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Re: [nexa] Could new countries be founded – on the internet? | Sam Venis
by Giuseppe Attardi July 8, 2022

July 8, 2022

Curioso. Nel mio TedTalk a ottobre scorso su "Distopia o Utopia: l’Intelligenza Artificiale nel 2050”, introdussi il concetto di Utopia Virtuale, ossia di gruppi di persone che si costituiscono in comunità rette dalle proprie regole, ispirate a principi condivisi dalla comunità. Le Utopie Virtuali dovrebbero superare gli stati nazionali e costituire un contraltare alle grandi aziende private multinazionali, che ingabbiano le persone all’interno dei loro walled garden, obbligandole a seguire le loro regole, orientate a massimizzare loro interessi privati. Ho elaborato l'idea in questo articolo: https://personal.onlyoffice.com/products/files/doceditor?fileid=drive-63308… ho Stavo aspettando qualcuno che mi aiutasse ad articolare questa visione e a farla circolare, e mi auguro che sia Srinivasan a riuscirci. In realtà avrei preferito che la visione nascesse dal b asso, da una elaborazione condivisa, comunque un libro può essere un buon punto di partenza. — Beppe > On 5 Jul 2022, at 15:46, nexa-request(a)server-nexa.polito.it wrote: > > From: Alberto Cammozzo <ac+nexa(a)zeromx.net <mailto:ac+nexa@zeromx.net>> > To: Nexa <nexa(a)server-nexa.polito.it <mailto:nexa@server-nexa.polito.it>> > Subject: [nexa] Could new countries be founded – on the internet? | > Sam Venis > Message-ID: <CC0A1DBF-F2CC-4F21-BBE1-EAAC9CDCD571(a)zeromx.net <mailto:CC0A1DBF-F2CC-4F21-BBE1-EAAC9CDCD571@zeromx.net>> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > <https://es.sonicurlprotection-fra.com/click?PV=2&MSGID=20220705134620025998… <https://es.sonicurlprotection-fra.com/click?PV=2&MSGID=20220705134620025998…>> > > In The Network State, a buzzy new book by Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, poses a devious question: how do you Larp a country into existence? > > Released provocatively this 4 July, the book presents Srinivasan’s case for a new model of digital statehood run and managed in the cloud. A network state, as he describes it, is basically a group of people who get together on the internet and decide that they’re going to start a country. With a social network to connect them, a leader to unite them, and a cryptocurrency to protect their assets, Srinivasan says a country can be born with laws, social services and all. A network state is a country that “anyone can start from your computer, beginning by building a following” – not unlike companies, cryptocurrencies, or decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). In a world where billionaires can run companies larger than countries, Srinivasan asks, could such a state achieve recognition from the United Nations? > > Like all utopian visions, this one, too, is diagnostic – an answer to a growing list of “wicked” social problems like surveillance capitalism, economic stagnation, political polarization, and conflict among great powers. Just when we need leaders to solve our problems, Balaji argues, they are failing, and the reason isn’t just corruption or incompetence – the reason is technological. Central government is simply no longer capable of addressing our needs because the world for which it was designed has changed. > > The internet, for example, has made place less important, so national borders seem increasingly arbitrary. And cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have proven that if enough people believe in the value of an idea you can create something worth trillions of dollars. Software has made it so that a few engineers can outcompete nations (think hacker groups and startups). And, in the age of social networks, millions of anonymous people can fit into groups that act and coordinate together; just look at r/wallstreetbets and Gamestop. > > “Very few institutions that predated the internet will survive the internet,” Srinivasan said recently, in a lecture describing the book. So the solution, he argues, is to build an institution based on it. Here’s how it would work: a person on Twitter decides to start a country so they float the idea to their pals and begin to gather recruits. They put together a vision statement and a list of values, and soon enough people begin to join and tell their friends. It starts off like a social network. > > By pooling their money and lending their skills, the community begins to develop social services and spawn its own mini-culture, providing things like healthcare and insurance and passports and dope parties. With something like a hybrid of Twitter and Discord, they could connect, share ideas, and vote (think up- and down-voting on your favorite legislation). And with