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Personal writing and other things by Nabeel Qureshi.

Image by Kelvy Bird

Interstitium; the new fluid body part

This essay is a companion piece to an episode of Radiolab, titled The Interstitium. You don’t need to have heard it for this essay to make s

#reflections #AI #chatGPT #Youtube

Brede waarde creatie

Burgers en bedrijfsleven staan steeds meer tegenover elkaar. Door in kaart te brengen wat een bedrijf de samenleving echt oplevert of echt k

#waarde #value

Symbiotic relationships

Key determinining elements for a relationship:

1_energy (money, attention etc) flow between agents

2_influence to change the power balance in relationship

Parasitism

Asymmetry of energy flow; one agent benefits, one loses.

Inability from the energy resource to change the inbalance of power.

Mutualism

Balanced energy flow: back and forth.

Equal ability to influence/ change relationship.

Example: shark teeth cleaner fish.

Commensalism

Asymmetry of energy flow: one benefits, but the other is not harmed.

Equal ability to influence/ change relationship.

The following is a rough transcript which has not been revised by The Jim Rutt Show or Matthew Pirkowski. Please check with us before using

#symbiotic #cooperation #relationships #asymmetry #energy flow

fuckyeahfluiddynamics

"Animaris Rex"

Eighteen meters long and powered only by the wind, artist Theo Jansen’s latest Strandbeest strolls the sand in this short video. (Video and image credit: T. Jansen et al.; via Colossal) Read the full article

Critical Mass. How one thing leads to another. Philip Ball.

Constant motion is the natural state of things, including people.

Stillness is death.

Power is relative and comes with obligations.

Phase transitions (solid => liquid => gas) are abrupt.

"Individuals could be considered to 'move' in an abstract field of ideas, beliefs, habits and notions. The field is conditioned for each person by the behaviour he or she sees in others, and pushes and pulls the person towards certain dispositions." - kurt lewin

Urban design is political. " The nineteenth-century dreams of a social order, in which the benefits of capitalism are retained through the creation of a quiescent working class, are dreamed in a strong spacial form" - bill hillier/julienne hanson

Irrational ≠ unpredictable.

A crowd of people 'freezes' if behaviour becomes too erratic. Erratic behavour akins raising the temperature. This might be counter-intuitive as water is frozen by cooling.

"Planning is often associated with control, yet the crucial element is coordination. People need to do the right things at the right time in relation to what others are doing." - thomas shelling

The most useful measure of traffic is not numbers, but density.

Einstein once said that scientific theories should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

A system near its critical state becomes extremely responsive to disturbances.

The 'multiculturalism' of Western nations was once celebrated, but increasingly it is becoming clear that behind this optimistic label often lies not integration but segregation.

In Thomas Shelling's model of neighbourhood interactions, each agent prefers to have a majority of neighbours of the same colour, (race, lifestyle, class etc) but only marginally so: they will move only if more than 45% of their neighbours are of a different colour.

We should not expect the effects to follow in the same proportions as their cause.

The strength of weak ties.

The most highly connected nodes are the crucial short cuts that keep the average path length low. Remove these nodes and you cut out many links at once, affecting a wide region of the network.

Vunerability due to interconnectivity.

While celebrating that everybody on earth is only six handshakes from us, we need to accept that so are their problems and vunerabilities.

While Europe advocates a world kept in check by international law and negotiation, the reality is that at present only US military might maintains order.

Complexity does not arise from the number of the laws themselves, which is not remarkably great, but from the extraordinary number and variety of the data or elements - of the agents which, in obedience to that small number of laws, cooperate towards the effect.

Society is merely the name for a number of individuals connected by interaction.

_end.

#critical #mass #book #human #behaviour #societal #highlights #2004

The environmental and social cost of AI

“We’re not being trained to ask enough [whether] we are basically bringing a battleship to a knife fight”

Anatomy of an AI System - The Amazon Echo as an anatomical map of human labor, data and planetary resources. By Kate Crawford and Vladan Jol

The author of Atlas of AI discusses the environmental and social issues raised by ChatGPT and other generative AI tools.

#AI #Ethics #climate

De prijs van flexibiliteit

Artikel in FD | 7 september 2023

#tijd #time #flexibiliteit #flexibility

Photographer Marina Planas is presenting an exhibition in Italy in which she analyzes the impact of the industry in places that have become

#tourism effects

#newyorkcity #vibes

Insights into non-places

Only flaneurs can save humanity

Hoe geef je een stad terug?

Mede getriggerd door dit stuk enkele ideeën opgeschreven.

Een stad teruggeven aan bewoners impliceert eigendom, ik vind eigendom van 1 groep een onaantrekkelijke benadering en geloof meer in een gedeelde belevingsruimte. Eén die tot stand komt door een mix van reizigers met verschillende verblijfsduur (bewoner; 30 jaar, expat: 3 jaar, Summer school student: 3 maanden of een toerist: 3 dagen) en een verschillende invulling van hun tijd op de bestemming.

Is er teveel toerisme gekomen? Op sommige plekken en momenten zeker.

Komen er bezoekers met een negatieve netto bijdrage? Vast wel, maar we meten dit nog niet eenduidig.

Is de stad gebaat bij een gebalanceerde mix in de stad? Tuurlijk, hoewel een beetje frictie ook spannend is toch? En wanneer is het in balans, wie bepaald dat, hoe weet je of er (on) balans is en wie en hoe stuurt bij als onbalans dreigt of aan de orde is?

Veel inwoners van Amsterdam wonen er toch ook omdat het een internationale bruisende culturele melting pot is waar toerisme, maar dus ook internationale studenten en long stay werknemers, een belangrijke bijdrage aan leveren.

