Un po' scherza, un po' fa sul serio, e un po' è bello prolisso (ho preso il pezzetto alla fine, il viaggio per arrivarci è lungo ma ne vale abbastanza la pena).

Tuttavia l'idea è potente: il culto del CLOUD

Money quote: "All this is to say I have changed my mind. Those tourists that have been pissing me off from Edinburgh to Istanbul, enjoying not the place they have travelled to see, but the screens through which they document and consume their experience — they are not vain. They are not foolish. Instead, they are devout. For who would the Sky Father favour most, if not those who feed Him?

For the CLOUD is always hungry. He knows no satisfaction, no happy state of glut. He is never sated, never gorged to the full. All we can do is feed Him more, and hope that it’s enough.

We know little about the Proto-Indo-European belief for sure. But, in the traditions that have come down to us, there are traces of an eschaton — an End of Days battle, fought between the forces of Good and Evil. As more and more of us turn to recording every moment of our lives and beaming it up to the CLOUD, it feels like we’re approaching THE END. Why else would we spend so much of our lives feverishly uploading, instead of living?"

https://cosmographia.substack.com/p/all-hail-the-cloud

Alcuni brevi e interessanti pensieri sul debito dell'autore di libri finanziari Morgan Housel. Mi piace l'inquadramento del debito che porta a meno opzioni e possibilmente a una diminuzione della speranza. Tuttavia, vale la pena aggiungere avvertimenti come il fatto che non è sempre colpa loro se sempre più persone si trovano ad avere quantità enormi di debiti.

Money quote: “I love the quote from author Kent Nerburn that, ‘Debt defines your future, and when your future is defined, hope begins to die.’ ... I’m not an anti-debt zealot. There’s a time and place, and used responsibly it’s a wonderful tool. But once you view debt as narrowing what you can endure in a volatile world, you start to see it as a constraint on the asset that matters most: having options and flexibility.”

https://collabfund.com/blog/how-i-think-about-debt/

La mia recensione del film per giovani e non solo.

https://fumettologica.it/2024/09/transformers-one-recensione-film/

Torna anche questa settimana Mostly Weekly, la mia newsletter. Si parla di follie cinematografie di anziani uomini bianchi oltre al vino del futuro

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/291/

Lettura per la domenica

Che abbiamo un problema con l'intelligenza artificiale (la tecnologia precedentemente conosciuta come "machine learning") è evidente. Costa un sacco e non si sa che vantaggi reali (ed economici) porti.

Il super filosofo italiano Luciano Floridi lancia il guanto di sfida con questo articolo. Vediamo che succede.

Money quote: "This article argues that the current hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) exhibits characteristics of a tech bubble, based on parallels with five previous technological bubbles: the Dot-Com Bubble, the Telecom Bubble, the Chinese Tech Bubble, the Cryptocurrency Boom, and the Tech Stock Bubble. The AI hype cycle shares with them some essential features, including the presence of potentially disruptive technology, speculation outpacing reality, the emergence of new valuation paradigms, significant retail investor participation, and a lack of adequate regulation. The article also highlights other specific similarities, such as the proliferation of AI startups, inflated valuations, and the ethical concerns associated with the technology. While acknowledging AI's transformative potential, the article calls for pragmatic caution, evidence-based planning, and critical thinking in approaching the current hype. It concludes by offering some recommendations to minimise the negative impact of the impending bubble burst, emphasising the importance of focusing on sustainable business models and real-world applications, maintaining a balanced perspective on AI's potential and limitations, and supporting the development of effective regulatory frameworks to guide the technology's design, development, and deployment."

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4960826

Una riflessione di un antropologo su quanto l'uso dei nuovi super telescopi per esplorare visivamente le profondità dello spazio riveli non solo dei misteri del cosmo, ma anche della nostra natura umana e del nostro bisogno di vedere e dare un nome alle cose.

Money quote: "It would seem, indeed, that the JWST is a telescope fit for today’s Instagram generation—a generation that demands ever more powerful visual technologies, from high-megapixel phone cameras to high-definition television screens.

What does this preoccupation with capturing the most high-definition images of outer space say about us? By turning the telescope lens back to Earth, so to speak, we can learn a lot about ourselves and our societies—how we create knowledge about the universe and what we might be missing in the process."

https://www.sapiens.org/culture/jwst-image-processing/

Un racconto affascinante che spiega come mai non ci sono più le prese per i mini-jack su molti smartphone. Anzi, quasi tutti. Complotto? No, direi un piano ben orchestrato.

