On Our Enviable Lives

Act like a communicator: know how to do everything, or pretend you do.

[itscolossal]

Responsive ‘Hex’ Wall Ripples and Wobbles Based on Nearby Motion

[nevver]

Nobody likes me

[explore-blog]

What time it is everywhere, in a brilliant infographic from XKCD. And still, for good measure, a reminder that time is not as “objective” – it slows down when we’re afraid, speeds up as we age, and gets all warped while we’re on vacation. 

[magnificentruin-deactivated2015]

This just in

[magnificentruin-deactivated2015]

[nevver]

Imagine

[onourenviablelives]

I challenged hackers to investigate me and what they found out is chilling

I challenged hackers to investigate me and what they found out is chilling (via Pando Daily)

By Adam L. Penenberg On October 26, 2013It’s my first class of the semester at New York University. I’m discussing the evils of plagiarism and falsifying sources with 11 graduate journalism students when, without warning, my computer freezes. I…

[guernicamag]

It is impossible to look at even the most remote and spectacular landscape without the implicit knowledge of a sprawling, highly technological, and extractive global economy.

Particulate Matter by Jake Longstreth - Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics (via guernicamag)

[new-aesthetic]

Networked Optimization | silviolorusso.com

Networked Optimization is a series of three crowdsourced versions of popular self-help books. Each book contains the full text, which is however invisible because it is set in white on a white background. The only text that remains readable consists of the so-called “popular highlights” – the passages that were underlined by many Kindle users – together with the amount of highlighters. Each time a passage is underlined, it is automatically stored in Amazon’s data centers.

Among the books with the most popular highlights, there is a striking number of self-help books. This points to a multi-layered, algorithmic optimization: from readers and authors to Amazon itself. Harvesting its customers micro-labour, the act of reading becomes a data-mining process.

[printedinternet]

[teenboypopstar]

this was actually so good

[buxombibliophile]

I should save this so I can explain our culture to my future children.

[thegoodfuture]

Technology companies haven’t helped themselves by adopting blasé attitudes on the subject. Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems, said in 1999 that, “you have zero privacy, get over it.” Ten years later, Google’s Eric Schmidt opined that, “if you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

On privacy, it’s Facebook and Google versus small tech (via futuristgerd)

[thinkvr]

[onourenviablelives]

#Dataanalysis yields profile of up to 52 #personalitytraits based on an individual’s #wc in #tweets.

(via IBM researcher can decipher your personality from looking at 200 of your tweets | VentureBeat)

[onourenviablelives]

[suburban-gerbil-deactivated2013]

[atlaskingmccollum]

this man.

[thegoodfuture]

"Can I say that we will never use facial recognition technology for any other purposes? Absolutely not," Egan said. But, she noted, "if we decided to use it in different ways we will continue to provide people transparency about that and we will continue to provide control."

Facebook may add your profile photo to facial recognition database - NBC News.com (via futuristgerd)

[vistale]

[onourenviablelives]

According to National Geographic, this is what the average American will look like in the year 2050.

[thegoodfuture]

I believe big data is becoming the driving force in our global economy and will drive a new kind of war. Advertisers need it to target consumers. Governments and law enforcement agencies need it to keep us safe and secure, so they say. Internet platforms and technology companies, or the “siren servers” as Jaron Lanier aptly calls them in his latest book, need it to maintain their pivotal roles in our digital lives and to continue nurturing us with all those amazing free services, apps and platforms that we can’t seem to do without any longer.

Why advertisers should back a global Digital Bill of Rights (via futuristgerd)

[thegoodfuture]

If you share something publicly on social media, “you should expect the world to read it,” said Andy Sellars, a staff attorney at the Digital Media Law Project. “And you should expect that world to include law enforcement.”

Careful what you tweet: Police, schools tap social media to track behavior - NBC News.com (via futuristgerd)