Hi! Kay here! This is my new ~weekly links-oriented newsletter. It’ll be all the stuff I find on the internet, plus some of my own work and some other bits and pieces.
What’s happening?
How many videoconferencing apps have you used so far? I count 7 but new contenders arrive by the day, and the politics is starting to seep in as your mates relentlessly argue about zoom security issues. Is it becoming a moral choice? I’m certainly feeling it.
Apparently the UK govt ventilators programme was a complete waste of time. I signed up for gov.uk covid19 updates fairly early on and so had a read of the requirements they sent out, which seemed cool to at the time. Turns out I’m a poor judge of character when it comes to manufacturing specs — but it was interesting seeing those very same requirements in the hands of big time manufacturing youtuber and wordplay artist AvE.
I believe he termed his resultant creation the ‘Ultra-Jank Ventilator’.
Larry the Cat’s twitter account was a big middle-of-the-political-road deal some years back, and I experienced some reality-whiplash to see it earnestly wishing Boris Johnson well in intensive care the other week. Since then I’ve kept a distant eye on the popular fake cat account to try to ascertain like, its whole deal.
Remainsunclear, but we can say that it has been doing the clap since late march.
What’s on my mind?
If GPT2 were conscious, what would its experience be like? Would it be one awareness per execution? Would that awareness include the history of being pelted with all that training data? Would it believe it was the training data? What would its death be like?
I hope nice. In my dreams, it’s a sort of immense swelling consciousness that pops with its own conclusion, lasting only an instant. In my nightmares it’s a scream.
Where does assertiveness come from? No but really. Like, is a baby assertive? It feels like it. They cry a lot, is that assertive? Does it come from having infantile needs and needing others to meet them? If so, why are some people not very assertive? What did they learn? What about people who are perhaps too assertive? What did they learn?
What’s telling?
We finally stopped and left our van to walk up and into the second level of the Mobile Launcher Base. About this time, it came to my mind that during one of our training sessions we were told that one of the fully fuelled prototype S-II rocket stages had been exploded out in the desert. The results showed that all buildings better be at least three miles from the launch pads - which they are. We were now within 25 feet of this 363ft tall bomb that sounded like its giant fuse had been lit, and we were soon going to get much closer.
I love space. Or, actually, human endeavours in space. Partly it’s the romance of the whole thing — like you could really just go away — but also as a sort of engineer and organiser of humans, there’s something so magnificent about the space programmes and what people achieved there. Little inspires me more.
Also: did you know they’re planning moon bases by 2024? We could go, you know.
He was 13 and standing inside the Rutgers Pharmacy on the first day of his first job. The boss showed him a storeroom filled with chemicals tossed here and there and told him to bring order to the mess. He didn’t know where to begin. He studied the situation. The stacks of bottles gave him no answer. The boss came back in, saw his do-nothing, and said only three words: “Just get started.” He began to move, and the job went quickly after that. Digging in was its own wisdom, he discovered. Order finds itself through action. Just get started became one of his guiding principles.
A long read telling a seedy tale of misappropriated water. Some captivating photography too. You can practically smell the white-collar crime falling off the digital page. The reason I pull out that quote is because while there’s a lot of dirt in this story, it reminds me how much potential there is for us as a people to achieve things. It’s sad it goes to such poor use so often.
Not from the article, but look at this. They made a building in the shape of a giant box of oranges. Look upon my works ye mighty, much?
What’s on?
eXistenZ. My first Cronenberg film! There’s a gun made of bone that shoots teeth, which is about what I expected. My biggest surprise? How sexy it was.
(that pink thing is a game, by the way. or a console. or something)
Moneyball. I’ve a long term project of working through all the PSH films, and this isn’t special in that respect but I did really enjoy it. One gross thing about becoming a Company Leader is how I am now moved by leadership stories, and sports is great for those. Plus, you can’t beat a redemption narrative.
Fancy a chill eclectic listen? Try Brumario. I know little about it beyond that it’s a compilation album, maybe a label sampler? From a non-English-speaking country?
What’s cool?
Nothing new perhaps, but the illustrative photography is great I think!
This week I learned that some people just film themselves walking around cities and call it ASMR. Are there no limits! Still, it’s nice.
Fascinating video of how radio phone-in contests work from the dj point of view. Watching him edit that audio lightning fast is the best bit! This also put me onto this slightly ironic video about broadcast delay boxes to cover for people swearing on the radio. Ironic because of the graffiti in the background. I’ve noticed some have a button labelled ‘PANIC’ — anyone know what that does?
What’s next?
2020 is definitely turning into the year of the video call, and I’m already sensing new possibilities. Do you remember VHS dating? As known from the films where you get a video tape of eligible singles to peruse? Was it ever a thing or just a film device?
In any case, I think that within a year we’ll see a dating app get significant traction with a video-heavy interface. Chatroulette-style speed dating? Face-to-camera video intros? Online online dating? The moment feels ripe.
That’s it! Thanks for reading. Hope you have a good week ahead. Do email back if you feel like it!