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: 

• Our Father, Who Art In Algorithm – Flash Forward. “Janelle Shane was one of our keynotes at Strata, and she’s fascinating. It’s not enough that her day job involves things like laser hologram tweezers for the space station; in her spare time, she uses AI to make weird things. You’ve probably seen stuff from her blog, aiweirdness.com, in various social media posts–strange names of paint colors, guinea pigs, and so on. Here’s a podcast she helped put together, in which she fed the world’s religious texts into an AI and asked it to generate more scripture. It’s a pretty fascinating thought experiment.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Voyages in sentence space – Robin Sloan. “It was an interesting week of AI and data at Strata, and I learned a few things. Machines and algorithms are imperfect, but sometimes yield amazing serendipity. Here’s an example: Put in two sentences, and an algorithm using a corpus (database) of science fiction stories will try to find things that stitch them together somehow. These kinds of multidimensional vector spaces are how algorithms associate things, and they’re proving a good tool for art and creativity. Try it!” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Bitcoin Is Ridiculous. Blockchain Is Dangerous – Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “If it is by Paul Ford, it is worth reading.” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Amazon Turbocharged Audible’s Domination of Audiobooks – Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “Mitch and I got to know each other mostly because of an audiobook project of mine, LibriVox, so we’ve had a good few audiobook conversations over the years. Fascinating to see a history of Audible‘s rise.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Disney’s most futuristic attraction yet is an insane ‘Star Wars’ experience that takes virtual reality to the next level — here’s what it’s like to try in person – Business Insider. “This is one of those moments in one’s life when you think back to being a small child, and marvel at how your dreams have become a reality. As a young Star Wars nerd (back in the seventies), I could only have dreamed of video games or experiences where I could truly be immersed in that science fiction world. Well, here we are. What’s cooler about this Star Wars experience, is that I’ve been able to experience the technology behind this (The Void) – twice. And, yes, it is as advertised: fully immersive and interactive. I have my finger’s crossed that this Star Wars experience will make an appearance at this year’s TED conference (where I last experienced The Void). This alone is probably worth the trip to a Disney theme park. Not joking.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Why LinkedIn’s Jason Miller spends his nights photographing rock stars – The Drum. “I first met Jason Miller at some marketing industry conferences. We became friends. I later learned that, like me, he has the heavy music in his blood. I used words to create articles about the rock world. Jason uses his photography. Not only is he whip-smart about the power of content marketing and B2B marketing as a lead at LinkedIn he (seriously) is one of the best rock photographers I have ever witnessed. This is a great little feature on someone who doesn’t like to be placed in boxes, and much prefers to be in the pit. For those about to rock… we salute you!” (Mitch for Hugh). 

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