cool links IX: open access and AI, oppression, euro cloud
What I recently read or watched worth sharing:
Pointing at the mushrooms - Identifying our own digital colonisation by Savva Pistolas. I really enjoyed the analogy employed here and how well it captures this feeling of invisible spores lurking within something before we even see the signs, the symptoms, and how the true extent is always hidden or at least not immediately seen. It talks about how we tend to blame technology for profiling us so thoroughly and deeply, often without acknowledging that we are molded by it just the same. It is easy to think that ad is directed at what you did, when you are simply doing what the 200 ads you see every day (in form of short form influencer videos, for example) tell you to think and do. ""The substrate has been consumed, you are only observing the outcome."
âWait, not like thatâ: Free and open access in the age of generative AI by Molly White. A piece about how open and free access to knowledge, education and software has been tainted now by AI training. It is undoubtedly done without consent on a massive scale and to profit off of it without giving anything back, which goes against the ethos of FOSS. As a reaction, many are tightening their licenses and hiding or paywalling content, but this also has downsides. "The true threat from AI models training on open access material is not that more people may access knowledge thanks to new modalities. Itâs that those models may stifle Wikipedia and other free knowledge repositories, benefiting from the labor, money, and care that goes into supporting them while also bleeding them dry. Itâs that trillion dollar companies become the sole arbiters of access to knowledge after subsuming the painstaking work of those who made knowledge free to all, killing those projects in the process."
Men in power and their glow-ups by Oh, Itâs Nice. It's not something I ever thought about, but reading it made me realize what an interesting thing to focus on that is. I look forward to more pieces about how not just the influential men, but many people in tech have wanted to shed their fat, pimply basement nerd in glasses image to go somewhat finance hustler mode with strength training, Soylent, cold showers and getting up at 5am.
lili elbe, trans heroine by Cortrinkau. Really really loved this post and it reminded me of the master thesis my fiancée wrote almost 2 years ago, which was about trans people in history. I told her to send it to Cortrinkau, I hope she does.
if history is a cycle by Cortrinkau.It's about the authoritatian descent in the US and how things are becoming more and more unsafe for marginalized people. Features brief explanations about German history. Since awful stuff has been going on here as well, the NIE WIEDER at the end reminded me of this NYT opinion video. <- ""Never again" never came with a manual on how to never again."
Being trans in the South by Froey. I really wish there were more posts out there like that, because most people really don't know, and it's frustrating. They're able to live in their little bubble where they never have to think about where to travel or go, what jobs to work, and more. Reminds me of my coworkers who wonder why my fiancée and me don't travel to the US or Egypt and Morocco like them...
The Fear of Vanishing by Kerri Krueger. Very similar topic to the above; while others are safe and never have to think about it, there's an increasing fear in anyone not straight, white, male that something could happen to them on a large scale, more quickly than there is time to properly react or expect an outcry and support from the people who aren't affected. "Because when youâre gayâwhen your very existence is seen as a threat to the "natural order" by those in powerâyou learn to read between the lines. You hear the way politicians talk about "traditional values" and "protecting children," and you know, instinctively, that theyâre talking about getting rid of people like you. And what does âgetting rid ofâ mean? Maybe at first, itâs just making life impossibleâfiring you, denying you housing, making sure you canât safely walk down the street holding the hand of the person you love. But history has shown us what happens next. How quickly it can escalate."
But how to get to that European cloud? by Bert Hubert. Piece arguing for more effort put into finally realizing European clouds instead of continuing to rely on American cloud options. I love this, especially because my work relies so heavily on MS365 and SharePoint and I hate it. Seeing how prevalent it is in the EU, I think should be an absolute no-go at this point especially for government bodies. We need to further divest from American products, or at least have the option to do so when shit hits the fan. What if there are sanctions so that US companies cannot do business here anymore? Shit would hit the fan, and you know Trump wouldn't care.
Our interfaces have lost their senses by Amelia Wattenberger. Really creative site discussing how UI has become very flat, boring, touch only, muted while losing color, form, sounds and actual tactile feedback like turning a knob or flipping a switch. All while having little yarn and felt projects visualizing the text during a parallax scrolling effect.
How GenZ protected their peace too hard and now has no one by Ashley Embers. I was recommended this and it fit to some of what I blogged about in the past, like we owe each other and some others. :)
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