Through Lines 217

Based on the visuals in this trailer for Anthropocene, this could prove to be a truly important film for people to come to grips with the impact of what we have, and continue to do to unbalance the nature of our relationship with the planet we call home.

• Raising McLuhan feels like it has the potential to be an interesting multi-year project. I’m definitely biased but I’m curious to learn more from Karen Darricades, Sandro Pasquali, and Freyja van den Boom and my brother-in-law, Andrew McLuhan.
• “…artists are the class enemies of both Big Tech and Big Content.” As Cory wisely notes, this is no hypothetical or accident. Some days it makes me not want to keep the things I make entirely to myself.
• I have a copy of the original edition of Overlooked from the Pentagram Papers and I’m very tempted by Overlooked 2.0. Proof again of the little moments of beauty we so easily overlook throughout the day.
• It’s a shame that Eye on Design, the one good thing to come from the AIGA in some time has all but vanished in its original form from the internet. Nothing is forever without proper caretaking.
• “…we’ve been tricked into this idea that everything has to scale.” I have many feelings about those words but it points to a problem I’ve seen (and continue to see) firsthand when it comes to solving the wrong problems. Although, a bit technical, The New Internet does hit on some clear and cogent ideas about what’s going wrong with technology today.
• Related: Sounds like I need to read Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future.
• I’ve mentioned it before, but if you haven’t seen Gary Hustwitt’s ENO, do yourself a solid and fix that.
• An interesting development on the copyright front, for now at least, EU-only but one can hope something like this gains wider adoption since it’s long overdue.
• AI Crawlers Need to be More Respectful. Some wild numbers for the impact of AI bots run amok against the longstanding social contract of a site’s robots.txt file. I’m outright blocking them at this point.
• If We Want a Shift to Walking, We Need To Prioritize Dignity. I walk a lot and this really hits home, especially around California where pedestrian travel is very often a clear second or third level concern.
• Season two of The Rings of Power looks like it’s going to take things up a notch from what I felt was a good, albeit slow burn first season.
• When in doubt, use Roslindale. Look I don’t make these rules but it’s hard to argue with this one.
• A Simple Sophistication. Keeping the noise at bay is something I’ve always felt Naz does really well.
• Rolls Royce makes nuclear space reactors now, huh? Neat.
• Robin Sloan’s virtual book tour. Delightful — just like his writing.
• James Clear’s Guide to Creativity and some great keys to unlocking your own.
• Everyone on earth is feeling the same as you (about LinkedIn).
• The computer is a feeling. Thanks for this one Robin.