A collection of some of the best links from around the web, manually curated.
If this text makes your head explode, fear not: By 2017, you could have a new one transplanted onto your body. What could possibly go wrong?
One of the NYT’s «Top Music Recordings of 2014» was made entirely by a computer. Intriguing behind-the-scenes story on the making of a creative algorithm.
This is one of the rare kind of texts that has the potential to completely change your perspective. I’ve always struggled to wrap my head around Artificial Intelligence and the question of whether and when machines will be more intelligent than humans. It sure is a fascinating issue, but it always had this sci-fi out-of-touchiness; humans are notoriously bad at understanding exponential growth and thus far, no text had really helped me understand how we might get from Siri and Watson to superintelligent computers and immortality (or extinction) within a couple of decades. All of that changed when I read this two-part series. A stunner. In so many ways.
A sneak peek at the five virtual reality movies Oculus Rift is working on. This looks spectacular. For some more background, here’s an article on how virtual reality will change movies forever that I’ve recommended a few months ago.
Death isn’t what it used to be.
186 smart people have answered this year’s Edge question: What do you think about machines that think? I can’t say I’ve read them all (due to imminent head explosion threat), but those that I’ve read, make for great discussion starters. Especially liked Thomas Metzinger’s argument that only the ability to suffer allows for substantial thinking.
The Cluetrain Manifesto was launched 15 years ago and for my gonzo dollars it’s the best and most important thing written about the internet. It should be required monthly reading for anyone doing business online. Two of the Cluetrain authors have come back with a new, urgent manifesto for these critical and fragile times. Hopefully we listen. «We come to you from the years of the Web’s beginning. We have grown old together on the Internet. Time is short. We, the People of the Internet, need to remember the glory of its revelation so that we reclaim it now in the name of what it truly is.»
My favorite link of the week was the story of an entrepreneur trying to crack the riddle of decent tasting fake meat. This portrait awakened my dormant high-school-era vegetarianism and showed how old-fashioned for-profit businesses are trying to impact huge high-stakes problems like climate change. Good intentions and ambition won’t matter much if they can’t solve grim market realities like distribution and «mouthfeel».
A future in which people can be blocked in real life just like on social media – that’s just one of the dystopian themes in the latest episode of Black Mirror, the first one in feature length. As with the six that came before, Charlie Brooker does an excellent job in dissecting the present by extrapolating. If you knew Black Mirror, these 75 minutes are just as good as you’d have hoped for. If you’re new to Black Mirror: Welcome to this brilliantly creepy, exceptionally thought-provoking ride.
Some questions to think about over the weekend. 41 actually, prompting reflection on the moral dimension of the technologies our lives become intertwined with ever closer.
Make sense of what’s happening, and imagine what could be.
Carefully curated recommendations on what to read, watch and listen to. For nerds and changemakers who love when something makes them go «Huh, I never thought of it this way!».Undecided? Learn more | Peek inside
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