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On the Cusp: Days of ’62 by David Kynaston
According to the Big 60s Sort Out podcast, the Sixties began in 1960. According to me, a pedant, they began in 1961 because we don’t count from zero (and they ended in 1970). According to Phillip Larkin, they began in 1963, while proponents of “the Long Sixties” argue that they began in 1956 and ended in 1973. My current read, by Christopher Bray, makes the case for 1965 as “the year modern Britain began”, but my previous read, by David Kynaston (him again) zooms in on the summer of 1962.
Here we are. I declare my interest: this is the year I was born, though in December, so after the events of this book. What is this book? It has the feel of a lockdown project. It’s part of Kynaston’s history of modern Britain series, which begins with Austerity Britain and then moves on through Family Britain (1951-57), Modernity Britain (57-62), and A Northern Wind (62-65). So what is this? Both Modernity Britain and A Northern Wind cover 1962, so why publish a book in the middle called On the Cusp?
Well, I suppose there’s a clue in the title. The series as a whole is called ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’, but in my mind it has the same title as that Moody Blues album Days of Future Passed. On the Cusp implies that we’ve reached a tipping point and that the author has decided to take stock around that tipping point before proceeding. He is, in effect, arguing that 1962 is the year that modern Britain began.
I’m interested in the publication dates, and convinced that lockdown had something to do with this. The previous volume, Modernity Britain, came out in 2015. This appeared in 2022, and A Northern Wind was published in 2024. So, he’s working on A Northern Wind for nearly 10 years, and possibly finds himself wrestling with its length. (I wonder how Mark Lewisohn is getting on with the second volume of he ‘All These Years’ series?) Presumably, the publishers want the book to be around 7-800 pages, so what is he to do with this 200-page section about the summer of 1962? And what would the reader make of a book that promised to take you up to 1965, but spends its first 200 pages leading up to the Beatles first single? Oh, and that first James Bond film, a coincidence John Higgs already wrote about in Love and Let Die.
And then lockdown happens, and the solution must have presented itself. I’ll just do a separate book, which can be published sooner, and give me a bit more time to work on the rest.
Here we are. That’s what this book is: an almost day-by-day account of the events of summer 1962. The cricket season, the last Gentlemen v. Players games, Steptoe and Son on the telly, the BBC hesitating over the pilot episodes of That Was The Week That Was, The Beatles on the radio, playing gigs around the country, the Rolling Stones presenting themselves as a blues band. It’s written in the style of one of those newspaper gossip columns, or the NME’s back-page “Teazers” column, with its anthropomorphised three little dots. Sometimes events get just a sentence, or a clause. And then sometimes Kynaston pauses and spends some time discussing what the politicians were up to, or how people reacted to an event. There’s very little mention of Harold Wilson, which is fascinating – because he is months away from becoming Labour leader when Hugh Gaitskell suddenly dies. A weird parallel to the way Tony Blair succeeded John Smith.
I remember my mum talking about certain cricketers as ‘gentlemen’ or ‘players’ and I remember thinking, what are you on about? And of course the reason I didn’t know was because that whole silly thing died its death a few months before I was born.
The book finishes, in true “Teazers” style, with several lists. There are 10 establishment figures whose day is done; and then 10 “new establishment” figures whose day is to come. And then a long old list, a record-breaking sentence, telling us all about the significant characters who will impact the next few years, and what they are doing on that fateful day when “Love Me Do” hit the shops.
Why did I pick this up when I haven’t read the previous two books yet. I plan to, but then this was only 200 pages, and I picked it up with British Summer Time Begins and 1965. I think I wanted to read about the world I vaguely knew but barely remember, the world of paraffin heaters and black and white telly. Interestingly (for me, I mean) 1965 begins with Winston Churchill’s funeral, which I do remember even though I had only just turned 2 when it took over the television and was on instead of Watch with Mother.
Anyway, it’s good, this. But you should probably, unlike me, read the books in the correct chronological order.
#1960s #1962 #60s #Beatles #BritishCulture #BritishHistory #history #Kynaston #Sixties
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"The weather was beginning to change. Today mist lay over the Use and, in the hedgerows, spiderwebs glistened"
Such an evocative description. It took me right back to a sailing trip at the cusp of autumn, waking up one morning in Akkrum to fog and a huge, glistening spiderweb between the boat's jibsheet and pulpit.
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Applause Entertainment and Zindagi Set South Asian Content Partnership: ‘We Are at the Cusp of Something Quite Dramatic’ (EXCLUSIVE)
#Variety #Asia #Global #News #Production #ApplauseEntertainment #SameerNair #Zindagi -
Manifesto for World Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pVxcbbPtw0
Rise Up, oh people of the world
Wake up, wake up!
We’re at the cusp of a geopolitical power shift moment.
The hierarchical, top down power structures that have ruled the world for thousands of years are now collapsing right before our eyes.
