance with that mindset in the present moment.
Re-reading this reminded me to spend more time being curious. Really curious.
https://axbom.com/curiosity/
@alavi
I’m not necessarily marketing it as good ROI, but making the point that the argument being used ("it only affects 1% of users") is invalid as it assumes that a statistic that is the effect of past decisions gives any indication of what that number would be after the work is done. The effort you put in, regardless of your ROI calculations and how large of an effort you decide on, will change the percentage.
Never mind that the statistic is often just completely made up and most organisations just don’t know, adding the risk of making things worse and essentially kicking people out.
You can’t say ”it’s not worth making it accessible for only 1% of our users”. That’s a logical fallacy. And reveals a lot about your understanding of the subject area, and your value system.
If you had made it accessible to begin with, people with disabilities could’ve been 20% of your user base.
And it would have been better for 100% of your users.
#a11y #accessibility
Some reading this appear to think it's a post about the business case for accessibility. It's truly not. It's a post about a logical fallacy.
https://axbom.me/notice/As2j5afKHYztgqW8m0
I wasn’t a fan of Iron Fist, so I’ve started putting together my own Marvel tv-series viewing order list. I found it hard not to include the movie Black Widow in there for context prior to Hawkeye. Though to be fair there should perhaps be more of that.
Not sure yet where to place She-Hulk and Ms Marvel, amongst Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Echo.
https://lab.axbom.com/s/d033677b-c816-41ad-9462-ba896d33e6e7