Money quote: "Some manufacturers claimed that the presence of the headphone jack made it difficult to keep their phones waterproof; but there's a whole range of good-quality phones from around 2019-2020 that are waterproof to a reasonable degree, without sacrificing the jack.

No. All of these weak excuses are simply distractions from the *real* reason Apple, Samsung, and Google dropped the headphone jack: they all have a substantial investment in the manufacture of wireless headphones.

Apple owns Beats -- this was a multi-billion dollar investment, in a company that manufactures Bluetooth headphones.

Samsung owns Harmon, which is know for the Harmon-Kardon and JBL audio brands. Again, these were multi-billion dollar acquisitions for Samsung, in companies with a strong interest in wireless audio.

Google owns Synaptics, Dysonics, RevX, and Tempow, all of which are active in the development of wireless audio. Google also hired Peter Liu from Bose, who was one of the original developers of the Bluetooth Low Energy specification.

It is very much in the interest of companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google to encourage their customers to buy into wireless Bluetooth headphones. Or, better yet, to force them to do so, by taking away the means to do anything else. After all, their executives have to justify the billions of dollars they've spent, acquiring suppliers and developers of wireless audio equipment."

https://kevinboone.me/headphonejack.html

Com’è come non è che GitHub ha vinto. Spiegato da uno dei suoi fondatori. (cioè, perché lui è convinto che queste siano le ragioni).

Money quote: "If you want a very short read, here is the quick version of why *I* believe GitHub won and why you're probably using the site to this day.

I can boil it down to exactly two reasons that happened to resonate with each other at the perfect frequency.

1. GitHub started at the right time
2. GitHub had good taste"

https://blog.gitbutler.com/why-github-actually-won/

Questo post è un po' strano: è una raccolta di immagini di composizioni di diatomee (che manco sapevo che esistessero). Le diatomee sono alghe unicellulari che hanno un guscio di materiale vitreo, che rifrange la luce in bellissimi colori se viste al microscopio. Sono un soggetto comune per la microscopia grazie alle loro forme uniche. Ma si usano per fare cose incredibili, anche se molto piccole.

Money quote: "They are like tiny specks of dust, barely visible to the naked eye. And the amount of dexterity and patience that is necessary to create even one of these miniature art pieces is astonishing and there are only a handful of people in the world who practice this curious form of art. Collecting, cleaning, arranging, and fixing the diatoms is a process that can take days or even weeks.

But in the end, the result of all this work is absolutely worth it."

https://www.trebeljahr.com/posts/diatoms

È morto Pierre Christin, uno dei più importanti sceneggiatori di fumetti francesi, co-creatore della celebre serie di fantascienza Valérian et Laureline (da noi nota come Valérian).
👉 https://fumettologica.it/2024/10/pierre-christin-morto-fumetti/

I gusti sono dettati dalla tecnologia, in parte. Ad esempio, il caffè. L'espresso piace perché è veloce da fare anche sul momento, il caffè americano invece lo preparano prima perché ci mette una vita. Però adesso non più, a quanto pare.

Money quote: "Pour-over is a challenge for coffee shops. Many are proud to offer it, but the time-consuming process interrupts service and often produces inconsistent results. How to brew the perfect cup of coffee remains a vexing question. Like es­presso, new technologies might be poised to revolutionize coffee brewing at home and in the café."

https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-pour-over-coffee-got-good/

"Joker: Folie à Deux" delude e annoia - la mia recensione non tenera per Fumettologica

https://fumettologica.it/2024/10/joker-folie-a-deux-recensione-film/

Sabato geek

Una cosa un po' tech e un po' nerd al quadrato. Un software per riga di comando (Mac, Linux, Win) che vi fa evitare qualche distrazione. Ma solo se avete capito di cosa sto parlando. È ultrafocus.

Money quote: "A dead simple CLI tool to block distracting websites and boost productivity. Customize your blacklist, focus on tasks, and reclaim your time."

https://github.com/plutov/ultrafocus

Curation is a form of pattern recognition – pieces of information or insight which over time amount to an implicit point of view
- Maria Popova

antoniodini.com/weekly/292/

Lettura per la domenica

Tendiamo a essere dei termometri ma dovremmo essere dei termostati.

