Zag To The Zig #38 :: Fake teachers, fake kitchens and fake windows
Hello! I’m slowly getting into (formalised) holiday mode. I hope you’re doing the same. This will probably be the last ZTTZ for a few weeks, so this one comes with extra toppings. Take care of yourselves, relax and JOMO FTW and all that. 🧘♀️⛱️📵
In the Tech Basement this week
🕵️♂️ Got your crypto stolen? There’s a job for that. Read the story of crypto-detective Rich (what’s in a name) Sanders.
Talking about jobs. I better start re-training. Because the AI-generated speaker/teacher is here.
A nerdy insight into what it takes to run a quantum computer. Oddly, Covid-lockdown made it easier.
AI-meets-blockchain platform Ocean Protocol (ZTTZ is a fan) are running a project with Mercedes to privately share and monetise data.
These are the 59 apps that the Indian government banned a few weeks ago, because "they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India”. Read: we don’t want the Chinese snooping here. The inclusion of TikTok is not a surprise, but the list also includes more ‘useful’ tools like Cache Cleaner apps and the likes. 🕵️♂️🕵️♂️
In the Ethics Corridor
Last week I listened to this interview with Carlota Perez. She’s hardly a Silicon Valley-style tech proponent (she’s a calm 80-year old professor of business with a personal website that looks like it was made in 1989). However, her views on the technical revolution (the 5th one being the internet) are very interesting. She talks about how the current internet revolution is following a very similar pattern to previous tech revolutions (bubbles, monopolies, government regulations) and that she predicts we’ll all get better because of it.
However, I was wondering why they didn’t reference blockchain or crypto-economics at all, because the parallels were striking. And sure enough, Ethereum-believer Ryan Adams from Bankless also picked up on this. Note for the Ethereum fans: Adams’ article also includes a link to a long interview he did with Vitalik Buterin (not checked it yet).
Mirror, mirror on the wall. The whole institutionalised racism debate brings up interesting and painful research. Turns out that the words that (overwhelmingly white) European football commentators (subconsciously) use to describe players’ actions depend on the players’ skin-tone. Lighter meant more reference to intellect. Darker meant more reference to pace and power.
I’m not trying to whitewash bitcoin and its energy consumption here, but whenever bitcoin gets stick for wasting energy, my instinct always wondered how the financial industry scored on that. Not so great, it seems. This study found the carbon output by 4 major French banks was 4 times bigger than the whole of France. 🛢️🛢️
In the Economy Room
Someone has to pay for it. While very few people believed that paywalls would work for newspapers (myself included), this article chronicles the success of UK newspaper The Times’ move to a paid subscription model. 300.000 people each paying 30 euros per month means they’re doing quite ok indeed.
👩🍳🛵 Long read on ‘Ghost Kitchens’, anonymous restaurants that are run from parking lots, empty buildings,… Fascinating to see how mobility, changing cities, delivery apps and food culture are intertwined.
Double Random ZTTZ
Apart from running unicorns, this is also what the internet was made for. WindowSwap is a lockdown project from 2 Singaporean creatives. It does what it says on the tin: it shows you a filmed view from someone else’s window. A little monsoon in India or a view of Manhattan anyone?
And let’s wrap up this season of ZTTZ with a movie from 1947, predicting what life would look in the future. Oh, the irony.
🏁 End note: 1 thing I’ll be doing this week
I’ll be waiting for my invite for Mmhhmmm, a new, very promising tool to make online presentations and webinars waaaaaaay more interesting and engaging. It reminds me a lot of how we used to make tv with no budget 2 decades ago. This time, we stream it from our home ‘office’.