Post-growth economist, citizen, runner. Network science, complex systems, digital anthropology, collective intelligence. Co-founder of Edgeryders, currently with the United Nations Development Programme. Ex minor rockstar. Polyamorous. Thoughts my own.
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2026-08-28T10:03:24Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "Everything exciting in the future is stuff we don't understand yet", says @nprofile…ugpy . npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…y789 help me out here. Are you or EPRU aware of successful applications of agentic AI to plan and purchase #crossBorderRail trips? Seems the perfect application for a machine. It is time consuming and annoying. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "A highlight was a ticketing challenge hosted by cros-border rail connectivity campaigner Jon Worth’s recently founded European Rail Passengers Union, which saw four teams compete to calculate optimal fare options and itineraries for complex rail journeys within the EU, highlighting the work still to be done to optimise sales and distribution in the rail market." npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica At the #CLIMATEMARCH26 in Brussels with my #cohousing group ❤️ npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica I just applied for membership with @nprofile…fmuh . Way to go, @nprofile…y789 and everyone else! npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica This is very interesting: preliminary estimates of the costs of the 2026 heat waves in #Belgium are at or above 1% of GDP. One estimate says it will offset the entire predicted economic growth for 2026. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Today is #carfreesunday in Brussels. Largest pedestrian area in Europe, for one day a year. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Un'altra falla nella nostra autonomia digitale: le app del settore pubblico che usano Play Integrity. Siccome quella è un'infrastruttura americana, l'amministrazione USA può bloccare tutto con un provvedimento esecutivo, senza difesa e senza processo. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Tonight is the inaugural journey of European Sleeper's Brussels-Milan journey. Will give it a try in the next season. Interested in hearing about other people's experience npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Because of the unacceptable environmental and climate impact of data centers (and other stuff), I feel bad using AI and try to do so with sobriety. Am I doing enough? Am I just self-serving? Am I doing too much, even, as "AI is inevitable, and individual choice do not matter much"? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica This is a useful analogy from @nprofile…ugpy : COVID was an opportunistic infection. It killed disproportionately people suffering from other pathologies, and we, collectively, struggled to attribute the deaths of COVID patients to COVID itself rather than those other pathologies. Eventually there was a sort of agreement that excess mortality is a reasonable way to measure COVID's impact. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Mamdani 's hackers: New York City's Public Interest Technology initiative encodes a vision of technology as an enabler for ordinary people. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Breakthrough! npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica It turns out that welcoming to your country lots of migrants, who tend to be young and highly motivated, is good for employment. And therefore for financing welfare. We knew, but it's nice to see the data. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica The Age of the Digital Armbreaker is here. @nprofile…ugpy has a compelling post on how the practices of finance (which, let's face it, was always there usury lenders in a trench coat) converge with those of Big Tech. Makes me itch to bring the guillotines out! npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Finito il periodo di embargo, posso condividere un mio saggio pubblicato qualche mese fa sul libro "Non viceversa. L’economia per le persone, i territori e la democrazia", a cure di Francesca Battistoni e Daniela Freddi. Il mio capitolo sostiene che le politiche di sistema - quelle che UNDP chiama "portfolio approach" - sono indispensabili per montare economie sociali territoriali. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica It's not that we are getting old (though we definitely are), the world *really is* getting shittier. We *really are* losing our agency to corporate bosses and their conservative politician minions. And the solution is, as always, collective, political and messy. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Does anybody know how @nprofile…ugpy posts in this form ("Long thread/n" followed by "Show more/Hide post")? Is it some form of content warning? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…v2v2 your reasoning is solid. And yet, I am old enough to remember being told by infosec friends to adopt Signal, way overkill for my infosec needs, to help normalize it so that people with keener needs than mine could hide among the normies. That worked, kind of, better than with PGP plugins on Thunderbird and such, anyway. So yes, you are right, but to some extent this was the result of a consciously made compromise and not a mistake. Or? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Ok, Fediverse experiment. I am currently walking the Camino de Santiago. Is anyone else? Would be fun to meet up if itineraries allow. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Calling all you #rail and #CrossBorderRail experts in the Fediverse! I am walking the Camino de Santiago, and plan to leave it at or near Leon. How do I get to France and then to Brussels? Should I aim for the Euskotren from San Sebastian to Hendaye? RailEurope wants me to go through... Madrid, but that can't be right. