X : Are you vaping?
Me : Yes.
X : It's unprofessional to vape in a meeting.
Me : I suspect that's a shibboleth.
X : A what?
Me : A dividing line between the digital natives and those who have never really felt comfortable about letting go off the office.
X : It's distracting.
Me : So is someone having a cup of coffee.
X : That's different.
Me : Ah, so you're arguing for "accepted norms". You invade the digital space and want it to conform to your idea of what are accepted norms do you? Try adapting.
... or maybe, we should demand suits and ties? Yes, my new boundary. If you're in a zoom meeting with me without a tweed jacket, check shirt, a pipe. plain white wall background, no guitar, no books and total conformity to my strict guidelines then you're unprofessional? Hmmm.
Or maybe, we reserve vaping for only those with the clout and prescence to do so.
... maybe I should start frowning on people I consider not up to the standing of the vaping class. I will call them - lesser mortals :-)
Alternatively, let us not try to reinforce symbols and rituals of social power and conformity in this space.
That's my nice way of saying, when online, I'll smoke when I like.
X : But I find it distracting,
Me : I find your face distracting, switch it off.
X : I can't help my face, it's part of me.
Me : Vaping is part of my identity, as much as the clothes I wear, the way I speak etc. If you don't like then simply leave.
I find it disturbing that people lack the civility to not ask someone, in their own home, to stop vaping and to link this to "professionalism". But it's the utter arrogance and lack of humility that makes a person think they are entitled to do this that I find most shocking.
This is an aspect of the change caused by the isolation economy that I hadn't considered before. There is a very different etiquette online from old WoW guilds to online developer meetings. It's a privilege to be invited into someones home even when it is for a zoom meeting ...
... the idea you would go to someones home and tell them how they should look or act and not expect a bloody nose would be surprising.
X : What if they pick their nose?
Me : It's their home, they're entitled to do this. Ditto kids running about, dogs coming into the room, even cats (the spawn of the devil) wandering past or parcels being delivered ... you're being invited into a person's home. Respect it.
X : "professionalism" is regularly used as a way to police marginalized people.
Me : Insightful. The attempts to expand "social" power beyond the office and into the home. It's like the attempts to create status within online meetings - designed background, studio equipment etc.
X : You often raise your hand when wanting to ask a question in zoom.
Me : Yes. Most of the time.
X : But you even do it when you're the host.
Me : Of course. It's rude to interrupt guests and you should avoid it where possible.
X : But you could mute people.
Me : Oh dear.
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We will be entering a phase in which the US high-tech industry (including the military complex) is highly dependent upon China, whilst China is not dependent upon the US.
For those who doubt how clear the intentions were ... go read Made in China, 2025.
China's government made its intentions evident in 2015. The US sabre rattling of sanctions reinforced that purpose whilst the US essentially continued with a misguided "market knows best" policy.
A couple of prompts with Claude 3 creates a Wardley Map for economic sovereignty in the defence space.
Not bad at all -
On par with political, military and defence folk I've spoken to. I'm also finding I can have a reasonable discussion about mapping with Claude 3.onlinewardleymaps.com/#clone:XvHskIi…
It's not perfect but it's not bad. There's more I want to interrogate Claude over ... i.e. the link to secure sourcing, the positioning of some components etc. But it's almost good enough that I can start a discussion over strategy and investment.
Anyway, upshot is that Claude 3, from my perspective, has left ChatGPT4 in the dust. Of course, I'll use Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini to cross-compare for now but if I do start building anything more complex then the obvious path is AWS Bedrock which gives me Mistral etc.
dX: What is the single most significant problem facing AI today? Safety? Lack of skills? Inertia?
Me: Overinflated expectations by the business.
dX: You don't think AI will become widespread?
Me: Of course, it will; industrialised components are rapidly becoming cost of doing business. Don't confuse that with expectations. There will be an awful lot of disappointed businesses hoping it would create some advantage.
dX: I don't understand.
Me: Imagine you're just finishing off your plan for how AI will revolutionise your business. Six months for budget approval, one year to build team, 18 months to deliver something ... that's 3 years from now. Any advantage you thought of is long gone.
For those who don't know, I'm working increasingly on and with Glamorous Toolkit - ... I have become fascinated by our willingness to blame humans for problems that are created by our toolsets ...gtoolkit.com
... I saw this last night at Cloud Camp. Apparently, the issues with understanding, explainability and observability in AI are down to humans' inability to deal with complex environments... no, they're not. The problem is with the tools and the type of tools we are creating ...
... we've imported concepts from a physical world where tools are constrained by physics - hence a hammer is a hammer, a drill is a drill - into a world without such constraints. Rather than building contextual tools, we've built constrained tools.
Faulty products, harm to users, executives profiteering, fighting compensation ... what is truly bizarre about the Fujitsu Horizon case is that the public seems to think that this is an isolated example rather than the normal way that traditional corporations act.
Just take a look into any industry, pick something like retail with BNPL (by now pay later) to EWA (earned wages access) to use of slave labour. It's story after story of despicable behaviour, of exploitation of both workers and consumers in pursuit of profit.
Or pick something like energy, where misinformation and self-interest abound from carbon capture to hydrogen - both technologies which are not primarily for the benefit of consumers or the environment but instead prolong a fossil fuel industry and all the harm it causes.