Derek Caelin @Argus@mastodon.technology

New #book: The #Platform Society.

My talk, "Tools of Empathy and War, #games and Peacebuilding" is up: https://youtu.be/3ik00x7LiJI?t=249

Librem 5 phone hands-on—Open source phone shows the cost of being different

It's not finished, but many of the basics for an open source smartphone are here.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/librem-5-phone-hands-on-a-proof-of-concept-for-the-open-source-smartphone/

Showing my three-year-old my #chessboard collection. We found the one that's magnetic, so of course...

Just signed on to #Facebook after more than a year and discovered friends had moved, had babies...

These tinfoil hats have a cost, y'all. :/

"Unfortunately, we’re not likely to move forward on major infrastructure initiatives without broader shifts in political power and a public perception that addressing climate dangers is an urgent need. Once that happens, we’ll need to strive to protect social equity, limit environmental damage, and seek input from vulnerable communities, areas where earlier public works projects often fell short."
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615045/climate-change-green-infrastructure-us-public-works-building-boom/

Yikes.

"Growing up in the 1970s, we watched far too many television shows about superheroes. For hours we followed the exploits of figures such as Wonder Woman, Superman, Spider-Man, and the Hulk... yet it's worth thinking for a moment about what the superheroes would do for a job in today's labor market... In today's labor market strength is less important than ever."

...which is why Dianna is an antiquities curator, Clark and Peter are journalists, and Bruce is a scientist.

"Since then, most of the job creation has occurred in urban areas. Similarly, one of the toughest things to know about driverless cars is how they might create new jobs as they reshape logistics, reduce congestion, and transform the commuter experience."

"One of the hardest things to know about technological change is the way it may create new job openings. When we replaced human lift operators with automatic elevators, it suddenly became much more affordable to build skyscrapers - creating thousands more openings for construction workers. When we replaced horses with cars, our city streets stop being filled with manure, which was not only good for public health, but also for street vendors and open-air restaurants."

"Put yourself back in the year 2000, and imagine you had to forecast what would happen in the US labor market in the coming decades. Maybe you would predict a fall in the number of lighthouse keepers and level crossing attendants. But would you have anticipated the rise of app developers, data miners, and social media managers? In practice, it's invariably easier to pinpoint the sectors where jobs will be lost than those in which new positions will be created.“

"Moreover, whether a job will actually be #automated depends not just on its characteristics but on the relative cost of people and machines. The day that someone invents a superrobot that can do your job is not the day you get fired. You'll keep your job if renting the machine cost more than paying your salary. Even if the machine is cheaper, you may keep your job just because customers prefer dealing with a real person. Do you want to put your child into the first robot-run daycare center?"

"During those years, technological advances cost over three times as many Chinese jobs as us ones. As Harvard's Larry Katz encapsulates the impact of globalization versus innovation, "Over the long haul, clearly automation's been much more important - it's not even close."“

"In any analysis of advanced country #inequality, it's clear that trade and immigration play second fiddle to technological forces. One statistic that sums this up is that over the period 1995 to 2005, the United States lost 3 million manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, China lost over 10 million manufacturing jobs."

I spent an hour generating this animation and I regret nothing.

"The Berlin-based Resonate, is a #cooperative streaming #music system owned by the people who use it. In Resonate, users stream a song until they own it. The first time they play a song, it costs 0.002 cents, the second time 0.004 cents, and by the 4th or 5th play, they connect with it; and eventually they will own it."

resonate.is

"In Germany, Fairmondo, started as a decentralized online marketplace owned by its users—a co-operative alternative to Amazon and ebay. With its 2000 members, it aspires to eventually become a genuine alternative to the big players in e-commerce while at the same time staying true to its values."

https://www.fairmondo.de/global

Cooperatively Owned Online Labor Brokerages and Market Places:

"In San Francisco, Loconomics is a freelancer–owned cooperative (in beta) where members-freelancers own shares, receive dividends, and have a voice in running the company. There is no bidding and no markup. Loconomics offers massages and other services that are locally in demand. Membership in Loconomics costs $29.95 per month. The founders tested the app in the Bay Area and started to allow users from other cities in the Spring of 2016."