9th Edition

Written drunk in the back of a car, coming home from a bar

The Lead

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

As humans, we are capable but notoriously bad at planning for the future.

So why are we, or more precisely governments, politicians, guns for hire/CEOs, looking to billionaires for guidance on how to shape the future ? The median billionaire age is 67 years, and don’t mistake this for veiled ageism, but when was the last time you heard someone in that age range (+/- 10 years) not moan about how things were better in the past (remember the pre-cell phone era) ? Economically successful or not, imagination declines with age, and being out of the circle of the next generation’s hip kids - driving the search for relevance in a youth-obsessed society - are two reasons for this behavior.

Defector wrote more about this.

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The Interwebs

RIP privacy - it is gone for good

Activitypub the decentralized API that will allow you to take (back) control of your social media activity, POA (proof of attendance) the crypto bros’ answer to “post or it didn’t happen” on the blockchain - meet your new match - eDNA. Environmental DNA, traces pulled from thin air that can be used to create an image of you. Science fiction ? No, it happened already. The NYT wrote about it recently too. So even if you decide to go dark, you can still be found by just existing, no online footprint or surveillance cameras are required.

Freud was right

Your subconscious does shape your reality. Time to get that therapy session in.

Chinese esfakeism

We’ve all seen Tianduchang, the replica of Paris. Chinese influencer/content creator culture is now constantly on the hunt for the next domestic lookalike, and people are posing at locations that double as backgrounds for London, a US high school, or camping while actually in downtown.

Thames Town, outside of Shanghai - image credit ABC