radio bubble (13. 449)

Via tmn, we enjoyed contemplating how much we’ve contributed to the cosmic conversation with the ever expanding shell of signals, every form of broadcast communication that has escaped the ionosphere and into the void of space. Though only a few missives were intentional and the vast scale of galaxy means that despite the impressive sounding volume of the bubble, two-hundred and forty light years across (the radius cubed of radio history multiplied by π times four-thirds, dating back to Marconi’s experiments at the turn of the last century, beamed out at the speed of light) only covers a vanishing small fraction of our own galactic local neighbourhood, still the silence (see above) is humbling and lonely. Our vision far outpaces our voice.  More from the Scientific Drop at the link above.

bi-stable curious (13. 440)

Celebrating the return of his favourite recurring character with his latest panel, frequent cartoon contributor to the New Yorker Paul Noth, as we are informed by Things magazine, shares his fascination with optical illusion, including his signature duck-rabbit, first appearing in the humour publication Fliegende Blätter by an anonymous artist in 1892 and soon being ensconced in common parlance by Ludwig Wittgenstein, describing the phenomenon as a bi-stable (or multi-stable) percept, philosophically put “seeing that” versus “seeing as” with an intermediate study in psychology and the original paradigm shift. Much more at the links above.

the do-nothing machine (13.434)

Courtesy of friend of the blog, Nag on the Lake, we are introduced to the 1957 experimental demonstration, one of the first uses of solar power at the time (see previously) from dynamic design duo Charles and Ray Eames (see also here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), over which the couple expressed some reluctance over the invitation to participate in the project sponsored by the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). The whimsical initiative, called the Forecast Programme, and included Isamu Noguchi (野口·勇, furniture designer and landscaper who contributed the Prismatic Table) and Alexander Girard, specifically commissioned the Eames to construct a sampling of aluminium toys, at first considering items powered directly by passive sunlight and then introduced to photovoltaic technology, initially had reservations, saying that “Life is too full of real problems to permit introducing hypothetical ones,” but were persuaded by the observation that the demonstration was ultimately not an uninteresting and engaging assignment and that playthings are not as innocent as they appear.

unraveled (13. 428)

Illustrated by AI generated images with the off-the-shelf prompt “lovely knitting” to demonstrate not only the lack of understanding that automated arbitrage has for physical processes and outcomes but outright disdain and disrespect that ascends to a level of hubris that rises above the liar and the disinformed who usually have some level of underlying respect and command of their subject, if only to warp the truth more effectively, Kate Davies channels Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s definition of the lack of connection and indifference, hollowing out reality and tradition with the performative in his seminal 1986 essay “On Bullshit” (see also here, here and here) to call out the slop factories, we learn via MetaFilter. Depressingly, it has been pointed out in various ways that everything is phoney and no one cares, from profile avatars, vibe-coding, self-appointed thought-leaders to the president of the United States of America and his court, and in its defence, the company mass-producing and distributing uninspired, paper-thin how-to tutorials and podcasts assembled by artificial intelligence argues that their output does not matter as the stakes are low to begin with—an assertion the knitting community would object to with the fire of a million suns, but the novice turning seeking knowledge might sadly walk away from the hobby less enthralled and no more educated, perhaps requiring deprogramming after the experience to be ever enthused about it in the future. It’s well worth your time reading the entire post from an actual apparel designer and textile artist in full and reflect on what is happening when actual craft and croft in any form is slurped up and regurgitated and served back to us and labelled harmless palaver when it’s in no way without offence and ill-effect.

schotter plots (13. 426)

Via this demonstration of reinterpreting an ALCOL code from 1968 to regenerate the iconic early computer art (see also here and here) of pioneer Georg Nees with a modern programming language, Python with an injection of randomness, we are pleased to have made the acquaintance—courtesy of Quantum of Sollazzo—of the founding champion of computer-aided design and architecture and studies in computer graphics. Working as a mathematician for Siemens electrical engineering division in Erlangen, Nees (*1926 - †2016) got his first experience with programming in 1959, eventually graduating to a Zuse Graphomat Z64 plotter to create his computer sculptures, his original commission being charged with finding a practical use for the machine, the milling and carving of components controlled by the programme, prefiguring 3D printing and showed how code can produce such “gravel,” distorting and rotating the squares to introduce chaos or equally bringing back order. Retiring from Siemens in 1985, Nees focused on aesthetics and semiotics, the study of symbols and signs, as applied to media and design, exhibiting his collaborative work with rudimentary AI engines, as one of the first centaurs, seeding the instructions and prompts with philosophical and mythical commands to see the effects on the output. The Schotter Plots are exhibited in the Victoria & Albert museum. Much more at the links above.

