#ttw17

I found myself looking out at the audience, struck by the the shining, hungry, open faces of so many who had been transformed by what had happened to them, to bring us all to that moment. I walked to the lectern and fiddled with the elements to cast out the image and surround them with the sound of my voice, and I said,

"First and foremost, I wanted to say that I'm glad to see how many of us made it here, today, through the demon-possessed nanite swarms. Ever since they've started gleefully, maliciously, mockingly remaking and humanity in our own nebulously-defined image of 'perfection,' walking down the street is an unrelenting horror, and so I'm glad to see how many of us made it with only minimal damage."

Everyone nodded solemnly, silently thinking of those they had lost, those who had been "upgraded," before their very eyes. I continued,

"I don't have many slides, but I wanted to spend some time talking to you all today about what it takes to survive in our world after The Events…

by Damien

Over at A Future Worth Thinking About, I’ve posted an expanded riff on a presentation I gave at the Theorizing the Web 2017 Invited Panel, “Apocalypse Buffering.” It’s called “How We Survive After The Events.” If you’re a regular reader of the newsletter, then this will likely be familiar.

[Black lettering on a blue field reads “Apocalypse Buffering,” above an old-school hourglass icon.]

My co-panelists were Tim Maughan, who talked about the dystopic horror of shipping container sweatshop cities, and Jade E. Davis, discussing an app to know how much breathable air you’ll be able to consume in our rapidly collapsing ecosystem before you die. Then my piece.

Our moderator, organizer, and all around fantastic person who now has my implicit trust was Ingrid Burrington. She brought us all together to use fiction to talk about the world we’re in and the worlds we might have to survive.

Pokémon Go makers sued for encouraging trespassing

The class action lawsuit is the first to be filed against the Pokémon Go makers, and is seeking damages that, while not specified, could be in excess of $5 million (£3.7 million) for a "flagrant disregard" for the impact of the game on real world places. Jeffrey Marder, the New Jersey man who brought the case, claimed that at least five players had knocked on his door and asked to catch Pokémon in his garden. The game superimposes creatures into the real world, which players must physically approach in order to catch. 

"Defendants have shown a flagrant disregard for the forseeable consequences of populating the real world with virtual Pokémon without seeking the permission of property owners," the lawsuit alleges. 

Marder is seeking class action status against Niantic, the company behind the game that was released a month ago, as well as co-creators Nintendo and the Pokémon Company, on behalf of other owners of residential and public property. 

(via Pokémon Go makers sued for encouraging trespassing)

Piece above is from 2016. But now the case is going ahead:

‘Pokémon Go’ Suit Makes Case for Virtual Trespassing

Federal judge is set to decide on case alleging game developer caused hordes to illegally enter properties

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pokemon-go-suit-makes-case-for-virtual-trespassing-1491310800

i just went back and re-read @nathanjurgenson‘s seminal:

Digital Dualism versus Augmented Reality

the systematic bias to see the digital and physical as separate; often as a zero-sum tradeoff where time and energy spent on one subtracts from the other. This is digital dualism par excellence. And it is a fallacy.

I am proposing an alternative view that states that our reality is both technological and organic, both digital and physical, all at once. We are not crossing in and out of separate digital and physical realities, ala The Matrix, but instead live in one reality, one that is augmented by atoms and bits. And our selves are not separated across these two spheres as some dualistic “first” and “second” self, but is instead an augmented self. A Haraway-like cyborg self comprised of a physical body as well as our digital Profile, acting in constant dialogue.

https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/02/24/digital-dualism-versus-augmented-reality/

When talked about clouds at @theorizingtheweb 14:

Infrastructure Territory and The Geopolitics of The Stacks

https://medium.com/@thejaymo/colonising-the-clouds-4405d2d590b5

furthermore

The Cloud, the State, and the Stack: @mthvn in Conversation with Benjamin Bratton

Here we have the vertical superimposition of two possibly incommensurate logics of geography and governance. One, a globally distributed, cognitive capitalist, NSA-protected polis predicated on data rationalization, and two, a geographically circumscribed central command which sees the Cloud as an extension of the body of the State.

http://mthvn.tumblr.com/post/38098461078/thecloudthestateandthestack

In other pokemon go thoughts i’m level 30 and caught a Pineco today // JAY