Control Shift Delete

THE INTERNET AND YOU

It has been quite the month in technology between random blackouts in the Iberian Peninsula, a social media war between billionaires, and drama with AI rollouts.

The theme of this newsletter revolves around the shortcut “ctrl+shift+delete” (or “command” if you’re a Mac user), which prompts users if they would like to delete data, whether they know what that data contains or not.

I’ve been thinking a lot about our digital footprints, whether they are ones left intentionally or not, as well as how that might translate into our online and offline behavior.

If you’re here for AI news, I’ve included a fantastic summary below with the heaviest hitters of the last month. Otherwise, walk with me a little further down.

MEDIA DEPRIVATION

Who we are, uninterrupted

In the book The Artist’s Way, which is essentially a 12-step program for recovering artists to rediscover their creativity, one of the weeks involves a “reading deprivation” in which you must read as little as possible to reveal your innermost thoughts.

I failed miserably.

Nowadays, the chapter would be re-written as a “media deprivation.” The furthest I got was not using social media for a couple days (a win?). Having a job tied to a laptop and writing would make it nearly impossible for me to achieve a complete deprivation, but I did notice some clarity and calm with less screen time.

The day I jumped back onto the internet I encountered this piece about Angelenos walking 15 miles down Pico Boulevard and the ensuing adventures. What a lovely way to spend time, in the throes of a fresh California summer, phone tucked away in a deep back pocket.

It reminds me, too, that there is more time in a day than we might realize when we are not tied to our screens. And if your argument is that AI helps us create more than we consume, then think again.

While I will prod Claude or ChatGPT every so often, it is crucial to understand that these are complements, rather than replacements. It may reassure you that job replacement predictions are not as dire as you may think, either.

Of course, this all depends on the level of interruption (or disruption) we allow AI and technology to hold in our lives. I wonder how machines could fare with a little bit of deprivation.

CASE STUDY

Seeing your audio data

As I getting my mind blown by Mood Machine, a book about the rise of music streaming, I encountered a way to actually see what data is on you. Follow below on Spotify:

Account > Privacy Settings > Download your data. 

Within the folder provided, there are several files like “Playlists” which includes titles descriptions and tracklists for every playlist you’ve created on Spotify, and “search queries” a list of everything you’ve ever typed.

OUTLOOK

The Creative Game Plan

If we operate under the belief that the most valuable commodity in the world is scarcity, then where does that leave us in the digital world, where everything is for the taking?

A little friction is a good thing. It prevents you from accidentally sending an email to the wrong Jane or paying for something with the wrong credit card. However, a frictionless world would instead mean “everything accelerates, until you forget what it means to try."

We are starting to see this phenomenon play out in the classroom. While there are ways to have AI complement learning, it is hard to address the asymmetry between how much students may be using it vs. how much teachers may be using it. With this usage comes strongly held notions around what is considered cheating or not, resulting in a never-ending battle between how to use the technology itself.

In this one of many examples demonstrating institutional collapse in the age of AI, I encountered a playbook that goes beyond typical AI use and into subversion tactics.

Enter The Secret Playbook

In it, there is an image and typography on the front that ‘breaks’ AI when it is shown. It is indecipherable (for now) to the technology that can ‘do it all.’

The playbook touches, above all, on what an embodied human can do that machines cannot. This could range from quite literally using your body to make a point, being brutally honest (as opposed to too nice), and taking advantage of physical space and scale.

Anyhow, since this book is meant to be a ‘secret’, I’ll remind you all this: an AI model only has access to the media on which it is trained on. What it doesn’t know won’t hurt it… or would it?

FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT

Dopamine Rabbit Holes

Educationally entertaining deep dives for endless scrolling

☼ For the TV lovers: TV.Garden

☼ Find your favorite aesthetic: Aesthetics Wiki

☼ Look at pretty fonts: Type Department

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