“Whyte turned his insights into a film as well as a 1980 book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, which has become a classic of urban planning. Among his other influences, you can credit (or blame) Whyte for the widespread public space deployment of moveable metal chairs, which he often praised for their malleable utility. […] At each site, pedestrians walked faster in 2010 than they had in 1980, by an average of 15%. Time spent lingering in public spaces declined by roughly half, and fewer people were forming groups. In general, walkers appeared more atomized and rushed in 2010 than they had a generation before.” Hanging out.
Tech: Smuggling data in emojis. New slime. Balcony solar. Noether theorem. Trump and armored Teslas (and Cybertrucks’ security). Quantum teleportation achieved. Self healing biotech potholes. Tiny satellites. Scotland salmon farms. Pickling.
People: Age adapter painting descriptions in museums. Obeying in advance. The dying mind hallucinations. Mythology of work. US flu season. Thailand and Myanmar scam gangs. Antiwork. Perpetual stews. Luddite teens & noscrolling in public // hanging out on the street.
US: DOGE implementation order. Danes buying California. Married women and votes in the US. Authoritarism.
AI: A ‘99 bubble? ChatGPT shifts right. UK and US won’t sign the summit communique. Musk bid on OpenAI. AI investment in the EU. Handoff to bots. KPMG change in business model.
Tracking workers performance with AI (or federal workers) - what could go wrong.
