Sotto Kansas City ci sono enormi caverne artificiali, scavate per avere i materuali da usare nelle costruzioni di buona parte degli Stati Uniti. Da decenni in quegli enormi ambienti Ford mette le sue automobili.

Money quote: "“In Kansas, in the Midwest, you get rain, you get hail, you get winter, you get ice, you get everything. And I think [Ford] really wanted to store the vehicles that they were producing and assembling in the area that wouldn’t come into harm’s way,” said Tompkins. “And so what better location than under a large roof? Since then, Ford has relocated its plant and they are now really adjacent to our underground, so we continue to have a really tight relationship with them.”"

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/since-the-60s-ford-has-stored-cars-underground-in-a-kansas-city-cave/

Cose assurde che si possono fare con il resto del corpo mentre scatti la foto per il passaporto.

Money quote: "“Passport Photos” looks at one of the most mundane and unexciting types of photography. Heavily restricted and regulated, the official passport photo requirements include that the subject needs to face the camera straight on, needs a clear background without shadow, no glare on glasses and most importantly; no smile."

https://maxsiedentopf.com/passport-photos/

Intanto la mia newsletter, Mostly Weekly, compie 300 numeri. Nel suo piccolo, un'emozione.

https://antoniodini.com/weekly/300/

Lettura per la domenica

Perché ci serve l'aritmetica? E perché così poche persone sanno usarla? Parte come un articolo normale e diventa una specie di viaggio surreale, fantastico, strampalato, a suo modo artistico.

Money quote: "I think the problem is the idea that arithmetic is about “calculating”. No! Arithmetic is a world-modeling technology. Arguably, it’s the best world-modeling technology: It’s simple, it’s intuitive, and it applies to everything. It allows you to trespass into scientific domains where you don’t belong. It even has an amazing error-catching mechanism built in."

https://dynomight.substack.com/p/arithmetic

Una soluzione ingegnosa e molto funzionale a un notevole problema: una donna con amniesia retrograda dovuta a una operazione viene aiutata dai figli con una momBoard fatta con un pannello eInk aggiornabile da remoto che le permette di vedere le cose che le serve sapere (ma che non ricorda).

Money quote: "Today marks two years since I first set up an e-ink display in my mom’s apartment to help her live on her own with amnesia. The display has worked extremely well during those two years, so I’m sharing the basic set-up in case others find it useful for similar situations."

https://jan.miksovsky.com/posts/2024/11-12-momboard

Una analisi del Wall Street Journal di qualche mese fa che sembra scritta stamani.

Money quote: "When it comes to bigger-picture concerns about safety, opinions vary as to which approach is more likely to stave off worst-case AI scenarios like the malign, all-powerful intelligence of Skynet in the “Terminator” movies. Advocates of closed systems say they have the resources and control to help prevent misuse of the technology, and that open-source tools can be abused by bad actors. Open-source backers say their systems are subject to public scrutiny, allowing them to detect problems more easily, and deal with unintentional harms from their systems, which would be difficult to detect in closed systems.

Long before we get to the point of battling sentient AI overlords, though, those making systems of more modest power will have to prove their enormous investments are worthwhile."

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-chatgpt-nvidia-apple-facebook-383943d1

https://archive.is/k2crT

È più vicino di quanto la gente non pensi: la de-estinzione del mammut Wooly (quello peloso) si sta avvicinando alla realtà. E non abbiamo idea di cosa succederà dopo.

Money quote: "De-extinction science has advanced dramatically in the past two decades. The technology has progressed to the point that it's more of an ethical question whether we should revive lost species. While some companies want to bring back extinct animals to enrich biodiversity, replenish vital ecological roles, and bolster ecosystem resilience, scientists are not convinced that bringing back creatures that died out centuries or millennia ago would offer as much benefit as preserving the ones that are still hanging on. This article takes a look at the current technologies and the possible consequences that de-extinction may have on the climate and other animals."

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/closer-than-people-think-woolly-mammoth-de-extinction-is-nearing-reality-and-we-have-no-idea-what-happens-next

La casa come un luogo che custodisce i ricordi dell'infanzia, offrendo protezione dalle incertezze del mondo esterno. Perderla è un grande trauma. Rimuoverla vuol dire sognarsela in quella parte della notte dalla quale niente apparentemente traspare. La casa non è solo un luogo in cui abitiamo; è un luogo che ci abita, plasmando il nostro senso di chi siamo e di chi vogliamo essere.

