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This is Digital McCarthyism
Far from being liberated by these technologies, we have been plunged back into the worst abuses of surveillance and privacy violation.The notion that we’re getting somewhere, making progress, is remarkably durable. It survives wars, financial collapse, riots, scandals, stagnating wages, and climate change (to name a few). Though techno-futurists are also fond of AI apocalypse scenarios, where artificial intelligence somehow “comes alive,” or at any rate uses its superior intelligence to make an autonomous decision to wipe out humanity, much more ink has been spilled this century prognosticating indomitable technical progress, which somehow stands in for human progress generally. But sanguine belief in progress is belied by the actual events of the twenty-first century. Computers have gotten faster and AI more powerful, but digital technology has also been used to spread misinformation, make deep fakes, and conduct relentless cyberwarfare. Financial Read More ›
See Through the False Promises of Apple Vision Pro
The illusion of connection so shapes our desires that we may lose our taste for the real thingDon’t Tell Google Bard Your Secrets
Executives are warning employees of potential privacy leaksGoogle’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., advised its employees not to share personal information with the chatbot “Bard,” noting that doing so could lead to privacy leaks, which has reportedly already happened at Samsung. Kevin Hurler reports, Four sources close to the matter told Reuters that the massive tech giant has advised employees not to enter confidential information into chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s own Bard over fears of leaks. Alphabet is reportedly concerned with employees inputting sensitive information into these chatbots since human reviewers may sit on the other end reviewing chat entries. These chatbots may also use previous entries to train themselves, posing another risk of a leak. That risk is warranted, as Samsung confirmed last month that its own internal Read More ›
Jack Dorsey: Just Read Some Science Fiction and You’ll See Where We Are
The former Twitter CEO opens up about his thoughts on Apple's new mixed reality headsetLast week, Apple announced the Vision Pro headset, a virtual reality set that is designed to “blend” physical and digital life into a unitary experience. The headset, from all appearances, looks sleeker and less clunky that Meta’s VR headsets. Users will, for the remarkably low price of $3,499 (that was a joke) will be able to have apps appear in the room in front of them, transforming everyday environments into a “personal theater.” Not everyone is stoked about the announcement, however. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t too happy about it, for obvious reasons. He’s been trying to break ground in the VR headset game for years, now. However, Jack Dorsey, former CEO and co-founder of Twitter, raised his own concerns about the Read More ›
Apple’s Vision Pro Promises “Augmented Reality”
The goal? To seamlessly blend digital and physical spaceWe’ve written here several times on Meta‘s struggling metaverse project; Zuckerberg‘s darling endeavor hasn’t gotten the traction he hoped for, with teetering investor involvement and an even more fragile consumer interest. But that didn’t stop Apple from chasing their own augmented reality project. The tech giant recently announced the Vision Pro, a headset that allows users to see apps and messages within their physical space. The product is a major development, and the main goal, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, is to dissolve the boundaries between our physical and digital dimensions. Per a report from ABC News, “Vision Pro is a new kind of computer that augments reality by seamlessly blending the real world with the digital world,” Apple Read More ›
More Bad News for the Metaverse
Virtual reality projects are losing steam across the tech industry in the wake of layoffs and investor skepticismBig tech companies across the spectrum, including Meta, Microsoft, and Apple, are scaling back on virtual reality research and development. The technological demands of the metaverse are more advanced than CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg have anticipated, and employees are feeling the impact. Microsoft recently laid off 10,000 workers, cutting funding from the lab responsible for the production of its mixed-reality “HoloLens.” The army was originally in the works to use the Microsoft lens for aids in combat and training, but the technology has since been labeled as “dangerous and poorly designed.” Meta laid off 11,000 employees last November and continues to struggle to gain interest and traction for its ambitious metaverse project. A report from Insider notes that a combination Read More ›
Zuckerberg’s New Meta Pummeled by Stock Market
Meta (Facebook reimagined) faces a gauntlet of challenges only months after Zuckerberg announced his new "metaverse" initiativeLast October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be undergoing a major facelift to become Meta. The Facebook platform we all know and love would remain as is, but Meta would become Facebook’s parent company with a primary focus of developing the “metaverse,” an immersive online experience that Zuckerberg called “the next frontier” of the internet. But Meta is off to a rough start. Facebook’s parent company shed more than $230 billion in market value Thursday, a one-day loss that is the biggest ever for a U.S. company and increases pressure on a stock market long powered by technology shares…. The Facebook parent company surprised investors with a deeper-than-expected decline in profit and a downbeat outlook. The company Read More ›
You Can Now Hear Our Articles When You Are Driving or Sweeping Up
Curious about that "loudspeaker" icon that has recently appeared in our articles?You may have recently noticed a new icon that’s appeared on your screen at the beginning of our articles. If you press the little black button with the loudspeaker icon, you will find our article being read aloud for you. This exciting new application – which will make it easier for our readers to enjoy our content even while driving, doing chores, or running errands – is made possible by WebsiteVoice advances in artificial intelligence technology. WebsiteVoice is a text-to-speech application that converts blog posts and online articles into audible material. It serves over 4,000 clients worldwide in 30 different languages. Founded by Mohamad Awad and Roz Burch, the WebsiteVoice team calls itself “a group of avid readers and podcast Read More ›
A Book Review: The Tyranny of Big Tech
A beautiful defense of the common man and woman against a technological elite“Our republic has never been more hierarchical, more riven by class, more managed by an elite than it is today,” writes Josh Hawley in The Tyranny of Big Tech. Who might that elite be? According to Hawley, it’s not our politicians, our lawyers, our Ivy League graduates, or our Hollywood celebrities. It’s Big Tech – those big names like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple, and Google that have embedded themselves in our lives to an almost irreversible degree. Hawley has spent his career as a U.S. Senator, and formerly as Missouri’s Attorney General, holding Big Tech accountable where others don’t dare tread. In investigations, in legislation, and now in this book, Hawley has confronted the antitrust and privacy violations committed by Read More ›
Parler vs. Amazon: Amazon Strikes Back!
