It continues to be that bitter cold in New York City which leaves me reminiscing about California. Morning walks in the park have been very cold, but they continue to be the highlight of our days. It did get warm enough a couple afternoons his week for Poppy and I to walk the west side highway along the Hudson River Greenway.
I actively work to minimize my intake of national news, but the gutting of our federal government this week crept in via social feeds and left me very rattled. In 2016 I began to do some work to backup the data projects I had contributed on in the federal government, but I just don’t have the emotional bandwidth this round. USAID, CDC…it all just breaks my heart. The lack of humanity in these decisions coupled with where they are focusing their technology budgets leaves me very concerned. All of this is just further weakening of democracy and doing more of the same work that put them into office in the first place.
Reading continues to be my primary source of nourishment. I added the Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford to my list of books that have helped deprogram me from the world around me. It is a very accessible book and something I strongly recommend to anyone who is trying to understand this moment we find ourselves in. This book, plus the Restless Clock by Jessica Riskin has equipped me with what I need in this moment, but it is also sending my mind racing in a bunch of different directions—which is a good thing.
I was able to advance my thoughts around the abstraction, derivatives, extraction, and distillation that is occurring in this moment. I am a systems thinker, so I am working to imagine the systems required to satisfy the endless appetite of the Aye machine. I am applying this thinking to how the API space which I work in is responding to the latest waves of assaults by Aye Agents. However, in all seriousness, I am seriously concerned for my API career trajectory in all of this bullshit, but I am more concerned with democracy and all the black, brown, womean, and queer people in this country who will be dangerously impacted by the Ayessault.
Some of my anxiety from the week was juiced into a single fictional story on Alternate Kin Lane this week called Ten Years of APIeostasis Across Our Predexpert Systems. At least I have somewhere to put my fears and anxiety about our rapid progression towards bringing the Matrix to life.
Speaking of calorie count, Audrey and I had what I think are the best dumplings I have ever had (I have had a lot of dumplings), and some dumpling soup that warmed my soul on a very cold winter day. I also read that Polish astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski will take Poland’s national flag and traditional pierogi dumplings on his upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Can you imagine whatever culinary delights have not gone into space?
This is only my second weekly newsletter for the Kin Lane domain. Honestly, I still have no idea what I am going to put in this until the last moment. However, it did inspire me to write some fiction, and it got me thinking a little bit about the book I just finished, and played a role in helping me decide what book I am reading next. This all reflects why I started doing the newsletter in the first place—to help me approach my week in a more balanced way. More API blah blah blah crept in that I would have liked, but that is fine. If it helps me make sense of things it is a good thing.
Stay warm. Stay safe. And please resist by default in these times and make sure to define those you care about the most. If you need someone to talk to please reach out, don’t care it all by yourself.