The street now holds unprecedented power, unprecedented sway…#Manifesto #WorldRevolution #SystemChange #GlobalRevolution #PlanetaryEndgame #Adbusters #RiseUp #Collapse #PowerShift #Streets
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Manifesto for World Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pVxcbbPtw0
Rise Up, oh people of the world
Wake up, wake up!
We’re at the cusp of a geopolitical power shift moment.
The hierarchical, top down power structures that have ruled the world for thousands of years are now collapsing right before our eyes.
The street now holds unprecedented power, unprecedented sway…#Manifesto #WorldRevolution #SystemChange #GlobalRevolution #PlanetaryEndgame #Adbusters #RiseUp #Collapse #PowerShift #Streets
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Manifesto for World Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pVxcbbPtw0
Rise Up, oh people of the world
Wake up, wake up!
We’re at the cusp of a geopolitical power shift moment.
The hierarchical, top down power structures that have ruled the world for thousands of years are now collapsing right before our eyes.
The street now holds unprecedented power, unprecedented sway…#Manifesto #WorldRevolution #SystemChange #GlobalRevolution #PlanetaryEndgame #Adbusters #RiseUp #Collapse #PowerShift #Streets
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Manifesto for World Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pVxcbbPtw0
Rise Up, oh people of the world
Wake up, wake up!
We’re at the cusp of a geopolitical power shift moment.
The hierarchical, top down power structures that have ruled the world for thousands of years are now collapsing right before our eyes.
The street now holds unprecedented power, unprecedented sway…#Manifesto #WorldRevolution #SystemChange #GlobalRevolution #PlanetaryEndgame #Adbusters #RiseUp #Collapse #PowerShift #Streets
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Manifesto for World Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pVxcbbPtw0
Rise Up, oh people of the world
Wake up, wake up!
We’re at the cusp of a geopolitical power shift moment.
The hierarchical, top down power structures that have ruled the world for thousands of years are now collapsing right before our eyes.
The street now holds unprecedented power, unprecedented sway…#Manifesto #WorldRevolution #SystemChange #GlobalRevolution #PlanetaryEndgame #Adbusters #RiseUp #Collapse #PowerShift #Streets
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Politicians’ growth fetish is the problem—and Sunak is headed for the same budget trap as Truss | New @TheGuardian Op-ed by @ProfTimJackson → https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/16/politicians-growth-fetish-sunak-budget-climate
"To all intents and purposes, we’re already living in a post-growth world. And it’s time to take that challenge seriously."
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#AutumnBudget #RishiSunak #JeremyHunt #UKtreasury #PostGrowth #Degrowth #SecularStagnation #Recession #WellbeingEconomy #GrowthDependency #BeyondGDP #EconTwitter -
Youth lifestyles and wellbeing in climate-resilient urban development: insights from our CYCLES #YoungLives7Cities study → https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/s1/cycles/paper-kp-cycles-climate-resilience/
This study explores the relational contexts shaping youth #wellbeing and #consumption in #UrbanSpaces, drawing on insights from 332 young people across seven cities. Findings highlight the role of family, #community, and public spaces in shaping #LowCarbon #lifestyles and propose ways for #LocalGovernments to foster sustainable #UrbanDevelopment.
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@cedric Hi Cedric, not sure I understand you correctly, but it's not just a language exercise—an angle rather to address the underlying dysfunction (#SecularStagnation): when growth is actually not to be had anymore (whatever the understandings of necessity to go #beyondgrowth), the need for tackling the dependency on it becomes evident to a far wider range of actors in the system. And 'de-ideologised' if you like. → https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/briefing-paper-no1/ #postgrowth #degrowth #precautionaryprinciple
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Embracing the Unthinkable—In 2018, the UK's Ministry of Defence commissioned work on #SecularStagnation for the Strategic Trends review. Here's a blog by Alan Simpson—recovering politician by his own account—sharing some reflections about the research, and subsequent briefing paper for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on #LimitsToGrowth. → https://cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/blog_as_embracing-the-unthinkable/ @ProfTimJackson
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cc #PostGrowth #Degrowth #GrowthDependency #WellbeingEconomy #ClimateChange #EconTwitter #GDP #Austerity -
Economic Growth—can we ever have enough? | BBC Radio 4 Analysis with @ProfTimJackson, Jayati Ghosh, Danny Dorling, Benjamin Friedman, Motohiro Sato and Diane Coyle. Listen via → https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001dwv0
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#BBCRadio4 cc #ProsperityWithoutGrowth #PostGrowth #Postwachstum #PostCroissance #PostCrecimiento #LifeAfterCapitalism #Degrowth #Decroissance #Decrecimiento #BeyondGDP #BeyondGrowth #GrowthDependency #WellbeingEconomy #Economics #SecularStagnation -
#linuxtablet Now that we are on the cusp of the Debian 11 release, I confess: I am now leaning towards Arch as my preferred system. I have continued reading & researching since my last post, & it’s really hard to beat the AUR. Debian is equivalent as long as you add the KXStudio repos, but realistically how much can a single man do? If anything ever happened to #falktx, the entire Debian family of distros would be screwed as far as music creation apps goes. He is an under appreciated treasure!
