McFilter

Interesting Things on the Internet: January 9th 2023 Edition

• Optometrists, Octopii, Rubber Ducks & Centaurs: my talk at Design for AI, TU Delft, October 2022. Matt Jones always gives me new things to think about. This time it was more rediscovering the idea that I should be able to train a local "AI" to make my life better, without having to hand over all that data, and learnings, to some tech startup.
• After self-hosting my email for twenty-three years I have thrown in the towel. The oligopoly has won. I'm not giving up on my own email, but this lays out how the big providers are abusing their power.
• Network effect. "But Mastodon is not a platform. Mastodon is just a tiny part of a concept many have been dreaming about and working on for years. Social media started on the wrong foot. The idea for the read/write web has always been different. Our digital identities weren’t supposed to end up in something like Twitter or Facebook or Instagram." This.
• We Live In The Age of The Bullshitter. "There is no quick fix for the problem—if I offered one, I would be the very kind of bullshitter I strive to avoid being—but we at the very least need to recognize what it is we are trying to change. We are trying to create a culture of thoughtfulness and insight, where people check carefully to see whether what they’re saying is true, and excessively egotistical people are looked upon with deep suspicion."