The Brinternet Newsletter: Spring '23

Now on Substack.

USGS SIM 3470: Geologic Map of Olympus Mons Caldera, Mars.

Happy Springtime!

Happy bunnies! Happy Passover!

Passover is the Jewish holiday where we celebrate liberation from slavery. It's an important time to think about the ways in which we are still enslaved, the ways in which we are free, and our obligations to fight for those who are oppressed. I'm thinking of the violence in Palestine and how dissonant Israeli leadership is from the Jewish principles it's meant to uphold. Historically during the Passover holiday we're meant to say "next year in Israel," but how about "next year, freedom."

On a More Hopeful Note:

I'm looking forward to going to my first climate march on the 2st. The Big One is a four-day-long action supported by a coalition of environmental organizations around the world. There will be a march near you. Showing up matters! I am going to make a sign to carry. What should it say??

When I think about protest signs, this oldie-but-GOATy by Jenny Odell lives rent-free in my head.

An AI Guy

I think, unless anything changes in the next month, that the next chapter of my career means I'm going to be an AI guy. I could see how this would be surprising to some of you! I'll be in AI for games, which I see as a separate (but related) problem-set from generative AI (like Chat GPT, Midjourney, etc). I like the idea of interjecting myself and my way of doing things into that space and hopefully winning some arts and minds towards some good practices and long-term thinking. Specifically, why the hell aren't we talking about universal basic income (UBI) more?

We're talking about AI so much. I don't think the major wobbles and layoffs in big tech are a coincidence. Companies (in part) want to stay lean because they understand that AIs are industry-disrupting technologies and the ways we do things (and the people who do them) are changing. We're not fully at "the robots are taking our jobs" (for those of us who are white collar/new collar workers, it will be a while, if ever). But these layoffs (as well as the concerns about artists' work being used to train generative models) are a clear indicator that AI is impacting human livelihoods now. 

I'm too much of a realist to say "we need to pull the plug on this right now." But we do need to  think about these technological changes holistically and interdisciplinarily and to re-examine our understandings of how the world works, and how it should work. Starting with UBI. If you're curious about what I mean, check out this episode of Planet Money and/or read about this experiment in my home state of California. 

How could a show that looks like this be as bad as it is??

And now, the fun stuff:

1. Television! Oh god, I love television. Ted Lasso is back. Succession is back. Barry is back soon. Who's watching The Big Door Prize? I love a realist-slightly-techno-occult storyworld. And Chris O'Dowd is very likable. Similarly, you'd think Hello Tomorrow! would be able to pull off the same charm (selling time-shares on the moon), but no. It's just a beautiful concept and a story that falls disappointingly short. Rude.

2. Kelly Link, my favorite author, has a new book of stories out now called White Cat, Black Dog. It's extremely good.

3. People can be so awkward, especially around grief and death. This article, written by a father who lost both of his daughters in the same accident, reminds readers that grieving people want you to mention their dead loved ones. 

4. How gorgeous are these USGS maps of Mars? 

5. Theme parks! I love theme parks. I really want to see Super Nintendo World when I'm in California this month. And I'm dying to see the new Ghibli theme park in Japan, sigh! 

6. There's that infamous rumor of the fountains at the Bellagio being hacked because the controls were essentially out in the open and relatively easy to use. Turns out the operating system for the robots at Chuck E. Cheese is almost the exact opposite of that, and they run on FLOPPY DISCS?

7. Why Eiji Motoka puts fun at the top of his list while designing public transport. 

   

Beep beep. Love you, bye bye.

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