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Nanobots—tiny machines measured in billionths of a meter—are transforming science and medicine as we know it. Once considered a futuristic concept, these microscopic robots are now being developed for real-world applications that will forever change how we approach disease treatment, environmental protection, and even industrial production. Imagine a robot so small that it can swim through your bloodstream, repairing tissues, targeting cancer cells, and delivering medication directly to the source.
Table of Contents
- What are Nanobots?
- How Nanobots Are Revolutionizing Medicine
- Nanobots in Cancer Treatment
- Precision Drug Delivery
- Tissue Regeneration and Wound Healing
- Diagnostics and Early Disease Detection
- Industrial Applications of Nanobots
- Manufacturing and Precision Assembly
- Nanotechnology in Materials Science
- Environmental Cleanup
- Miniaturization in Electronics
- Ethical and Safety Concerns Surrounding Nanobots
- Privacy and Security Risks
- Health Risks: Toxicity and Long-term Effects
- Ethical Considerations in Human Enhancement
- Regulatory Challenges
- The Future of Nanobots
- Advancements in AI and Nanobots
- Space Exploration and Deep-Sea Research
- The Growing Market for Nanobots
- Nanobots and Emerging Technologies
- Conclusion
What are Nanobots?
Nanobots are incredibly tiny machines, usually between 1 and 100 nanometers in size. To put that into perspective, a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, which is about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair! These robots are built from nanoscale components and can be programmed to complete tasks with extraordinary precision.
There are various types of nanobots, including:
- Biomedical nanobots: Designed for medical purposes like targeted drug delivery or surgery.
- Industrial nanobots: Used in manufacturing and materials science.
- Environmental nanobots: These can assist in pollution cleanup and environmental protection.
How Nanobots Are Revolutionizing Medicine
The healthcare industry is perhaps where nanobots show the most promise. Scientists and researchers are using nanobots in several groundbreaking ways:
Nanobots in Cancer Treatment
One of the most exciting applications of nanobots is in oncology. Traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy are notorious for damaging healthy cells along with cancerous ones, leading to side effects such as hair loss and fatigue. Nanobots, however, offer a targeted approach, delivering drugs directly to cancerous tumors while sparing healthy cells. These tiny machines can even be programmed to detect and destroy cancer cells without harming surrounding tissue, potentially making treatments much more efficient and less painful.
Precision Drug Delivery
Nanobots are also being used to enhance drug delivery systems. Unlike conventional methods, where drugs travel through the bloodstream and can lose potency before reaching their target, nanobots can navigate the bloodstream with pinpoint accuracy. This increases the effectiveness of medications and minimizes side effects, especially in treatments for chronic conditions like diabetes or neurological disorders.
Tissue Regeneration and Wound Healing
In the realm of regenerative medicine, nanobots can repair damaged tissues or help in wound healing. By guiding the regrowth of cells at the molecular level, they offer new hope for treating injuries that have long been considered irreversible, such as nerve damage or spinal cord injuries.
Diagnostics and Early Disease Detection
Nanobots can be employed in diagnostics as well, acting as “scouts” that monitor the body for early signs of disease. Imagine nanobots constantly patrolling your bloodstream, detecting abnormalities like elevated blood sugar levels or cancer markers long before symptoms even appear. This could make early detection—and therefore early treatment—a game-changer in medical care.
Industrial Applications of Nanobots
Nanobots aren’t limited to medicine. Their potential to improve various industries is enormous:
Manufacturing and Precision Assembly
Nanobots can assemble products at the nanoscale with incredible precision. This could revolutionize the production of electronics, reducing the size and increasing the efficiency of devices such as microchips. In the automotive and aerospace industries, nanobots could manufacture components at a fraction of the cost and with minimal material waste.
Nanotechnology in Materials Science
In materials science, nanobots could create stronger, lighter, and more durable materials. Nanotechnology is already being used to enhance properties in materials like carbon nanotubes, which are significantly stronger than steel but much lighter. Nanobots could further advance these developments, enabling the creation of new materials with even more remarkable properties.
Environmental Cleanup
Another exciting area is environmental protection. Nanobots can be designed to detect and remove pollutants from the air, water, or soil. For example, they could clean up oil spills by breaking down hydrocarbons or filter heavy metals from contaminated water supplies. This makes them invaluable tools for addressing some of the biggest environmental challenges we face today.
Miniaturization in Electronics
In electronics, the trend toward miniaturization continues with the help of nanobots. As our devices get smaller and more powerful, nanobots can help push this to new extremes by assembling components at the atomic level. This could lead to breakthroughs in everything from smartphones to quantum computers.
