Intro
I was hoping to post a Weekstarter from Brussels last week but hitting my all-time low sleep score according to my Apple Watch and then not being able to sleep again rest of the day made it impossible to write anything.
Instead, I’m writing you from Ankara. After staying at home for only two days, I came here yesterday and staying until Wednesday evening for several events on media and journalism.
Greetings from the capital of Turkey. Hope you’re all doing well.
Mission Control
Inbox: 318
RSS Reader: 3855
Upcoming Events/Travel in Next 30 Days: 2 (1 TBC)
- Will be here in Ankara for several events, including speaking at a panel about AI and journalism.
- Have some writing and admin work catching up to do.
- Brussels ended up being a really inspiring and filled with potential collaboration ideas. Will be working on them to make sure at least some of them becomes a reality.
Check my Now page if you want to see what I’m up to in a more detailed way.
Do You Want the Future?
For the last ten days or so, I’ve been in different communities and groups listening to them and talking with them about their problems, our problems, and how they’re approaching the future. Although there are so many different perspectives and ideas, they generally end up in two different categories: people who want the future, and the people who don’t.
This is not about how you’re feeling about the future. You may not be hopeful about the future or think it’s not going to be any better, but you can still think and work on it. This is more about whether you think the future is a possibility.
Since last week, I’ve spent time with two different groups which both have reasons to feel pessimistic about the future. But one group was actually open to learning new approaches, developing their skills, and continuing working for better futures. They’re the ones I call who want the future.
But the other group was mostly made up of people who insist on their ways, refuse to adapt or even learn, and practically ignore anyone who wants to help them. What they want isn’t to improve themselves or the conditions they’re in but to protect their own authority and power. They don’t want any future if it’s going to be different from the things they know and feel powerful in it.
You can see they don’t want the future from how they’re speaking, who they’re speaking with, or what their goals are. They’re much more focused on gatekeeping and building walls than actually building things. They act like they’re doing things to find solutions but only listen to the people who say things they agree with and act like you didn’t even talk. Their language is a lot more defensive and protective than the issue in hand deserves.
What makes this group even more dangerous is the power they have. They’re always big actors in groups that need change and figure out how to imagine and build better futures, but because they don’t want the future and hold most of the power and resources, they can block anything they don’t like. And even when they can’t, they’ll make sure it’s way harder than it should be. They act like they’re on your side, but they do their best for your failure. In the best-case scenario, they’ll waste your time and energy.
I don’t have a perfect solution for people who don’t want the future, but one thing we all can do is to learn how to recognize them. Because once you start to notice who they are, it gets easier to avoid falling into their traps and figuring out how to minimize their impact. It’s clearly not enough but still better than nothing.
Song of the Week
I’m writing this from Ankara, so I have to share some Ezhel with you.
Reading Log
“Stubbornly, the weather persisted, seemingly undisturbed by human action, until the twentieth century.”
Hard Rain, by Wyatt Williams
“Through the account of real artist Marie Boiseau, I came across a new genre of human washing: fake artisan accounts, AI-generated craft videos pretending they are struggling artisans, leading you to buy their craft; only to find out they are selling mass-manufactured goods. This is a peculiar form of human washing because what’s being emulated is exactly the epitome of the human core: the gesture as a site of truth, a practice where time and error are supposed to be the point.”
Holding the human line as cyborgs – by Ryslaine Moulay
“Something terrible happens. A handful of tragic stories emerge. Lawmakers, desperate to show they’re doing something, reach for the most visible technology in the room and start passing laws designed to stop it from doing whatever it was supposedly doing. The possibility that the technology might actually be helping more people than it’s hurting, or that the proposed fix might make things worse, rarely enters the conversation.”
More Liability Will Make AI Chatbots Worse at Preventing Suicide – Mike Masnick
Outro
And that’s all I have for this week. Now I need to get some rest before heading back to my final day in Ankara and then take the train back home.
Take care of yourselves and I’ll see you around!
If you’d like to collaborate with me or use my services, Tuhaf Studio is open for new clients and collaborators.
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