blog.bookmach.com

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A fantastic piece from Kevin Kelly on how our lives drift and flux from engineering decisions:

Systems are not neutral. They have natural biases. We tame the cascading choices we gain from accelerating technology by introducing small nudges — by deliberating embedding our own biases (also called a default) into the system here and there. We wield biases within inevitable technologies to aim them towards our common goals — increasing diversity, complexity, specialization, sentience, and beauty.

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…leads to the palace of homelessness. We’ve all had terrible house guests, but apparently Arthur Rimbaud was the worst:

He took to nude sunbathing just outside the house. He turned his room into a squalid den. He mutilated an heirloom crucifix. He was proud of the lice infesting his long mane and even pretended he was encouraging the vermin to jump on to passers-by.

Link

A year’s composite of Oprah magazines lay bare the soul of O.

Adam Smith’s 1992 miniseries on how the Soviets attempted to engineer the perfect society, instead building a centrally controlled Hell. (more at IMDB)

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Also recommended is Adam’s The Power of Nightmares, one of my all-time favorite documentaries.

Jon Stewart’s team use their 15 Tivos to produce one of the most astonishing comedic segments in history.

Bonus: Interview with Peggy Noonan, Reagan’s “Morning in America” speechwriter, where they really nail the problems with today’s political discourse.