a currency like bitcoin, they could control their own money supply and protect their funds from encroaching governments. First they would buy small plots of land, like a national Soho house, and eventually, they would begin to migrate into chosen cities – probably to sympathetic jurisdictions like Miami, which, Srinivasan says, will compete to acquire these brave new digital citizens. > > To make it happen, no wars need to be fought and no laws need to be violated. With rockstar leaders to blaze their path and negotiate on the international stage, these new states would slowly but surely obtain rights and recognition, eventually breaking off from their home countries once and for all. When it works, Srinivasan writes, “it will eventually become a template … the modern version of Jefferson’s natural aristocracy.” First, there was Brexit; then other movements like Wexit; now, a few years later, there’s a new romantic vision of escape for techies – “Texit”? > > When The Network State drops this week it is likely to solicit a number of heated reactions. Some, grumbling about rightwing Silicon Valley figures like Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin, will call the ideas of The Network State fascist and tyrannical, and others, likely those on the libertarian right, will call it visionary and scholarly. Srinivasan, you might hear from them, is a soothsayer – a truth-teller. But beneath the posturing there will be a lingering question: is any of this actually possible? > > While the concept might bend our idea of nationality, the fact remains that a lot of precursors already exist. Consider Dudeism, a religion based on a character from the Coen Brothers’ 1998 film, with a reported population of 450,000 Dudeist priests. Or even, as Srinivasan points out, the state of Israel, which brought together a people scattered around the world and organized them around a common ideal. Many countries, Srinivasan says, that are recognized by the UN have populations around five to 10 million people with economies much smaller than what an equal size of tech workers might produce. That a bunch of crypto bros might test their fate on an eccentric leader doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Plus, the tech already exists. > > And with over 650,000 Twitter followers – an army of young, tech-savvy and politically credulous acolytes – Srinivasan might just be the man to do it. There’s an expression that circulates on Twitter about him every so often: that “Balaji was right” is the most terrifying phrase in the English language. Among the crypto-rich and the billionaire class this book will be positioned as a north star, levied to support the long-running claim that technologists can run society better than the bureaucrats. And now, with this book, Srinivasan has given them the framework to prove it. > > What doesn’t fit so neatly into Srinivasan’s vision are little things like death and ageing and sickness. How will poverty be dealt with in a network state? “The future,” he wrote in 2015, “is nationalists vs technologists. A full-throated, jealous defender of borders, language, and culture. Or a rootless cosmopolitan with a laptop, bent on callow disruption.” It’s romantic, sure, but one could ask: what about people that just want a stable job? > > Of course, Srinivasan isn’t the first technologist to offer a tarot reading of our tech-mediated future. In 2019, the theorist Aaron Bastani wrote another popular formulation, this one from the left, explaining how robots will make us all rich. His book Fully Automated Luxury Communism starts with the same general diagnoses: that we’re going into the third industrial revolution, that we’re at an epochal moment of human history, that technology has rendered our systems obsolete. But his conclusion, as the title suggests, is that we need more centralization, not less. Let the robots do our work, the book argues, and let us enjoy the spoils. Hunger, disease, energy crises, jobs – these will all be relics of a scarce and squalid past that came before the age of abundance. The future is the nanny state, Bastani suggests – only better. > > What these visions point to is a growing cleavage among the strange cohort of people who call themselves futurists. On the one hand, there are those who imagine a world of centralization, marked by super-blocs and mass redistribution of wealth. And on the other, there are those who claim that the world already mirrors the feudal systems of yore. In this sort of vision, like the one offered by Balaji Srinivasan, fragmentation is on the docket and rugged individualism is the outstanding moral code. And this book, or better yet, this playbook, is just the first attempt to make it official.

