Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #329

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see”.

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

The most Trumpian and Clintonesque moments in the debate (according to a computer) – Tyler Schnoebelen – Medium. “I know I’m a week late on debate topics. And I have nothing to say about the VP debate. But you know what this election needs? Data! What happens when you train an algorithm on Trump and Clinton speech patterns, then ask it to rate what the candidates said during the debate? This. And it’s pretty funny.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Is Your Data Sexist? Why Bias Matters in Artificial Intelligence – Susan Etlinger – LinkedIn. “Last week I was in New York for Strata, and my head’s still spinning from all the big data discussions. Prophet‘s Susan Etlinger is often at the forefront of data ethics, and this important piece is no exception. Go ahead and google images for ’unprofessional hairstyles.’ Notice anything? The data we use to train algorithms biases those algorithms. But editing data is controversial, and curating algorithms is subjective. Data ethics, indeed.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Monsanto Agrees to Use Gene-Editing Tool CRISPR Responsibly – Motherboard. “My job in this triumvirate of link-finders is to be the chicken little/sky is falling/the world is going to hell pessimist. So, we’ve had a few links about the CRISPR technology — which enables live ’editing’ of DNA — and the amazing ways it will change things for the better. Well, if you are chicken little, you say to yourself, yeah but what if evil Monsanto gets their hands on this tech? Well, they will. Is that a piece of sky I see tumbling down!!!?!” (Hugh for Alistair).
Heavyweight Podcast – Episode #2: Gregor. “In July of 2004, a radio program appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that was the strangest thing I had heard on the radio waves: Wiretap, with Jonathan Goldstein. In the first episode I heard, the host called his mother and asked her deeply personal questions about his childhood. It was the kind of thing that I had never heard on the radio before — weird & honest & vulnerable. Wiretap, amazingly, had an 11-year run on CBC, and then went off the air. Well, host Jonathan Goldstein has a new podcast, and episode #2 is a gem of a piece: about mid-life, realizing our limits, about jealousy, the music Moby sampled in his record Play, and who gave him the CD boxset those samples come from.” (Hugh for Alistair).
Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny – The New Yorker. “What happens when those with success nurture and curate a new breed of startups… and it works. It’s not just about those with a brave idea anymore. Now, it’s about who you know, how they connect, who else they have connected and can you attach a brand to it? Y Combinator has done just that. They have a new president. This is him. This is how he thinks. Can startups rule the world? What about Silicon Valley?” (Mitch for Alistair).
Imagining A Cashless World – The New Yorker. “Let’s get rid of the paper already, shall we? Well, it’s not just about ending the pain of jangling change in your back pocket or the filth and strain of dealing with taxi drivers who don’t want to give change and won’t accept credit cards, anymore. Moving towards a cashless society could also change the face of crime. It could also change the face of how taxes are paid (and distributed) and more. Will it work? Can it work? Maybe, it already is in other parts of the world…” (Mitch for Hugh).