Internet – alper.nl

Krasse Links looks like yet another collection of links but the German wall of text notwithstanding, it’s a remarkable act of curation and contextualisation. Remarkable and unique for sure in Germany.

There are very few people here who have the desire and skills to be able to look beyond the borders, beyond the Tellerrand, and who feel that what the German state and establishment press and media serve you is simply not good enough. I’d be hard pressed to suggest anything at the same level as what Michael Seemann here and any German interested in the intersection of technology and politics would be well served to read this newsletter.

Krasse Links No 27.

For a relatively complete and concise rundown of how insane Germany is at the moment, this conversation with journalist James Jackson is highly recommended. Things are really spiralling into pure madness here and it seems likely that that will be the new normal.

A damning but also entirely correct assessment of Elon Musk:

How degrading it must be: a 53-year-old man, notionally responsible for five companies, endlessly jostling for empty, phatic interactions with strangers. A clown forced to play for an audience he despises, an audience he cannot be sure even exists, and which gains with every tasteless joke a clearer understanding of what he is really worth.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2024/09/how-elon-musk-killed-twitter

What this article says is true: The Fediverse is entirely inconsequential and you might as well pee into the wind as post on it. Nothing will happen.

The main reason I write anything there is just as a kind of personal life log. I don’t expect anybody to even see it.

https://wingolog.org/archives/2024/09/24/fedi-is-for-losers

Trying for years to explain to people that Germany has almost zero project power and is incapable of any progress and then suddenly a movement springs up that agrees entirely with that assessment.

Not sure if I should be pleased or miffed.

Cosplay believing in the singularity long enough and at some point you won’t be able to stop anymore whether you really believe in it or not.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-influencers-are-falling-for-hoaxes-and-scams.html

In Good Company sounds like a good idea for a podcast, but after hearing the CEO of Deutsche Telekom deny how his company is responsible for Germany being in the dark ages when it comes to internet speed, I couldn’t listen to it anymore.

https://www.nbim.no/en/publications/podcast/tim-hottges-ceo-of-deutsche-telekom-future-for-connectivity-5g-and-ai/

A third truth is that we have a generation in crisis and in desperate need of the best of what science and evidence-based solutions can offer. Unfortunately, our time is being spent telling stories that are unsupported by research and that do little to support young people who need, and deserve, more.

The experts agree that kids need to be cared for better. The experts also agree that people like Haidt are grifters who do not contribute anything into that direction.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00902-2

Threads works functionally but as a product it’s very bad. As this article mentions being on Threads is a slow-motion exercise in going insane. Threads actively disables many things that make microblogging work and for the rest of the experience there’s very little thought that went into it other than “let’s make a text-based Instagram and see what happens”.

Threads makes Mastodon feel engaging (and that’s saying something).

https://maxread.substack.com/p/threads-is-the-gas-leak-social-network

I would be the last to ever watch anything by Lex Fridman, but TikTok has been feeding me clips from his interview with Bassem Youssef and I can’t help but be impressed. Fridman does a decent job interviewing but of course the conversation is carried by Youssef, who is nothing short of a treasure.