privacy (9)

Hey there,

No introduction is the best kind of introduction, especially when I feel lazy.

1. Want to see what automated state surveillance is? Go watch & read this interactive reporting on the New York Times: How China Turned a City into a Prison.
2. South Korea hotel guests were secretly filmed and the footage were livrestreamed online.
3. Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War.
4. Spatial is a neat AR collaboration tool using Microsoft’s Hololens2. It looks like a killer app for distributed teams.
5. Mark Burgess (the author of Promise Theory) released his new book Smart Spacetime. I insta-added it in my anti-library.
6. Thanks to Benoit Jacquemont, I now understand better what is HTTP/3.
   

Cheers,

Marc

Hey,

In his Whiskey’n’Weed interview (which you should listen to, by the way), Elon Musk said something that struck me:

“A company is essentially a cybernetic collective made of people and machines.”

It’s a very particular way to look at the world. Of course it’s possible that we’re already merging with the machine. Of course we might already be cyborgs. We might just not be conscious of it. One question is of importance: By merging with the machine and creating a cybernetic collective, what happens to our individuality?

1. 🔑 A very well designed article by ABC News on China’s Social Scoring.
2. 🔑 Apple gives people ‘trust scores’ based on their iPhone data.
3. 🔑 People working on Brain-Computer Interfaces are now able to make one person controls a drone swarm.
4. ℹ️ A good twitter thread on why cryptocurrencies might face the same fate as RSS if the base UX is not dramatically improved. The concept might stay, but might be successful in a different way.
5. 👩‍🎨 A VR adaptation of Dragon Ball Z? Yes please!
6. 🍴 I’m quite fond of Mezcal, and this article explains very well how it is done: Oaxaca’s Potent Secret, Mezcal Is Born of Time, Tradition and a Slow-Growing Plant.

Cheers,

Marc

Image Credit: The Blue Horsehead Nebula in Infrared by WISE, IRSA, NASA; Processing & Copyright : Francesco Antonucci

Hey,

Bitcoin is a rabbit-hole. It’s impossible not to fall into it once you start getting interested in this technology. Medium is the message, and trying to understand the impact of Bitcoin (or cryptocurrencies at large) in the world is daunting. What is money? What is privacy? What are states? Why should we organize this way when we have this kind of tech? Can we be sure that it’s a good thing for us? Well, we don’t know, and we can’t for sure. It took telephone 75 years to reach 50 million users. Radio took 38 years, TV 13, Internet 4, Facebook 2, and Pokemon Go 19 days. Social experiments gets distributed to the public quicker, especially now that we don’t rely on custom-made devices to access them. Will hyper-bitcoinization happen, like maximalists predict?

1. 📖 I finished reading The Sovereign Individual. It’s been an interesting read. Back in 99, the authors made a few predictions on how microprocessing and asymmetric cryptography would impact the world. They compare our current political landscape with the downfall of the catholic church in the XVI century. They also talk in great lengths about how the Logic Of Violence changes during the transition to the Information Age and what will happen to our democratic industrial societies (Trumpism, etc…). They are off a few bets and sometimes are redundant or develop extreme and contradictory ideas but it is still a good book to understand why politics as we know it might cease to exist.
2. 📖 I started reading The Bitcoin Standard. I already learned about Rai Stones in how an Irish-Americans named O’Keefe crashed a micronesia island’s economy. Informative!
3. 🔐 Sarah Jamie Lewis on her favorite (and hilarious) vulnerability discovery: The Blowjob Injection Attack.
4. 🛠 The Raspiblitz is a DIY bitcoin and lightning network full node on a RaspberryPi. One can now access a global payment network and transact with the entire world for around 150 euros. How mind-boggling is that?
5. ⚡️ Could we create a new banking system on top of the Lightning Network? Nik Bathia thinks so and I’m clearly not in a position to have any valuable opinion on the question, but it’s inspiring.
6. 🔐 The best privacy-respecting browser, TOR, gets a new release and hits 8.0.
7. 👩‍🎨 A sub-reddit dedicated to empty and dead malls. It’s fascinating to take a look at these empty concrete buildings, and it’s impossible for me not to think of them as witness of the past. Will these buildings one day get a new life?
8. 🎧 Sou Kono – Midnight Ravers. Sou Kono is a French-Malian band. They produce a music mixing electronic and traditional vibes, but without ever being a cliché.

