State of the Net Podcast

It's been a while so we ranged widely over everything from driving trucks, to Facebook's big outage, to a riff on Louis CK's But maybe", to health, and finally to the miraculousness of our devices. Hope you enjoy it. 

We normally manage to maintain a relatively positive outlook on the web and life in general but this time we struggled. Anti-vaxers, pumping shit onto the internet, and VR violence and pornography, we ploughed our way through it all ending up deciding that skepticism/cynicism was the only valid response. 

In this episode we chat about running beta version of Apple various operating systems on our devices, and our trust in companies, institutions and people. This takes us to some reflections on uploading our data servers of companies that might or might not loose it at some point. Finally we talk about Windows, and the always improving compatibility between applications and platforms.

In this episode we chat about privacy, facebook and the beauty of subscription models. Then we discuss about the good and bad of advertising (finding out that one of us has a background in this art). We move on to criticise the state of information and finally we provide the answer to life, the universe and everything.

In this episode we talk about getting older but no wiser, new Apple stuff that is incredibly cool but that we're not going to buy, an interesting new subscription support for podcasters, oh, and we almost fall out again, this time over consultancy. As a special bonus we both tell a joke and end up on the cheery subject of identity theft. 

In this episode we start with a chat about new listening habits, move on to innovation and new products, then we passionately argue and disagree about the state of text editing, finally we talk about Tim Cook’s recent interview. 

In this episode we pick up on the topics in Tim O’Riley’s recent article The End of Silicon Valley as We Know It. How do we regulate technology, how do we end up with the right result, what is the right result, and could we be a bit be a bit kinder to each other on the way?

In this episode we start from vaccines and how conversations and online influence are impacting public health, we move on to celebrities interviews and how many think they must take a side. After a quick debate on handle and hooks, we talk about food, cats and caravans. We end wondering how many of the new behaviours adopted in the last year will end up lasting.

This episode we use Euan's blog's twentieth birthday as an excuse to riff on the early days of the internet and how things have changed. Who would have thought we would one day have a US President who was a troll? How did we survive without being able to look up just about anything whenever and wherever we want? And why do companies in the east approach the new opportunities afforded by the web fundamentally differently? We end up talking about the wonder that is the NHS, how technology can help us stay healthy, and how important getting out into the real world is. 

In this episode we first talk about driving (cars, lorries, motorbikes, people crazy), then we hear about Euan's new HomePod Mini, and finally we discuss about past present and future of some real and some fictional politicians (American, Italian, British). 

In this episode we take a look at Clubhouse - and Euan runs away! But he can run faster thanks to Fitness+. We then go long on capitalism and market forces firstly talking about the upside (yes there is one) and downside of Facebook's algorithms then end up with the fascinating story of GameStop and the power of Reddit.

A whole episode about letting go. Letting go heads of state from social media, letting go software platforms from AWS, but also letting go sadness, the past, the future, and your Facebook account.

In this episode we talk about Paolo's new M1 Mac; Euan pulling further back from Social Media; Enjoying space and time; Being more thoughtful and less concerned about what others' reactions might be; And end up talking about the joys of walking and the pleasure to be found in accepting what is. 

In this new episode we start chatting about lockdown-flavoured knowledge management and how to use zoom for open channels and parties, we reflect on the fact that these are good times to chill out and we have our usual discussion on good vs. bad people online. We then talk about Big Sur and the new M1 Macs (one of us is waiting for the delivery), how these are all tools for artisan, and we finish talking about Ikea home automation lights and having Siri around the house.

Thinking about new iPhones and highly produced Apple Keynotes led to production values, then veered off to Excel and Fatima, making sense of the firehose, and finally to poetry!

In this special late night episode we chat about going back to the office and going back to old tools, how the new normal will require new approaches collaboration, and the challenges of integrating our brains with new technologies.

In this episode we discuss the pleasure and pain of running beta software on every device at once, how British parents are encountering the challenges of algorithms, technology companies’ influence on global politics, and how our attempts to control life often make things worse. 

In this Summer episode we chat about new and old cars, the art of driving, Twitter hacks, how more technology sometimes means less control, flying around Europe in times of covid19, how are things in Italy, UK (and the US), cycles of learning and change, and how to focus the social media lens to be better informed.

In this episode we talk about the various new developments announced at Apple's WWDC conference. We also discuss the responsibilities of large corporations in terms of paying tax and doing good in the world, why the UK's contact tracing app was such a fiasco, and Euan gets to rave, yet again, about the Drafts app and the cool things he is able to do with it.

In this episode we chat about face recognition, leaving (or not leaving) Facebook, thick and thin skins on social media, regulating or censoring conversations, and statues.

In this episode we discuss the wider meaning of West World (spoilers so if you haven't watched it yet don't listen), then we move on to how not to get driven berserk by frustration with technology, how not to be triggered in social media platforms and life generally, oh and could we adopt a rapid prototyping approach to government?

In this episode we talk about Joe Rogan moving to Spotify, we consider that organisations don't tweet, people do™, chat about the future of travel and how habits will change when we'll go back to an office, ponder about the importance of good writing when engaged in asynchronous work.

Yet another quarantine episode, where we talk about slogans, post war scenarios, how hard it its to build the tracing app we are all waiting for (and software in general), recommended TV shows, command line meditation, and how fun it is hoarding, organising and finding information.

In this episode we wonder which are the changes that will stick at the end of all this, we discuss about who is deciding about our privacy in contact tracing apps, and we consider which tools could be created to further empower communities. Things mentioned in this episode: Mark Manson's article https://bit.ly/2yP4YuL, Smarter every day episode https://bit.ly/3d9bStJ, the Professor and the Madman movie: https://amzn.to/2zDxjo1 

In this episode we mostly chat about some of the latest covid-related tech news and think about how the solutions proposed by Apple, Google and others might look like, in the yet to be announced exit strategy.