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Families sue TikTok after girls died while trying ‘blackout challenge’ | TikTok | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 6, 2022

July 6, 2022

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jul/05/tiktok-girls-dead-blacko…> Parents of two girls who died in a 2021 “blackout challenge” on TikTok, which encouraged users to choke themselves until they passed out, filed a suit on Tuesday in the Los Angeles county superior court. Represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), a legal resource for parents of children harmed by social media addiction and abuse, they allege the platform’s “dangerous algorithm intentionally and repeatedly” pushed videos of the challenge into the children’s feeds, incentivizing them to participate in the challenge that ultimately took their lives. “TikTok needs to be held accountable for pushing deadly content to these two young girls,” said Matthew P Bergman, founding attorney of SMVLC. “TikTok has invested billions of dollars to intentionally design products that push dangerous content that it knows is dangerous and can result in the deaths of its users.” One victim, eight-year-old Lalani Erika Renee Walton of Temple, Texas, is described as “an extremely sweet and outgoing young girl” who “loved dressing up as a princess and playing with makeup”. She died on 15 July 2021 in what police determined was “a direct result of attempting TikTok’s ‘Blackout Challenge’”, according to the complaint. Lalani had received a phone for her eighth birthday in April 2021 and “quickly became addicted to watching TikTok videos”, the complaint said. She often posted videos of herself singing and dancing, in hopes of becoming “TikTok famous”. In July 2021, her family began noticing bruising on Lalani’s neck, which she explained away as an accident. Unbeknown to them, she had begun participating in the blackout challenge, which had first showed up on her feed weeks before. On the day of her death, Lalani had spent hours on a family road trip watching videos, including posts of the challenge. “She was also under the belief that if she posted a video of herself doing the Blackout Challenge, then she would become famous and so she decided to give it a try,” the complaint said. “Lalani was eight years old at the time and did not appreciate or understand the dangerous nature of what TikTok was encouraging her to do.” The other victim named in the suit, nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received a phone when she was seven years old and used TikTok multiple times a day, according to the complaint. She “gradually became obsessive” about posting dance videos on TikTok and became “addicted” to the app. In January 2021, Arriani’s family discussed with her an incident of a young TikTok user dying as the result of a challenge, but the Arriani assured them she would never participate in dangerous videos. Close up of face of Arriani Jaileen Arroyo Arriani Jaileen Arroyo. Photograph: Courtesy of the family However, on 26 February 2021 she was found not breathing by her five-year-old brother. She was rushed to a local hospital but ultimately taken off life support. “TikTok unquestionably knew that the deadly Blackout Challenge was spreading through their app and that their algorithm was specifically feeding the Blackout Challenge to children, including those who have died,” the complaint reads. The lawsuit lists a number of complaints against TikTok, including that its algorithm promotes harmful content, allows underage users on the app, and it fails to warn users or their legal guardians of the app’s addictive nature. TikTok did not immediately respond to request for comment. The company has been criticized in the past for allowing dangerous challenges to spread. Doctors reported that the 2021 “milk crate challenge”, which encouraged users to stack and climb milk crates, led to dislocated shoulders, ACL tears and even spinal cord injuries. In 2020, a 15-year-old girl died after participating in the “Benadryl challenge”, in which users took a large amount of anti-histamines in an attempt to produce hallucinogenic effects. In 2020, two minors were charged with assault after participating in the “skull breaker” challenge, which caused one victim to have a seizure. Attorneys for the SMVLC claimed the company knowingly allowed such content to proliferate on the platform because it increased engagement, user numbers and ultimately profit. “TikTok prioritized greater corporate profits over the health and safety of its users and, specifically, over the health and safety of vulnerable children TikTok knew or should have known were actively using its social media product,” they said. The Walton and Arroyo families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages and have requested a jury trial to take place in California.

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Could new countries be founded – on the internet? | Sam Venis
by Alberto Cammozzo July 5, 2022

