Chances are, Eugene Wei’s epic tome, Status as a Service, found its way to you this week. At 74 pages, it’s a long read that most people may, unfortunately, abandon ten minutes in. So, having read it, allow me to convey status by exploring Wei’s article and how it relates to human nature.
Author Archives: Nicholas J. Robinson
Digital Future Friday: Burning digital books – Unintended consequences – Military memes
This week, we dissect the complicated cultural issue plaguing our social platforms. In the wake of new bans and mad-dash policy updates from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, it’s critical to understand the root causes and externalities. And as luck has it, the most famous of the de-platformed made a return on Wednesday.
Burning Digital Books and the Fight over Online Ideology
Is social media ripping apart the fabric of society? Fears of the fringe and “the other” have prompted some to demand social platforms remove uncomfortable ideas, hoping that the very algorithms that entrap us will protect us from ourselves. The idea of uniting humanity through a global network is turning out to be more dystopian […]
Unbundling Food
Tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen famously said, “there are only two ways to make money in business: One is to bundle; the other is unbundle.” This bundle/unbundle process most commonly appears in the digital media and technology space. Successful unbundling requires product innovation that makes it an obviously better choice than its predecessor. For example, the […]
Digital Future Friday: Synthetic Reality – The death of Cinema – Powerful AI
This week continues our exploration of synthetic reality, ushers in the death of cinema and reveals the first case of an AI so powerful it’s creators won’t release it. Seriously.
Post-truth Marketing in Synthetic Reality
Reality is shifting, and no one understands what’s real anymore. A new version of reality has emerged and it’s manifesting itself in strange phenomena such as Frye Fest, fake news and synthetic influencers. This version of reality – the synthetic layer – sits on top of our senses and language, and has emerged thanks to […]
Digital Future Friday : Weaponized Investments – Reddit Protests – The Metaverse
Digital Future Friday is back with a look at weaponized investments, the metaverse and more.
The Reddit Protests and China’s Control of American Culture
The “front page of the Internet” is the latest battle ground in the fight over control of global culture. Chinese tech giant Tencent recently invested $150m in Reddit. This investment sparked virtual protests and outrage across the social platform, with images of Tiananmen Square flooding Reddit’s front page. The threat of Chinese censorship was feeling […]
#KaraJack Quick Take: 4 takeaways from the Jack Dorsey and Kara Swisher Twitter Interview
Recode wonder woman Kara Swisher interviewed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Twitter last night. It was, unsurprisingly, a terrible medium to conduct an interview. Recode republished the interview in order, which misses some of the nuance, but is the best place to catch up. Jack has been on a strange media tour during past few […]
Regulating Deep Fakes
There is an ocean of data on the Internet, growing every second from both humans and bots. Most of this data is meaningless and harmless. It’s noise. But some of the data is harmful, intended to influence and misdirect public opinion. This harmful data appears authentic (fake news) which is why it’s so effective. Deep […]