Quotes of the week

The act of writing is for many intrinsically tied to reading, mirroring the internet itself, with its ingrained expectations of interactivity.

-James Bridle

Tech is not the answer to the problems of modern politics.

-Alexis Madrigal

Articles of the week

• Douglas Rushkoff: Are Apple’s innovations inside us now?
  Rushkoff, writing for CNN, puts in his two cents on the Apple-Samsung suit. He wonders whether some of the patented gestures and features on Apple products have simply become our natural language for interacting with technology, citing his daughter’s attempts at swiping and zooming on flatscreen TVs. As he puts it, “there’s a limit to how far into our learned behaviors the company should be awarded protection from competitors.”
• Slate: The Uncanny Valley of Internet Advertising
  Farhad Manjoo outlines just what makes super-targeted and repetitive online advertising so creepy and annoying. In explaining the motivations and methods behind these ads, he makes it clear that these companies have enough information on us to know better.
• The Atlantic: The Cheapest Generation
  An interesting article on why young people aren’t buying cars or houses like their parents did, and what effects this may have economically and culturally.
• GigaOM: Multi-screen mania: how our devices work together
  Some numbers on how we use each of our many screens, when we shift from one format to another, and what this information means for digital markets.
• Slate: Sci-Fi Writer Bruce Sterling Explains the Intriguing New Concept of Design Fiction
  Bruce Sterling explains design fiction, an approach to design that “tells worlds rather than stories.”