In what has now become a tradition, here’s my fourth annual roundup of the best books I read this year.
I’ve added a couple of new features this time. I include “honourable mentions” for books that almost made it to the list, and a summary at the end of authors by gender on each of the four lists I’ve done so far. Results… probably won’t surprise you all that much.
We have met the dystopia, and it is us.
Originally shared by Winchell Chung
Twitter Thread: What’s the most absurd/invasive thing that tech platforms do or have done that sounds made-up but is actually true?
For example: that time iRobot planned to sell the layouts of customers’ homes after it had been mapped by their Roomba
Perhaps we ought to create the conditions in the developing world that will enable reforestation?
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Want Self-Healing Robots and Tires? Elastomers May Hold the Key http://suhub.co/2kYH1q8
Is the solution to your problem robotic ants?
Originally shared by Winchell Chung
Structural Challenges for Space Architecture
This is both weird and wonderful. Limb regeneration, curing cancers, fixing birth defects, and creating biological robots are all on the table.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
There’s Healing Power in the Secret Electrical Language of Our Cells http://suhub.co/2CYYTsv
I think this is unduly pessimistic. While there are massive problems with the Internet, and it’s hard to see how to solve them, it has brought great benefits. And I have to wonder whether the Internet created the problems or merely exposed them.
Originally shared by Winchell Chung
“I believed that the world would be a better place if everyone had a voice. I believed that the world would be a better place if we all had no secrets.
“But so far, the evidence points to an escapable conclusion: we were all wrong.”
Via Brand Gamblin.
This, to me, is the most compelling argument for basic income. Just as the existence of fundamental infrastructure lets a society flourish, so does the security of its citizens and the meeting of their basic needs. This is why the agricultural and industrial revolutions accelerated innovation and improved quality of life: the majority of people no longer had to spend the majority of their time simply producing enough for their own needs, and so there was a surplus which benefited everyone.
Pull quote:
“When the business community types come out and say it will be hard to find workers (labor) because no one will want to work it’s so thinly transparent that it makes me cringe. Because what they’re saying is — “My business needs cheap labor or I may go out of business”. My response — What about creative destruction? If you can’t handle a changing system maybe your business doesn’t provide a real enough value to survive. Do we need 400 different clothing brands? Let it burn. Maybe the system is propping you up.”
Low wages subsidise unviable businesses. I’d rather see viable businesses subsidising basic income, so that more viable businesses (and other socially useful things) can rise and flourish.
Originally shared by Anne-Marie Clark
If I were omnipotent, what I would give the world for Christmas… (lots of good graphs in this short read)
Universal Basic Income: The Maslow Argument
“This should be the real argument for Universal Basic Income. Getting everyone off the bottom two rungs so they can focus on being the best human they can be. If everyone is focused on being the best version of themselves, not just on surviving, they’ll build, connect, and create.”
“…these utilities are coveted by investors; that the regulatory environment makes them extraordinarily profitable; and that investors have very little interest in the quality or the long-term operational efficiency of the systems.”
There’s an often unexamined myth that private enterprise will always and inevitably do a better job than government. It isn’t true, and it especially isn’t true for infrastructure.
When I worked in the city, I used to park in a particular parking building which was owned by the council. They handed over management to a private firm. The charges went up with a big bump, and the standard of cleanliness of the facility dropped sharply.
Originally shared by ****
In order for “good books get more reviews” to be true, you have to use a very specific and (to me) non-intuitive definition of “good”. Otherwise, I largely agree with this piece, which has some useful points to make.
Originally shared by Damien Walter
Writing a regular column for The Guardian on weird books, I get asked by writers of all kinds to read their latest tome. And sometimes that question becomes “how do I get my book reviewed?”
In the age of social media and the internet the book review is a much different beast than it once was.
A tweet from Neil Gaiman can be much better publicity than a national newspaper book review today.
And a groundswell of interest from fans talking on blogs can shift more copies than old style book clubs.
So while I’m discussing this in terms of “getting reviewed”, it might just be better to think of this as some thoughts on how to get people talking about your book.
https://damiengwalter.com/2014/01/16/the-dos-and-do-nots-of-getting-your-book-reviewed