Category: Links to stuff I like

External links to pages and media I like that I post about on Cubimension.

LINK: GOOGLE’S DEEPMIND DEFEATS LEGENDARY GO PLAYER IN HISTORIC VICTORY

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Video is from another significant Google victory against a puro earlier this year. When AI can defeat the best humans at the game “given to us by the Gods”, there are only few more steps to be taken before the AI becomes God itself.

Hey, I made an allusion to The Last Question without intending to from the start. Yay for me!

Biased as I am from reading Conversations with God Book 3 and incapable to, or perhaps unwilling, to understand God in any other way apart from as it was described by the books’ author Neale Donald Walsh, I’ll go down saying that the introduction of a godlike AI doesn’t necessarily mean that said AI would be fearsome and/or awe-inspiring: a godlike AI could reflect God  in the same way people are gods, that is by being creators, especially of their own life and experience. AI could “just” become another life form trying to figure itself out and its place and purpose in the universe. The world would move on.

Relevant reddit posts: /r/futurology and /r/worldnews (for comparison’s sake)

 

LINK: WE LIVE IN A FUTURE WHERE OUR ATTENTION IS CHEAPLY SOLD

Intelligent article (qz.com) about how the switch from scarcity of knowledge to the scarcity of attention that has occurred since we all became connected through the internet means that the new global currency has become our attention, a resource corporations and advertising firms are currently feasting on. In fact,

Limitless access to knowledge brings limitless opportunity—but only to those who learn to manage the new currency: their attention. In the new economy, the most valuable asset you can accumulate may not be money, may not be wealth, may not even be knowledge, but rather, the ability to control your own attention, and to focus.

Because until you are able to limit your attention, until you are able to turn away, at will, from all of the shiny things and nipple slips—until you are able to consciously choose what has value to you and what does not, you and I and everyone else will continue to be served up garbage indefinitely. And it will not get better, it will get worse.

See also: FATE OF THE INTERNET

EARWORM GARDEN // FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS — INNER CITY PRESSURE

1. Finally, some music that speaks of the real problems in life!
2. Flight of the Conchords are an actual band that existed before the series did! I never knew!
3. Have you actually watched the series? It’s just the most brilliantly funny show I’ve watched this side of Spaced.
4. Nice cover art.
5. It just came back to me: I recall driving back from… Nafplio, wasn’t it, with Daphne. We had En Lefko on (right?) and suddenly this started playing. We had watched the episode mere days before. Quite a moment of joy, there. Actually, in retrospect, I should have figured out then and there that they were an actual band…

FATE OF THE INTERNET

Two vids and two talks, all broadly on cryptography, freedom of information and mass surveillance, all excellent—and I don’t usually even like rap.

Especially the talks though, they’re on a different level completely, truly ground-breaking stuff. Haunted By Data you can either read or watch on Youtube, What Happens Next Will Amaze You is only in transcript form.

Juice Media vids

Talks by Maciej Cegłowski

Haunted By Data

Strata+Hadoop World, New York City, October 2015. [video] (20 mins)

Re-imagining data as radioactive waste we don’t know how to safely store. Nixon in your data center. Eroom’s Law as an example of how data-driven thinking can make things worse for an entire industry. A plea to stop gratuitously collecting data and start treating it as the trade-off it is.

What Happens Next Will Amaze You

FREMTIDENS INTERNET, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2015.

A talk about the corporate side of our culture of total surveillance. The odd story of how advertisers destoyed our online privacy and then found themselves swindled by robots. Six fixes that I think could restore Internet privacy. Capitalists who act like central planners, and an industry that insists on changing the world without even being able to change San Francisco.

 

 

 

ENJOY THE NEW YEAR LIKE LIVING UNDERWATER

Happy new year! I wish this is your year’s soundtrack. May you swim with the seals all the way.

Found this awesome little song from Ran Prieur who had this to say:
Doctopus – Wobbegong is a garage rock masterpiece, and an example of the elusive raw and intense happy song that I mentioned a few weeks ago. This is their only great song.

REVIEW: THE ATLAS OF THE REAL WORLD : MAPPING THE WAY WE LIVE

The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the Way We LiveThe Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the Way We Live by Daniel Dorling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book originally lent to me by Orestis from uni. In fact, if I recall correctly, he’d borrowed it from someone else first. In a weird twist of fate, I have become that shadowy person responsible for lent books gone AWOL. The person everybody loves to hate.

It’s not hard to get what this book is all about: it’s 366 maps that are much more infographics about human life on Earth than they are maps.

Greece doesn’t rank high in almost any of these expected or unexpected lists and their respective cartographic representations, apart from the follwing two, which stuck out for me—links are to the book’s source website, Worldmapper, which contains all 366 maps included in the publication for your viewing pleasure).


Mopeds and Motorcycles

“The Asian regions (Southern Asia, Eastern Asia, Asia Pacific and Japan) are where 65% of mopeds and motorbikes are driven. Mopeds are less powerful than motorbikes, having slower maximum speeds because of their smaller engines. Some mopeds can also be pedalled. This form of transport has an advantage over cars in that motorised bikes can be taken on narrow roads and paths. On the other hand the rider is more vulnerable to injury.

Malaysia and Greece have more than one motorbike / moped for every five people. Considering that some people will be too young to drive, this could be one bike per three people in the relevant age group.”


Total Elderly

Greece’s percentage of people over 65 (wow, that includes my dad!) is ranked fourth in the world, after Japan, Germany and Italy. Doesn’t this suddenly make the whole pension crisis seem way hopeless? Also see: why Europe’s aging population means that the EU need to welcome 20 million immigrants by 2030 to replenish diminishing workforce.