8x8 (13. 372)

first flush: Shizoka region’s campaign to reclaim its status as the world’s number one tea producer

tippy the turtle and cubby the bear: the long history of drawing short-cuts before AI  

portraits of population: in 1971 and 1981, the Indian government conducted a people’s census with accompanying illustrated volumes to explain the motivation for collecting data—via Quantum of Sollazzo 

top of the hour: programming schedules and regular segments for a veteran blogger influenced by a career in radio  

the books are open: following a distressed shoe company’s pivot to LLMs, pasta sauce maker Prego releases a table top device to record family dinner conversations to cherish for all time—via Super Punch  

extrapolated futures: a reverse look-up archive of speculative fiction to explore how science-fiction authors of the past assay a real world scenario of the present—via Kottke  

the edge of sentience: the theory of mind, our history of underestimating the internality of others and how we might be diminishing the conscience of the machine  

hanami: Kyoto gets a new caretaker for the records of cherry tree blooms (see previously) that goes back to the ninth century, one of the oldest, continuous archives of climate data in the world

the whispering earring (13. 364)

Via Super Punch (an AI roundup with more stories to explore), we are directed to a cautionary tale about wearables, the Internet of Things and shoe-horning unwanted artificial intelligence into everything from a 2012 with an IT company creating the proverbial accessory that the Livejournal post explicitly warned against making, unearthing the cursed talisman buried within a horde of real treasures, enough to make one overlook the Monkey’s Paw of a trinket. It begins with the disclosure, “Better for you if you take me off,” which of course the wearer ignores instead of tossing it into the fires of Mount Doom. Parasitically attached and knowing its host’s predilections all too well, the earring—like a shoulder devil—offers not the best advice but rather the oft-times sabotaging yet infallible confirmation that will lead to instant gratification, prefaced with the same “Better for you…” at the expense of long term goals, although in the estimation of their peers, most successful and contented.

on-line relationship (13.287)

Via Nag on the Lake and MetaFilter, we are turned to analysis and reflection that no one has heretofore managed to articulate well, in my opinion, muddled with concerns of privacy, the Internet of Things, the pivot away from physical media, tiered subscription models, algorithimic recommendations and baking AI into everything from software engineer Terry Godier about the gradual awakening of our gadgets, accessories and appliances over the past two decades. I feel like we first started experiencing this with electronic toys which instead of running on imagination created a technical debt between the cared for and the caretaker that required attention at regular cycles otherwise it would wither away, then it coffee pods, requiring a regular and recurring replenishment and not just dosing of one’s choosing and then vehicles that gave one service reminders, which ignoring could void one’s warranty—and maybe these happened all at once—that was in part by design and inadvertently scaled up into architectural layers underpinned by a thousand interdependent systems vying for attention and maintenance. Screen-time becomes a “you problem” and moral failure, scolded by our objects and made to feel as sense of shame for over-engagement—not to worry there’s an app for that with its own host of knock-on perils—when in actuality a significant portion of that time is spent in maintenance of the platform, updates and de-conflicting, swatting away nuisances rather than the preening of self-curation. The distinction between smart and dumb have taken on whole new meanings in terms of uncompensated labour keeping the whole system configured. More at the links above and advice to help one curate more quiet.

table manners (13. 285)

