Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #363

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS; chair of Strata, Startupfest, Pandemonio, and ResolveTO; Author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see”.

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

• Many pet rabbits will die in Second Life on Saturday – Rock Paper Shotgun. “Usually, the rabbit dying is a plot device on the aforementioned comedies. But the digital age is decidely weirder. Look no further than Second Life, where a trademark dispute and some Digital Rights Management means scores of digital bunny pets will enter hibernation, never to awaken, as their food goes offline. Now put on your Black Mirror futurist had, and consider: If your heirs don’t pay your digital estate tax, will the AI-backed chatbot that simulates you based on a corpus of social media content go dark forever, depriving future generations of your natty wisdom and quick turns of phrase?” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Internet Killed the Teen Sex Comedy – Mel Magazine – Medium. “Hard to think of the nineties as a time of innocence. But films like American Pie, coming-of-age fare where teens talked about taboos in hushed voices, are gone. Weaned on films like Porky’s and Hot Dog – with all of their misogyny, prejudice and misinformation — it’s hard to notice they vanished, or to call that innocence at all. John Hughes was a cornerstone of the eighties, but who needs a Breakfast Club when you can hear all about your classmates on a tiny screen?” (Alistair for Mitch).
• fotogenerator. “Would you like your doodle run through a neural network, to return back a computer’s real-life nightmare vision of what you drew? I thought you might.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• The Thoughts of a Spiderweb – Quanta Magazine. “Some time ago I shared a link with Mitch and Alistair about this astounding fact about octopuses (not, apparently, octopi): that 70% of their neurons are on their skin, not in their brains. Well, researchers here argue that a spider’s webs can be considered an extension of their cognitive systems. This notion is current in philosophy of mind, as well as research into how animals ’ hink’ about their environment, in many cases not using neurons at all.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• The 34 Best Mac Menu Bar Apps – Product Hunt – Medium. “Whenever I have the slightest issue with how my MacBook Pro is working, I figure that ‘there’s an app for that!’ It’s not so much going to a new app to solve a problem, but I love menu bar apps. Those tiny little applications that just seem to scratch an itch. Here’s a great list of Mac menu bar apps. I, typically, would never share a list like this, but I could not believe how many greats one are here (that I had never heard of). Let the downloading begin!” (Mitch for Alistair).
• How 80-year-old Radio-Canada, the French-language arm of the CBC, is driving innovation from within – NiemanLab. “Innovation is a big, scary and often misunderstood word. There’s no clarity on what innovation is or what a truly innovative organization looks like. For many traditional businesses in traditional industries, they tend to confuse the word ‘disruption’ for ‘destruction’. Some businesses are truly innovative or – at least – really trying to accept that things have changed (and will continue to change). Here’s a great example on one such organization, that also happens to be taking place in our own backyard.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.