Links and things 10/6/26
The Attention Economy by Tom Chatfield, in Aeon.
Good read, here's a quote from it:
From the loftiest perspective of all, information itself is pulling the strings: free-ranging memes whose ‘purposes’ are pure self-propagation, and whose frantic evolution outstrips all retrospective accounts. This is the mountaintop view of Chesterton’s Satan, whispering in a browser’s ear: consider yourself as interchangeable as the button you’re clicking, as automated as the systems in which you’re implicated. Seen from such a height, you signify nothing beyond your recorded actions.
Vint Cerf is working on a plan to unleash AI agents on the open internet by Tim Fernholz in TechCrunch.
^This headline reads like it's a bad thing but it reads more like it's about tying AI agents to an identity like how humans on the internet are generally tied to an IP address. Also, this article is from July so it's probably old news to people who keep up with this stuff but it was news to me.
Masha Gessen in the NYTimes on NAZA
Zeeshan Aleem at MSNow on NAZA
I gotta write dedicated Masha Gessen and Zeeshan Aleem posts one of these days. They're both terrific.
I'm unlikely to see NAZA in theaters just 'cause... I don't go to the movies often to begin with and I certainly don't go to the movies to see depressing documentaries, but I intend on seeing this thing as soon as it's available at The Guardian in November.