(image) Among many other things (we usually add 20-30 items into our book’s Evernote account each week), this past week we read about developments in brain-computer interfaces, and how connecting smart devices introduces new vulnerabilities. We also read about how policy and ethics questions need to catch up with technology that makes surveillance easier. If you want to keep up with what we’re reading/thinking about on a weekly basis, the best way is to subscribe to the “else” feed, either as an email newsletter or through RSS.
Why Can’t My Computer Understand Me? – The New Yorker
Hector Levesque makes the case to replace Turing tests with something that requires a little more common sense: anaphoras where the reference isn’t always linguistically clear. That requires logical finesse, rather than big data processing of existing answers found in webpages.
Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface – ExtremeTech
We’re getting closer and closer to wearable brain-computer interfaces.
What Does It Really Matter If Companies Are Tracking Us Online? – The Atlantic
Ryan Calo’s recent paper makes the case that what is really at stake in the “creepiness” of advertising is the ability for corporations to take advantage of and exploit data around consumer irrationalities (in the behavioral economics sense).
The Ethics of Saving Lives With Autonomous Cars Are Far Murkier Than You Think – Wired
Interesting questions: “Do we now need a peek under the algorithmic hood before we purchase or ride in a robot car?…Shouldn’t informed consent be required to operate or ride in something that may purposely cause our own deaths?”
Welcome to the “Internet of Things,” where even lights aren’t hacker safe – Arstechnica
Connected devices introduce more vulnerabilities. Ease of use, in this case the ability to add more devices to control lights, often trumps more secure designs.
When Cars Crash Like Computers – The Atlantic
“When we make pieces of our infrastructure ‘smart’ with computers, we also give them the other characteristics of computers, like bugs, crashes, hackability, and downtime.”
3D printing failures shared online – BBC
Gallery of “Spaghetti” images of failed 3-D printer models. Strangely beautiful…
How A ‘Deviant’ Philosopher Built Palantir, A CIA-Funded Data-Mining Juggernaut – Forbes
Interesting profile of Alex Karp, the man behind Palantir, the software running the data mining analytics of the NSA.
Zimmermann’s Law: PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder Phil Zimmermann on the surveillance society – Gigaom
Om Malik talks with Zimmerman about the need for policy to catch up to reflect our democratic values when Moore’s law makes surveillance easier.
People Are Changing Their Internet Habits Now That They Know The NSA Is Watching – Fast Company
News of the Prism and surveillance might actually be the spark that gets average consumers to start engaging with their privacy settings.
The staring match between The Man and bitcoin: nobody’s blinked yet – CoinDesk
After two secure email servers shut down this last week, enter Bitmessage. It uses Bitcoin protocols to secure messages so that only users with the correct key can read them. There are no central servers, no users lists.
When the next Ernest Hemingway dies, who will own his Facebook account? – Quartz
Walks through what it takes for an estate to access the status updates and tweets of writers when they die, the modern day equivalent of letters archived in an attic. Current EULA policies don’t make it easy.