Tech Time by Tim #71

Spatial Computing’s BeReality battle is on! Grab some popcorn chicken from hell gang, this will be more brutal than the Deepfakes vs. Swifties war. We’ve also got Cyberbrain burglaries to contend with…or do we? Sorry about the policy provocations. Finally, the weather. Cloudy with a chance of digital divide.

At A Glance

A quick overview of this week’s content.

·?????? The Week That Was: Spatial Computing’s BeReality Battlefield, Chickens Form Hell

·?????? Cyber Safety Blanket: Deepfakes Vs Swifties, Cyberbrain Burglary - Less Likely Than You’d Think

·?????? Rules of Engagement: Policy Provocations, Cloudy With a Chance OF Digital Divide

The Week that Was:

A look back at the tech world of the past week.

Spatial Computing’s BeReality Battlefield:

Do you remember the social media app ‘BeReal’ by any chance? Released in 2020, this French social media app claimed to empower users to show their true, authentic selves to each other. Instead of, you know, the carefully curated ‘best lives’ that people aren’t living beyond the byte-boundaries social media.

During the 2020 COVID pandemic, we were all isolated, literally and figuratively. BeReal’s value proposition was as a soothing simulated normality, a comfort blanket. The Vision Pro (VP) makes me think of BeReal. To talk about it, I’m changing the definition of Virtual Reality (VR) a bit. Normally, VR refers to a digital replacement for reality, but the VP as a VR headset is rather more literal. It (mostly) convincingly shows you a virtual version of reality. This is every bit as interesting and complicated as it seems.

Reviewing the device for The Verge, Nilay Patel describes this device as ‘magic, until it’s not.’ When the magic wears off, the uncanny valley hits like a ton of bricks. A short explanation of this effect is how the more immersive and convincing an illusion is, the more painful and jarring ‘glitches in the matrix’ become to those who experience it.

From a philosophical perspective, I believe the ‘simulated normalcy’ of the VP is the natural endpoint of technologically mediated experience. Whether that’s good or bad is highly subjective, but it is fascinating to discuss regardless. Is this device the end goal for Apple? Hell no. As Patel explains, the end goal is “optical AR, where light passes directly through unobtrusive glasses to your eyes, with digital information layered over the top of what you’re seeing.” That’s also why I’m not spending much time on the other capabilities of this device. They are, to Apple, just a means to an end, compromises born from endless ambition frustrated by technical limitations.

The vision beyond the vision is an almost imperceptibly thin mediating layer between you and reality. Mediation means that something is handled for you, like how you do not directly control this device. Instead, as Patel emphasizes, “cameras are watching your eyes and hands and turning that into input.” This detail is something privacy advocates have rather strong feelings about.? Mediation can also mean a third party resolving disputes, say if you wanted to watch or share something and Disney doesn’t want you to do that. In such a scenario the VP will black out your screen.

Wait what? Oh yeah, the Vision Pro can literally blind its user. I was shocked by this feature, but not surprised. That’s the inherent contradiction at the heart of spatial computing. Because it fills and utilizes the very space around us, you’d think that spatial computing would present endless possibilities and freedoms right? Not quite. Spatial computing will be an experiential battlefield unlike any other. It will be a battle about who gets to decide what parts of reality you perceive, and how you can or cannot engage with them. Whoever manages to convincingly answer ‘me!’ stands to seize control over reality itself as our next experiential frontier. It excites me, but it also frightens me. Please don’t turn off my eyes, Disney. LINK

Chickens From Hell:

Browsing the Scientific American magazine, as one does on the weekends, I did not expect to see this headline “A newly identified “chicken from hell” species suggests dinosaurs weren’t sliding toward extinction before the fateful asteroid hit.” Perhaps it stuck out to me so much because this article reminded me of this one time a Korean family friend made some spicy chicken, and I… I had regrets. At the time I thought, “Eh how bad can it be?” Well, let me tell you, those dinosaurs might not have been sliding towards extinction but my tastebuds sure as hell were!