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica 1/4 npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica I had managed to miss this magnificent essay from @nprofile…ugpy . His main point: what's obnoxious about #AI is not the technology, but the economics. For example, I can easily imagine a world in which LLMs are deployed benevolently by not-for-profit actors of the social and solidarity economy. But AI plus capitalism... ugh. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…ugpy Scholars of industrial organization pointed out that some workplace skills are hard or impossible to transmit in an abstract medium, and need to be learned on the job. The consequence of this is that tacit knowledge is an attribute of human COLLECTIVES, not individuals. Certain areas, known as "industrial districts", have acquired a productive specialization, with many companies working in the same business. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…ugpy for the sake of, ahem, interoperability with industrial economics: what this thread calls "process knowledge" is generally called "tacit knowledge" by economists. The invention of the term is attributed to Michael Polanyi, writing in the 1950s and 1966s. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica So, for once clicktivism is not a travesty. It's easy, and it could have a big impact. At a minimum you are giving pro-human rights MEPs ammo to demand a public debate on why we are in business with Israel, and, more in general, what price "being in business" comes with, and for whom. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Let's acknowledge these countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden. Well done! npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica There are two success conditions. First, petitions need to gather at least one million signatures within a year of starting collection. Second, in at least seven different member states certain minimum thresholds must be reached in the number of signatures collected nationally. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica An ECI is a "very official" form of petition, run by the European Union itself. If it is successful, the @nprofile…fu0r has a legal obligation to respond with an official act. Additionally, the European Parliament organizes a hearing centered on the petition, and might (but it is far from certain) also discuss it in plenary. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica This treaty is the legal cornerstone of cooperation between the two parties. Its suspension would be a big deal for Israel: the EU is by far its main trading partner, and its universities rely on the Horizon Europe programme for research funding. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica If you are a European Union citizen, there is a concrete way you can support a peaceful resolution in Iran and Gaza: you can demand the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in view of Israel’s violations of human rights. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…x9tq that's not how I understand it. Is resilience not a property of systems? When applied to individuals it would still refer to.some kind of system, for example if I live and work in the same dense neighborhood my life is more resilient to shocks that affect transport and mobility. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Yes, @nprofile…ugpy , participating in markets costs cognitive energy. Especially in real (as opposed to theoretical) ones, where suppliers hate to compete on price, and so make all kinds of baroque bundles that are not 1-to-1 comparable with the bundles of the competition ("$20 for the first month, then $60 from the second month on, but you need to sign up for a minimum of 12 months" and so on). npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Many moons ago, I used #RSS feed readers to read blogs. A recent post by @nprofile…ugpy has pointed out that this technology is not gone, and we can use it to make the experience of the Internet, to borrow Cory's word, bearable. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "The key idea is that instead of public revenue being raised by taxing income from labour or economic activity, we should ensure that public revenue is raised by taxing wealth, financial assets, immovable property, financial transactions, and all the ills of the economy, including from the extractive industry and especially of fossil energy.” npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica I federalisti europei d'Italia ci riprovano. E fanno bene, il vento contrario non cancella la saggezza di andare verso una vera unione poltica, economica, diplomatica, militare etc. per tutte le genti d'Europa. https://www.piueuropa.eu/tutta_l_europa_che_manca npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica To this, I would humbly add a bit more specificity: the benefit for the wealthy is not so much in "number goes up" or "number eat dirt" per se, it's in VOLATILITY. Buy in a crash, sell just before the next crash, rinse, repeat. This allows you to extract the value others have built using liquidity. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…jdxz I was there too. Between that and some weak signals I picked up in the Brussels bubble, there seems to be some change in the air. Am I overly optimistic? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Ok everyone, let's just skip directly to 2027. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica It's exhausting. They keep coming and coming and coming, with their lobbyists, and their money, and their conservative think tanks and their damn moral panic. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica It's great we are in the middle of a browsers war, reminds me of 1993. So, what do y'all recommend I use, and why? Mac, Ubuntu, Android. Happy to read, within reason. Thanks! npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "Serving the interests of Big Oil and the Trump administration does not increase the EU’s “competitiveness” or strengthen the EU’s position in the world." npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Meta's new top EU regulator is contractually prohibited from saying mean things about Meta npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica I am old enough to remember having hope in the COP process. 