July 5, 2022

<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/05/could-new-countries-b…> In The Network State, a buzzy new book by Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, poses a devious question: how do you Larp a country into existence? Released provocatively this 4 July, the book presents Srinivasan’s case for a new model of digital statehood run and managed in the cloud. A network state, as he describes it, is basically a group of people who get together on the internet and decide that they’re going to start a country. With a social network to connect them, a leader to unite them, and a cryptocurrency to protect their assets, Srinivasan says a country can be born with laws, social services and all. A network state is a country that “anyone can start from your computer, beginning by building a following” – not unlike companies, cryptocurrencies, or decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). In a world where billionaires can run companies larger than countries, Srinivasan asks, could such a state achieve recognition from the United Nations? Like all utopian visions, this one, too, is diagnostic – an answer to a growing list of “wicked” social problems like surveillance capitalism, economic stagnation, political polarization, and conflict among great powers. Just when we need leaders to solve our problems, Balaji argues, they are failing, and the reason isn’t just corruption or incompetence – the reason is technological. Central government is simply no longer capable of addressing our needs because the world for which it was designed has changed. The internet, for example, has made place less important, so national borders seem increasingly arbitrary. And cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have proven that if enough people believe in the value of an idea you can create something worth trillions of dollars. Software has made it so that a few engineers can outcompete nations (think hacker groups and startups). And, in the age of social networks, millions of anonymous people can fit into groups that act and coordinate together; just look at r/wallstreetbets and Gamestop. “Very few institutions that predated the internet will survive the internet,” Srinivasan said recently, in a lecture describing the book. So the solution, he argues, is to build an institution based on it. Here’s how it would work: a person on Twitter decides to start a country so they float the idea to their pals and begin to gather recruits. They put together a vision statement and a list of values, and soon enough people begin to join and tell their friends. It starts off like a social network. By pooling their money and lending their skills, the community begins to develop social services and spawn its own mini-culture, providing things like healthcare and insurance and passports and dope parties. With something like a hybrid of Twitter and Discord, they could connect, share ideas, and vote (think up- and down-voting on your favorite legislation). And with a currency like bitcoin, they could control their own money supply and protect their funds from encroaching governments. First they would buy small plots of land, like a national Soho house, and eventually, they would begin to migrate into chosen cities – probably to sympathetic jurisdictions like Miami, which, Srinivasan says, will compete to acquire these brave new digital citizens. To make it happen, no wars need to be fought and no laws need to be violated. With rockstar leaders to blaze their path and negotiate on the international stage, these new states would slowly but surely obtain rights and recognition, eventually breaking off from their home countries once and for all. When it works, Srinivasan writes, “it will eventually become a template … the modern version of Jefferson’s natural aristocracy.” First, there was Brexit; then other movements like Wexit; now, a few years later, there’s a new romantic vision of escape for techies – “Texit”? When The Network State drops this week it is likely to solicit a number of heated reactions. Some, grumbling about rightwing Silicon Valley figures like Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin, will call the ideas of The Network State fascist and tyrannical, and others, likely those on the libertarian right, will call it visionary and scholarly. Srinivasan, you might hear from them, is a soothsayer – a truth-teller. But beneath the posturing there will be a lingering question: is any of this actually possible? While the concept might bend our idea of nationality, the fact remains that a lot of precursors already exist. Consider Dudeism, a religion based on a character from the Coen Brothers’ 1998 film, with a reported population of 450,000 Dudeist priests. Or even, as Srinivasan points out, the state of Israel, which brought together a people scattered around the world and organized them around a common ideal. Many countries, Srinivasan says, that are recognized by the UN have populations around five to 10 million people with economies much smaller than what an equal size of tech workers might produce. That a bunch of crypto bros might test their fate on an eccentric leader doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Plus, the tech already exists. And with over 650,000 Twitter followers – an army of young, tech-savvy and politically credulous acolytes – Srinivasan might just be the man to do it. There’s an expression that circulates on Twitter about him every so often: that “Balaji was right” is the most terrifying phrase in the English language. Among the crypto-rich and the billionaire class this book will be positioned as a north star, levied to support the long-running claim that technologists can run society better than the bureaucrats. And now, with this book, Srinivasan has given them the framework to prove it. What doesn’t fit so neatly into Srinivasan’s vision are little things like death and ageing and sickness. How will poverty be dealt with in a network state? “The future,” he wrote in 2015, “is nationalists vs technologists. A full-throated, jealous defender of borders, language, and culture. Or a rootless cosmopolitan with a laptop, bent on callow disruption.” It’s romantic, sure, but one could ask: what about people that just want a stable job? Of course, Srinivasan isn’t the first technologist to offer a tarot reading of our tech-mediated future. In 2019, the theorist Aaron Bastani wrote another popular formulation, this one from the left, explaining how robots will make us all rich. His book Fully Automated Luxury Communism starts with the same general diagnoses: that we’re going into the third industrial revolution, that we’re at an epochal moment of human history, that technology has rendered our systems obsolete. But his conclusion, as the title suggests, is that we need more centralization, not less. Let the robots do our work, the book argues, and let us enjoy the spoils. Hunger, disease, energy crises, jobs – these will all be relics of a scarce and squalid past that came before the age of abundance. The future is the nanny state, Bastani suggests – only better. What these visions point to is a growing cleavage among the strange cohort of people who call themselves futurists. On the one hand, there are those who imagine a world of centralization, marked by super-blocs and mass redistribution of wealth. And on the other, there are those who claim that the world already mirrors the feudal systems of yore. In this sort of vision, like the one offered by Balaji Srinivasan, fragmentation is on the docket and rugged individualism is the outstanding moral code. And this book, or better yet, this playbook, is just the first attempt to make it official.