Ethical and Safety Concerns Surrounding Nanobots
As with any cutting-edge technology, nanobots bring significant ethical and safety concerns that need to be addressed:
Privacy and Security Risks
One of the main concerns with nanobots is privacy. In theory, they could be used for surveillance or monitoring without a person’s consent. For instance, nanobots could be released into the environment to gather data, potentially violating privacy rights. Similarly, the use of nanobots in the body for health monitoring could raise concerns about who controls the data and how it’s used.
Health Risks: Toxicity and Long-term Effects
Since nanobots interact with biological tissues, there are concerns about the long-term effects they may have on human health. What happens if nanobots malfunction or accumulate in the body? Could they cause unintended damage or toxicity? These questions remain largely unanswered, and rigorous safety testing is essential before widespread adoption.
Ethical Considerations in Human Enhancement
Nanobots could also be used to enhance human capabilities, raising ethical questions about the limits of human augmentation. Should we use nanobots to enhance our physical or cognitive abilities, and if so, how far should we go? Some worry that this could create an unequal playing field where only those who can afford enhancements benefit from them.
Regulatory Challenges
Given the novelty of nanobot technology, regulatory bodies are still grappling with how to oversee its development and use. Ensuring safety and setting guidelines for ethical use will require international cooperation and new frameworks for regulation.
The Future of Nanobots
Advancements in AI and Nanobots
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and nanotechnology could lead to fully autonomous nanobots capable of performing complex tasks without human intervention. Imagine a fleet of AI-powered nanobots that can diagnose diseases, administer treatments, or even perform repairs on machinery, all while making real-time decisions based on the data they collect.
Space Exploration and Deep-Sea Research
Nanobots are poised to play a role in space exploration and deep-sea research. Due to their tiny size and energy efficiency, nanobots can be used to explore environments that are too dangerous or inaccessible for humans. In space, nanobots could assist in the construction of structures or even help repair damaged satellites.
The Growing Market for Nanobots
The economic impact of nanobots is significant, with estimates suggesting that the nanotechnology market could be worth hundreds of billions by 2030. This growth will not only create new industries and job opportunities but also shift how we approach everything from healthcare to environmental conservation.
Nanobots and Emerging Technologies
As technologies like quantum computing and advanced AI continue to evolve, the potential for integrating these systems with nanobots is immense. Quantum computers could be used to optimize nanobot performance, while AI could enhance their decision-making abilities. This symbiotic relationship between technologies could unlock capabilities we have yet to imagine.
Want to read more about nanotechnology?
Conclusion
Nanobots are on the cusp of revolutionizing multiple industries, from medicine and electronics to environmental protection and manufacturing. These tiny machines have the power to make targeted cancer treatments a reality, clean up our environment, and create new, advanced materials.
In the years to come, nanobots may go from being an exciting scientific frontier to an everyday part of our lives. Stay informed and keep an eye on this rapidly developing field—you never know where the next nanobot breakthrough will lead!
https://geekysteth.com/nanobots-in-2024-revolutionizing-medicine-and-beyond/
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Today I learned that there’s a name for people like me.
What’s Generation Jones? Meet those on the Gen X/boomer cusp - Upworthy
" ... there’s also a lesser-known microgeneration that straddles Gen X and baby boomers. The folks born from 1954 to 1965 are known as Generation Jones, and they’ve been thrust into the spotlight as people try to figure out what generation to consider 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris."
https://www.upworthy.com/what-is-generation-jones-the-unique-qualities-of-the-not-quite-gen-xer
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Read newly-discovered prose by George Egerton, an icon of the 19th century 'New Woman' movement, introduced by Margaret D. Stetz and Alex Murray in the new issue of CUSP
This piece — and the whole issue — is free, #S2O #OpenAccess at Project MUSE
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Read newly-discovered prose by George Egerton, an icon of the 19th century 'New Woman' movement, introduced by Margaret D. Stetz and Alex Murray in the new issue of CUSP
This piece — and the whole issue — is free, #S2O #OpenAccess at Project MUSE
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NEW ISSUE OUT NOW
CUSP: Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Cultures
4.1, Winter 2026#S2O #OpenAccess at Project MUSE
https://tiny.one/u5ebj5chCONTRIBUTORS
Simon Reader
John Plotz
Aaron Matz
Ashley Miller
Simon Joyce
Imogen Forbes-Macphail
Will Glovinsky
Matthew J. Rigilano
Emily Waller Singeisen
Sara Lyons
Margaret D. Stetz
Alex Murray
George Egerton
Esme Cleall -
Visions of the Future: How to Be a Realist in a Techno-Optimist World
https://therealists.org/?p=8080
We are on the cusp of a new era.
Apple – the world’s second largest company by market cap ($2.85 trillion as of Feb. 1, 2024) – is putting significant R&D and marketing efforts in the promotion of a new product (Vision Pro) and a new tech category: spatial computing – as in, a computer you wear on your face that blends the physical and digital worlds.
a still image from Apple’s video introducing Vision Pro
Tremendous cultural and societal changes are potentially on the horizon. The risk? The real world seeming too boring to experience without tech overlayed on top of it.
