Tag: The Internets!

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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Various and Sundry

A.I., Being Online, & Finding Your Tribe

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Somewhat derailed by yesterday’s news, I pushed this post until today, but I wanted to offer a counter-balance to last’s week’s video tearing apart the tech industry mania of about AI with a thoughtful one from a different Adam. The video could be divided into two parts, one about AI and the other about connecting with people online (or the difficulty therein). And while there may not be a through-line at first glance, it flows…

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Various and Sundry

Contemplating Internet Umbrage

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Internet for the past few weeks. No, not in the “What has the Internet ever done for us?” kind of way. More in the “Do I like the current cut of the Internet’s jib?” kind of way. I mean, the whole AI obsession has not abated since I mused about it last year. So this video struck me when I came across it earlier this week. This led…

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Various and Sundry

The Blob Opera Endures

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

In clearing out some old emails and other materials dating back to the height of the pandemic, when we were looking for so many distractions, I came across my sharing of this machine-learning curiosity, which is not only still functioning, it seems like it may be enhanced. So launch up your favorite browser and enjoy. Considering the recent departure of two folks who contributed much to world silliness, re-introducing this bit of silliness seems appropriate…

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Various and Sundry

The Hot Wing Torture Interview Method: John Oliver Edition

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I’m a big fan of John Oliver’s investigative comedy on Last Week Tonight, so I’m happy that the show is returning this weekend. That does mean he’s making the rounds of media appearances, for example, he and Steamboat Mickey can be seen on Colbert from earlier this week. But the one that especially caught my eye was his interview for Hot Ones, which I confess I did not realize had been going on since 2015.…

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Various and Sundry

Pulp Break

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Based on several standing meeting cancellations and trip pics on social media, I have deduced that Spring Break is in the air for many people. And Spring Break often means travel. And travel often means reading material. And such reading material is often… pulpy. So thanks to Open Culture, I now know that the Internet Archive has thousands of issues of the pulp magazines available for your reading pleasure. And now so do you. Use…

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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

I’m Afraid the Force is with this Mashup, Dave

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Look, I wasn’t looking for this. You weren’t looking for this. But the Internet finds ways of creating things we weren’t looking for. So enjoy one of the classics of sci-fi (2001) cited occasionally by some for why they don’t like sci-fi mashed up with another one of the classics of sci-fi (Star Wars) cited continually by too many as something that “ahktshually, isn’t science fiction.”

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Writing

Sci Fi versus Fantasy

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

A meme tickled Twitter users’ fancy late last month and for good reason: it was a pair of pithy comments contrasting science fiction and fantasy and skewering the related tropes for both. Mignon Fogarty has a good collection over at the Grammar Girl, but be warned! You’ll start wanting to do your own. To whit: Sci Fi is this blog on an encrypted server you’ll need some cyberpunk hacker to access. Fantasy is this blog…

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