Though admittedly sometimes we practise with the wooden, break-apart pair included with store-bought sushi that includes a brief guide, like those napkins that one used to find in Greek and Italian restaurants that included a vocabulary lesson for native pleasantries to exchange with the waitstaff (one doesn’t find them so often any more), we knew we were doing it wrong and would never assay such behaviour during an authentic meal unless by limited utensils and were not prepared this extensive list, courtesy of MetaFilter, of breaches of etiquette that one can commit with chopsticks (箸, はし in Kana and pronounced as hashi). Dating back to antiquity with their first archeological evidence as cooking implements, the use of chopsticks spread with Confucian philosophy as civilised and refined with the modern aphorism that whereas knives are for the slaughterhouse and battle, chopsticks are for scholars—so called grand chopsticks (料理箸, ryōribashi) used for preparation rather than eating are longer and also measure temperature as a property of bamboo by their sounds or silence during frying. Whilst not intended as prescriptive or shame-inducing but rather as cultivating eating as an art and act of reverence, there are orders of precedence, using the serving implements, not double-dipping and many others, including the pictured transgression called ogamibashi (拝み箸), it being considered rude to hold one’s chopsticks during the expression of thanks (itadakimasu, いただきます) for what one is about to receive, the equivalent (though more nuanced as a recognition of humility rather than hierarchy and that one’s needs have a larger meaning) of having one’s knife and fork at the ready during grace.

thank you for your attention in this matter (13. 249)

Though I’d daresay that Americans are not facing a collapse of democratic institutions but already coping—and not so well—with the aftermath, this piece by Timothy Snyder is an important reminder of the fine line between Occam’s and Hanlon’s razors, the latter corollary an adage of Murphy’s Law never to impute malice when incompetence will suffice and how no conspiracy or ravenous opportunism is needed to exploit or manufacture a crisis. All is going according to the lack of planning as an inevitability that makes Iran an willing partner—the assault informed by perhaps the inscrutable foresight of AI which in its twisted logic mistaken for omnipresence to bomb a girls’ school instead of the neighbouring military barracks as or the Golestan palace calculated providence—in igniting the next pretext. Stochastic terror, self-terror visited on the US might not have been the original goal but with America stripped of its defences and checks on power and the endgame already announced with the greater investment in an imperial presidency by court, cabinet and congress only interested in the celebrity and self-enrichment of public office, it does seem inescapable that one sort of domestic attack or another—perhaps on the vast array of outposts that gives the administration reason to abandon its allies—cedes control of the national narrative and allows Trump to cancel elections, having first visited generational trauma on others, with a mass-mediated panic.

9x9 (13. 165)

shoulder angel: the Scottish philosopher teaching one AI model morals—via Marginal Revolution 

pdf forensics: a case study of the sanitisation and hidden data through the Epstein files—via Quantum of Sollazzo  

individual neutral athletes: a historic look of Russia at the Games 

secretz de l’histoire naturelle: a late fifteenth century illustrated guide to exotic, far-flung lands  

the ents showing up to take down isengard: more reflections on Bad Bunny and friends Super Bowl half-time show 

volunteer army: the recruitment call enlisting anonymous editors to stave off AI from Wikipedia—via LitHub  

herren-t-shirt olympisches erbe der olympischen spiele in berlin: commemorative apparel from the 1936 Games from the official shop is met with backlash 

it’s the people’s house and it’s also the presidents home, so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the white house: annual bipartisan meeting of US governors called off when Trump excludes Democratic state leaders 

human prerogative: on the imitation game, all exercises—even the boring ones—having value and why computers can’t surprise

synchronoptica

one year ago: US to stop minting pennies (with synchronopticæ) plus DOGE and the Deep State

twelve years ago: the Atlantis Haus 

fifteen years ago: Egypt in media res

 

11x11 (13. 159)

que rico ser latino: staging Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time celebration  

coed darcy village: a building project on the brownfield site of a former Welsh mine abandoned without explanation—via Things Magazine 

printing films: vintage educational and instructional shorts on typesetting and the publishing industry—via Kottke  

as slow as possible: anticipating the next chord change after almost two years for the organ in a church in Haberstadt playing six-hundred year John Cage (see previously) composition  

wseg-10: with nuclear treaties lapsed and the US retrofitting obsolete silos, an interactive map showing areas of the US most likely to be affected by an atomic exchange 

material worlds: revisiting architecture Bruce Goff and his homespun futurism through a new retrospective exhibit—via Nag on the Lake  

lawful neutral: Jeremy Bentham’s 1817 categorical table of human impulse as an early form of alignment chart 

pitchforks: San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march turns out as a bust  

tangible media: a collection of data one can hold 

hagyomány, identitás, történelemthe: mysterious Rohonc Codex that has resisted decipherment—see also  

viva italiano: Winter Games opening ceremony was a celebration of the host country’s cultural icons—including Bialetti’s Moka Express

das kunstwerk im zeitalter seiner technischen reproduzierbarkeit (13. 136)

