Month: June 2023
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Federation is contextual
Federation at the server instance is different from federation at the account instance. That feels like it is obvious, but still needs saying. Server federation is email. Account federation is spycraft in cold war Berlin. The reason why spam is endemic is that server federation must be default-accept to be valuable. The reason why PKI…
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Portability
Played Cyberpunk 2077 for five hours yesterday (because I’m an adult, 😛 ) and all I have to show for it is this: AAA video games that don’t let me save+clone+version+re-hydrate+share character state like skill trees, point allocations, and gear are starting to feel like a missed opportunity. We’re talking about the digital version of…
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The same boogieman
Privacy advocates and gun advocates fear the same boogieman but only privacy tech can stop it short of war and war is rarely an invited guest. The fear of authority gone awry and reaching towards authoritarianism is not irrational. The desire to have tools that protect you from authoritarianism is not irrational. The desire to…
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why VR?
The “high-tech, low-life” aesthetic that makes cyberpunk cool is the only setting where VR/AR doesn’t seem out of place as “consumer tech”. The problem for Apple is that they are a luxury goods brand that is out of place in the aesthetic. It’s like if the child soldier in Africa was using a Louis Vuitton…
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Power is the means to coerce compliance
Power comes in four flavors:– Physical power, which coerces with threats of death– Financial power, which coerces with threats of poverty– Reputational power, which coerces with threats of shame– Cultural power, which coerces with threats of exile and of assimilation Threats can appear to be lessor — a beating or a lay-off, but the threats…
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Abundance obsoletes Efficiency
Efficiency often gets framed as inherently good by economists and engineers, but that obfuscates any consideration of Enough. Trying to find Efficiency on the abundant side of Enough is waste; all you are striving for is Excess.