Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
How can technology lead to more participation in democratic processes? Who should own and control city data? Can cities embrace a model that socializes data and encourages new forms of cooperativism and democratic innovation?
…a Microsoft researcher warned openly this month that AI, even in its current state, is ripe for abuse by aspiring despots: perfectly suited to the centralizing of power, tracking of populations down to the last individual, the demonizing of outsiders, all while radiating authority via a faux neutrality. “This is a fascist’s dream,” said Microsoft’s Kate Crawford, pulling no punches. “Power without accountability.”
As technology develops, fears increase. Who will we work for in the future? Will AI and robots just expel us from the market? Will they pay for our health system or keep the retirement bucket up and running?
Debates about the so-called rebound effect go back to William Stanley Jevons’ work in the 19th century, although they had been forgotten for too long. Rebound effects occur if a reduction of inputs per unit of output (efficiency) generates an absolute increase in output (growth).
Artificial cooling and digital equipment are the main drivers behind the quickly growing energy use of modern office work.
Companies like Twitter can make billions of dollars in revenue while providing a widely used service and still be considered a financial failure.
As we wrestle with the bounty of productivity as well as the displacement of employees by digital technologies, we may consider the greater operating system on which they’re all running.
Digital culture is changing society: the way we relate to each other, how power flows, decisions are made, and politics is done, shaping environmental stresses.
Nowadays media feeds are everywhere — on building facades, billboards, hotel lobbies, restaurants, elevators and even gas pumps.