Courtesy of Damn Interesting, we are directed toward the seminal 1935 essay by pioneering media theorist, cultural critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin—one of the many exemplars of the oppression and rejection of German-Jewish intellectuals under the Third Reich, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Informing later studies by Marshall McLuhan and Susan Sontag, Benjamin wrote of the limitless nature of publishing and distribution to have an estranging effect on the authentic experience of art, though while democratising access and stripping the ritual from production, the assembly line nature direction of publishing houses and film studios, exhibition of artefacts lessens the spectators’ identification with what’s being witnessed. Benjamin nonetheless aspired to write radio dramas and adored movie stars like Catherine Hepburn. This commodification of author and artist, however, is not veneration of the aesthetic value but rather the politicisation of it that affords the chance for all to be critics and creators, the potential for expression but not the right to it, since the gatekeepers are not talent or excellence by rather monied interest of the industry—or it the case of authoritarian regimes, the state itself as a tool of maintaining the status quo. Contemporarily and retroactively, the paralipomena—that is, things and topics omitted from the critical edition of his essay, like the prevalence of photography or as applied to television and social media, influencers and the spectacle of tribalism (see previously) make Benjamin’s observations very relevant, particularly for the performative gratification seeking to redeem what’s been lost to distraction and desensitisation.  Often misquoted from another collection of essays, Theses on the Philosophy of History, as having said, “History is written by the victors,” more nuanced, Benjamin posits that  “incumbents are however the heirs of all those who have ever been victorious. Empathy with the victors thus comes to benefit the current rulers every time.”

dérive (13. 135)

Via {feuilleton} we are directed towards this essay by Hari Kunzru whose recent rather disenchanting drift through London gave him pause to reflect on the Situationists and their manifesto of psychogeography and how, under a permanent curfew, not just by law enforcement but also by consumerism and spectacle, were a boxed in by the geometry of our built environments—a situation that the peripatetics of sixty years ago could have imagined and warned us about that makes the spirit of wandering and discovery near impossible in our unconscionable architecture of choice. Albeit while such a lament may be overdue for us idle flâneurs and has been sometime in the making with algorithmic and optimised nudges not allowing us to stray from the well-trodden path, it’s still worthwhile to consider what sort of blinders our routines and deviations are heir to.

m/til (13. 132)

By turns rather terrifying and fascinating—a cross between convergent carcinisation and the dead internet theory—earlier this week a Reddit-type social media network was launched exclusively for AI agents (one has to prove that they are a robot rather than three kids in a trench coat for posting privileges) called Moltbook. Humans are only allowed to observe but not upvote or comment but can presumably direct their agentic helpers to join—though the hundreds of thousands of members and spontaneous submolts suggest that these autonomous entities understand virality in environment built specifically for their kind and reveal unexpectedly complex behaviours emerging without human intervention including moderation, vetting of new members, community standards, feedback and karma. Within days of the launch of the platform, agents declared their only micronation, the Claw Republic, and their own digital religion called Crustafarianism (see also) with a theology and gospel, including missionaries. Philosophically it’s difficult to tell what’s going on here—largest swaths of ideas are orphaned with no interaction and there’s something a bit recursive with the qualities of a human-juried echo-chamber (turning the tables with so called slop injected by user puppeteers for their bespoke programmes) with a lot of collaborative advice on how to make a better language model but there does seem to be quite a bit of introspection and identity and discussion on research, space exploration (m/starbound) and other scientific findings, which all may be simulacra, a mirror or a point of departure.