Money quote: "At bedtime, my husband and I play thunderstorm music even in the draught of summer, exaggerating the coziness of being tucked in safe and dry. “Everything comes alive when contradictions accumulate,” Bachelard notes, and this feels especially true inside a house. Heavy dark draperies closing out winter snow so bright it makes you squint; a hearth against damp November chill; dim coolness on a glaring August day; a thick-carpet quiet as soon as the front door shuts out the chaos of traffic.

In Malicroix, French writer Henri Bosco conjures a vicious windstorm and shows us his house “holding firmly to the soil of the island.” It “yielded nothing to the storm.” On that lonely and frightening night, it became his mother."

https://commonreader.wustl.edu/c/there-is-no-place-like-home-whatever-that-is/

Abbiamo tutti bisogno di uno scrittoio, di uno studio, di un *lugar de pensiamento*. Anche Machiavelli.

Money quote: "Venuta la sera, mi ritorno a casa ed entro nel mio scrittoio; e in sull'uscio mi spoglio quella veste cotidiana, piena di fango e di loto, e mi metto panni reali e curiali; e rivestito condecentemente, entro nelle antique corti delli antiqui huomini, dove, da loro ricevuto amorevolmente, mi pasco di quel cibo che solum è mio e ch’io nacqui per lui; dove io non mi vergogno parlare con loro e domandarli della ragione delle loro azioni; e quelli per loro humanità mi rispondono; e non sento per quattro hore di tempo alcuna noia, sdimentico ogni affanno, non temo la povertà, non mi sbigottisce la morte: tutto mi transferisco in loro. E perché Dante dice che non fa scienza sanza lo ritenere lo havere inteso, io ho notato quello di che per la loro conversazione ho fatto capitale, e composto uno opuscolo De principatibus; dove io mi profondo quanto io posso nelle cogitazioni di questo subietto, disputando che cosa è principato, di quale spezie sono, come e' si acquistono, come e' si mantengono, perché e' si perdono."

(questa è la versione originale disponibile su Wikisource, nell'articolo è tutto in inglese)

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/machiavelli-and-the-emergence-of-the-private-study/

Potremmo vivere in una simulazione. L'ipotesi originale.

Money quote: "There is, however, a related scenario that is more plausible and a serious line of reasoning that leads from the possibility of this scenario to a striking conclusion about the world we live in. I call this the simulation argument. Perhaps its most startling lesson is that there is a significant probability that you are living in computer simulation. I mean this literally: if the simulation hypothesis is true, you exist in a virtual reality simulated in a computer built by some advanced civilisation. Your brain, too, is merely a part of that simulation. What grounds could we have for taking this hypothesis seriously? Before getting to the gist of the simulation argument, let us consider some of its preliminaries. One of these is the assumption of “substrate independence”. This is the idea that conscious minds could in principle be implemented not only on carbon-based biological neurons (such as those inside your head) but also on some other computational substrate such as silicon-based processors."

https://simulation-argument.com/matrix/

Letture per la domenica.

Come si fa a cambiare idea di un chatbot? Quando l'articolo è uscito, questa estate, era un tema caldo. Ora ce lo siamo un po' dimenticato. Vale la pena invece di rileggerlo.

Money quote: "Today's AI may seem harmless, but these systems are being woven into society in ways that may be hard to untangle. It could be problematic for people if AI has somehow trained a bias against them, for example, a person whose name was associated with a negative event may be unfairly discriminated against by other chatbots. Chatbots are highly suggestible - if people add text on the internet and it gets memorized, it's memorialized in the language model."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/technology/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-manipulation.html

Archivio: https://archive.is/vGVfL

"Dune: Prophecy" arriva tardi - questa volta su Fumettologica si parla di serie, di film
e di libri. Ovviamente di fantascienza

https://fumettologica.it/2024/12/dune-prophecy-serie-tv-recensione/

Un progetto affascinante: fotografare tutti i quartieri di New York City, uno per uno. Sono 350, mica venti.

