silicon valley, tin-pan alley

It is indisputable that the wired economy encourages moonlighting and pushed a sizable proportion to a managed, feudal entrepreneurship wherein risks and rewards are mitigated for the organisers, but the Guild also cultivates a myth about its importance and predominance. Being a feckless challenge to question the drift of market-forces in whatsoever capacity, it’s hard to dispute progress without being labelled a Luddite.
That sense of entitlement, however, to being a serf, a mechanical Turk to a pyramid-enterprise that trickles down. As much as we might rail against nationless corporations for not paying their share of taxes into government coffers or being exempt from the same regulations that govern mere mortals, we attribute the same belief that enables the scoff-laws—government policies and policing are antiquated institutions that stand in the way of progress and our own jonesing for something on the side. What should I be the only chump paying into that system?  Zoning and safety laws or an evolving framework of regulation certainly would only suppress and prevent us from turning vacant apartments into boutique-squats for well-paying tourists, and price-out established residents or so gentrify courier-services as to drive into the ground the entire infrastructure with competition. What do you think? Despite our complaints, wouldn’t we all like to be as clever and exploitative, even if we wouldn’t admit to sharing those same values?

rewritten by machine on new technology

Managing editor of Neatorama, Miss Cellania, gives us a preview of a sci-fi featurette whose screenplay was the product of an artificial intelligence algorithm.
The neural network was developed at NYU and in a rare moment of cross-discipline camaraderie given over to a group of alumnus from the film school in order to make its directorial debut with Sunspring, impenetrable and campy by turns but strangely compelling and authentically funny. The authorship—mediated by the cast of actors—belongs wholly to Long-Short Term Memory, or rather as Benjamin as it refers to itself, is of course not the first experiment or piece of fiction crafted by an artificial intellect and while it might be derivative of everything fed to it, there does seem to be a sense of originality to be found also, enough even to make the collaboration’s co-producers feel a pang of guilt when they could not take sufficient time (and resources) to make the movie exactly as delivered. One can watch the film in its entirety at Ars Technica and learn more about Sunspring’s production and reception.

gold-pressed latinum

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek, the Canadian mint will be issuing commem- orative coinage with images of the franchise’s original series—including solid gold Star Fleet emblem communicator badges with a face value of C$200, though as bullion worth over one thousand. For those of us on a yeoman’s salary, there are smaller-denominations as well as other collectibles. I think all this excitement is wonderful and well-deserved, although it’s a bit ironic, I think, as the economics of the Star Trek Universe is not just cashless but seems close to utopian.

mason-dixon

Writing for Hyperallergic, Claire Voon informs that the US National Cathedral in Washington, DC will be in the near future anathematising Confederate flags hidden (and hidden in plain sight but certainly not the Easter egg that the Darth Vader gargoyle is) in the stained-glass windows dedicated to US Civil War generals Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Notwithstanding the inherent strangeness of having a federal church, I am glad that the staff are not merely redacting history but using the modification, defenestration as a platform for discussing the legacy of race and justice. What do you think? Undoubtedly, the Confederate flag is a symbol of hate but should we be shielded from a shameful past by editing out reminders? I feel that engaging a new narrative creates the platform necessary to commit such revision.

agronomy-om-nom

Kottke shares this interesting map (click to enlarge) that sources the major food crops of the world to the places of their origins. The organisation behind the chart, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, has a pretty comprehensive and in depth web-presence as well and certainly merits a visit for its discussions of gearing policies and markets towards resilience and sustainability.