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153° Mercoledì di Nexa | 13 Luglio 2022 | Modalità Telematica
by Nexa Media July 5, 2022

July 5, 2022

Gentilissimi, vi segnaliamo che il 153° Mercoledì di Nexa, /*"I meccanismi di cooperazione e coerenza per la definizione di casi relativi a trattamenti transfrontalieri a quattro anni dall'applicazione del GDPR"*/, con ospite *Monica A. Senor* (Funzionario presso l'Autorità garante per la protezione dei dati personali e Fellow Centro Nexa), si svolgerà *mercoledì 13 luglio*, dalle ore 18.00 alle ore 20.00, in modalità telematica, utilizzando la piattaforma di videoconferenza BigBlueButton. L'Avv. Senor, partendo da un'analisi sul concreto funzionamento dei meccanismi di cooperazione e coerenza e di alcune importanti decisioni su casi transfrontalieri adottate nell'ultimo anno, svilupperà nel corso dell'incontro alcune considerazioni sul tema dell'enforcement del GDPR e sulle sue prospettive future, anche alla luce del pacchetto digitale e sulla strategia dei dati della Commissione europea. Sarà possibile partecipare al seminario connettendosi al seguente indirizzo: https://didattica.polito.it/VClass/NexaEvent Di seguito maggiori dettagli sull'incontro: Nexa Center for Internet and Society Newsletter Se non visualizzi correttamente questo messaggio clicca qui <https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-153> NEXA 153° Mercoledì di Nexa Mercoledì 13 luglio 2022, ore 18.00 - 20.00 Politecnico di Torino https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-153 I meccanismi di cooperazione e coerenza per la definizione di casi relativi a trattamenti transfrontalieri di dati personali a quattro anni dall'applicazione del GDPR Speaker Avv. Monica A. Senor (Funzionario presso l’Autorità garante per la protezione dei dati personali e Fellow Centro Nexa) This event will be webcast live: https://nexa.polito.it/nexa-hangout-on-air L'INCONTRO SI SVOLGERÀ IN MODALITÀ TELEMATICA UTILIZZANDO IL SOFTWARE DI CONFERENCE CALL *BIGBLUEBUTTON*. Per partecipare all'incontro: https://didattica.polito.it/VClass/NexaEvent Il *Regolamento UE 2016/679 (GDPR)* ha introdotto nell’ordinamento unionale un innovativo sistema di ripartizione delle competenze tra autorità di controllo per la definizione di *casi relativi a trattamenti transfontalieri di dati personali* basato sul principio del one-stop-shop. Il sistema è regolato da due procedure amministrative (cd. meccanismi) che disciplinano la cooperazione tra autorità di controllo e tra autorità e il Comitato europeo per la protezione dei dati personali (EDPB). Il quadro normativo così strutturato, unico nel suo genere in quanto comporta l’abdicazione di una porzione di sovranità nazionale da parte dei singoli Stati membri, periodicamente crea momenti di tensione a livello politico e solleva dubbi sulla reale efficacia del sistema a garantire la tutela effettiva del diritto fondamentale (art. 8 della Carta dei diritti fondamentali UE) alla protezione dei dati personali. Partendo da un’analisi sul concreto funzionamento dei due meccanismi e di alcune importanti decisioni su casi transfrontalieri adottate nell’ultimo anno, nel corso dell’incontro verranno sviluppate alcune considerazioni sul tema dell’*enforcement del GDPR* e sulle sue prospettive future, anche alla luce del pacchetto digitale e sulla strategia dei dati della Commissione europea. BIOGRAFIA - e informazioni supplementari [mercoledì153] *Monica A. SENOR.* Former criminal lawyer specializing in privacy, data protection, ICT law and digital forensics, Monica A. Senor has been a member of the staff of the Italian Supervisory Authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) since December 2018. She is fellow of the Nexa Center for Internet & Society at the Politecnico di Torino (DAUIN), an indipendent research center focusing on interdisciplinary analysis of the force of the Internet and of its impact on society. She is the author or co-author of many publications, including online reviews (Medialaws.eu, ictsecuritymagazine.com, AgendaDigitale.eu), scientific journals and law textbooks (edited by Egea, Giappichelli, Springer, UTET Giuridica and Aracne publishing