Amazon is trying to avoid a state lawsuit through a hardball legal maneuverLittle-Known Civil Rights Law Could Bring Big Tech to Its Knees
Many tech giants have considerable assets and many employees in Seattle's jurisdictionSEATTLE—As state and federal lawmakers consider drafting new legislation to counter big tech censorship of dissenting political voices, few seem to realize that an anti-discrimination law already on the books could spell big trouble for big tech companies that engage in political censorship. Ironically, the law was enacted by one of the most politically progressive cities in the country: Seattle. Unlike most political jurisdictions in the United States, Seattle expressly forbids discrimination on the basis of “political ideology.” Seattle defines political ideology expansively as any idea or belief, or coordinated body of ideas or beliefs, relating to the purpose, conduct, organization, function or basis of government and related institutions and activities, whether or not characteristic of any political party or group. This Read More ›
What You Need to Know About The Tactile Web
It’s a user-directed integration of technology into lifeMany people have heard the term RFID, “radio frequency identifier,” a technology pioneered in the 1980s for creating tracking chips that needn’t be powered to work. This technology has improved quite a bit over the years. The technology area in which RFID originated is called NFC, for “Near-Field Communication.” In themselves, NFC chips are small and unpowered, but they can receive power from nearby devices, thus enabling them to communicate. The amount of work that modern NFC chips can do is amazing. The NXP firm, for instance, manufactures chips that can do full-blown data encryption and signing. These chips are not only powerful, they are also very inexpensive. NFC tags are available as label stickers at prices as low as Read More ›
How Business in China Becomes Ethically Expensive
Hong Kong raises the cost of rights and freedoms rhetoric steeply. Many advocates are bowing outApple had once positioned itself in opposition to Big Brother. The NBA had been a strong advocate of social justice. But with Hong Kong, they suddenly caved to Beijing. What’s at stake?
Read More ›Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene: How to Spell Gud
Also, Google and Apple ditching college degree requirements is not really that newTwenty years or so ago, when I worked in Seattle, Microsoft was famous for the testing coding skills of their applicants and asking Mensa-like questions. Degrees were secondary.
Read More ›Advice for Budding Inventors and Entrepreneurs: Hal Philipp Shares His Experience
If you used a touchscreen, an automated door opener or automated faucet today, it is probably based on the technology of inventor and entrepreneur Hal Philipp. We continue our conversation with Hal on the Mind Matters podcast, revisiting his ambivalent relationship with Apple. Show Notes 01:20 | Advice to budding entrepreneurs 03:30 | Don’t Do This At Home 06:35 | Read More ›
I Sued Apple for Patent Infringement
Hal Philipp on Tangling with Apple and Selling His CompanyIf you used a touchscreen, an automated door opener or automated faucet today, it is probably based on the technology of inventor and entrepreneur Hal Philipp. We continue our conversation with Hal on the Mind Matters podcast, revisiting his ambivalent relationship with Apple. Show Notes 01:15 | Mixed emotions about inventing the touchscreen and creating “a planet full of zombies” Read More ›
In Patent Disputes, the Bigger They Are, the Harder They Hit
Hal Philipp on Litigation and Why Owning a Patent is Only a License to SueIf you used a touchscreen, an automated door opener or automated faucet today, it is probably based on the technology of inventor and entrepreneur Hal Philipp. We continue our conversation today with Hal on the Mind Matters podcast. Show Notes 01:30 | History of the Touchscreen 04:20 | Making Touchscreens Cheap and Reliable 06:00 | Defining a Patent 09:20 | Read More ›