Dan Lockton
Utrecht, Netherlands + Norwich, UK
Institute for Sustainable Worlds, Norwich University of the Arts ⦿ Design—imagination—climate—futures ⦿ Imaginaries Lab http://imaginari.es ⦿ New Metaphors http://newmetaphors.com ⦿ he/him ⦿ Not my employer's views
- waymo executives admit what we all knew to begin with, that their self driving AI is really just remote operators in the philippines.
- Just a slob like one of us
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- In a fascinating union of two of my interests, it turns out that the technology that built the special effects of star wars (motion control) was invented by UC Berkeley to research how Marin residents would react to development proposals if they could see realistic video renderings.
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- This is a split-flap, and it’s a charismatic artifact of media history :) wordsinspace.net/2020/12/03/f... wordsinspace.net/fluttering-c...
- Out of nowhere, I was struck by the question, ‘Lembit Öpik… what was his fucking deal again?’ And was rewarded beyond my wildest dreams.
- Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.
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- Strange how hostile most newspapers always were about ‘media studies’, can’t imagine why.
- Because the owners don’t want them to.
- Today on Volts: I'm joined by the great @michaelhobbes.bsky.social to discuss "reactionary centrism," an intellectual tendency that's come to dominate US public life. You know the type: would never view themselves as conservative, yet finds voluntary pronoun use vastly more aggravating than fascism.
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- There's a point, well below a billion dollars, where the amount of money you have lets you rid yourself of anyone who can be a check on your worst impulses, and replace them with people who tell you those worst impulses are somehow valorous. Rare is the billionaire with someone to tell them "no."
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- This is making me think about cross-subsidy, which used to support a lot of writers. AutoTrader used to subsidise the Guardian's journalism. Bestselling books subsidised all the others. I'm sure even the BBC's best dramas subsidised its more niche offerings. But then people got all excited about...
- “I didn’t have rich parents, a childhood bedroom to return to or an infatuated billionaire intent on marrying me. Either writing had to make me money or I couldn’t do it. “ I wrote about making a living from writing in the new economy. substack.com/home/post/p-...
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- The things this guy thinks to be exculpatory are themselves profoundly damning of his entire intellectual enterprise & standing as a morally reasoning person. It’s amazing to read stuff like this: a dispatch from another academic world that is, darkly, also the one my friends & I must live in too
- Live your life so that you never have to publish an op-ed in the campus newspaper about your connection with Jeffrey Epstein dukechronicle.com/article/my-c...
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- I guess it makes sense that as universities transformed into real estate & hedge fund profiles controlled by a growing class of asset managers w/ no meaningful academic expertise, the preferred outputs wd come to resemble airport leadership books & bullshit Ted talks— but man, what are we doing here
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- The missing René Magritte. This Is Not a Drill.
- Every Lego catalogue, in full, from 1966-2015. At the link brickset.com/library/cata...
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- Twitter Moments briefly had a similar logo in the UK and I messaged the (Ameican) head of the project pointing it out and he shrugged at me. So I then sent it to a journalist mate who emailed him and they changed it within the hour. Given how the site went I probably shouldn't have bothered.
- Top tip: to avoid having the British Union of Fascists logo on the side of your mock-up train, don't use horrible text-to-image AI slop instead of actual designers and artists. www.scotsman.com/news/transpo...
- Just to offer the counterpoint here, as I think it is very very important we do so: this is absolutely anticipatory obedience 101. Much as university leaders might see it as their responsibility to “plan” for this possibility, in effect REF are getting to set the agenda without winning any election
- Before anyone gets too angry about this, several things. (1) Universities in the UK, unlike the US, are pretty much under the financial and admin control of central govt. If RefUK moves to wipe them out, as they will, then some will choose life. (1/3) www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...
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- You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs) Good tech. Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales) Bad tech.
- Happy Brexit Day folks! I cannot believe it's been 6 years already.
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- UK government, I beg you: please please ban me from using Teams
- Watching this Labour government try to kill UK universities is like watching an animal disembowel itself. You just sit there thinking ‘Why?? Why would you rip out something that has always kept you alive?’
- UK, NEW: Hannah Spencer has been selected as the Greens candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election. Hannah won with 78% of the vote, beating Fesl Raza-Khan and Sarah Wakefield.
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- OOOOH Researchfish Is going extinct 🐡🐟🐠 help.researchfish.com/en_US/resear...
- Do you reckon someone has shared their concerns with *their* funder?
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