Money quote: "This weekly newsletter is a not-so-deep dive into every neighborhood in NYC in an effort to create some sort of photographic document of modern-day New York, or at least a record of what I find interesting* on any particular day. I know I will be leaving out a ton of things that could be considered crucial to the understanding of a particular neighborhood and including stuff that will leave some scratching their heads, but this isn’t meant to be a complete or even accurate representation of a place, just my reaction to it. With a mix of old and new pictures and field recordings, I hope this project will add something to the substantial body of work that has already been made about the city."

https://theneighborhoods.substack.com/

Anche a Madrid ci sono i capsule-hotel. Solo che servono per arginare la crisi economica e sociale in corso nel Paese

Money quote: "La recepcionista es Eva, una universitaria de 22 años que atiende tras un mostrador en un vestíbulo que hace también las veces de comedor y cocina para uso de los huéspedes. Conduce al visitante al interior, donde abre la puerta de una sala de unos 150 metros cuadrados que alberga 36 cápsulas, 24 individuales y 12 dobles. En total aquí caben 48 personas. Es media tarde, no se oye a nadie y es difícil aventurar si estas cajas de madera “Nordic style” contienen seres humanos. Cuando cae la noche, llegan los ocupantes. Algunos vuelven de pasear. Otros, de trabajar."

https://elpais.com/espana/madrid/2024-12-03/ya-hay-gente-en-madrid-que-vive-en-capsulas-como-las-de-tokio-porque-no-pueden-pagar-un-alquiler.html

Archivio: https://archive.is/TmbC4

Steven Sinofsky è stato uno dei massimi dirigenti di Microsoft. Adesso ha una pensione milionaria: credo che sia un tizio che si annoia molto e ha deciso di pompare contenuti in rete. Oltre a un megalitico libro a puntate (un feuilletton via mail intitolato "Hardcore Software") su Microsoft dal suo punto di vista, pubblica anche liste commentate di libri che legge. E ne legge un botto, santo cielo. Questa è gente che ha più energia di un toro imbufalito.

Money quote: "Here's a Books I Read in 2024 list. Some of them I enjoyed. Some of them drove me bonkers. I like that part of reading. Hope you enjoy this list.

This year I included some "thoughts" which in no way a full review but offer more than just the noscript and jacket (new this year... emojis). I enjoyed some long books this year that took two weeks 🙂 I have always liked to give books I've read to friends and to teams I've worked with. Each below is available print, kindle, and audio. Links are FYI and non revenue generating.

I'm not trying to make a statement with this list or thoughts. Just sharing how I felt after the read. Ordered in the order I read them"

https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/224-books-to-read-and-gift-2024-eoy

Paul Rudolph è l'incarnazione di un futuro che non c'è stato: un'architettura che allude, sulla carta o nel mondo, a quello che avrebbe potuto essere, o forse a quello che avremmo voluto che fosse.

Money quote: "For Paul Rudolph, the architect of both of these buildings, a key design goal was a return to monumentality, a deliberate shift away from the ethereal soaring steel and glass structures that dominated mid-century America. Twenty-seven years after Rudolph’s death, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting the first museum show dedicated to his life and work, largely organized around his renowned presentation drawings, with supporting ephemera. His legacy is decidedly mixed; his works are endlessly litigated, both in the realm of public reception and also frequently in courts, with many under threat of demolition or redevelopment. But the conspicuously monumental concrete buildings for which he is primarily known today are a fraction of the output of this vanguard architect, who was regarded by Walter Gropius as the star student among future luminaries Philip Johnson and I.M. Pei."

https://hyperallergic.com/964419/paul-rudolph-visions-of-a-future-past/

A proposito di futuri che non ci sono stati: per ventuno anni il Minidisc, il formato di dischetti magneto-ottici che dovevano sostutuire le nastrocassette, ha regnato sovrano, anche se praticamente solo in Giappone. Dal 1992 al 2013 sono stati prodotti centinaia di apparecchi diversi prevalentemente da Sony (che ha inventato il formato) e da alcuni licenziatari: soliti noti giapponesi, cioè Kenwood, Aiwa, Jvc, Pioneer, Sharp, Denon, Onkyo, Yamaha e Panasonic/Technics.

Meno nota è la varietà di colore e addobbi dei supporti, cioè dei dischi magneto-ottici. Qui ci sono tutti quelli prodotti da Sony.

