I talk about corporations as AI because I want to emphasise that we already live within complex, opaque systems which we have little control over – financial markets, state governments, the global climate – but we also have cultural tools to address them, from art to political activism. - James Bridle

A thought provoking interview with James Bridle about the nature of A.I. and our relationship to it. Both how it is and how it should be 📝

I just made a new page for resources to help learn Finnish. I have been studying it now quite intensely and these sites have all been helpful so far. I will update over time and hope the list is also helpful to any others that find it. Also if anyone has any suggestions then just Let me know. 🗣️

A great adventure romp which immediately made we wonder why I haven’t read this before. I imagined a sort of steam punk alternative reality with a little magic sprinkled in. Everybody in this world has their own daemon an idea which Pullman explores really nicely, and overall the plot is a little sharper and more relevant than most in this category while really brings alive an alternative world. The ending felt really like it just pushed me towards immediately starting the next one in the series. A fun and recommended read. 📚 ★★★★

I have been enjoying setting up some palettes of colors for a few projects this autumn and have been finding Pastel really helpful so I bought it today! 💻

We went to the Helsinki Design Market for the first time since Covid. We were regular visitors before so it was a treat to be back. As usual in the cable factory main hall. 📷
⚲Location: 60°09'42.0"N 24°54'15.3"E

Insightful article by a renowned Sci-fi author into the differences between humans and A.I. Our use of language and art has intentionality and meaning that LLM’s don’t possess. 📝

Misty Morning outside the house. The kind of strange and captivating light that is so hard to photograph. 📷

In Toward Eternity Hur takes us on a journey where AI and nanobots take humanity through the next stage of evolution it’s at once personal and eon spanning. A philosophical and poetic look at the next phase of human evolution.

A world where reality exists balanced between instantiation and rapture, a passage travelled between the experience of existance an the act of recognition of it and of the difference between the act of creation and that of interpretation.

There is something of the Ship of Theseus paradox and something of the first words of the bible in the beginning was the word. But there is something beyond words, the taste of the ideas swirling around that this book left me with.

As one of the characters tells us about his favourite poem Rosetti’s Winter:My Secret. The secret is the thing preceeding the poem, it’s anticipation, the performance of the poem as part of the secret the part that brings it to life. ★★★★★ 📚

I wrote about why even airports that are designed sustainably are not in fact sustainable. 𝔡

The FT posted a pretty amazing graph

Americans basically die earlier than Brits by about 5 years, and it’s there along all income distributions. An average American lives the same length life as a Brit from the most deprived parts of the UK. The reason given is early death -One in 25 American five-year-olds today will not make it to their 40th birthday. 🧑‍⚕️

I took a look at Dormzilla a proposal for a student residence designed for UC Santa Barbara which bore much in common with chicken battery farms. The proposal was killed off about a year ago but was a fascinating and concerning look into possible enshittification of student accommodation. 𝔡

Watched The Skelton Twins (2014). The two central performances are captivating and much of the dialogue is strong. Yet somehow the plot doesn’t quite deliver. Was waiting for the final 30 mins when it finished. 🎥 ★★★

Just Watched The Holdovers (2023). Honestly looks like a film not only set in the 70’s but shot in the 70’s although it was released in 2023. No special effecs just great story and superb acting. I wish more films nowadays were like this. 🎥 ★★★★

📍 Hansa building, Visby.

For our family holiday this year we went to visit the Island of Gotland for a week, staying close to the island’s capital city Visby. The city is an old Hanseatic League town from medieval times and has a kind of haunted beauty. I wanted to get a better feeling for and understanding of the place before we went.

There doesn’t seem to be, at least in the english language, a much choice for books on the Hanseatic league. The one I found was by Helen Zimmern (1846-1934). It was first published under the title The Story of The Nations. The Hansa Towns in 1889. It’s in Public Domain now and can be downloaded on Project Gutenberg.

This is the magic of books when an author can speak to us from 125 years ago and be engaging, interesting and entertaining. Zimmern has written a higher opinionated and action packed short history of the League. It is a time and place in history which is often overlooked. While we rightly laud the rise of the Italian City States and their cultural heritage, the northern city states that rose at roughly the same time and which revolved around the Baltic and down the rivers of Germany are perhaps too much ignored.

Anyway I highly recommend this book if it’s something you think you may have some interest in. ★★★★ 📚

📍 From inside the Lummelunda cave in Gotland.

A gentle romance about two middle aged people who have had broken love lives coming together over a walk across the UK. The characters are believable, smart and a little guarded and bruised, they are well drawn by Nicholls and I liked them straight away.

The walking trip frames each day a set of chapters and gives the book structure and also provides a great way for two strangers to get to know each other better. From the writer of One Day it’s an engaging book that offers something a little different and dare I say better than the average romantic novel. ★★★★ 📚

📍 Hanging out in a square in Visby this Summer. 📷

we find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.- Junichiro Tanizak in his Book In Praise of Shadows ❝

Finished reading Status and Culture by David W. Marx A riveting read full of insights into how culture changes over time and why. ★★★★★ 📚

📍 A beach near Visby, Sweden. 📷

I have been playing about a bit with search and tagmojis recently and realised that tagmojis can be used in search and you can link those to the search page directly on your site just by linking them.

A quick bit of editing later and I now have linked a few of my more used tagmojis to their search page.

See for example: ♻️ 🎵 🎥 ❝

So why would you want to do this you could just add a tag for that or even a #hastag term. Yes of course there are many ways to link posts and search for them. But this is a fun and direct way where you don’t have to copy/paste emojis into the search box or add tags you might not want in your tag/category organisation. With this method you just click the link.

I am wondering if anyone has done this before or if I am breaking something but have enjoyed doing this and it’s given me some fresh ideas going forward.

P.S. When I started playing with this I noticed that there is a really nice looking plugin called search space by @sod which I aim to test out soon.

P.P.S. For reference here is micro.blogs official page of tagmojis and here is @burk ’s page of additional tagmojis which i will be following as much as possible. 🔧

Our writing tools are also working on our thoughts - Friedrich Nietzsche ❝

The Father (2020) directed and co-written by Florian Zeller sees Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman both give outstanding performances in a film about a pensioner who has dementia.

With the way the film is cut looping time and disorientating us as much as the protagonist, the use of the same actors to portray different people and the tricks of the apartment set, it’s just a tour de force of storytelling.

Not a feelgood movie but instead a poignant, beautiful sometime frightening and sad journey. It may provoke some wet eyes and a little soulsearching. 🎥★★★★★

Solar panels will soon have to be installed in all new buildings in Europe. Adding perhaps up to 200GW by 2030. ♻️