The Week
We’re living in the Age of Disinformation. Seeing isn’t believing and any ray of truth is buried in the blizzard of lies. The storm has been a long time in the making. Generative Artificial Intelligence didn’t generate the blizzard, it’s just a tool that magnifies the artifice and blinds the intelligence, a snowjob snowgun aimed right at us.
This week I’ve added some fact-checking sites to my blogroll, because it’s clear that we all have to be fact-checkers in our own defence, and the more help we can get, the better. I’ve also unearthed another of those moldy oldies from my days as editor-in-chief and/or -at-large for Dr. Dobb’s Journal: An odd little “Swaine’s Flames” about tech journalism and unusual tech products and tech bling from May 2006.
The picture is of Mother Goose and her goslings on our riverbank this week.
Quotes of the Week
And I remember misinformation followed us like a plague
— Paul SimonOh, you’ve been here before and seen your temperature rise
Don’t walk out of that door, back into a blizzard of lies
— Graham Nash
A Swaine’s Flames Backflash
Here’s a thing I wrote in May of 2006 for my “Swaine’s Flames” column in Dr. Dobb’s Journal. All the tech described in it was real, and some of it is still around 18 years later. I added a couple of currently-active links to back me up on that.
Nicking Bling with Vanity Slob
In 2006, what tech firm will execute the most spectacular facefault? Chasing the answer to that question, I put out a call to all the top tech journalists: Bob Cravenly, John Markup, Ann Winbad, Dan Spillmor, Esphere Dyson, Robert Squabble, David Vogue, Jerry Banal. But by deadline time, none of the opiniorati had responded. So, in pursuit of my fallback strategy, I found myself in a Pizza Hut in Chelsea discussing the latest techno-bling with Vanity Slob. (I learned the trick from watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom: if you need to trap the untamed beast on a tight deadline, you go where it feeds.)
In her trademark pink Kappa tracksuit and gold chains, Vanity educated me on high-tech wristwatches.
“I got this gorgeous fishfinding watch off Jenna but she’s a luser cos she actually paid for it cos she got it off the internet and it’s dead hard to nick fings off there.”
“A fishfinding watch?” I asked skeptically as we left the Pizza Hut and started cruising shops.
“Don’t be givin me evils about this fing wot you know nuffin about,” she suggested, and elaborated on the Humminbird Smartcast RF-35, which shows you the configuration of fish down a full fathom five.
“There’s this so cool place,” she added, “called wristfashion dot com wot’s all about like a clock that’s just printed on paper but it works and stuff.”
My cell phone tootled. It was John Divulgac.
“Hey Swaine, if you still want an opinion on that facefault thing, I got one for ya.”
“Opine away, John.”
“By the way, facefault is a funny word. So look for a big pratfall from the mainstream media, in which I include you and me. Open-source media is the big thing, supposedly. Blogs, Wikis, whatnot. I dunno. They say Wikipedia is almost as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica. So eighty percent of Britannica is wrong? Sounds about right. I call closed-source, take-it-or-leave-it journalism the Shrinkwrap Press. Feel free to use that. Yeah, I also call Windows Winkrap and Linux Finkrap. Get it? Gotta go.”
While I was talking, Vanity had stuffed several watches and a DVD player in her tracksuit.
“You know,” I said, “It’s customary to pay for items you take from a store.”
“Shaddup cos I never done nuthin nor nuthin and anyway it’s all rubbish but Janie got a wikkid Venexx watch that sprays perfume but I’m gonna get a NEC VOTOL PK-MV300 perfume-bottle media player and show her cos she’s got webbed toes.”
I wasn’t sure how Janie’s toes factored into it, but perfume-themed tech toys seemed to me like definitive bling.
Again the cell sang. This time it was Wallace Mossback, who seemed to feel that Amazon should get the facefault prize for daring to challenge Apple in the online music business. Or not.
“Amazon is unmatched at online sales,” he assured me, “but they may be overreaching here. Apple’s iPod is beating the pants off Sony’s Walkman in Japan although that doesn’t mean Apple would trounce Amazon in a different market. I generally like the idea but it could be a big mistake. Amazon dot com isn’t as attractive as iTunes Music Store and yet it has its own charm. The move could be a smart one, but it would take careful handling.”
“In other words, it might work out or it might not?”
“Exactly.”
“Thank you for that insight, Wallace.”
Vanity poked me in the ribs. “Yeah but no but yeah but no but we’re all gonna be cyborgs soon cos there’s all this stuff wot makes your body a phone or something.” I’d read the Newsweek story about how several Japanese companies were experimenting with systems that use the human body to conduct electricity. You become the network for your gadgets. Trippy.