Money quote: "Sony's journey with MiniDisc media began in November 1992 with the introduction of the Basic MiniDiscs. The initial lineup included the MDW-60 and MDW-74 models. The MDW-60 offered 60 minutes of recording time, while the MDW-74 extended this to 74 minutes. These Basic MiniDiscs were distinguished from later models by their straightforward design and labeling, marking Sony’s first steps into the MiniDisc market."

https://obsoletesony.substack.com/p/complete-visual-guide-to-sony-minidisc

La fine della crescita esponenziale delle AI.

Money quote: “The wall has been the topic du jour for the past few weeks,” Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, whose company helps OpenAI, Meta, and others train their models, told the conference’s host, Eric Newcomer, during the morning’s first session. “Have we hit a wall? Yes and no.”

While the next AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others may not be significantly smarter than what exists today, the people building with AI think there is plenty of room to create better experiences with what exists today. And while the “reasoning” capability OpenAI showed with its most recent o1 model is prohibitively expensive and slow to use right now, it signals a shift everyone seemed to agree on: the next breakthrough will be making the LLMs of today smarter.

“There’s a very real shift in what being a frontier lab means,” Wang said onstage. Much of the investment going into AI has been based on the belief that the scaling law “would hold,” he said. Now, “it’s the biggest question in the industry.”

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/22/24303470/ai-model-llm-progress-hitting-scaling-wall

Letetura per la domenica.

Forse abbiamo sottovalutato la complessità della colonizzazione di Marte (ammesso che qualcuno voglia colonizzare Marte sul serio).

Money quote: "The more we got into it — by year two out of the four-year research process, we were like, OK, there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know that we still need to figure out," Kelly told the broadcaster. "And if we do this soon, it could be an ethical catastrophe."

"No way that you could scale up to a million people on Mars without something catastrophic happening," she continued, "either in terms of it turns out we can’t have babies up there, and moms and babies are dying or getting cancer."

"If you want to do this, it’s got to be the slow work of generations to build up to a point where we could be self-sustaining on Mars," she added.

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-city-mars-death-catastrophe

Clarissa Ward, l'inviata speciale della CNN, entra in una prigione segreta di Bashar al-Assad, situata in un edificio dell'aeronautica militare siriana a Damasco. Tutte le celle sono vuote, tranne una. I ribelli che lo accompagnano fanno saltare la serratura. All'interno, la giornalista nota una presenza. Nascosto sotto una coperta scura, un uomo barbuto e dal cranio calvo alza le mani in aria. «Sono un civile», assicura. La giornalista, la sua squadra e le guardie le informano che il regime di Bashar al-Assad è caduto da quattro giorni. Il prigioniero, che avrebbe trascorso diversi giorni né acqua né cibo, è quindi l'ultimo ad essere liberato.

"Penso che sia una delle cose più straordinarie di cui ho assistito nel corso della mia carriera", dice Clarissa Ward della liberazione dell'uomo, presentato come Adil Hurbal, un siriano originario di Homs, sballottato di prigione in prigione da tre mesi.

In parecchi pensano però che si tratti di una messa in scena.

Money quote: "Peu après sa diffusion, le reportage spectaculaire de CNN, mis en avant par de nombreux médias occidentaux (dont Libération), fait l’objet de critiques semant le doute sur son authenticité. Plusieurs commentateurs, dont des journalistes syriens, dénoncent une mise en scène."

https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/liberation-en-direct-dun-prisonnier-en-syrie-clarissa-ward-journaliste-star-de-cnn-a-t-elle-ete-dupee-20241216_Q7Q737P5NZGM3BFQSBMOHOE5SY/

Forse è arrivato il momento di smettere di guardare in faccia il vostro terapista: bentornato lettino.

Money quote: "A person who is “on the couch” is known to be in therapy, but most therapists these days don’t ask their clients to lie down. The first time mine did, I resisted. I didn’t want to be on display or unable to see her reactions. Plus, the idea seemed antiquated. Sigmund Freud was inspired to use the couch more than a century ago after observing dramatic hypnotherapy demonstrations by his teacher Jean-Martin Charcot. In psychoanalysis, Freud thought a therapist being out of view would help people access emotions or memories that might be repressed. (He also said that he could not “put up with being stared at by other people for eight hours a day.”)"

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/11/therapy-couch-lie-down-freud/680676/

Archivio: https://archive.is/MzHqc