Random Roundup #26 - Hitchhiking robots, offline websites, copy anyone’s voice, proverb wisdom and more.
Jonathan Berkowitz
?? Working with Uber Eats to Create a New Advertising Medium, One Bike at a Time (We're hiring!)
The Cool:
1) Go to this link — Disconnect.
2) Disconnect your internet.
3) See for yourself… (I don’t want to ruin it.)
The Lol:
Hitchhiking robot that relied on human kindness found decapitated two weeks into its American tour.
Come on humans; we’re better than this aren’t we? AREN’T WE?!
The Woah:
Lyrebird is a new API that will allow you to (literally) put words in someone’s mouth.
By using as little as a one-minute recording of someone speaking, the technology can decode their voice and convincingly replicate it to say anything you want.
The demo on the site has Donald Trump, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton endorsing the technology. It’s equal parts funny and scary.
After the above hitchhiking robot story, I don’t exactly trust us humans with this type of technology!
The Upvote:
Browsing the WritingPrompts subreddit.
This community is perfect for inspiring writers and delighting readers.
The public suggests writing prompts for amateur & professional writers to submit their best attempts in the comments.
The community decides on their favourites by upvoting, but I go there for the creativity and imagination of the writers and marvel at different the stories are despite receiving the same prompt.
The Thought Provoking:
What will it do to kids to have digital butlers they can boss around? (think Amazon Echo + Google Home.)
I don’t agree with much of it, but it gave me food for thought on a topic I hadn’t considered before.
We could ask the same question of the effects growing up with mobile phones and social media will have on kids.
The Stat:
Global Bitcoin mining now uses the same amount of electricity as the entirety of Tunisia.
The Distillery:
Proverbs and cliches get a bad rap as trite, but I see them as the very essence of the distilled wisdom of all ages.
Two of the most common expressions; “Don’t cry over spilt milk” and “Don’t cross your bridges until you come to them” are all you ever really need to read about worry and anxiety.
Amazing to think that you already possess such profound wisdom isn’t it?!
Imagine our lives if we actually applied the wisdom of proverbs into our lives instead of snorting at them. Pretty close to perfect, huh?!
This begs the question: What piece of wisdom do you KNOW to be true but, for whatever reason, you have not yet embodied?
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Until next week,
O da abo (“Goodbye” in Yoruba)
Jonathan “there is no internet connection” Berkowitz
Random Roundup is my weekly newsletter. Every weekend I send out 5–7 of the best things I found on the internet that week. That’s it, no gimmicks.