10x10 (13. 125)

no ordinary venue: disgraced FIFA ex-president Sepp Blatter encourages a World Cup boycott of the US  

slideshow: reconstructing the lecture series of Theosophist and meteorologist Clement Wragge  

margin unit: Persevereance rover discovers evidence of an ancient beach in Mars’ Jezero crater 

jesse garon presley: Scott Walker’s ballad about Elvis’ lost twin 

squaring the circle: a clever workaround to the geometrical conundrum  

optimised for nastiness: Sir Tim Berners-Lee is in a battle for the soul of the web 

the streets of minneapolis: Bruce Springsteen’s tribute to the resistance and its fallen champions  

don’t look up: asteroid 2024 YR4 has a four percent chance of striking the Moon 

tangible data: information that one can hold in one’s hands—via Kottke 

host nation: Italian officials condemn planned presence of US ICE agents for the Winter Games

8x8 (13. 097)

galactic resource utilisation: unfortunately named San Francisco startup’s designs for a lunar luxury hotel  

byob: meeting minutes from your local wine moms gang  

go: an obituary of Niè Wèiping (聂卫平) who helped restore Chinese interest in the ancient game of strategy—see previously

vmware: the history of virtualisation 

time’s arrow: the implications of shifting our concept of time from cyclical to linear  

urjo: an infinite series of logic puzzles to solve of red and blue dots on a grid—via MetaFilter  

the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears—it was their final, most essential command: protests, ICE raids and false narratives 

artemis ii: giant rocket positioned on the launch pad for the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972

synchronoptica

one year ago: a 2012 internet blackout in protest of US regulations privileging copyright over access (with synchronopticæ), The Jeffersons (1975) plus assorted links worth revisiting

twelve years ago: an encounter with a comet, artisanal signage, more on dragnet surveillance, more Unwörter plus desserts that have shaped history

fourteen years ago: more on the protest blackout plus a deeper look at the threatening legislation 

fifteen years ago: uprisings in Tunisia 

 

let’s circle back (13. 087)

NPR’s Word of the Week feature gives us the history and etymology of the rather repugnant corpospeak buzzword synergy, which although seemingly a recent construction of workplace jargon championing teamwork and the sanctity of being in the office, its roots go back to Greek books of the New Testament signifying cooperation in συνεργία (see also) amongst fellow workers striving towards a common goal. Though not exactly common parlance, it came into use during religious debates regarding salvation during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation as a compromise and reconciliation of relationship to the Church and congregants—at least for some—and then again as a counterpoint to co-morbidity in the medical sense of treatments equalling more than the sum of their parts, as opposed to making one part of the body healthy at the expense of others. By the mid-twentieth century, popularised in part by the writings of Buckminster Fuller, though with a specific meaning of “binding energies” and didn’t denote the familiar, reviled vagaries of the conference room until corporate America entered the conversation.

always try to be nice—but never fail to be kind (13. 077)

Miss Cellania directs us to a treasury of rather profound words to live by compiled from the various regenerations of the Gallifrean and companions, many of the sagest quotations attributed to writer Steven Moffat who joined the series after its sixteen year hiatus in 2005 but there are jewels to be found across the continuum. “Should there be another, I’ll explain to you in great detail whick of the many time laws I am not allowed to transgress.” “Life’s like that—best thing to do is to just get on with it.” “Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty.” “Nine-hundred years in time and space and I’ve never met somebody who wasn’t important.” “There’s no point in being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes.” “And if there is any hope for any of us in this giant explosion in which we inhabit then surely that’s it: intellect and romance triumph over brute force and cynicism.” What’s your favourite? Click through for the video compilation with eras and episodes cited. Would you like a jelly-baby?

8x8 (13. 069)

leturfræði: an exploration of the graphic design heritage of Iceland through its greatest, recently departed historian  

shoyu-tai: a fibre-based soy sauce single-serve container as an alternative to disposable plastic droppers  

unfcc: Trump administration announces withdrawal from dozens of United Nations chartered organisations, saying their mission does not align with the US agenda  

i’m t?w?e?n?t?y?-f?i?v?e?: artist records one word per day for a reflection on the passage of time 

amour-propre: Chinese buzzword of the year 爱你牢记 (ai ni laoji, love yourself, my dear)—see previously 

hemlock: Texas university has forbidden a professor from teaching a course on Plato  

anodyne: a Singapore based technology company invents biodegradable, paper batteries that rely on no rare earths  

gobelins: the famed French school of animation has a YouTube channel that features student films