Excavate architectural icons by using this note block
You start out with a normal block of paper, but as you rip off the laser-cut notes, a building will appear. Note by note, you excavate complex structures and hidden gems.
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Bruce Sterling on Universal Basic Income
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As production becomes more efficient, a reduction in labour force is inevitable.
If the machines take our jobs, there will be no place for a lot of people in the labour force, and by that, in the economy.
What can we do against mass unemployment?
An answer to that looming crisis is Universal Basic Income - an idea discussed by the left for at least 20 years.
Simplified, it goes like this: You get a certain minimum income, regardless of wether you work or not.
The driving force behind this idea was industrialization. Recent breakthroughs in automation and robotics means UBI gets traction in tech circles.
Sci-Fi author Bruce Sterling discusses this idea how only a sci-fi author can: By taking a look at human history.
In his speech at SXSW Interactive he finds instances of UBI throughout human history. How they came to be, how they were organized, and what they meant to society at large.
Before listening to Sterlings ideas, I was a fierce advocate of UBI, but now I’m not so sure.
I realized that UBI has the potential to create a chasm in our societies. Between a caste that can program and invent and service the machines, and one that cannot.
The first creates value, the latter lives off the benefits.
Who will be in power in this kind of society, and how will they use it?
Is all the talk about UBI nothing more than a shoddy try to cover up growing income disparity?
Or is it a moot point because our children will invent new jobs anyway, and UBI is just a different way to spell ‚Public Wellfare‘?
What are your thoughts?
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Why UX Design means more than making things pretty
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Source (And yeah, s/he can’t speel.)
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Two weeks ago, an „Incoming Missile“ alert was pushed to the smartphones of all inhabitants of the island of Hawaii. The result was confusion, anxiety, an interestingly low level of actual panic, and a sudden drop followed by an equally sudden raise in traffic on PornHub.
Jason Kottke posted a good overview of what happened, why it might have happened and what the bigger picture of this incident is.
It is a very good piece, and I recommend reading it. It also points to the bigger picture of UX being the result of organizational culture, purpose, and pose.
Good UX Design averts disasters, big and small.
We’ve come a long way from the control rooms of past, but we’re still not out of the woods.
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Working with a designer - by Seth Godin
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Here’s a very practical list of what the process of working with an external designer looks like depending on where the client stands.
1. I know what I want. Bring your vision. Bring in your folder of typefaces, images, copy. Be very, very specific. The more you paste it up and sketch it out, the more likely you'll get exactly what you were hoping for.
2. I'm not sure exactly, but I know what it rhymes with. Put together a scrapbook. Find examples from other industries. Do you want your website to look like one from Apple or a direct marketing diet book site? Don't tell the designer what to do, but be really clear what you want to remind people of. Originality isn't the primary goal of design, effectiveness is.
3. I'm not a designer, but I understand state change. Do you want this work to increase trust? Desire? Confidence? Urgency? Who's it for? What's it for? If you can be really clear about what the work is for, then hire someone you trust and give them the freedom to find a way to cause that change to happen.
4. I'll know it when I see it. Please don't do this unless you have a lot of money and a lot of time (and a very patient designer). This demand for telepathy is for amateurs.
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It is a trueism that George Orwell, the author of the seminal work on obedience, 1984, would have been shocked would he have known what society we are about to build.
What is a totalitarian state, enabled by ruthless capitalism, capable of? A lot.
China is rolling out an omnipresent video surveillance network based on facial recognition systems. It should be in full operation in all cities and population-dense areas by 2020.
But that is not all. There’s another thing, called Ali Pay. It is a payment system linked to Alibaba, Chinas version of Amazon (and more).
A system called Sesame Credit uses the payment data to rank the credibility and trustworthiness of all its members based on preference of Chinese goods over foreign products, showing loyalty to the state in online media and similar markers of „good behavior“. Users with good credit rankings get better deals, easier access to jobs, and priority service for bureaucratic paperwork. Users with low scores get worse deals, are denied job interviews, and wait longer for their requests from government offices.
Participation in Sesame Credit is voluntary. Until 2020, when it is poised to become mandatory for all Chinese citizens. (Many thanks to my friend Leo for making me aware of that)
Then, the same state that tracks your every movement will also directly and openly punish you for not buying Chinese goods, or for not singing praise to the Chinese government on social media.
Boy, will 2020 be a rough year for human rights in China.
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How big is cybercrime? About as big as New Zealand.
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According to a report by security firm Symantec, victims of cybercrime lost a total of 172 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.
That puts cybercrime in the ballpark of the gross national product of Iraq or New Zealand.
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Two things that might make you think differently about BitCoin
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Bitcoin is touted as a decentralized alternative to state-issued money.
Two quick thoughts:
It is not really decentralized.
It is not really money.
At its current state, bitcoin can process 7 transactions per second, making it all but unusable for exchange of goods or services (For context: Visa alone is processing more than 1600 transactions per second)
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Here’s question for you:
When does a joke become a dad joke?
Answer: When the punch line becomes apparent.
(Source)
And if you too share the passion for lame jokes, here’s an Instagram account for you to follow: Dad Says Jokes on Instagram
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That's it from this edition of Let's be Fwends. Highfive yourself because you rock! 💎
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