In this episode we talk about the resilience and opportunities offered by today's huge supply chains, centralised vs. distributed systems, the Queen, and how, once again, it's is all about creating new stories for us all to believe. Here's the link to the episode of NPR Planet Money that we mention: https://n.pr/2RoJrPV

Just one week after the last one, here's a brand new episode! This time we chat about a letter from a sick man, how are we coping with information about a very complex problem, how will we deal when things (won't) go back to "normal", we consider having a guest and we also give a recommendation for a good audiobook: https://adbl.co/2ykj2Mk

In this episode we wonder if this is really the beginning of a new era and we manage to complain about everybody talking about that thing, while talking about the thing. We hope you are all well and safe.

Welcome to the first episode of 2020! We could not start without talking about the virus that is changing everybody's habits: from video conferencing to pollution to social media. Then we chat a bit about the importance of narrating human experience on your social media channels and we discuss about podcast vs. YouTube as places to learn stuff. 

Last show of 2019! We start by chatting about Paolo's other podcast [1], then Sacha Baron Cohen's ADL speech [2] and Sir Tim Berners-Lee's new Contract for the web [3]. We move on conversing about millennials, what is right or wrong, we wonder if we would be better off without any rules and we discuss a bit about journalism and its future. 1. https://www.investor-series.com 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymaWq5yZIYM 3. https://contractfortheweb.org

This time we start from this BBC Podcast on OneCoin [1] to chat about trust, the internet and social media, the potential impact of WT.Social, using algorithms to interpret and predict history, and much more. 1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07nkd84/episodes/downloads

In this episode we chat about the 50th anniversary of UNIX[1], problems at Google[2], the stories that we tell ourselves and how the world thinks[3]. We hear about Euan's intention to leave Facebook and how attractive the idea of going back to blogging is, preparing for a blogging renaissance.  [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/08/unix-at-50-it-starts-with-a-mainframe-a-gator-and-three-dedicated-researchers/[2] https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-three-years-misery-happiest-company-tech/[3] https://www.microphilosophy.net/how-the-world-thinks/

Tech note: since Apple crippled Garageband in the latest beta of MacOS, this episode was recorded and edited on iOS and iPad OS. We start by looking at how the world is a creation of our brains and we move to the rampant conspiracy theories and how being aware of our perspectives helps. We discuss about how there are perfectly simple (and wrong) solutions to complex problems, and we end up dreaming of angel bots.

This time we start from the art tinkering with our devices, using AI to make our life and our work better, we then move to designing and discovering features, we imagine a future when we will be writing new software just by talking to our devices, we comment about organisations digitising dysfunctions, and we finish with the usual dark view on the bright future.

In episode 11 we talk about conversations and meta-conversations, how to help folks meeting in the middle (maybe by inviting them on the next episode). We mention some of the news, including Julian Assange, and we discuss about being comfortable with uncomfortable things, from terrorism to global warming.

First Euan said: "Social media isn't broken, people are." And then we started discussing about the most recent news, how social media shapes conversations and conversations shape social media, how Filipinos influence everything we see, how India and Africa are evolving, and we finish by revealing the way to happiness.

First episode of 2019, recorded on the day of the Macintosh 35th anniversary, this episode is all about Euan and Paolo the Apple fan boys. From experiences through this long stretch of history of computing, to the usual complaining about how things could be better, to the incredibly still fresh amazement for how technology changes our life every day.

In episode 8 we wonder if podcasting really is an "intellectual dark web", or just a good place for conversations because nobody can interrupt us. We meditate on how we might have lowered the entry threshold of other tools too much, or if it's just the natural cycle of digital tools. We reflect about amateurs vs. professionals and while we ponder on how we should do more things for love, we observe how love, competence and intent are the key to everything. We also mention Jordan Peterson, but we don't necessarily agree with him.

This week Euan and Paolo start from digital ethics, but immediately precipitate in politics, fascism, mother nature, human extinction, Yuval Noah Harari, and how meditating more might help us save global problems. Things mentioned in this episode are this article about Digital Ethics [ https://refind.com/l/1b94ce4981#https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/16/gartner-picks-digital-ethics-and-privacy-as-a-strategic-trend-for-2019 ], this interview to a former white nationalist [ https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651172700/the-awakening-of-a-former-white-nationalist ] and Yuval Noah Harari's latest book "21 lessons for the 21 century" [ https://www.ynharari.com/book/21-lessons/ ]

This week it's about Lessig on Slow Democracy, Ito on The Next Digital Extintion, an interview to Zuk, the new Facebook Portal, Personalisation vs. Privacy vs. AI, Weinberger on AI, better deals between customers and companies, more or less plausible spy stories. Enjoy!

A brand new episode where we talk about decentralisation, innovation, creativity, edges, natural conversations and all the cells of our bodies.

This week on the SotN Podcast we talk about documentaries on Netflix (the one Paolo couldn't find is The Most Unknown check it out), new types of media, trust of sources online, maintaining an healthy social media diet, how much is a trillion, new models for journalism, AI to help us curate news, implications of good quality automatic translations, and algorithms to manage society.

In this episode Euan and Paolo chat about podcast production and quality, teaching kids to code, ethics of AI, creating new forms of life, AI in China and America.

In this episode Euan and Paolo talk about upgrades, the new MacOS Mojave, Silicon Valley, geek culture, printing, when innovations become just habits and how Facetime is for mums.

After introducing the new podcast, Euan Semple and Paolo Valdemarin chat about AI, regulating technology companies, the future of computing and how we should all be careful about the future of artificial intelligence.