🙄 #cop30 #ClimateCrisis npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…qz4x Cory, these are really great data points. There is an antecedent: municipal socialism in the 19th century in parts of Europe, including my native Emilia Romagna, in Italy. There it was not (always) coops, but City Halls building up substantial investments, including utilities (energy, water, waste...) and transit. Eventually some of those companies federated to serve millions of people. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "When you are paying by the "pull of the handle," the vendor's incentive is not to solve your problem with a single pull, but to give the appearance of progress towards solving your problem." npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica 3/3 npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica 2/3 npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica 1/3 npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica The title is a bit of a clickbait, but the article has some insights about using the ability to work together that people in cohousings must necessarily develop for (much) better disaster preparedness. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica As I look at the transformation of local systems through an economic lens, I see the early sprouts of an entire new economy – one that puts people and planet before profits. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Everybody, do yourselves a favour and read this post from @nprofile…qz4x . npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…c5n8 happens to me a lot, in France for example. Some border guards have told me "we can still do random checks". Do we have a playbook of what to say? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica City of Lyon ditches Microsoft for #opensource, EU-made and hosted, digital tools. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "The most immediate goal has to be to build European cloud alternatives and create bundles of software on top, that offer attractive functionalities." npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Ye Gods. @nprofile…qz4x goes straight to the heart: advances in surveillance technology make it possible for the oligarchs to push our society deeper jnto democratic debt. Until... What? 100 families eat UK the entire world's wealth? The guillotines come out? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…h59f @nprofile…xs9j @nprofile…e4ae maybe @nprofile…qz4x got tired of the "future is not evenly distributed yet" quote and decided to give that distribution a push. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica R.I.P my UNDP colleague Ramzi Khader, who was killed alongside his wife, six children, and more than 36 members of his extended family in an airstrike by the IDF in Jabalia, Northern Gaza, on the first day of Eid Al-Adha on 6 June 2025. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica New study (longitudinal data!): protected bike lanes *cause* people to take up cycling as their way to commute. Painted bike lanes have no discernible effects. ROI on protected bike lanes is the highest of all bike infrastructure. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…vuu7 sometimes the middle ground is a bad solution. Like in @nprofile…qz4x 's radium suppositories story: the right amount of radium suppositories to put up your rectum is zero, not a compromise between zero and whatever fans of radium suppositories are proposing. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Reading academic papers and detecting a strong whiff of Gen AI. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica INCREDIBLE comeback of the European Citizen petition to ban conversion therapy - 700K signatures in one week, standing at over 930,000 as I write this. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Book club coming up! To prepare, I am re-reading @nprofile…qz4x 's "The Lost Cause" looking for characteristics of the economy of the world in which the novel is set. So far I spotted: npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "Make war not just unthinkable, but materially impossible." Today marks 75 years since the Schuman Declaration. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Science Fiction Economics Bookclub coming up! We will be discussing "The Lost Cause", by @nprofile…qz4x . npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…3w02 Blair lied about the "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, so how do we know he is not lying now? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Chapeau, @nprofile…qz4x . Ye Gods, Facebook... npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…w24g @nprofile…ewft @nprofile…qz4x the old joke is that Parisians dislike three kinds of people: (1) foreigners, (2) other French people, (3) other Parisians. Perhaps less true today. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica My cohousing group is trying to buy European and open source tech. Things are going mostly well, but we struggle with video conferencing. We are currently on OpenTalk. It works well for small meetings with 4-6 people connected, but plenaries are a disaster. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…4kmp this is laudable. This dialogue is invitation only, though. Any way for ordinary passengers to participate somehow? npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica I am curious as to how the choice of Microsoft as a provider was nevertheless made. So I made a FOIA request, which came back today: npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica The @nprofile…4kmp uses Microsoft applications for the everyday work of most its officials. This is puzzling: npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…q6te @nprofile…qz4x "it's very hard to make people understand something, especially when their bonuses depend on them not understanding it". npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica The combo of monopoly, unlimited property rights, and erosion of privacy rights souped up by AI has created a toxic world where private companies have both the legal and practical power to deny essential services to people who criticize them. This post by @nprofile…qz4x is his clearest formulation of the problem yet: npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "[CEO of adtech company Kubient] Roberts, according to federal prosecutors, schemed to create $1.3 million in fraudulent revenue statements to bolster Kubient's initial public offering (IPO) and significantly oversold "KAI," Kubient's artificial intelligence tool." npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica When the wise point to the monopoly, the fools look at the bot. