Tag: Technology

Various and Sundry

Wait! Are We the Dystopian Future We Want to Avoid?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Ray Bradbury once said he wasn’t trying to predict the future with some of his tales of a dystopian or apocalyptic future, he wanted scare people. Basically, warning society “If you don’t watch out, this is what could happen.” Well, apparently we didn’t get the memo, per Yuval Noah Harari, author of the excellent Sapiens. In his latest book, Nexus, he traces ‘information networks’ from pre-history to today… and he’s not entirely rosy about humans…

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Producing Various and Sundry

When the Video Toaster was Punk AF

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

There’s a meme going around that generations should now be divided by “Too old to know Homestar Runner/at the right age to know and love Homestar Runner/too young to know Homestar Runner.” Admittedly, this is rather prejudiced towards knowing Homestar Runner, but seeing as I do (and seriously Stwong Bad, he’s the bee’s knees!), I don’t find this a problem. In part, because I think anyone at any age can discover the sparkling majesty of…

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Various and Sundry

“DALL-E: make me a tech bubble in the shape of AI.”

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This isn’t the first post I’ve done about artificial intelligence. It isn’t even the first AI post involving Adam Conover, but given last week’s post about the future of TV and tech companies’ hand in it all, it felt right to revisit AI. Also, I posted about the possible tech bubble of AI all the way back in February, so it feels right to revisit. Enter Adam Conover and this interview with Ed Zitron from…

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Various and Sundry

How Much Toil & Trouble is in the A.I. Bubble?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

The hue and cry about “A.I.” –aka all sorts of machine learning and algorithm use– that exploded last year shows no sign of letting up this year. Not only that, this flavor of AI is creeping into all sorts of technology we use if it’s not there already. For example, iOS 18 will purportedly include a major overhaul including A.I. when it launches later this year. Now, my seven or nine regular readers might have…

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Various and Sundry

“AI” is BS (and NSFW on several levels)

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Come on, between a key demand of the Writer’s Strike being the regulation of AI in screenwriting and some of my other posts about AI this year, did you really think I wouldn’t share this half-hour comedy screed from Adam Conover? It may be foul-mouthed, but it is funny. However, if you’re looking for a TL;DR one might sum it up as such: And did I mention it’s foul-mouthed? Beware around kindern and co-workers who…

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Various and Sundry

It’s Not Your Father’s Computer… It’s Your Great Grandfather’s Computer

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I am interested in technological progress (not just fun with machine learning bumbling into the creative sphere). And it’s usually about progress and how we might want to examine our societal decisions about how fast we’re going. So imagine my surprise when I read this article in Wired by Charles Platt about how analog computing is making a comeback. Oh, this is giving me story ideas…

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Various and Sundry

A Business Model to Optimize Crap

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Hey, if you think that’s a startling headline, the original title of the article by Cory Doctorow in Wired is not-safe-for-work. But it does touch on something you may have suspected or outright observed about social media sites and their lifecycle of desperately needing content and eventually not being that useful, but obnoxiously necessary. It may motivate you to think rather unsociable thoughts. In any case, I found it interesting and in line with many…

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Various and Sundry

Maybe You’re More of a Luddite than You Thought…

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

On Monday, I had another discussion with folks online about machine learning being employed for creative tasks and the inevitable “it’s inevitable” angle people who stand to benefit from that automation like to promote. One of the things I brought up is that people can not want technology to be implemented in a certain way and not be anti-technology, which reminded me of the term “Luddite,” commonly used these days to describe someone who is…

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Various and Sundry

Let There Be Light! Okay, maybe not that color…

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

If you want to get wonky, I mean deeply wonky, about modern supply chains and quality control have I got the article for you: Adam Rogers’ piece for Insider on how some cities streetlights are turning purple. It makes me wonder how many news stories there were about mishaps with the introduction of electric streetlights back in the day… and how long we are before cities have “smart” streetlights that change color and intensity depending…

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