Maybe I'm spacial

This kind of looks like me in a Firefox shirt I used to have. Dall-e prompt: an illustration of Laura Hilliger wearing scuba goggles in a grocery store

Oh man, it's so much fun to watch the world of tech. Apple announced a new product for the first time in like a decade. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs got into a fight with Cerberus trying to claw his way out of the Underworld and back to Sausalito. AppleVision Pro released augmented reality scuba goggles, and I've been laughing for days.

I wrote about goggle-tech in Maybe Zombies back in 2019, so I thought the launch provided adequate opportunity to say stuff on the internet and promote my book.

Maybe Zombies > https://maybezombies.com
Tao of WAO Worker Wellbeing > https://soundcloud.com/tao-of-wao/s06-episode-02-worker-wellbeing
Moderation Strike: Stack Overflow, Inc. cannot consistently ignore, mistreat, and malign its volunteers > https://www.downes.ca/post/75296

We've been talking about what Apple dubs "spacial technology" since I lived in San Francisco. I left there in 2007. I'm interested in the future of computing, to be sure. Keyboards and mice are very last century. We computer people wanted Minority Report or Iron Man style computing, instead we got AppleVision Pro.

And yet, despite my jest, there's some serious shit going down with technology. Web / Digital / Information literacies are ever more important, and people are falling ever more behind.

Here's a pro-tip – AI can model the voice of your friends and family. It can be used to make realistic looking documentation. It can make you think I'm calling you from my phone number and with my voice when it isn't me. Use your mind, fix your password hygiene, use 2FA and don't forget to ask for the code word.

There's a chasm of competency with this stuff, and it's fascinating (and terrifying) to watch. Rushkoff wrote about how tech companies want you in front of the screen, so my best piece of advice is just go outside.

What will stop AI from flooding the internet with fake images? > https://www.vox.com/technology/23746060/ai-generative-fake-images-photoshop-google-microsoft-adobe
Google to crack down on office attendance, asks remote workers to reconsider > https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/google-to-crack-down-on-office-attendance-asks-remote-workers-to-reconsider/ar-AA1cgQuC
Customers are being asked to tip even at self check-out. Some say it's 'emotional blackmail.' > https://www.businessinsider.com/customers-are-hesitant-to-tip-at-self-check-out-2023-5

Maybe I'm feeling

Collapse by Nevercrew

I had a bit of a rough week. The outcome of which is that I've learned, thanks to processing out loud, that empathy and competence should be tightly woven but subservient to truth.

The truth is that we feel, and feelings are indicators of such a wide variety of things. Tuning into that is a good idea. I'm not over-empathetic, I'm intuitive.

As I indicated in previous paragraphs, newsletters and rants, our peak capitalist world is trying to get us to submit. Be docile. Accept that this is how things are and that we have no power. It's not true though, all the little choices of a life add up to the life lived. So tune in, feel the discomfort. Feel it all, otherwise there's really no point to this absolute shitshow of a world.

Too late now to save Arctic summer ice, climate scientists find > https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/06/too-late-now-to-save-arctic-summer-ice-climate-scientists-find
Russia’s Convict-Soldiers Have Their Own Brutal Rules > https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/05/16/russia-prisons-wagner-group-ukraine-crime-culture/
Why octopuses are building small “cities” > https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/09/why-octopuses-are-building-small-cities-off-the-coast-of-australia/

Maybe I need help?

I have some travel coming up, so we'll see how that goes. I've been rudderless for what seems like years. Everyone says it's ok, I'll figure it out. But I wish they could see the inside of my brain.

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