Archives for March 2016

Quartz writing about teens abandoning Facebook and Twitter:

Today, however, the newest data increasingly support the idea that young people are actually transitioning out of using what we might term broadcast social media—like Facebook and Twitter—and switching instead to using narrowcast tools—like Messenger or Snapchat. Instead of posting generic and sanitized updates for all to see, they are sharing their transient goofy selfies and blow-by-blow descriptions of class with only their closest friends.

Makes sense. Part of the initial appeal of Google+ was the ease with which recipients of messages could be controlled by using circles. Eventually it became a way to narrowcast to your two or three friends who happened to still be using it. And while Facebook has implemented a similar idea, it’s never felt very easy to use – or worth the time to set up.

Asking people to interact with something online this week was like dipping a strawberry into a fondu pot full of shit.

1. The British Internet tried its best to name an important new research vessel “Boaty McBoatface.” 
   

   “The polar research ship represents a leap forward in securing Britain’s place as a world leader in marine and climate change science — and illustrates this government’s commitment to invest in research facilities on a record scale,”
   “It’s only when I got home and someone tweeted me and said Boaty McBoatface is leading by 500, and then by Friday night it was leading by a couple of thousand. Then, by the time the site eventually crashed yesterday, it was leading by about eight thousand,” Hand said. “It’s been quite a strange weekend.”

2. Microsoft’s AI, Tay, was let loose on Twitter to learn from humanity, it was put down later in the day after becoming a sex crazy nazi-bot.  
   

   A day after Microsoft introduced an innocent Artificial Intelligence chat robot to Twitter it has had to delete it after it transformed into an evil Hitler-loving, incestual sex-promoting, ‘Bush did 9/11’-proclaiming robot. 

3. Engadget relaunched their comments section, only to have to take it away again.
   

   But we can’t take pride in a comment system that isn’t offering you the features you need to participate; that runs amok with racist, sexist or homophobic slurs and threats; or that takes joy in in-fighting and provoking fights.

From the Beeb:

Paradoxically, this brain damage seems to “disinhibit” some of the signalling between those frontal lobes and the pleasure centres. So while others’ jokes may leave them cold, their own thoughts and feelings – stemming from any random connection or association – may end up triggering the dopamine kick as they collapse in fits of giggles.

My wife will be glad to know there’s a medical explanation for my sense of humor.

Automation and a Jobless Future:

The Last Job on Earth – The Guardian from Moth on Vimeo.

I’ve been burning way too many cycles thinking about this lately. Especially when it comes to preparing our kids to be productive adults. What will that even mean in 20-years?

And why did it take computers beating humans for me to know that there’s a game called “Go”?