houses). *Letture consigliate e link utili:* * EDPB /Statement on enforcement cooperation/, Link <https://edpb.europa.eu/system/files/2022-04/edpb_statement_20220428_on_enfo…> * EDPB /Binding decision 1/2021 on the dispute arisen on the draft decision of the Irish Supervisory Authority regarding WhatsApp Ireland under Article 65(1)(a) GDPR/, Link <https://edpb.europa.eu/system/files/2021-09/edpb_bindingdecision_202101_ie_…> * /Décision sur le fond 21/2022 du 2 février 2022 (IAB Europe)/, Link <https://www.autoriteprotectiondonnees.be/publications/decision-quant-au-fon…> * EDPS /speech at the “Future of Data Protection: Effective Enforcement in the Digital World/, Link <https://edps.europa.eu/system/files/2022-06/2022-06-17-edps-conference-spee…> * EDPB /Statement on the Digital Services Package and Data Strategy/, Link <https://edpb.europa.eu/system/files/2021-11/edpb_statement_on_the_digital_s…> Che cosa sono il Centro Nexa e i cicli di incontri “Mercoledì di Nexa” e “Nexa Lunch Seminar” <https://www.facebook.com/nexa.center/> <https://twitter.com/nexacenter> <https://www.youtube.com/user/NexaCenter> <https://www.instagram.com/nexa_center/> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/3054864/admin/> #nexawednesday <https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nexawednesday&src=typd> #MonicaASenor <https://twitter.com/MASenor> #EDPB <https://twitter.com/EU_EDPB> #EDPS <https://twitter.com/EU_EDPS> Il Centro Nexa su Internet & Società del Politecnico di Torino (Dipartimento di Automatica e Informatica) dal 2006 è un centro di ricerca indipendente e interdisciplinare che, in collaborazione con l'Università di Torino, studia Internet (e più in generale le Tecnologie digitali) e i suoi rapporti con la società. Maggiori informazioni all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/about. Durante i “*Mercoledì di Nexa*”, che si tengono *ogni 2° mercoledì del mese* alle *ore 18 in punto*, il Centro Nexa su Internet e Società apre le sue porte non solo agli esperti e a tutti coloro i quali lavorano con Internet, ma anche a semplici appassionati e cittadini. Il ciclo di incontri intende approfondire, con un linguaggio preciso ma accessibile, i temi legati alla Rete: motori di ricerca, Creative Commons, social networks, open source/software libero, neutralità della rete, libertà di espressione, privacy, file sharing, big e open data, smart cities e molto altro. Al centro di quasi tutti gli incontri un ospite pronto a dialogare con i direttori del Centro Nexa, il Prof. Juan Carlos De Martin del Politecnico di Torino e il Prof. Marco Ricolfi dell'Università di Torino, nonché lo staff e i Fellows del Centro Nexa. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa, incluso un elenco di tutti i “Mercoledì” passati, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi. Si segnala inoltre che dal maggio 2012 *ogni 4° mercoledì* del mese *dalle ore 13 alle ore 14* il Centro Nexa organizza anche i "*Nexa Lunch Seminar*". Una lista di tutti i “Lunch Seminar” passati è disponibile all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-seminars. See our events calendar <http://nexa.polito.it/events> if you're curious about future luncheons, discussions, lectures, and conferences not listed in this email. Our events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Responsabile Comunicazione Centro Nexa su Internet & Società: *Anita Botta*, tel: +39 011 090 7219, Mob: +39 347 131 3903, anita.botta(a)polito.it. Maggiori informazioni sui Mercoledì di Nexa e i Nexa Lunch Seminar, sono disponibili all'indirizzo: http://nexa.polito.it/events. Weekly Events Newsletter. Sign up <http://nexa.polito.it/mailing-lists> to receive this newsletter if this email was forwarded to you. To manage your subscription preferences, please click here <https://server-nexa.polito.it/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nexa>. Connect & get involved: Jobs, internships, and more <http://nexa.polito.it/get-involved>. Cordiali saluti, -- Anita Botta Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino – DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino web: https://nexa.polito.it/ mail: anita.botta(a)polito.it tel: 011 090 7219

