Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #399

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:

The 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water – like Cape Town – BBC. “Water’s scarce, populations are rising, climate change is altering aquifers and patterns of water distribution. South Africa might be days from running out of water, but other parts of the world aren’t far behind. To twist Gibson’s words: The misery is here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” (Alistair for Hugh).
Chinese cops are wearing glasses that can recognize faces – Technology Review. “Peter Thiel building offshore cities beyond the reach of the law. Fake videos indistinguishable from the truth. Ubiquitous social surveillance. It’s dystopia week here in my head, so enough with funny videos and poetry: It’s time for some properly Gibsonian future present to spill over into links. Chinese policing using facial recognition. This will happen in every country, soon. For now, if you want a glimpse of the commonplace tomorrow look at China today.” (Alistair for Mitch).
Sprawling Maya network discovered under Guatemala jungle – BBC. “Fascinating to think that the Mayan population, in a territory about the size of England, may have been ten times bigger than the UK’s in 500AD, and perhaps half the population of all of Europe at the same time. New satellite imagery suggests a sprawling, bustling civilization of raised causeways, and significant cities in what is now Guatemalan jungle.” (Hugh for Alistair).
In Conversation: Erykah Badu – Vulture. “Kooky but great interview with Erykah Badu, 90s R&B iconoclast who still holds some sway.” (Hugh for Mitch).
No one’s coming. It’s up to us – Dan Hon – Medium. “This is a very rich and deep piece of thinking. Please make the time to soak it all in. We talk a lot about how we can create a better future by what we do with technology and commerce. In this essay, Dan Hon makes the case that we need some form of technological humanism. This flies in the face of rapid progress and ideologies like, ‘move fast and break things’. This is as much about technology as it is about non-technology. Confused? Don’t be. Read on…”
Waiting For the Robot Rembrandt – Nautilus. “Many people believe that that the creative arts will never be overrun by artificial intelligence. I don’t believe that to be true. I think it’s just a matter of time. This doesn’t mean that humans will be replaced by AI. It does mean that humans and AI will be producing a lot of art (from books to paintings to music and movies). It also means, that it may be hard for consumers to tell the difference. Many people think it’s ridiculous that an artificial intelligence will be able to write a bestselling novel. I wonder, what makes us think that AI will stop prior to that point?” (Mitch for Hugh).

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

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.