Modes of Communication/Truth is the Weapon of the Underdog

Last week, during a public Medial Lab discussion, Judith Donath remarked that

Without some form of deception, society would be completely impossible. Lies of omission allow us to cooperate. 

This prompted Joi Ito's elaboration: we tend to make communicative statements (including non-verbal ones, like the choice of clothing) in a very particular context. How can we make a communicative statement work when the context breaks down? In fact, this breakdown of context is almost the norm for communication that is available to non-homogenous audiences, say, both your peers and your parents, following you on Facebook: the same statement may very well mean very different things different recipients. By careful omission, which amounts to a type of deception, we may be able to realize our communicative intent even if the signs and concepts that make up our message mean different things to individual recipients.

This insight has interesting implications: First of all, there are several distinct kinds/modes of public communication. One is concerned with the transmission of content (ideas, arguments, data etc.). The other one is concerned with the elicitation of social behavior: we want the recipients of the communication to interact in certain ways, adopt a position towards us in relation to their own, and so on.

My first look into the Julia language

Julia is a rather new programming language; it started out in 2009 and is being developed by bunch of scientific programmers at the MIT. The syntax looks a little like Matlab, and the authors really seem to have mathematical and statistical applications in mind. But in my view, Julia has the potential to become really popular in a few short years down the road. Julia's syntax is almost as pleasant to me as Python's, nothing looks too arcane and mind-bending, and yet at its core, it is a much more modern language.

Old Wire Frame AI

One more of those strange dreams. 

On the fourth day, we dug up the old wire machine. Y had discovered it first: A stunning and brilliantly constructed, entirely mechanical computer, a vast, intricate three-dimensional web of taut, crisscrossing metal strings, pulled by springs and levers. After an unknown number of centuries, the mechanism was still so well balanced that it continued to run, driven only by the endless patience of the faint tug of the coriolis force that powered its intake pendulums. Entirely self-contained, it had no way of sensing the world or making contact; not that there would have been anyone to make contact to where the thing came from.

We managed to extract the mechanism from the ground without disturbing its unceasing movements, the jittering and fluttering and soft twanging that enabled complex computations. When we set up the scanners and digital interpreters, we found what we suspected all along: the old wire machine harbored a mind, an artificial intelligence. Incredibly lonely, and very alien, but a mind without a doubt.

Versuch einer Verteidigung der Homöopathie

Viele meiner Freunde und Bekannten sind leidenschaftliche Feinde der Homöopathie, und ich glaube, sie tun ihr unrecht. Ich versuche, mal kurz darzulegen, warum ich sie befürworte. Ich würde mich freuen, wenn mir jemand qualifiziert widerspricht.

Wer die Ordnung in einem in anderen Land zu ändern sucht, kann z.B. zu Flächenbombardements greifen, Blockaden verhängen, Aufständische aufrüsten, und hoffen, dass jeweils die Richtigen bekämpft und getroffen werden, und anschließend nicht alles in Trümmern liegt. Solche Gewaltaktionen sind mit Leid, Schäden riesigen Ausmaßes und großen Kosten für den Eingriff selbst verbunden, und der Ausgang ist oft ungewiß. Manchmal ist es sinnvoller, eine Handvoll Agenten ins Land zu schmuggeln, und einzelne Kollaborateure an strategischen Stellen zu finden und sie gezielt zu unterstützen.

Herbstlied

Herr, es ist Zeit. Das iPhone war grandios.
Leg deinen Daumen auf die Fingerprint-Sensoren,
und in den Foren lass die Trolle los. 

Das neue iOS hat mir den Spaß versaut,
der Jailbreak wird noch ewig dauern: schade;
gibts Omnifocus auch fürs Nexus? Lade
das letzte Backup aus der Apple-Cloud. 

Wer jetzt kein iPhone hat, kauft keines mehr.
Wer Android-Benutzer ist, wird's lange bleiben,
wird Testberichte lesen, durch die Läden treiben,
und zwischen Galaxy und Nexus sehr
lang schwanken müssen, bis wir unterschreiben.

The itty bitty fingerprint sensor

tl;dr: The fingerprint reader of the new Jesus phone is a bad idea, but not because of security or espionage problems.

Apple has shown exceptionally poor judgement with its choice of headline feature of its new iPhone 5s. If I had Apple stock, this would be to be a good time to be embarrassed about it. Not just because I believe that the screen is too small, the flash memory too stingy, the UI too flat, or because a fingerprint reader is a disastrous choice in itself, but because Apple seems to have lost its sense for taste and timing. You do not keep ahead of the game by making phones thinner and longer or blingy. And adding a feature that screams "privacy violation" in the middle of a mass surveillance affair outs you as a nutcase.

Some vague ideas on building a secure email service

In the wake of growing awareness of the indiscriminate spying activities of governments and private entities, more people consider moving away from existing email services, such as Gmail, Hotmail or even the accounts provided by employers and universities. Email is fundamentally broken: encryption comes with serious usability impediments (ever tried to sync your PGP encrypted mail across multiple devices), and your email provider is forced to hand the unencryptable meta-data (to, from, ip/location, subject, client etc.) to basically unaccountable government agencies. If you are involved with anything that might be affected by industrial espionage, or if you are interested in any form of political activism (such as Transparency International, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Attac etc.), if you do not want to be blackmailed for your sexual preferences, your religion, etc., you should be very worried.

I am aware that our children use email less and less, but I am still hooked on it and think that it should continue to play a role in my life. So how could we design a better email service?