This was quite a few years ago when custom gene therapy was still mostly in the realm of science fiction. My tastebuds barely made it through their confrontation with the chicken from hell. But perhaps if they’d have lost that fight today, I’d have not had to worry as much. Because lo and behold, we’ve got another gene therapy success story on our hands. This time, it concerns an 11-year-old boy, whose deafness was seemingly cured. I always give a small caveat with these things that long-term observation will still need to prove long-term effectiveness, but hey, still great initial success regardless.

By now you’ve probably also seen at least a few articles along the lines of “AI is coming for big pharma!” I doubt that because it’s been a longstanding issue in the wider field of biology for large companies to patent things like plant species. I’ve written in the past about both the moral and practical problems of medical patents wielded as a life-threatening cudgel instead of as a lifesaving scalpel. As already is the case with most medicines these days, any novel discoveries will likely be found and patented by large pharmaceutical companies or patent trolls that were in the right friend group at the right time. And that frustrates me.

We’ve got a lot of farmer’s protests across Europe right now because necessary climate interventions that could have been smoothly implemented over time are now being clumsily implemented in a hurry. We were out of time like 20 years ago. Crop patents are so sinister because they represent how farmers and the rest of society are pitted against one another by companies that don’t want to change their extremely profitable status quo. Neither John Deere nor Albert Heijn would have lost sleep over farmers ruining their tractors on police barricades. Power to em’ I guess. But is it too much to ask for that we all be legally and practically able to sow the seeds of positive, mutually beneficial change together? LINK

Cyber Safety Blanket:

Covering important cyber security developments so you can sleep a little more soundly at night.

Deepfakes Vs Swifties:

Surprise, surprise, ElevenLabs' tech was indeed used for last week’s Bot Biden Bamboozle. At least if voice-fraud detection company ‘Pindrop Security Inc.’ is to be believed. Similarly, the viral deepfakes of Tailor Swift which were making the rounds last week on Twitter appear to have been traced back to a Telegram group chat.

Researchers estimate that millions of young girls and women are victimized like this each year. Vanishingly few of these victims have Swift’s resources or parasocial support network at their disposal. Yet much like previous controversies involving this influential media figure, there may yet be wider implications for social media accountability in the wake of this latest ‘Swift Situation.’

For example, there’s yet another round of congressional social media hearings in the US. Though these usually tend to be more performative pageantry than noteworthy interventions, cynicism shouldn’t blind us to the real impact that well-organized, highly motivated groups can have on election outcomes. What kinds of changes might we see? Hard to say, though New York is declaring social media a public health hazard, and new court cases have been filed against Snapchat and TikTok in the UK. ?

Interesting times for Google and Samsung to ramp up their Android AI integrations. Samsung’s new S24 flagship phones are the tip of the spear here, but they could also be more than that. By necessity, these integrations will give Google access to all private content its AI services come into contact with. One has to wonder what the impact of such monitoring might be for private groups up to no good, such as the Telegram group responsible for this latest uproar.

To placate Chinese regulations, Samsung will be using Baidu AI for Chinese S24s. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) makes no secret of the fact that it watches citizens’ every move ‘for their own good.’ Baidu definitely won’t be saying no to any data requests, that much is certain. But what could realistically be considered as a ‘user’s own good’ when it comes to online abuse prevention? That’s a rather more complicated issue space.

Honestly, I’m kind of hopeful in this regard. Despite everything, we’re still seeing a gradual increase in open conversations about scope, accountability, and impact. A legal basis for shutting down hateful content does, of course, need to be safeguarded against those who would use it for repressive purposes, that’s always been the tension with intervention-based policies. But I believe we are collectively getting closer and closer to finding the right balance. We’ll definitely find it. LINK

Cyberbrain Burglary - Less Likely Than You’d Think:

Neuralink implanted its first Brain Machine Interface (BMI) into a human test subject this past week. At least safely enough for owner Elon Musk to boast about. Supposedly the first real product being worked on by Neuralink is called ‘Telepathy.’ This product is intended to let users control their devices purely via thought. The details differ, but I’m going to file this under spatial computing. ‘Indirect control via expressions of intent’ also underpins the VisionOS of Apple’s headset after all.

