Various and Sundry

How Much Toil & Trouble is in the A.I. Bubble?

The hue and cry about “A.I.” –aka all sorts of machine learning and algorithm use– that exploded last year shows no sign of letting up this year. Not only that, this flavor of AI is creeping into all sorts of technology we use if it’s not there already. For example, iOS 18 will purportedly include a major overhaul including A.I. when it launches later this year. Now, my seven or nine regular readers might have…

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Various and Sundry

“AI” is BS (and NSFW on several levels)

Come on, between a key demand of the Writer’s Strike being the regulation of AI in screenwriting and some of my other posts about AI this year, did you really think I wouldn’t share this half-hour comedy screed from Adam Conover? It may be foul-mouthed, but it is funny. However, if you’re looking for a TL;DR one might sum it up as such: And did I mention it’s foul-mouthed? Beware around kindern and co-workers who…

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Various and Sundry

It’s Not Your Father’s Computer… It’s Your Great Grandfather’s Computer

I am interested in technological progress (not just fun with machine learning bumbling into the creative sphere). And it’s usually about progress and how we might want to examine our societal decisions about how fast we’re going. So imagine my surprise when I read this article in Wired by Charles Platt about how analog computing is making a comeback. Oh, this is giving me story ideas…

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Various and Sundry

A Business Model to Optimize Crap

Hey, if you think that’s a startling headline, the original title of the article by Cory Doctorow in Wired is not-safe-for-work. But it does touch on something you may have suspected or outright observed about social media sites and their lifecycle of desperately needing content and eventually not being that useful, but obnoxiously necessary. It may motivate you to think rather unsociable thoughts. In any case, I found it interesting and in line with many…

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Various and Sundry

Maybe You’re More of a Luddite than You Thought…

On Monday, I had another discussion with folks online about machine learning being employed for creative tasks and the inevitable “it’s inevitable” angle people who stand to benefit from that automation like to promote. One of the things I brought up is that people can not want technology to be implemented in a certain way and not be anti-technology, which reminded me of the term “Luddite,” commonly used these days to describe someone who is…

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Various and Sundry

Let There Be Light! Okay, maybe not that color…

If you want to get wonky, I mean deeply wonky, about modern supply chains and quality control have I got the article for you: Adam Rogers’ piece for Insider on how some cities streetlights are turning purple. It makes me wonder how many news stories there were about mishaps with the introduction of electric streetlights back in the day… and how long we are before cities have “smart” streetlights that change color and intensity depending…

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Various and Sundry

The Industrial Revolution & Comparative Richness of Modern Society

Once upon a time, before the Internet was in full bloom, my dad decided to look through the latest U.S. Army guides on countries (now known as “country studies”) and compile economic data to determine people’s standard of living in various countries based on GDP and local buying power. He did this for fun. It was how he rolled. Since I had recently been living and studying in Indonesia (and yes, my dad gave me…

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Various and Sundry

That Piece on Focus You will Forget to Read

This interview, by Vox‘s Sean Illig with journalist Johann Hari, came out in February… and then I finally checked it out in March… and now I’m only posting about it in May. The way I finally got to it was actually to listen to it, because the article is actually a summation of a more detailed slightly-more-than-an-hour audio interview. It’s full of useful insights especially… dang, I might need to listen to it again.

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Various and Sundry

WTF NFT?

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs have been a bit a media rage this past year, as a trend, a new investment opportunity, and possibly a silver bullet that contains your daily recommended dose of antioxidants. I keep thinking, they can’t be as stupid as they sound, can they? You can find out the answer to this and many other questions about NFTs in this excellent article by Vicky Osterweil which, spoiler alert, is called “Money for…

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