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Engineer writes biometric code to ID anonymous faces in Holocaust photos
by Alberto Cammozzo July 4, 2022

July 4, 2022

<https://www.biometricupdate.com/202207/engineer-writes-biometric-code-to-id…> Google engineer Daniel Patt claims to have created facial recognition software that can identify unidentified faces in photos from prewar Europe and the Holocaust by linking them to people living today. Dubbed From Numbers to Names (N2N) <https://numberstonames.org/>, Patt says the project came together as he tried to help his grandmother find photos of family members killed by Nazis. “I started this project after visiting the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland, in 2016,” Patt told The Times of Israel <https://www.timesofisrael.com/google-engineer-identifies-anonymous-faces-in…> earlier this month. “I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had potentially walked past a photo of a family member without even knowing it. I’m the grandson of Holocaust survivors, all from Poland,” he says. The N2N software is free at the time of this writing. It works by returning the 10 best potential matches from within the 34,000-photo database in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s photographs collection. “We make no software-based assertions about identifications and leave this judgment to individuals using the site,” Patt explained. “We simply show results with similarity scores, and let individuals decide whether the results contain a positive identification.” The engineer also said there are nearly 1 million additional photos that can be used to improve the scope and quality of the tool. N2N started as Patt’s solo project, but it attracted engineers, data scientists and researchers, now a small technical team expanding the project’s scope. “From Numbers to Names provides a new way to explore Holocaust photo and video archives through AI,” reads the N2N site. N2N team members have said they would like the project to become a vehicle for Holocaust education and a way to give students an opportunity to directly contribute to the historical record. “Students can use the software to help identify faces and artifacts in photo and video archives and potentially discover new connections between living Holocaust descendants and their ancestors,” said Patt. The software has already been used to identify a few individuals including the mother of Canadian prog rocker Geddy Lee. <https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-71…> Effective face biometric databases can take on a number of humanitarian and historical roles. The Holocaust Memorial Museum holds photos <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/newly-released-photos-may-place-d…> alleged to show a German extermination camp guard, who, through biometric sleuthing, appeared to be a German post-war immigrant to the United States. In another example, the Australian Federal Police and Monash University recently entered a new collaboration aimed at creating an ethically-sourced face biometrics database <https://www.biometricupdate.com/202206/ailecs-lab-to-create-ethically-sourc…> to combat child exploitation.

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‘Eventually it will just be a barcode, won’t it?’ Why Britain’s new stamps are causing outrage and upset | Society | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo July 4, 2022

July 4, 2022

<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jul/04/eventually-it-will-just-be-…> [...] In February, Royal Mail introduced a new design for its standard stamps, which have changed so little since the launch of the Penny Black in 1840 that they are officially known as “definitives”. The new stamps – “plum purple” for first class, “holly green” for second – still feature the same regal profile introduced more than 50 years ago. But what is most bothering purists – and leading Johnson to the brink of direct action – is the addition next to the Queen of a digital barcode. The rectangular codes – which look like QR codes but are apparently not QR codes, which are a particular, and trademarked, kind of code – are designed are designed to stop counterfeiting and to enable the tracking of all letters to improve efficiency. Correspondents will soon be able to share photo or video messages by linking digital content to their coded stamps. Recipients will view it via the Royal Mail app [...] From 1 February 2023, only the new stamps will be accepted. Any old stamps must be used before then or traded in. Christmas and other themed special stamps will remain valid indefinitely. Swapping definitives, which can still be done after the deadline, is free but will involve downloading and printing a form, or requesting one by phone or letter, and posting it to Royal Mail along with the old stamps. Royal Mail describes the change as a postal “reinvention” that connects stamps to the digital world for a new generation. “But the whole point of my society was to give us a break from having to be engaged with digital content,” says Johnson, 49, from her home in Swanage in Dorset. [...]