One longstanding fear with regard to BMIs is, of course, security. If the machine can read your mind, so too can a hacker or overbearing government, right? As to how they would do that, perhaps via similar principles as what I’m calling ‘notification leeching.’ This is my way of referring to a known loophole in smartphone privacy settings. The loophole relies on background processes needed to enable notifications. These are exploited by many different companies to extract excessive amounts of data from users. If you disable the ability for an app to send you notifications, you also close the door to this particular loophole.

If a similar loophole existed and were left open in a BMI, there would be another necessary ingredient for effective mental monitoring though, internet access. You and I might take that for granted, but it’s hardly a given. ‘Shitty internet’ and ‘off-buttons’ might ironically frustrate attempts by cyberweapon manufacturer NSO group to get back in the good graces of Western governments. This purveyor of cyberweapons fell hard and fast after the infamous 2021 ‘Pegasus Project’ revelations.

The irony I’m referring to is how surveillance technologies are most effective against the very societies that develop them. Furthermore, blind spots are most easily found and exploited by those existing at the fringes of surveillance states. Case in point, NSO group volunteering to help track down kidnapped Israelis by…infecting their phones with a sanctioned cyberweapon.

How this translates to hypothetical cyberbrain hacking is quite straightforward. Only those with access to BMIs and good internet connections would be vulnerable to such hacks. That’s what makes this less likely than popular culture would lead you to believe. Bias guides design. Things designers consider important are designed towards and iterated upon. Things they can’t think of, or don’t consider important, become blind spots. That’s very abstract, I know. So here’s a practical example of the limits of systems. AI can’t replace air traffic controllers because you cannot code a system to expect the unexpected if the system relies on you teaching it exactly what to expect. LINK

Rules of Engagement:

Ethics and legal matters regarding tech engagement.

Policy Provocations:

Apple’s Vision Pro will officially be launching this Friday, February 2nd in the US. Whilst reviews are obviously not out yet, I suspect many will share a particular idea in common with the ‘Framework Laptop 16.’ In his Ars Technica review, Andrew Cunningham’s main issue with this unique modular laptop was “how it's positioned, and the need it serves—things that are more fundamental and harder to fix.” That particular part of the Laptop 16 review also gets at the heart of why EU tech policy can feel so chaotic and directionless. All three focus on fulfilling a grand vision, but the devil in the details always gets his due.

The EU is fully capable of closing all regulation loopholes. But that’s both politically and economically undesirable. Much like how the iPhone has rebounded in China despite regulator crackdowns, consumers generally don’t care about abstract policy, they care about tangible impact on their creature comforts. If you as a politician cause them to miss out on products or services they want, you will be voted out of office. Or in China’s case, they’ll buy what they want even if you don’t want them to.

That kind of leverage is how large platforms can maintain leverage over policymakers around the world. “Don’t like how we’re behaving? Have fun explaining our absence to your voters!” Though the EU has called this bluff with increasing regularity, it has only ever been able to do so via a whack-a-mole style reactionary approach. It is extremely doubtful that policy will ever catch up to commerce. Usually, such policy lag would be in Apple’s favor. However, the history of ‘face computers’ has thus far been neither happy nor successful.

I doubt whether Apple properly understands how powerful motivator spite can be for developers, regulators, and rivals alike to collectively throw their weight behind a common goal, getting back at the company that keeps hurting them. Not only are major companies like Netflix and Spotify starving Vision OS of native support at launch, but browser companies like Mozilla, and bitter gaming rival Epic are also circling like vultures. Actively provoking the EU like this, given present circumstances is not a Pro move. Making face computers cool wasn’t easy, to begin with, just have a look at all the past contenders. LINK

Cloudy With A Chance Of Digital Divide:

Back when the successor to the Xbox 360, the Xbox One was launched back in 2013, Microsoft sowed the seeds for its ultimate loss of the console war. The infamously disastrous reveal-launch window of this of the most important was their heavily criticized attempt to force a transition to ‘digital only’ gaming. Coupled with heavy DRM measures meant to kill off the second-hand games market, there was so much instant enmity towards the Xbox brand, that Microsoft practically did the PlayStation 4’s marketing for free.

