Links 11
Marc Andreessen: “Is Twitter an engine or a camera? […] The prevailing wisdom is that it’s primarily an engine. It’s changing behaviour for better or worse. I actually tend to think it’s at least as much a camera. It’s like a giant X-ray machine. You’ve got this phenomenon, which is just fascinating, where you have all of these public figures, all of these people in positions of authority — in a lot of cases, great authority — the leading legal theorists of our time, leading politicians, all these businesspeople. And they tweet, and all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s who you actually are. These are the things you actually think. This is your actual level of thought. Oh, these are the delusions you’re operating under.’”
Richard Dawkins, legendary tweeter.
Google AI’s Talk to Books “let’s you make a statement or ask a question, and the tool finds sentences in books that respond, with no dependence on keyword matching. [. . .] In a sense you are talking to the books, getting responses which can help you determine if you’re interested in reading them or not.” My questions: How are we to remain human in an inhuman world? Where are the clowns? Why should anyone care about the Collatz Conjecture? Who put the lime in the coconut? Did I save the horse or did the horse save me? Where have all the flowers gone?
Better: What's the most profound experience you've ever had? Why is bioethics important? How can we build stable and inclusive societies? How do you come to terms with your mortality? How do you keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you?
Carpe diem. Carpe fucking diem.
