Excursions

I have recently observed a lot of anger from people across the world towards social networks of all forms. Especially Twitter. I had also expressed why I can’t quit Twitter completely for now - there are still a few people left there whom I follow, and a few friends.

I recently had a discussion with one such friend whom I was trying to convince to give up on Twitter and move all his posting to his custom domain. I demoed Micro.blog and Blot, hoping that the simplicity of getting started would be enough to abate any friction the change might throw at him.

He listened patiently, he is an active poster on Twitter. He has a distinct voice and perspective towards all varied things. And so my attempt had a selfish tinge too; it would help me if I could follow his posts in feed readers, even better if on Micro.blog.

He looked genuinely curios. “But what’s the big deal with owning the content and the domain?” I thought I had his attention.

I gave him the standard pitch, primarily how it would lend him control of his online identify, allow him not to lose his words when some private silo decides to change the rules of its services and how, if that happens, he can decide to take his content and move to some place better.

All he said in response was “what’s so special with what I write on the web that I would want to maintain it over time? If Twitter dies tomorrow, I will just move to some place else.”

I was left astonished. Here’s a guy who has been posting his opinions on all things, at times even as Tweetstorms, sharing some fascinating stuff for all; here’s a guy who has produced at least a short novel worth of content on Twitter and Facebook, but has the least attachment to his words.

May be it’s a regional trend, may be people in some places are more forward, more open to spending money and effort for the control.

But one thing is for sure. We can never convince people to give up silos and start owning their identities, their content on their own domain or start moving to services like Micro.blog till we make them realise how worthy the words they write are. Even tweet length ones.

Here’s a list of articles I liked throughout the day.

1. I do not think there is any debate on whether Artificial Intelligence will have some unplanned consequences. There would be. It is as good as a new species. And when two new species start communicating with one another, there would be hiccups and miscommunication. I guess the only fear is this time the other species might actually be smarter. Wired has some interesting real life examples covered.

Given a clear goal, an algorithm can master complex tasks, such as beating a world champion at Go. But even with logical parameters, it turns out that mathematical optimization empowers bots to develop shortcuts humans didn’t think to deem off-­limits. Teach a learning algorithm to fish, and it might just drain the lake.

2. I had no idea there were multiple theories for the reason behind Dinosaurs’ extinction. I always believed the “a fairy tale: ‘Big rock from sky hits the dinosaurs, and boom they go.’” Well, that may not be the case. Bianca Bosker has a fascinating coverage.

Before the asteroid hypothesis took hold, researchers had proposed other, similarly bizarre explanations for the dinosaurs’ demise: gluttony, protracted food poisoning, terminal chastity, acute stupidity, even Paleo-weltschmerz—death by boredom. These theories fell by the wayside when, in 1980, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Luis Alvarez and three colleagues from UC Berkeley announced a discovery in the journal Science

3. Being ethical is not black and white. It is almost impossible to lead a life which you claim has been ethical and to make everyone agree. However, “figuring out how to live the good life is fun” - a great essay by Ephrat Livni.

By virtue of accidents of birth, we find ourselves unfairly profiting from all kinds of inequalities, depending on where we are born, who our parents are, our racial or ethnic backgrounds, and more. Your passport determines more than just access—it means you are the beneficiary, albeit abstractly, of actions you may not approve. Most of us, wherever we live, are funding wars or policies we disagree with. We can’t help but do wrong.

4. A much-needed account from a non-profit group “that reunites refugees around the world with families”. Another reminder that we humans have heart beating incessantly within. Some may have painted it black, but as a species, we will keep fighting back.

“While hundreds of families separated at the US–Mexico border under the Trump administration’s”zero tolerance” policy remain apart, a Michigan woman has inspired people to help reunite loved ones by donating their frequent flyer miles.”

I read some fanwars and associated diatribes after a long time today.

I read some cringeworthy posts, and some spiteful responses.

I read some inhuman sentiments flung around as words.

I logged onto Twitter after a long time today.

I think all of these might be related.

Nature and family get-togethers go along pretty nicely

I am kind of bummed that no one here had any interest in Yahoo! Pipes. I really wish there was an alternative to that wonderful service. It would be so useful to deliver single feed from multiple sources. Also allows us to capture all mentions to single place.

Remember Yahoo! Pipes? I had built so many custom feeds combining different feeds using that service. With my recent pull back to RSS, I really feel a need for some such similar service. I wonder though if anyone else shares this need too.

I wish micro.blog becomes bigger, more diverse with more voices spread across the world, the timezones, narrate their stories. It becomes difficult for a user from a non-American timezone to benefit from the timeline. It is either crawling or swings past as you stay asleep. I have to consume posts via feeds and depend on Micro.threads to pull out posts that lead to discussion overnight.

I fear though if the place becomes bigger before there are tools in place to handle the scale, we may inundate it with too many voices and interactions. Making it extremely difficult and unpleasant to follow along for any person. We need to tread carefully.

It is important the service attracts both established and diverse voices. I am sure the awesome people behind Micro.blog are already planning for this.

Date 2018-08-11 01:15

It’s amusing to see the weekly reports from Screen Time. I knew I have been spending far less time in Productivity/Reading categories (as compared to Social Networking). I didn’t know it was this bad.

And, no surprises, Micro.blog becomes first app to hit App Limit.

Throughout the day, I read so many article which I would like to share to others. It also is an exercise so that I keep track of all the articles I havr read and liked over the years. However, sharing them instantly was polluting the feed. I wouldn’t want to see that from others in my timeline. So it was only fair for me to not do the same.

Hence, going ahead I plan to share a list of articles I liked through the day as a list. This is the first edition of the post.

1. Dave Winer feels may be it’s a good thing that Twitter hasn’t banned Alex Jones yet. And he is unhappy with the journalists for bashing Twitter incessantly for that.

“Their unwillingness to follow the herd is a sign of hope that we may continue to use the net to speak freely, even if the majority wants us silenced. And what does it say about journalism that there are few if any dissenters? You see this regularly, they’re too scared for some reason to present all sides of a discussion.”

2. Rebecca Cook disagrees with Dave completely. And she shares one of the heartfelt experiences she had during a community she visited, on December 15, 2012 to back why.

And any media executive who can’t see the harm in protecting the publishing power of a person who denies what’s real with such utter cruelty and disregard for the pain of his fellow citizens should be asked to explain himself. And then to explain again. What do you really believe in?

3. Matt Levine summarises Elon Musk’s latest stunt, attempting to take Tesla private. And does so perfectly.

Musk amusingly named his promotional flamethrowers “Not a Flamethrower” to get around shipping rules banning flamethrowers, and he seems to have learned the wrong lesson from that stunt. I suspect that naming his public company “Not a Public Company” won’t actually work to get around securities laws.

4. The world of technology and science never fails to fascinate me. Another such eye opening article. I had no idea that the nuclear tests carried out in 1950s to 1980s were prominently used for detecting fraud in Californian wine. And apparently Fukushima’s nuclear disaster has affected those tests.

I have been reading a lot of views from people who are leaving Twitter. But it is different from the Facebook exodus. They aren’t quitting. And I wondered why?

I still am on Twitter - accessed from website only. It’s work to sidestep the noise. But the community there has worth.