PlayStation doubled down on its compelling exclusives and superior hardware. Xbox continued to struggle with bad PR, inferior hardware, and a lack of compelling exclusives. Microsoft ultimately admitted defeat after the PlayStation 5 crushed the Xbox Series X during our current console cycle. At the time of writing, I have never even seen a physical Xbox Series X. This little history lesson is important background knowledge for why Microsoft might well want to kill off its physical consoles entirely in favor of a Game Pass-only future.

It makes all the sense in the world for Microsoft to go the Windows route with Xbox. A pervasive operating system that exists on every device is what Microsoft does...uh…well…at least it makes them a lot of money. Funnily enough, Game Pass is doing reasonably well for itself on mobile, so that’s actually more coverage than Windows if it fully succeeds.

The potential issue with coverage is twofold. First and foremost, all streaming services keep increasing their subscription costs. Aside from this feeling bad as a consumer, it also excludes those who simply can’t afford to pay anymore. Secondly, game streaming in particular requires a fast and stable internet connection. Incidentally, that’s also why gamers in developing countries such as those on the African continent tend to prefer free, offline mobile games.

A third, more general ‘crisis of luxury’ related issue relates to how when there is an extreme excess of potential choices every choice is robbed of its texture and impact. Look at the oversaturation of the open-world survival concept as an example. Subscriptions and live service games are projected to experience a slowdown over the course of 2024. This may weirdly enough, lead to a situation where Sony is actually on its own, whilst Microsoft, Nintendo, and Mobile Gaming don’t just fight each other over phone time in general, but over the highly lucrative position of gaming gateway drug to young audiences in particular. LINK

A Nice Cup of Serendipity:

Cool bits and bobs from around the web.

Einstein Rings LINK

Liquid Metal Printer LINK

Lumiere Premiere LINK

Cronus Ban LINK

Let’s Get Physical LINK

Synchronised Electrons LINK

All The Colours LINK

Where’s The Apps? LINK

Microsoft Edging Google LINK

The Deep End:

A weekly batch of long-form content recommendations.

Sand Maffia:

The fight over silicates can be every bit as fearsome as the fight over silicone. LINK

Data Despots:

A think piece on techno-authoritarianism. LINK

Beyond AI Exposure:

AI job replacement cost effectiveness. LINK

Genshin Greed:

Gambling in gaming makes people unhappy. Go figure. LINK

One More Thing…

It occurred to me after letting this issue of the newsletter rest for a bit that almost all our modern devices fulfill the key conditions for effective cyberweapon operation. If you pick up any device of yours at random, chances are it has no off button. It may well have an on button, but this will change its behavior as soon as the device is powered up. Some devices just automatically activate upon detecting biometrics (eyes, ears, fingers, etc). What’s the first thing any installation process asks you to do after choosing your language? Connecting to the internet! There’s something inherently sinister about always online devices that can only ‘sort of’ be powered down, and only after digging through several layers in the settings menu. The implication is that we must always be on, ready to go, and prepared for ‘just one more thing.’

Be it for work or play, ‘always online’ is the state of our society. So perhaps the real irony with stuff like Pegasus spyware is that we’ve taken such trivial solutions as disconnecting from the internet and powering off our devices nearly impossible to do. We’ve become so over-reliant on our phones, have our entire lives on there to an almost literal degree, and often can’t even conceive of leaving ‘the phone’ behind when going out. Never mind disconnecting from the internet, let alone disabling notifications. In reviews of the VP, each mentioned how its unevenly distributed weight leads to discomfort. Inevitably even the most stubborn reviewer was forced to take this device off periodically. Though spoken of as a ‘bug,’ perhaps it might actually be a feature? This thought amuses me.