The market capitalization of these 5 companies are as large as the bottom 350 S&P 500 stocks combined, and almost as much as the entire rest of the developed market around the world.
tag > Technology
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Microsoft’s new mixed reality headset, the HoloLens 2, was featured in a commercial and campaign starring artist Marina Abramović, who is known for promoting and practicing arts such as Spirit Cooking.
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Joe Brewer: Global Revolution in Alternate Reality? - by Kevin Carson (p2pfoundation)
Back in the late ’90s, cyberpunk writer Neal Stephenson introduced the concept of “phyles” in The Diamond Age. Phyles filled the void left after encryped commerce and digital currencies had deprived the Westphalian nation-state of most of its revenues, and most of the world’s states were either substantially hollowed out or had collapsed altogether into Balkanized collections of city-states. The phyle was a distributed, non-geographically-based, global civil society, providing — much like the medieval guilds at the height of their vigor — a range of support platforms for its members: reputational rating systems and quality certification, cooperative buying and marketing, assorted benefits like health and unemployment insurance, legal and security services, encrypted currencies and virtual marketplaces, and so forth.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is a global public health emergency that requires a coordinated and large-scale response by governments worldwide. However, States’ efforts to contain the virus must not be used as a cover to usher in a new era of greatly expanded systems of invasive digital surveillance. We, the undersigned organizations, urge governments to show leadership in tackling the pandemic in a way that ensures that the use of digital technologies to track and monitor individuals and populations is carried out strictly in line with human rights.
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Malleable Systems: Software must be as easy to change as it is to use it
The user wants open software, software that can be modified, and that can participate in a progressive improvement process. — J.C.R. Licklider, Some Reflections on Early History (1986)
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'Abolish Silicon Valley' Author Urges 'Expropriating' Platforms, Making them Open-Source Public Services (Book)
Q: How do you fix this broken system? A: Overall the goal that I'm thinking about is that you have the private sector so overfunded and glorified that it seems like the only way to do things, but things could be much better serviced by the public sector without the profit motive that the private sector demands. Reclaim the wealth from capital, push back capital and fund public innovation... Right now the way it works is all these tech companies are predicated on a very particular way of regulating work and will hire people short-time and pay them nothing and not provide them with safety nets.
There are also companies that shouldn't necessarily exist. A lot of companies are being funded to do something the public sector could've provided. Instead of good public transit, we have Uber. Instead of a good social mobility system, we get paid scooters. What people want is to streamline a centralized system that is run in a way that is accountable and actually serves the public...
My Utopian view is to put tech companies in full public view. Expropriate platforms and turn them into municipal services, public services and make them open-source.
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Brain Warfare: The Covert Sphere, Terrorism, And The Legacy Of The Cold War - Essay By Timothy Melley (MITPress, 2011)
On October 2, 2005, three months after the coordinated bombing of the London transportation system and three days before the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved John McCain’s Detainee Treatment Act, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke attempted to explain terrorism via a specter of the Cold War. Islamic terrorists, Clarke argued, should not be seen in the “‘classic’ mould of revolutionaries fighting for a political cause.” Rather, they are like educated youths “brainwashed”into joining cults. Indeed, Clarke added, perhaps “anti-brainwashing techniques”could be used to “deprogramme” terrorists—converting them back to productive citizens essentially by running brainwashing protocols in reverse.
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UK government using confidential patient data in coronavirus response (Guardian)
"Technology firms are processing large volumes of confidential UK patient information in a data-mining operation as part of the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak"
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Apple and Google partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology (Google)
Across the world, governments and health authorities are working together to find solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic, to protect people and get society back up and running. Software developers are contributing by crafting technical tools to help combat the virus and save lives. In this spirit of collaboration, Google and Apple are announcing a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design.
[...] Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders. We will openly publish information about our work for others to analyze.
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Who Profits From the Pandemic? - by Pepe Escobar (strategic-culture)
The game ahead for the elites, taking advantage of the crisis, might well contain these four elements: a social credit system, mandatory vaccination, a digital currency and a Universal Basic Income (UBI). This is what used to be called, according to the decades-old, time-tested CIA playbook, a “conspiracy theory.” Well, it might actually happen. [...] So the key working hypothesis is that Covid-19 could be used as cover for the usual suspects to bring in a new digital financial system and a mandatory vaccine with a “digital identity” nanochip with dissent not tolerated: what Slavoj Zizek calls the “erotic dream” of every totalitarian government. [...] Yet underneath it all, amid so much anxiety, a pent-up rage seems to be gathering strength, to eventually explode in unforeseeable ways. As much as the system may be changing at breakneck speed, there’s no guarantee even the 0.1 percent will be safe.
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Brussels Becomes First Major City to Halt 5G Due to Health Effects (brusselstimes)
Plans for a pilot project to provide high-speed 5G wireless internet in Brussels have been halted due to fears for the health of citizens, according to reports. “I cannot welcome such technology if the radiation standards, which must protect the citizen, are not respected, 5G or not,” Environment minister Céline Fremault told Bruzz.
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Microsoft exec says coronavirus could spark big shift for AI in health care (techexplorer)
Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott grew up fascinated by the 1960s Apollo space program and then-President John F. Kennedy's vision of a moon shot. Now, he envisions just as ambitious a project taking shape as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. Just as the U.S. government significantly invested to put Neil Armstrong and others on the moon by 1969—$200 billion in today's dollars by his estimate—Scott said similar funding in artificial intelligence technology could be a difference-maker for our nation's battered health care system.
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Microsoft Patents New Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity Data
Microsoft has patented a cryptocurrency mining system that leverages human activities, including brain waves and body heat, when performing online tasks such as using search engines, chatbots, and reading ads. “A user can solve the computationally difficult problem unconsciously,” the patent reads.
#Technology #Health #Biology #Military #Crypto #Economics #Cryptocracy
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Look Who's Coming to the Rescue! - Documentary by Truthstream Media on Bill Gates
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A Google Plan to Wipe Out Mosquitoes Appears to Be Working (Bloomberg)
Alphabet unit Verily, which is also running coronavirus test sites, reports major progress in Debug project.