An even bigger risk: the invasion of our private moments for advertising purposes – where every second of our lives become an opportunity by Big Tech to sell us something. Ubiquitous, micro-targeted, constant advertising.
I think we don’t realize how lucky we are this very moment, when opportunities to be exposed to microtargeted ads are limited to the time we spend on our computers and smartphones (if we don’t have adblock or a pi-hole turned on).
“A tech fentanyl dealer posing as a rehab provider”
The digital cover of the Vanity Fair issue with a profile of Tim Cook and Apple’s Vision Pro
Journalist Nick Bilton recently wrote a feature for Vanity Fair about Apple’s Vision Pro and the Cupertino-based company’s big bet on spatial computing: “Why Tim Cook Is Going All In on the Apple Vision Pro.“
This is how Bilton felt after taking off Vision Pro and experiencing the world as it is:
When I take it off, every other device feels flat and boring: My 75-inch OLED TV feels like a CRT from the ’90s; my iPhone feels like a flip phone from yesteryear, and even the real world around me feels surprisingly flat. And this is the problem. In the same way that I can’t imagine driving a car without a stereo, in the same way I can’t imagine not having a phone to communicate with people or take pictures of my children, in the same way I can’t imagine trying to work without a computer, I can see a day when we all can’t imagine living without an augmented reality. When we’re enveloped more and more by technology, to the point that we crave these glasses like a drug, like we crave our iPhones today but with more desire for the dopamine hit this resolution of AR can deliver. I know deep down that the Apple Vision Pro is too immersive, and yet all I want to do is see the world through it.
I’ve been haunted by Bilton’s testimony ever since I’ve read this article. Even more chilling is what followed:
“I’m sure the technology is terrific. I still think and hope it fails,” one Silicon Valley investor said to me. “Apple feels more and more like a tech fentanyl dealer that poses as a rehab provider.” Harsh words, but he feels what we all feel, a slave to our smartphone, and he’s seen this play before and he knows what the first act is like, and the second act, and he knows how it ends.
I read Bilton’s article as I was in public transportation last weekend while I was out running errands. As I stepped on a crowded subway platform, waiting for a train that would take me to a restaurant, where my husband and my daughter were waiting for me, I could not stop thinking about Bilton’s words. My first thought was: it’s really nice to see other people’s faces. Am I witnessing the last days and months of an old world, before Vision Pro and copycat spatial computing goggles go mainstream? What will the world look like for my daughter 10 years from now? Will most people be moving around with a VR headset strapped on their faces? Or will these remain a niche product like Google Glass and Snap Spectacles and Oculus headsets?
This technology will surely evolve over the years, making spatial computing devices lighter and less obtrusive. I wouldn’t be surprised if a decade from now this technology will be incorporated in contact lenses or elegant glasses – impossible to notice by a casual observer.
Why is this a problem? Through spatial computing, Big Tech will surely be able to mine even more personal data and exploit uncharted parts of our lives for commercial purposes. 24/7 surveillance and data mining that will potentially rob us of our privacy and lead to behavioral changes in service of commerce and consumerism. Advertising may become even more embedded in our everyday lives, with exposure to ads a constant in augmented reality spaces. Just think about the film Minority Report and the future it envisioned (watch a short excerpt on YouTube).
The Future is Unwritten: Knowledge + Action = Power
Earlier this week, as I was walking through central Paris after a meeting, I spotted a giant mural that left me speechless for its powerful message and its timeliness. I immediately recognized the style of Shepard Fairey, who has created other iconic murals in Paris (in addition to Obama’s famous campaign poster). This work – on a wall near the Stravinsky Fountain, next to a Jef Aerosol giant pochoir – shows two women, depicted in Art Nouveau style, each standing on a pile of books and stretching their arms, as if they’re holding a lotus flower. An open book at their feet says “The Future is Unwritten” and below there’s the sentence “Knowledge + Action = Power.”
Murals in Paris: right, Shepard Farey’s “The Future is Unwritten”
We live in a techno-optimist world, where technological change is heavily promoted by companies who reap large profits from it, without much thought about societal consequences.
Remember the quasi-religious fervor the world witnessed after Steve Jobs introduced the first ever iPhone in 2007? The device was quickly nicknamed the “Jesus phone” and even Apple’s own advertising played on this. My pet peeve during the 2000s-2010s? Introductions of new platforms and devices by Big Tech, followed by fawning articles by tech reporters. Articles that read like glorified press releases, without much critical thought put into them.
The first ever ad for Apple’s iPhone with the slogan “Touching is believing”
Well, the tides have turned. I am feeling a glimmer of hope following the introduction of Apple’s Vision Pro: from The Verge to Wired to the New York Times, the most shared sentiment in reaction to the release of this device was skepticism and head-scratching regarding its usefulness.
