This book is a balefully seminal work in which neither author has the language to see, much less to express, the titanic centralizing evil they are constructing. “What Lockheed Martin was to the 20th century,” they tell us, “technology and cybersecurity companies will be to the 21st.” Without even understanding how, they have updated and seamlessly implemented George Orwell’s prophecy. If you want a vision of the future, imagine Washington-backed Google Glasses strapped onto vacant human faces — forever. Zealots of the cult of consumer technology will find little to inspire them here, not that they ever seem to need it. But this is essential reading for anyone caught up in the struggle for the future, in view of one simple imperative: Know your enemy.
Month: June 2013
But there is a dark side. Big data erodes privacy. And when it is used to make predictions about what we are likely to do but haven’t yet done, it threatens freedom as well. Yet big data also exacerbates a very old problem: relying on the numbers when they are far more fallible than we think. Nothing underscores the consequences of data analysis gone awry more than the story of Robert McNamara.
A report back on NYC BigApps’ CityCamp & Demo Night
A report back on NYC BigApps’ CityCamp & Demo Night
This past weekend, the New York City Metro Area hosted five National Day of Civic Hacking events! (Two in Manhattan, One in Brooklyn, One in Queens, and One in Newark, NJ) One of them was the City’s first CityCamp and the last public event before the conclusion of NYC BigApps.
After three months of civic hackers working on solving NYC’s biggest issues, NYC BigApps 2013 hosted NYC’s first CityCamp. Participants hacked and polished their projects, while the general public explored NYC’s civic technology ecosystem and beta tested BigApp projects.