Happy reading,
Marc

Image Credit & Copyright: The Pencil Nebula in Red and Blue by José Joaquín Perez.

For Marshall McLuhan in 1964, it was clear that electricity was a way for humans to externalize their nervous system. I’ve yet to grasp how he could be so prescient. While his main lesson remains “Medium is the message”, we are far from being able to understand what societal transformations we will live.

1. 🔑 3D printed guns are a reality since a few years. 3D printed assault rifles are a reality now. It’s now legal in the USA to provide digital files to 3D print guns (this is considered as free speech). These rifles are of course unregistered and untraceable.
2. 🔑 Any data is just a number (Big or small). If any data is illegal, it means that the number is illegal. Can a number really be illegal?
3. 👩‍💻 The Free Speech Flag was created by John Marcotte in 2007. It was a subtle way to propagate the cryptographic key used for copying HD DVDs and Blu-Ray discs.
4. 🔑 The 0,1% is afraid that the apocalypse is coming. They are so afraid that they don’t know how they’re gonna protect themselves from their own employees. This surrealist meeting lived by Douglas Rushkoff is a must read.
5. 🔑 Since the American election in 2016, We all know that social networks are heavily used by political forces to influence the mass. This article by a French hacker uncovers foreign trolls trying to influence French elections on Twitter.
6. 🔐 Twitter leaks so much metadata that it is possible to identify anonymous users with a 96.7% accuracy.
7. ℹ️ A reminder of how cool tech is when it is inclusive: Apple’s AirPods and Live Listen are a revolution for the hearing impaired.
8. 👩‍🎨 The mechanical keyboard hype is raging. People are so enamored with their keyboards that they are willing to pay for artisan made keycaps. You have to admit, these are beautiful keycaps.
9. 👨‍💻 A real browser in the terminal? Yes, please!

Peace,

Marc

Image Credit:LL Ori and the Orion Nebula by NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team.

Hey,

1. ℹ️ The German police raided homes of „Zwiebelfreunde“ privacy activists this week. Reasons are dubious to say the least.
2. 🎧 Martyn’s new album ‎Voids is out on Ostgut Ton. I love his music.
3. 🔑 Protecting cryptocurrencies correctly is hard. This talk about “Building Crypto Castles” raises interesting points about new security models coming with the Information Age.
4. 👨🏻‍💻 Cryptocurrencies is not only about money. It is also about rare digital collectibles. Collectibles can be purchased on specialized marketplaces like OpenSea or Known Origin. Technically, collectibles are defined by the ERC-721 standard. Don’t know how to code? Don’t worry, the fine people of Smartz provide free smart-contract code.
5. 👩‍💻👩‍🎨 Crypto-collectibles are huge opportunities for digital-minded artists as they can help expand Patronage Collectibles for Creators.
6. 📺🇫🇷 La nouvelle saison d’Au Service De La France est disponible sur Arte+7. C’est du bonheur! Jean-François Halin prouve encore qu’il est un des meilleurs auteurs comiques Français.

A bientôt,

Marc

Image Credit: Pillars of the Eagle Nebula in Infrared by NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing: Lluís Romero.

Salut!

This week edition is quite small but contains a massive article on Artificial Intelligence. Take your time to read it. The world is changing fast, and it’s only the beginning! People in the future will look at us like we look at the middle-age people.

1. 🔑 Ian Hogarth (creator of Songkick) wrote an essay on AI Nationalism. This is a must read on how AI will shape states and nations. He believe that AI should become a global public good with governance mechanics that reflect the interests of all countries and people.
2. 🔐 Always remember that AI feeds on data. Here’s a list of alternatives to Google Products.
3. 👨‍💻 What did Earth look like hundreds of millions of years ago? Ancient Earth globe answers that question! You can also put your address and see where it mapped on ancien Earth. Fun!
4. 🎧 I’ve updated my Best Of FIP playlist! Enjoy some smooth tunes.