- The Verge: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not
- Wired: Apple’s Vision Pro Isn’t the Future
- The New York Times: Vision Pro Review: Apple’s First Headset Lacks Polish and Purpose
A future where we walk around with a device our face that blends the real world with the digital world is not inevitable.
The future is still unwritten.
We can object to such a future – like people did 10 years ago with the introduction of Google Glass. Remember that people who wore Google Glasses out in public where called “Glassholes”?
According to Wikipedia:
Google started selling a prototype of Google Glass to qualified “Glass Explorers” in the US on April 15, 2013, for a limited period for $1,500, before it became available to the public on May 15, 2014. It had an integral 5 megapixel still/720p video camera. The headset received a great deal of criticism amid concerns that its use could violate existing privacy laws. On January 15, 2015, Google announced that it would stop producing the Google Glass prototype. The prototype was succeeded by two Enterprise Editions, whose sales were suspended on March 15, 2023.
Winners and Losers
The introduction of this new product category inspired me to rewatch an iconic lecture by the late Neil Postman: “Six Questions about Technology” (held at Calvin College in 1998).
Postman said:
[Only] a fool doesn’t know that new technology always produce winners and losers and there is nothing irrational about loser resistance. Bill Gates who is of course a winner knows this and because he is no fool, his propaganda continuously implies that computer technology can bring harm to no one. Well that’s the way of winners – they want losers to be grateful… and enthusiastic… and especially – best of all – to be unaware that they are losers.
This is such a powerful concept worth repeating: “they want losers to be grateful… and enthusiastic… and especially – best of all – to be unaware that they are losers.”
Later he continued:
Television gives power to some, while it deprives others and that is true of every important medium and this fact has always been understood by intelligent entrepreneurs who see opportunities emerging from the creation of new media. And that that’s why media entrepreneurs are the most radical force in culture. They are interested in maximizing profits of new media and do not usually give much thought to large scale cultural effects. America’s greatest radicals have always been our entrepreneurs: (Samuel) Morse, (Alexander Graham) Bell, (Thomas) Edison, (David) Sarnoff, (Walt) Disney. These men created the 20th century as Bill Gates and others are creating the 21st. I don’t know if much can be done to moderate the cultural changes that media entrepreneurs will enforce. But citizens ought to know about what is happening and keep an attentive eye on such people.
Knowledge: Postman’s Six Questions
Here are the six questions cultural critic Neil Postman said we should always ask ourselves when a new technology is introduced.
Keep in mind Apple’s Vision Pro and the new field of spatial computing when reading them:
- What is the problem to which this technology is the solution?
- Whose problem is it?
- Which people and what institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological solution?
- What new problems might be created because we have solved this problem?
- What sort of people and institutions might acquire special economic and political power because of technological change?
- What changes in language are being enforced by new technologies, and what is being gained and lost by such changes?
Action: Resist
Similarly with what happened with Google Glass 10 years ago, we can reject and label as creepy recording devices that sits on one’s face – when one is out in public. I’m sure there can be interesting use cases at home, while watching movies for example. But we don’t need to see people in these recording headsets out in the street.
We collectively rejected Google Glass 10 years ago – and the product went bust.
In this case outright rejecting Apple’s Vision Pro will prove to be a challenge because of Apple’s cool factor and the fact Vision Pro is mostly touted to be used in the privacy of our homes or offices. But remember: the ultimate goal of Apple is to normalize and make spatial computing go mainstream – making us embrace this technology so that 5 or 10 years from now, we won’t be able to live without it.
The future envisioned by Minority Report is incredibly attractive to Big Tech for the opportunity to mine our personal lives and data for their profit.
It’s up to us to resist to this future – now. Before the technology becomes too embedded in our daily lives.
Power
Ultimately, the power rests within us.
We don’t have to accept VR headsets or spatial computing as the new normal. Resistance – especially outspoken resistance – is an empowering option available now. Before it’s too late.
#Apple #attentionEconomy #digitalLiteracy #dystopia #films #future #MinorityReport #NeilPostman #resistance #ShepardFarey #spatialComputing #technoOptimism #technoOptimist #VisionPro
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#BehindTheScenes
#SomethingsGottaGive (2003)
A swinger on the cusp of being a senior citizen with a taste for young women falls in love with an accomplished woman closer to his age.#JackNicholson #DianeKeaton discussing scene with Director #NancyMeyers (in black).
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I worked on #AI research since 1980 and have seen a lot. So when Geoff #Hinton resigns from #Google to warn people about the very technology he doggedly pursued for decades, I have to take notice. This is especially true since I (and many others in AI of that era) did not and do not believe it is the most powerful approach to AI. We are on the cusp of integrating these techniques in powerful new hybrid systems that combine #statistical #associative methods with #semantic #conceptual methods. /1
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One of the greatest journalistic misapprehensions of all time was made by one of the greatest journalists of all time. In December 1931, the legendary American reporter Dorothy Thompson secured an interview with #AdolfHitler, whose National Socialist party had recently surged in the polls, bringing him from the fringe of German politics to the cusp of political power.