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "Collectively, the 39 panels have a capacity of over 20 kilowatts — enough to power just one large, energy-intensive American household but more than enough for the lightbulbs, cooker plates and fans in the 180 households in Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba." npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "Cognitive ease at a cost: LLMs reduce mental effort but compromise depth in student scientific inquiry". npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica 1/n npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica All 91 employees of the digital services agency of the American federal government, 18F, have been fired in the context of the so-called DOGE initiative. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "Reposting with a comment? Even better – you're telling people why to pay attention [...]. This is why Mastodon's decision not to implement quote-tweeting (over a misplaced squeamishness about "dunk culture") was such a catastrophic own-goal." npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Do we know any historians into European history? This is a GREAT job opportunity. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4160805352 npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…u3rj mi sembra che le parole pesanti le usi solo il signor Musk. Mogensen è educato, anche se fermo. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…tqgu molto bello, ma non saprei dire se rappresenta qualcosa... npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Turn off your notifications. All of them. Why? Let @nprofile…qz4x explain: https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/19/gimme-five/#jeffty npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica My hobby: sitting in conversations about the economic and societal impact of #AI and mentally replacing "AI" with "elves". Most people treat "AI" as a black box, and do not think they should try to understand how it works _before_ they start discussing its impacts. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…qz4x Sorry, no. But here's a piece of feedback: first time I tried to claim my reward (from Firefox on a Mac laptop) I got stuck at a login request. Just tried again from an Android phone and I did manage to get to the end of the process. Got a receipt, but no download link yet. Martin Hench awaits... npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Today in #AI. Strong vibe of that Meta executive saying "Are you crazy? My kids are forbidden smartphones". npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica (What a time to be alive) "Add F*cking to Your Google Searches to Neutralize AI Summaries" https://gizmodo.com/add-fcking-to-your-google-searches-to-neutralize-ai-summaries-2000557710 npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "The enemy of your enemy ? Still your enemy, @nprofile…qz4x dixit. Oh, America, you break m'y heart. https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/113884896027559905 npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…hftj apologies for a slow response, Tommi. Why don't you and @nprofile…sut0 and I share a coffee at some point? A point of attention: I won't be at FOSDEM, so it would be some coffee shop in town. We could also involve @nprofile…s8yn – similar situation to all of you, but we already know each other a bit. And of course it would be a joy to see @nprofile…ucuv again, but I am not sure he'll show up in Brussels this year. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…sut0 I live in Brussels if that counts. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica This conversation between @nprofile…qz4x and @nprofile…gd4t starts off talking about a certain tech billionaire, but it soon veers into more interesting territory. It ends up as a masterclass in regulation #economics. Special treats await, towards the end, those of you who care about the #europeanunion and its attempt to be a civilizational model based on human rights and the rule of law (very imperfectly, I know). npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica "Your Iphone isn’t an ad-supported gimme. You paid a thousand fucking dollars for that distraction rectangle in your pocket, and you’re still the product. What’s more, Apple has rigged Ios so that you can’t mod the OS to block its spying. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…ka48 sounds to me like you are calling for a new _economic_ paradigm, one based on the efficiency of public information instead of the exclusivity (hence monetizability) of paywalls. I could not agree more! #NewEconomicThinking #OpenKnowledge npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica Haha @nprofile…qz4x has a 5 mins video to pitch for the latest Martin Hench book. At 1 minute I was like "yep, I'm definitely sold". At 1'40" I was like "OK ENOUGH ALREADY I'M HITTING THE 'SUPPORT THIS' BUTTON". Marty Hench is a hero for the(se) ages. And the religion angle? I had not seen THAT one coming. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…9wyy @nprofile…vrl0 @nprofile…rs68 more of this, less bullshit AI #appropriateTech npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…4486 one for @nprofile…n2f6 , our mighty instance admin. npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica #bruxellesmabelle npub1dk0xmaghjq5ak9z2jwmhp9y3kkjedt4dyy6wp792uhv4vwvrxprstren6v Alberto Cottica @nprofile…yz7c more of this, less bullshit AI.
