“Among many other things, a physical business enlivens public space, by making the simple, eloquent statement: I am here, working. There’s a scientific glassblowing studio north of us; I walk past it on the sidewalk often. By simply existing, and having a nice sign that faces the street, they are doing a small public service every day. Part of the problem of social media is that there is no equivalent to the scientific glassblowers’ sign, or the woodworker’s open door, or Dafna and Jesse’s sandwich boards. On the internet, if you stop speaking: you disappear. If you could put on magic internet goggles that enabled you to see through this gnarly selection bias[…] All the tumult of Twitter would shrink into a single weird cafe—just a speck, in an enormous city made up entirely of people quietly working".” - Work with the garage door up
People: Indonesia partners’ rental. 85m jobs unfilled because not enough people in 2030. What life means to Einstein (PDF interview).
Immigration and the UK care crisis. Granfluencers. Assistive products become joy/luxury. Funerals renewals.Tech/infra: New canals in Europe (w/ CZ) and in Asia. Google patent for the perfect shot. Future in bifacial PV. China push on wind and solar. What is digital transformation. Creepy world of digital afterlife. Hottest clubs/lounges are .. credit cards’.
Futures: Questions in critical futures studies. UN summit of the future. A gold bar now reaches 1m.
AI: AI for biodiversity cataloguing. NIST proposes new quantum-proof encryption techniques. Warning AI tools in govUK are biased. KPMG on AI colleagues for Customer Experience (PDF). AI-enhanced work models (by Upwork). MIT AI for collaboration. Better than real men. AI scientist.
Random: A great interactive piece about suffering, art and poetry [not often talking about great code, but there it is].
Work with the garage door up, Also see, the DocWeb.
Connections in Isolation
In the near future, a young woman named Mira sat in her cramped apartment in London, scrolling through her phone, a digital echo of the world around her. It wasn’t just any scroll; it was a desperate search for connection, spurred on by the rising loneliness that had crept into her life like an uninvited guest who decided to stay. It was 2025, and the new trend of “Rental Companionship” had taken the city by storm—services that offered temporary partnerships to alleviate the crushing weight of isolation. Mira had never tried it, but the idea nagged at her like a child refusing to eat their vegetables.
*“What’s the worst that could happen?”* she muttered, half-heartedly scrolling through the profiles on PinjemDoi, the most popular service. A thought suddenly struck her: *Was this what they meant by “digital transformation”?*^1
She settled on a sprightly granfluencer named Lillian, who, at ninety-four, had amassed more followers than most influencers half her age, all thanks to her cheeky take on life. Mira booked a virtual tea date, hoping to soak up some of Lillian’s infectious energy. As they chatted, Lillian shared stories, dissecting the absurdity of the digital afterlife industry, where companies crafted digital versions of the deceased from their social media footprints. *“It’s like trying to keep a pet goldfish alive by staring at its picture,”* Lillian joked, her laughter a soothing balm against the digital chill of the room.
Meanwhile, across the globe in China, the Pinglu Canal was nearing completion, promising to reshape trade routes and perhaps the fate of the world’s economy. Mira, lost in her thoughts, pondered the implications of such megaprojects on the local ecosystems. *“Trade over trees, always,”* she mused, recalling the environmentalists protesting the Danube-Oder-Elbe project back home. The irony of seeking companionship while being a witness to the world's relentless march towards isolation—both ecological and emotional—didn’t escape her.
“Life’s a bit like that AI scientist they’ve got at Sakana AI,” Lillian said, interrupting Mira’s spiraling thoughts. “We automate everything but the warmth of human connection. They’re writing papers without ever picking up a pen!” The absurdity struck Mira like a lightning bolt. She imagined an AI trying to navigate a dinner party, awkwardly serving up facts instead of fondness.
The conversation turned philosophical, with Lillian urging Mira to write her own future, not just consume someone else’s narrative. “Remember, darling, the future is like a stubborn cat. You can’t just chase it; you have to coax it into your lap.”^2
Inspired, Mira decided to embark on a project—her own digital zine, *Connections in Isolation*, using Google Docs to foster collaboration, a space where others like her could share their stories and redefine companionship in a world increasingly dominated by AI and fleeting rentals. She envisioned a community where laughter was louder than the algorithms, where friendships weren’t rented but cultivated with care.
As she clicked ‘Create’ on a new document, she felt the weight of loneliness lift, replaced by the warmth of potential connection. The world might be transforming into something unrecognizable, but Mira was determined to find humanity in the chaos, one story at a time.
*1. Digital transformation: for better or for worse, it's a curious thing, much like a cat wearing a monocle—utterly ridiculous but surprisingly charming.*
*2. And cats, unlike people, always land on their feet—most of the time, anyway.*