(🎁) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/hitler-press-germany/682130/?gift=cg1XdqsyWjCIPVWKLR2XU44xSufP12eaIzjy-OglB9Q #history #press
“When I walked into Adolf #Hitler’s room, I was convinced that I was meeting the future #dictator of #Germany,” Thompson recalled afterward. “In something like 50 seconds, I was quite sure he was not. It took just about that time to measure the startling insignificance of this man who has set the world agog.” Within a year, Hitler was chancellor. -
In the latest episode of the podcast series #MumWillThePlanetDie/BeforeIDo, Babita Sharma and Katy Glassborow chat to Guy Singh-Watson, a farmer and the founder of #Riverford. He joins us to talk about food, the organic farming in the climate crisis, and his passion for truly sustainable agriculture.
You can find the podcast on the usual platforms, or via ▶️ https://cusp.ac.uk/mumwilltheplanetdie/
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#ParentsForFuture #SustainableFood #LiveLifeOnTheVeg #AgroEcology #SustainableBusiness #PostGrowth -
Top 5 Crypto Coins Under $1 To Watch In 2024 - As we march towards 2024, the cryptocurrency market stands at the cusp of a transf... - https://coingape.com/markets/top-5-crypto-coins-under-1-to-watch-in-2024/ #cronospriceanalysis #rosepriceanalysis #xrppriceanalysis #priceanalysis #klaytn
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Hey folks :FediverseSymbol:
We've actually done an unwritten, off-the-cusp trans voice Friday recording today :TransHeart:
We've not listened back to it, because voice dysphoria, but we've added full alt text.
In case you're wondering how we've done that without listening back to it, we've once against used an amazing tool called Subtitle Edit, which has audio to text functionality via the Whisper speech recognition engine.
We used the large-v3 model, which is about 3.1 GB, but gives incredibly accurate transcription.
In case anyone can't access the alt text, we've added the full transcript below too.
#TransVoiceFriday #TransVoice #voice #VoiceFeminisation #VoiceFeminization #VoiceTraining #trans #transgender #TransFem #VoiceDysphoria #SubtitleEdit #PurfviewWhisper #AudioToText #SpeechToText #SpeechRecognition
Hey folks, I know that we haven't done a voice note in forever, and that's been for a multitude of reasons, some of which are related to mental health, some of which are related to work, stress, anxiety, depression, etc, things like that, which comes under mental health anyway, yeah, partly due to poor time management, yay for being AuDHD! But not gonna lie, some of it does come down to underlying voice dysphoria, because this is the best we've managed to get since December 2021. And just for anyone who hasn't heard roughly what we sounded like beforehand, we haven't exactly moved our voice up a lot. I mean, the base level would just be down here. So I can move my voice back up here easily now, and this is the comfortable, this is the default voice. But, um... It's not where I want it to be, it's not in the female range, and I can't easily push the pitch up higher without it sounding wrong. But yeah, there's been a lot of stuff going on recently, um, a lot of bad stuff for everyone, don't want to talk about all of that. But, um, let's just focus on supporting each other, helping each other, um, being kind to ourselves and others right now, and being compassionate and empathetic. That's all I've really got to say. I'm trying to do the same thing with ourselves, but yeah, it's hard sometimes. Anyway, ta-ta for now.
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Hey folks :FediverseSymbol:
We've actually done an unwritten, off-the-cusp trans voice Friday recording today :TransHeart:
We've not listened back to it, because voice dysphoria, but we've added full alt text.
In case you're wondering how we've done that without listening back to it, we've once against used an amazing tool called Subtitle Edit, which has audio to text functionality via the Whisper speech recognition engine.
We used the large-v3 model, which is about 3.1 GB, but gives incredibly accurate transcription.
In case anyone can't access the alt text, we've added the full transcript below too.
#TransVoiceFriday #TransVoice #voice #VoiceFeminisation #VoiceFeminization #VoiceTraining #trans #transgender #TransFem #VoiceDysphoria #SubtitleEdit #PurfviewWhisper #AudioToText #SpeechToText #SpeechRecognition
Hey folks, I know that we haven't done a voice note in forever, and that's been for a multitude of reasons, some of which are related to mental health, some of which are related to work, stress, anxiety, depression, etc, things like that, which comes under mental health anyway, yeah, partly due to poor time management, yay for being AuDHD! But not gonna lie, some of it does come down to underlying voice dysphoria, because this is the best we've managed to get since December 2021. And just for anyone who hasn't heard roughly what we sounded like beforehand, we haven't exactly moved our voice up a lot. I mean, the base level would just be down here. So I can move my voice back up here easily now, and this is the comfortable, this is the default voice. But, um... It's not where I want it to be, it's not in the female range, and I can't easily push the pitch up higher without it sounding wrong. But yeah, there's been a lot of stuff going on recently, um, a lot of bad stuff for everyone, don't want to talk about all of that. But, um, let's just focus on supporting each other, helping each other, um, being kind to ourselves and others right now, and being compassionate and empathetic. That's all I've really got to say. I'm trying to do the same thing with ourselves, but yeah, it's hard sometimes. Anyway, ta-ta for now.