Inwoners zijn zelf ook ondernemer, werknemer, dagjeuit-mens, theaterganger, museumbezoeker, voetpadloper, trampassagier etc. Zij profiteren van het economische klimaat, carrièrekansen, interessante mensen, breed entertainment aanbod, hoge frequentie OV, de voorzieningen en de algehele levensstijl.

Ik zie daarom een schijntegenstelling ‘toerist’ vs ‘bewoner’.

Het gaat er om of mensen die ergens zijn iets waardevols eruit halen en leveren aan die plek. Dat er op z’n minst geen afbreuk plaatsvindt maar beter nog, dat er een netto positieve bijdrage wordt geleverd aan de levendigheid, leefbaarheid en ontwikkeling van de plek en de gemeenschap. En we zijn dus allemaal een reiziger, we zijn (gelukkig) niet allemaal hetzelfde; de ontmoeting tussen verschillen maakt het boeiend.

Hiervoor is wel noodzakelijk dat we serieus kijken naar waarde en prijs.

Iets wat gratis of goedkoop is, wordt ook als fastfood of wegwerpproduct beleefd.

Als je ergens de eerlijke en volwaardige prijs voor betaald, kies- en beleef je bewuster verwacht ik, en dit verrijkt de reiservaring van de reiziger zelf weer.

Dit vraagt om een stevige herwaardering en verrijking van de term ‘waarde’, bepaling van normen en doelen we hier voor benoemen en implementatie van manieren om dit kunnen meten en (bij)sturen.

Een interessante gedachte vind ik of wij principes, systemen en mechanismen kunnen bedenken en ontwikkelen die loyaliteit aan een plek en netto toegevoegde waarde incalculeren en (mee)wegen bij het bepalen van de invloed op de inrichting.

Enkele mogelijke onderdelen (rijp en groen);

belasting bijdrage (life cycle benadering)

duur van verblijf in stad/ gemeente

duurzaam herhaalbezoek belonen

invulling tijdens verblijf; puur consumeren, combi consumeren en bijdragen. Zakelijk bezoek vs leisure

bestedingen bij lokale ondernemers x%

sociaal maatschappelijk werk

duurzaam reizen in/om de stad

energieverbruik

fysiek ruimtebeslag (beperkte ruimte vraagt om kritische waardebepaling)

periode boetevrij zijn (nette burger)

gradaties van datadelen (avg proof)

wel/ niet toegang tot collectieve inkoop

...

ik zou het mooi vinden als we de fragmenterende en stigmatiserende discussie rondom toerist vs bewoner en platte aantallen met elkaar ontstijgen en het gaan hebben over herwaardering van van bezoek aan plekken.

Cruciaal om constructief voorruit te gaan richting duurzame, prettige plekken en ontmoetingen die reizen zo mooi maken.

Hopelijk biedt dit aanknopingspunten om met elkaar verder invulling aan te geven!

Travel post Covid-19

Thoughts on two developments in the travel industry moving forward (because going back is never an option in life anyway):

Re-visiting known touristic places but in lower quantity and with more safety and security measures

The drive towards new, lesser known, less crowded and more spacious places

We’ll probably see a combination of the two.

Current hotspots will adapt and attract visitors again. When is hard to tell, but it’s likely that the number of visitors will be lower. Not – fully - because they lost their appeal but due to the simple fact that travellers – when willing and able to travel again - will look for secure, safe and spacious places.

Sure, hotspots will adjust to cater for max capacity in a safe and secure manner but 1. for practical limitations it will not reach pre-Covid-19 numbers and 2. it will not deliver the same experience. Instead it could well be a more cumbersome, stressful, clinic one.

Overall, the broader effect in the mid- long term on hotspots should be positive; a balanced place with increased resilience, developed within its boundaries and in harmony with residents, temp workers, students, public and private companies and its visitors.

The second development brings opportunities but also a risk.

Touristic product development – driven by travellers’ (expected) pivoted demand - will look to unlock new, quieter, less crowded and spacious places. But tourism already takes up a large and increasing amount of physical space. This development was already not sustainable but physical land claim could increase due to development of new areas. If development follows pre-Covid-19 principles and methods, this will likely result in permanent damage to these places and communities. Especially because their carrying capacity is fragile.

So, a lot needs to happen probably, but one thing I’d like to highlight is the need to set a price on the negative impact of tourism on nature and local communities.

Currently, with every day passing, the appeal and the value of the lesser known and lesser visited places is increasing, but the potential devastating effects are not weighted in nor included in their price.

Let’s not forget and make an effort to protect the places that are no touristic destination yet but could become one, perhaps sooner than expected.

21.4.2020

#travel post covid-19

Value will change in the post COVID-19 world.

Current market values reflect uncertainty and an already longer existing gap between market valuations and the real economy.

The question is how big the supply destruction is, beyond supply disruption and supply delay.

Our digital and local lives expand as our physical and global lives contract.

Value will be destroyed and created. Old value metrics will disappear, new ones created.

Fragmentation in the global economy; local resilience will be prized over global efficieny.

The economic narrative will change; after decates of risk being downloaded onto individuals, the bill has arrived, and people do not know how to pay it.

The market economy has slowly but relentlessly moved to the market society; increasingly, to be valued, an asset or activity has to be in a market.

The price of everything has become the value of everything.

Public value should help shape private value.

The great test if this value set will prevail is climate change:

I. Involves entire world, from which no one can self-isolate

II. Predicted by science to be the problem of tomorrow

III. Can only be addressed if acted upon in advance and in solidarity

///

Source, The Economist; https://www.economist.com/business/2020/04/16/by-invitation-mark-carney-on-how-the-economy-must-yield-to-human-values

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