Happy reading,

Marc

Image Credit: The Cat’s Eye Nebula from Hubble by NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Salut!

Do I want to write an intro? No. So here we go with a very futuristic link selection.

1. 👩‍🎨👨‍💻🔑 This is the most fascinating article I ever read on Art, AI, and Blockchain: Does AI Art Belong in the Physical, Digital, or Crypto World?.
2. 🎧 I love this psychedelic groove: Marhaba by Maalem Mahmoud Guinia, Floating Points & James Holden.
3. 🔐 Oli Frost has put all his personal Facebook data on eBay. Yes, you can really bid!
4. 🔐 Nathan Toups has wrote a good article on going completely “Unquantified“. He also wrote a censorship resistant deadman’s switch. Do we live in a cyberpunk world? Absolutely!
5. 👩‍💻👩‍🎨 You have to watch the videos/gifs of Madeline Gannon training industrial robots to use body language to communicate.
6. 🔑 If you’re wondering how I often feel about technology: This is how I feel.
7. 🎧 For some reasons, I spent a few days only listening to FIP (the best musical radio, and it’s french!). I created a playlist with some tunes I like.

Happy reading,

Marc

Image Credit: In the Heart of the Tarantula Nebula by ESA, NASA, Hubble, ESO ; Processing: Danny LaCrue.

Aloha,

Here are some links I think are worth sharing. I’m taking a few weeks off ?, so please wait a bit for the next edition!

1. ? I finished binging Star Trek: Enterprise. Despite its many default, I loved this show! The final episode is utter shit though.
2. ? Speaking of binging, The End of the F***ing World is pretty fun to binge!
3. ? I started reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and it’s already blowing my mind. I love that kind of big unifying theory.
4. ? A few months ago I read Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth by R. Buckminster Fuller. The theory of the Great Pirates is highly inspiring. He also describes the problem with our accounting. It seems boring but it’s actually one of the biggest problem we have as neo-liberalism is such a shitty system when speaking of externalities.
5. ? A Curated List of Privacy Respecting Services and Software. Use it if you want to find alternative to human-farming services.
6. ℹ?? En France, les villes lentes font leur chemin. Basé sur le modèle du Slow Food, les Slow Cities conjuguent ruralité et urbanité.
7. ? Minimal warm groovy house music? Yes please! Farben Presents James DIN A4.
8. ?‍? NEEEEED! LEGO Just Got Stylish: Modular Furniture to Bring Out Your Inner Child .

Thanks for reading!

Marc

Aloha,

Here are some links I think are worth sharing.

1. ? The fastest, privacy respecting, DNS resolver is here. Switch to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 as soon as you can.
2. ?‍? Scott Listfield’s pop culture paintings of an astronaut exploring a future Earth.
3. ℹ️ These Glorious Satellite Images Visualize Earth From The Side. And it looks like a video game.
4. ℹ️ Parkland Students must wear clear backpacks.. This is stupid on so many levels.
5. ℹ️ The fascinating world of Instagram’s virtual celebrities. 3D rendered models get so much followers on Instagram that they become influencers.
6. ? “This is people dancing to the decontextualised, reified, corporatised, liberalised, neutralised, asexualised, re-genderised pop reflection of yesteryear’s dance floor’s reality!”. “The Only Constant is Struggle” — DJ Sprinkles Talks Homophobia, Liberal Bullshit, and Why Music is Aural Capitalism.
7. ? My favorite kind of house music: Hardrock Striker – Motorik Life (DJ Sprinkles’ Moutain of Despair).
8. ??‍?? Are.na: A distraction-free space where you can collect anything, organize your thoughts, and develop ideas over time. It’s also a community where curiosity and collaboration are more important than algorithms and likes.

Thanks for reading!

Marc