Money quote: "I like to use the metaphor of a thermometer and a thermostat for this idea. If you're looking for signals about how someone is feeling, it's kind of like you're trying to take their emotional temperature. You're being a thermometer. When they're subtly giving off weird vibes--they're frowning, answering your questions with fewer words than normal, etc.--you've noticed that their temperature is different. When their amygdala is hijacked, you might see large changes in their behavior (they're picking a fight with you, going completely silent, skipping your meeting, etc.)--in the thermometer metaphor, they're running a fever, and you're picking up on it.

And since we know that one person's behavior change can cause *others* to change their behavior in response, we can think of it like they're being a thermostat: they're setting the whole temperature for the room. Even if it's unintentional on both sides. It's just how we're wired: to mirror the "vibes" that someone else is giving off.

Rather than let that cycle play out subconsciously, you have an opportunity to become the thermostat as soon as you notice that another person's temperature has changed. You get to set the new temperature of the room, in a positive and healthy way."

https://larahogan.me/blog/be-a-thermostat-not-a-thermometer/

L'intelligenza artificiale usata per creare cose: è ancora arte o qualcosa d'altro? Be', mettiamo i piedi per terra e cerchiamo di capirci qualcosa.

Money quote: "Like laptops, cameras and paintbrushes, genAI models are tools, and their true efficacy depends upon the skill and knowledge with which they are used. They are also, of course, tools crafted and actively maintained by humans, who deserve to be visible in the chain of image-production labour and considered in discussions of livelihoods. Rather than “artificial intelligence”, then, I prefer to refer to these algorithmic, neural net-powered tools as estranged intelligence, or alienated intelligence. The intelligence – the humanity! – isn’t fake or forged; it is only concealed, outsourced and offshored, remixed and conglomerated, translated into algorithms that it then quietly labours to refine and train."

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/oct/01/hidden-traces-of-humanity-what-ai-images-reveal-about-our-world

NotebookLM di Google prende un paper, un articolo di ricerca, e costruisce un podcast con due voci che ne dibatte il contenuto. Molto interessante. Ma cosa succede se l'articolo che viene fornito contiene solo due parole ripetute centinaia di volte: "poop" e "fart"?

Money quote: "I did NOT expect the result to be this good."

https://x.com/kkuldar/status/1840680947873718396

Forse, a un certo punto, dovremmo deciderci: guardiamo con cinismo e disincanto, guardiamo con enfasi e trasporto, oppure ci facciamo semplicemente stupire, ma restando con i piedi per terra? La tecnologia va addomesticata (e le persone sono molto lente a farlo).

Money quote: "As I understand it, my first experience in a self-driving car was typical:

Minute 1: “How safe is this? Will it notice that cyclist? What about those construction cones?”

Minute 10: “This is wild. It’s driving so calmly and safely. I love it.”

Minute 20: (Bored, checking my email in the back seat.)

It was like a firmware update to my brain."

https://allenpike.com/2024/distribution-of-the-future

Prima che andiamo troppo in là con il mese: consigli per una dieta più sana e di stagione

Money quote: "Il mese di ottobre è sinonimo di autunno 🍁 Le foglie cambiano colore e si profilano nuove varietà di frutta e verdura, come le castagne e i kaki, il cavolfiore e il radicchio rosso.

Ecco la lista di frutta e verdura per il mese di ottobre, e i loro principali benefici."

https://yuka.io/it/frutta-verdura/ottobre/

Il dibattito è sempre, ferocemente americano-centrico. Le differenze con noi in Europa ci sono e sono tangibili. Tuttavia, la riflessione è interessante. Come in questo caso: i social media hanno dato il via a una esplosione di suicidi tra gli adolescenti?

Money quote: "Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed in relation to social-media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Families are not the only plaintiffs. Last year, Seattle’s public-school district sued multiple social-media companies alleging harm to its students and a resulting strain on district resources. Attorneys general for forty-one states and the District of Columbia have sued Meta for harming children by fuelling social-media addiction. Both the United Kingdom and the European Union have recently enacted legislation that heightens companies’ responsibility for content on their platforms, and there is bipartisan support for similar measures in the United States. The surgeon general, Vivek H. Murthy, has called for a warning label on social-media platforms, stating that they are “associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”"

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/07/social-media-mental-health-suicide-crisis-teens

Archivio: https://archive.is/G3Kr1