“Last week,” Vanity told me as we reached her Vespa, “I nicked Annie’s plastic and ordered a computer bag made of artificial human skin. Check it out.” She displayed a photo of the hideous thing. “Looks totally real. I read about it on geekblue dot net. Wikked innit?”
Wicked didn’t come close to describing it. I didn’t know who made this thing, but I decided that they were now frontrunners in the facefault olympics.
This essay is satire, and any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is wicked innocent. Satire is not literal truth and not disinformation. For example, computer columnist Verity Stob, the author of “the longest-running satirical column on computer programming” (according to fellow columnist Andrew Orlowski), does not engage in disinformation. To pick a satirist at random.
Verse
If you’ve been following this blog for over a year, you may recognize some of these. I just feel a need to put some verse in each post. I’ll try to include a new one from time to time. For a while it’s just going to be limericks, but eventually I’ll get to the sonnets and villanelles and whatnot.
Three Limericks
In Oregon one fanciful mama
Infused Christmas dinners with drama:
Her mountains of taters
Had gravy-filled craters
So each child had their own Mount Mazama.
A Trek fan and lush from Poughkeepsie
Always watches the episodes tipsy
Convinced that the truth is
The Enterprise crew is
Tom Servo, Crow, Cambot, and Gypsy.
In Queensland a foul-mouthed jumbuck
Called a sheep-killing dingo a thumb-suck-
Ing butt sniffing pot pissing
Heretic Mass missing
Mutt with a gob like a dump truck.
Of Interest
When I was editor of Dr. Dobb’s Journal, we had a section in the back of the magazine titled “Of Interest.” Here are some things that I think you might find Of Interest.
The Blogroll
This week I’m expanding my blogroll with fact checkers.
Fact Checkers:
Claim: A new study found that “10 to 27%” of noncitizens in the U.S. are registered voters. This is false. But it’s been widely repeated by less-than-trustworthy sources, included Elon Musk. You and I know it’s not true because we check on claims like this. Here are some of the fact-checking sites I use:
Snopes is the granddaddy of fact-check sites. It got its start in 1994, investigating urban legends, hoaxes, and folklore. Now it’s the oldest and largest fact-checking site online, widely regarded by journalists, folklorists, and readers as an invaluable research companion.
Media Bias / FactCheck is your go-to site to fact-check the fact-checkers. From CNN to Breitbart and even browser extensions like Newsguard, MBFC rates them all.
FactCheck is a non-partisan fact-checking website that focuses primarily on US politics. It is a non-profit project and regularly debunks claims by politicians and viral fake news.
Lead Stories focuses on trending stories, images, videos, and posts with false information. It includes fact checks, analysis, and corrections. The site also provides fact-checking services to social media companies TikTok and Facebook.
Those are just a few. I may add more next week.
Sources I follow on Artificial Intelligence:
One Useful Thing
Wharton professor Ethan Mollick shares research-based views on the implications of AI.
The AI Edge
A daily newsletter to help you keep up with the latest news and trends.
Big Technology
A newsletter about big tech and society by independent journalist Alex Kantrowitz.
Creators’ AI
AI insights, tools, guides for creators and entrepreneurs.
AI Supremacy
News at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, technology, and business. Includes Op-Eds, research summaries, guest contributions, and info on AI startups, by Michael Spencer.
Artificial Intelligence Made Simple
AI made simple by Devansh.
AI: A Guide for Thinking Humans
A blog about interesting developments in artificial intelligence by Melanie Mitchell, Professor, Santa Fe Institute.
marcwatkins
How generative AI is impacting education, by Marc Watkins, Academic Innovation Fellow, Director of the Mississippi AI Institute, Lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi.
The AI Optimist
Exploring the possibilities of AI, against the drawbacks. By Declan Dunn.
Machine Society
Mike Elgan’s technology newsletter, formerly known as “Mike’s List.”
Ahead of AI
Machine Learning & AI research by Sebastian Raschka.
Mark Watson’s AI Books and Blog
Read his books for free online.
Good Guys:
Doctors Without Borders
Every day, Doctors Without Borders teams deliver emergency medical aid to people in crisis, with humanitarian projects in more than 70 countries.
World Central Kitchen
WCK is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.
Friends and Associates:
Kent Beck’s advice for geeks
Tales from the Jar Side
Bookshop.org
Pragmatic Bookshelf
My Day Job
I edit books on technology for The Pragmatic Bookshelf. A book I am editing was released last week in beta form. It’s called Serverless Apps on Cloudflare,and that’s what it’s about.
ICYMI
Thanks for reading. You can read all the back issues of Swaine’s World at my blog home.
Coming Attractions
In the coming weeks, more “Swaine’s Flames” flashbacks, Dirt Road Diaries, bulletins from the AI revolution, tech history, books, and random verse.