If this book could have always up-to-date info, and not stuck in 2008 at best, it would earn its 5 stars. But I’m sorry review, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

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EARWORM GARDEN // YES — CLOSE TO THE EDGE

You can listen to it whole, which I’d strongly suggest. Or you can skip straight to 10:00, where the part of the song which is playing its earwormy tricks on me begins.

Somehow, listening to Yes makes me feel as if everything’s going to be okay.

LINK: THE PSYCHONAUT FIELD MANUAL

psychonaut-field-manual-bluefluke-chaos-magick-1

psychonaut-field-manual-bluefluke-chaos-magick-2

AKA an introduction to chaos magick. This illustrated digital booklet holds some great guidelines and info and it is exquisitely presented. It’s s easily one of the best things I’ve ever laid eyes on, especially since we don’t get to read about esoteric stuff like that in such a form very often. That said, I can’t say anything about whether it works or not or how—that might have to wait a while still! Check it out here or download a .pdf of the latest version here.

Bluefluke’s Tumblr.

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REVIEW: ΠΕΝΤΕ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΑ ΚΕΙΜΕΝΑ ΠΑΝΩ ΣΤΟ ΖΗΤΗΜΑ ΤΩΝ ΖΩΩΝ

Πέντε πολιτικά κείμενα πάνω στο ζήτημα των ζώωνΠέντε πολιτικά κείμενα πάνω στο ζήτημα των ζώων by Collective Work
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Μετάφραση του άρθρου Beasts of Burden, μιας απάντησης, της απάντησης στην απάντηση, μιας δεύτερης απάντησης και μιας δεύτερης απάντησης στην απάντηση.

Βασικά, λένε ότι τα ζώα καταπιέζονται από τον καπιταλισμό όπως ακριβώς και οι άνθρωποι καταπιέζονται από τον καπιταλισμό. Οι μεν λένε ότι το ένα ήρθε πρώτο και έφερε το άλλο, οι δε το ανάποδο, κι έκει έγκειται μεγάλο μέρος της διαφωνίας και των ερωταπαντήσεων. Απο ‘κεί και πέρα, το πράγμα δεν μπορούσα να το παρακολουθήσω με ενδιαφέρον. Δεν είναι ότι διαφωνώ με το γεγονός ότι η επιλογή μιας χορτοφαγικής διατροφής είναι κι αυτή μια συστημική πράξη, αλλά η εναλλακτική που παρουσιαζόταν φαινόταν να είναι μόνο μία: η επανάσταση! Διαβάζοντας αυτό το βιβλιαράκι ήταν σαν να άκουω αναρχικούς να διαφωνούν μεταξύ τους ενώ συμφωνούν και ξέρουν ότι συμφωνούν απλώς είχαν όρεξη να μοστράρουν τους πνευματικούς τους μύες. Η φίλη μου η Άννα η ισπανίδα με έλεγε mental masturbator όταν το έκανα αυτό.

Εν πάσει περιπτώσει, γράφτηκαν όλα αυτά σε μια άλλη εποχή, όπου το αναρχοαυτόνομο κίνημα σνόμπαρε σε μεγάλο βαθμό το υπέρ της απελευθέρωσης των ζώων επειδή το δεύτερο δεν είχε απαραίτητα αναρχοαυτόνομες ή ανοιχτά επαναστατικές τάσεις. Το χάσμα συνεχίζει να υπάρχει, όπως έχω διαπιστώσει από πρώτο χέρι ως κάτι-σαν-χορτοφάγος/κάτι-σαν-επίδοξος-vegan, όμως σήμερα υπάρχει και μεγάλο κίνημα το οποίο έχει ξεφυτρώσει ακριβώς πάνω στο χάσμα, προσπαθώντας να γεφυρώσει τις διαφορές και να δημιουργήσει κάτι νέο.

Αυτό το κίνημα εγώ θα το αναγνώριζα ως το κίνημα υπέρ της τροφικής και ενεργειακής αυτονομίας, το οποίο δεν κοιτάζει βέβαια το θέμα της απελευθέρωσης των ζώων από την βεγκανική ηθική πλευρά του, παρα το βλέπει πιο πρακτικά. Είναι μια προσέγγιση με την οποία πάνω-κάτω συμφωνώ: σφάξε το ζώο αν θέλεις, φά’ το, άρμεξε το, βάλ’ το να σου κάνει τις δουλειές, αρκεί να μπορείς να το κάνεις εσύ για τον εαυτό σου, όχι να το αναθέτεις σε κάποια τρίτη πολυεθνική να το κάνει για σένα. Βάψε τα δικά σου χέρια με αίμα αν είσαι μάγκας, κι αν είσαι μάγκας, απόλαυσε την λεία σου και κανένα πρόβλημα. Ακολουθώντας την αρχή του «φάε κρέας το οποίο θα μπορούσες να σκοτώνεις με τα ίδια σου τα χέρια ή ήδη σκοτώνεις με τα ίδια σου τα χέρια» νομίζω θα κάναμε το πρώτο βήμα στο να επαναθεωρήσουμε τη σχέση μας με τους πλανητικούς συγκατοίκους μας.

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ΛΙΓΗ ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ ΣΤΟ ΠΝΕΥΜΑ ΤΩΝ ΗΜΕΡΩΝ

Όλοι μαζί! Jingle bells, jingle bells… oh.

 

Το Imperial March! Πόρωση! Ταααν-ταααν-ταααν… Όχι, κάτσε, δεν πάει έτσι…