-
Hey folks :FediverseSymbol:
We've actually done an unwritten, off-the-cusp trans voice Friday recording today :TransHeart:
We've not listened back to it, because voice dysphoria, but we've added full alt text.
In case you're wondering how we've done that without listening back to it, we've once against used an amazing tool called Subtitle Edit, which has audio to text functionality via the Whisper speech recognition engine.
We used the large-v3 model, which is about 3.1 GB, but gives incredibly accurate transcription.
In case anyone can't access the alt text, we've added the full transcript below too.
#TransVoiceFriday #TransVoice #voice #VoiceFeminisation #VoiceFeminization #VoiceTraining #trans #transgender #TransFem #VoiceDysphoria #SubtitleEdit #PurfviewWhisper #AudioToText #SpeechToText #SpeechRecognition
Hey folks, I know that we haven't done a voice note in forever, and that's been for a multitude of reasons, some of which are related to mental health, some of which are related to work, stress, anxiety, depression, etc, things like that, which comes under mental health anyway, yeah, partly due to poor time management, yay for being AuDHD! But not gonna lie, some of it does come down to underlying voice dysphoria, because this is the best we've managed to get since December 2021. And just for anyone who hasn't heard roughly what we sounded like beforehand, we haven't exactly moved our voice up a lot. I mean, the base level would just be down here. So I can move my voice back up here easily now, and this is the comfortable, this is the default voice. But, um... It's not where I want it to be, it's not in the female range, and I can't easily push the pitch up higher without it sounding wrong. But yeah, there's been a lot of stuff going on recently, um, a lot of bad stuff for everyone, don't want to talk about all of that. But, um, let's just focus on supporting each other, helping each other, um, being kind to ourselves and others right now, and being compassionate and empathetic. That's all I've really got to say. I'm trying to do the same thing with ourselves, but yeah, it's hard sometimes. Anyway, ta-ta for now.
-
Hey folks :FediverseSymbol:
We've actually done an unwritten, off-the-cusp trans voice Friday recording today :TransHeart:
We've not listened back to it, because voice dysphoria, but we've added full alt text.
In case you're wondering how we've done that without listening back to it, we've once against used an amazing tool called Subtitle Edit, which has audio to text functionality via the Whisper speech recognition engine.
We used the large-v3 model, which is about 3.1 GB, but gives incredibly accurate transcription.
In case anyone can't access the alt text, we've added the full transcript below too.
#TransVoiceFriday #TransVoice #voice #VoiceFeminisation #VoiceFeminization #VoiceTraining #trans #transgender #TransFem #VoiceDysphoria #SubtitleEdit #PurfviewWhisper #AudioToText #SpeechToText #SpeechRecognition
Hey folks, I know that we haven't done a voice note in forever, and that's been for a multitude of reasons, some of which are related to mental health, some of which are related to work, stress, anxiety, depression, etc, things like that, which comes under mental health anyway, yeah, partly due to poor time management, yay for being AuDHD! But not gonna lie, some of it does come down to underlying voice dysphoria, because this is the best we've managed to get since December 2021. And just for anyone who hasn't heard roughly what we sounded like beforehand, we haven't exactly moved our voice up a lot. I mean, the base level would just be down here. So I can move my voice back up here easily now, and this is the comfortable, this is the default voice. But, um... It's not where I want it to be, it's not in the female range, and I can't easily push the pitch up higher without it sounding wrong. But yeah, there's been a lot of stuff going on recently, um, a lot of bad stuff for everyone, don't want to talk about all of that. But, um, let's just focus on supporting each other, helping each other, um, being kind to ourselves and others right now, and being compassionate and empathetic. That's all I've really got to say. I'm trying to do the same thing with ourselves, but yeah, it's hard sometimes. Anyway, ta-ta for now.
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Good news, everyone! There's now a path for enforcing the GPL even if you're not the explicit copyright holder!
https://sfconservancy.org/news/2025/jan/09/avm-copyleft-lawsuit-resolved-with-install/
The below quote is from an email I received, not in the press release above, but is extremely good news:
>This successful lawsuit confirms that anyone can enforce their copyleft rights; copyright holders don’t shoulder the burden alone! Until now, the promise of copyleft has been empty for many people. I have dedicated myself to changing that because users deserve the right to modify and reinstall the software on their devices. Manufacturers are powerful, and when they violate copyleft, most users have little recourse and limited options. **But this case opens the doors for everyone** to pursue the rights copyleft promises — through their own efforts. **We are on the cusp of a future where people can freely modify and adapt their devices to do what they want, either by themselves, or with the help of a friend or contractor**. Your donations keep this trajectory going. I hope that excites you as much as it excites me!