Thought Shrapnel

That’s right, Thought Shrapnel continues in “low-power mode” over the summer, so I’ll continue to share 10 interesting things but provide minimal commentary ☀️

• Human speech may have a universal transmission rate: 39 bits per second (Science) — As someone who has enjoyed and endured many conference presentations in my time, this is very interesting to me. “No matter how fast or slow, how simple or complex, each language gravitated toward an average rate of 39.15 bits per second.”
• Tuition fees are rising again and nobody is happy – it’s time to actually fix our broken university sector (The Guardian) — A short, well-written piece by Zoe Williams about the parlous state of Higher Education. Depending on his results next week, hopefully my son is heading off to a university which will still exist in three years' time…
• Marking the Government’s homework on public sector AI (imperfect offerings) — Helen Beetham with a lengthy analysis of what’s going on in the UK with relation to AI, which is possibly best summarised by her withering put down of the memoranda of understanding the government has signed with Google and Microsoft, respectively, as “a cute name for a declining world power signing its assets over to the new ones.” Mexit, not Brexit, is the new priority for the UK (The Register) — Related to the above, although to do with Microsoft licenses rather than AI, Rupert Goodwins notes that giving £9 billion over 5 years means that “Microsoft gets one pound of every 13 spent” by the UK government on digital technology.
• Didn’t Take Long To Reveal The UK’s Online Safety Act Is Exactly The Privacy-Crushing Failure Everyone Warned About (TechDirt) — 5 of the top 10 apps in the Apple store are VPNs, and “Yes, you read that right. A law supposedly designed to protect children now requires victims of sexual assault to submit government IDs to access support communities.” Slow claps all round.
• In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen (Random Thoughts) — Colin Cornaby with an absolutely on-point parody of the AI bubble. “I saw online another restaurant owner suggested deploying one thousand microwaves for each chef. This sounds like a great idea.”
• The Sunday Morning Post: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug (Derek Thompson) — I can’t do proper cardio at the moment, but I’m trying to get a long walk in every day and, six days out of seven, I’m lifting weights. Exercise is important: “To a best approximation, aerobic fitness and weight-training seem to increase our metabolism, improve mitochondrial function, fortify our immune system, reduce inflammation, improve tissue-specific adaptations, and protect against disease.”
• Face it: you’re a crazy person (Experimental History) — I love the way that Adam Mastroianni writes, and this post is a great example of why. “There’s no amount of willpower that can carry you through a lifetime of Tuesday afternoons. Whatever you’re supposed to be doing in those hours, you’d better want to do it.”
• You can’t fight enshittification (Pluralistic) — A little bit pessimistic, but nevertheless true from Cory Doctorow: “Enshittification is not the result of people making bad choices: it’s the result of bad policies that produce bad systems… When all your friends are going to a festival, are you really going to opt out because the event requires you to use the Ticketmaster app (because Ticketmaster has a monopoly over event ticketing)? If so, you’re not gonna have a lot of friends, which is a pretty shitty way to live.”
• Do we need the wealthy? (Funding the Future) — Richard Taylor, Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Sheffield’s Management School, with a well-argued video (with transcript) of why we shouldn’t be particularly bothered if rich people threaten to quit the UK due to a higher tax burden.

👋 Until next week!

– Doug