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Worker-Owned Apps Are Redefining the Sharing Economy | WIRED
by J.C. DE MARTIN July 2, 2022

July 2, 2022

Worker-Owned Apps Are Redefining the Sharing Economy As Uber and its ilk face high prices, increased regulation, and labor shortages, a new cooperative model is thriving. https://www.wired.com/story/gig-economy-worker-owned-apps/ (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Crypto: 'Blockchain is hype' – MPs warned
by Enrico Nardelli July 2, 2022

July 2, 2022

Blockchain technology has been damned as nothing but hype and devoid of any meaningful use case at a select committee meeting in Westminster. On Wednesday UK MPs met in Portcullis House near the Houses of Parliament and questioned various experts on the utility of blockchain technology. The policymakers demanded examples of blockchain's effectiveness in solving problems in different parts of the world and sought to know what the UK could learn from this innovation. he House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on Blockchain was told that the technology is "rather simple" and provides a solution to things that were never a problem in the first place. Technology journalist and author David Gerard outlined the actual potential of the technology that has been hailed as the foundation of web3. "Blockchain technology provides security for things that don't need securing and are not a problem and a lot of the innovation started from the technology and then they sought to find problems they could solve with it," Gerard said. CONTINUA QUA https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-blockchain-is-hype-mps-warned-1210… -- EN ===================================================================== Prof. Enrico Nardelli Presidente di "Informatics Europe" Direttore del Laboratorio Nazionale "Informatica e Scuola" del CINI Dipartimento di Matematica - Università di Roma "Tor Vergata" Via della Ricerca Scientifica snc - 00133 Roma home page: http://www.mat.uniroma2.it/~nardelli blog: http://link-and-think.blogspot.it/ tel: +39 06 7259.4204 fax: +39 06 7259.4699 mobile: +39 335 590.2331 e-mail: nardelli(a)mat.uniroma2.it online meeting: https://blue.meet.garr.it/b/enr-y7f-t0q-ont ===================================================================== --

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artificial sentience
by maurizio lana June 29, 2022

June 29, 2022

trovo molto interessante* il "thread diffuso" se così si può chiamarlo, che c'è qui in Nexa sull'Intelligenza Artificiale, per la varietà dei contributi che vengono portati. segnalo quindi il thread in corso "artificial sentience" nella mailing list Humanist, attiva dal 1987 su temi di digital humanities in senso molto ampio. i messaggi sono liberamente accessibili in lettura all'URL https://dhhumanist.org/volume/36/ la discussione è nata dall'articolo del Washington Post su Lemoine e LaMDA (Tiku, Nitasha. 2022. «The Google Engineer Who Thinks the Company’s AI Has Come to Life». /Washington Post/, giugno 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-…) e si sviluppa principalmente intorno al linguaggio e alla sua relazione con le relazioni umane e dunque al modo, misura, forma in cui esso può fingere cose che non esistono. e dunque se e come si possa avere una artificial sentience, che è il titolo del tread. Maurizio *"interessante? definisci interessante" dice Captain Fantastic ad uno dei suoi figli che riferisce su una lettura fatta. da allora sono sempre imbarazzato ad utilizzare questo aggettivo ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |mural of Giulio Regeni in Mohammed Mahmoud Street, Cairo the source is https://alwafd.news/images/thumbs/752/new/027f918bb62bf148193d5920ca67ded7.… the meaning of the place https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-20395260| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maurizio Lana Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Università del Piemonte Orientale piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli tel. +39 347 7370925

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Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union priorities
by Alessandro Brolpito June 29, 2022

June 29, 2022

Buongiorno Ecco le priorità del semestre di presidenza CZ, Priorities (europa.eu) <https://czech-presidency.consilium.europa.eu/en/programme/priorities/> Una di queste è la cybersicurezza; tutto ruota attorno all'aggressione militare russa all'Ucraina, tutto si è rattrappito, focalizzato sulla "resilienza" ed "emergenza"... un cambio di prospettiva significativo. Gli effetti devastanti sull'istruzione e formazione in UA: ETF’s weekly analysis of the invasion of Ukraine: the impact on human capital and education | ETF (europa.eu) <https://www.etf.europa.eu/en/news-and-events/news/etfs-weekly-analysis-inva…> Alessandro

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