zehnfischer
zehnfischer on Hacker News
These ideas becoming mainstream - that's what is just 300 years old. Before few people could read...
Posted by
zehnfischer on Saturday July 08, 2023 @01:43AM
from the ft.com dept.
I agree. But the word 'religion' doesn't fit anymore. It is believe system and the need to be part of a group that one can identify with. Compliance with the set of rules that this group subscribes to gives one an feeling of belonging and identity. The German author Juli Zeh talks about this. We are social animals and with the collapse of basically all societal institutions - not just religion, but also political organizations - we are desperately trying to figure out how we are and how we have to be.
Supporting African founders in Agriculture, it always strikes me how high the potential for improvement is. Demand is mostly higher than supply, harvest happens twice a year and yet when you start out as a founder you need to not just build one company, but solve a whole bunch of problems while you do it. You need to solve the logistics problem, create an agent network, find a dev agency that doesn't ripp you off - since it is very hard to build an in house tech team - and so on and on.
Yet from an innovation stand-point it is very interesting field. Since your customers - i.e. small hold farmers - face extreme economic pressure every day, you basically have to create value on day 1. No one got time for long term investments.
If only there would be more and somewhat orchestrated innovation happen, I think many issues could be fixed.
My project supports African founders to take their start-up to the next level. All the companies are in the agricultural and food sector, have a launched product and first revenue. By giving them customized support, we aim to make them invest them ready. The idea behind the whole project is that start-ups can solve real world issues. In our case, make small scale farming, value chains etc. more effective and thus increase the income of small hold farmers.
Since brain drain in Africa is a very real thing, our companies are always looking for experts who would could support them - could be just couple of hours per week or month.
Well, while it could be argued that sex is biological given, it is surely that our society overstates the difference between men and women - plus our current society still aims to standardises / normalizes all other sexes. The social meaning of being male, of being female etc. is still socially constructed and therefore which sex you are born into has measurable impact on your life, your chances in terms of career.
To quote Niklas Luhmann: "Everything we know about the world we live in we know from mass media" He wasn't thinking about Facebook, but what would you expect people to talk about? Most lifes are not exciting enough to fill a whole conversation.
The Oxford's fair work foundation(1) is aiming to create better conditions for gig workers.
1: https://fair.work
I would choose a job that changes overtime, either by my own motivation or because different times require different skill sets. I think most jobs, even complex ones like teaching, become repetitive after all. So I would look for the job that offers the greatest diversity in terms of tasks fitting to my skills & interest. Still looking what exactly that it.
Posted by
zehnfischer on Friday December 27, 2019 @01:51PM
from the ask-hn dept.
As the title says, what technological development do you expect in the next decade? What are you excited/afraid about?
This is something I have been thinking about for a while already. I am a sociologist, following Niklas Luhmann's sociological system theory and his description of modern society is very close to what you are describing. Basically he is a societies and organizations functioning with closed operations that can't be directly changed from the outside. This includes the people that for example are members of an organization. Once the system is closed it follows it's own agenda and if one person, even the CEO or the biggest shareholder or whatever, wants to change it, they are unable to determine the outcome of this change. Organization surely have their own social intelligence, which is distinctively different from individual intelligence in terms of morals, ethics etc. I have been thinking to write an essay about this, but I lack the AI knowledge, so in case you want to discuss this further, let me know
Posted by
zehnfischer on Monday October 08, 2018 @10:17AM
from the foreignpolicy.com dept.
I think it's real data about is actual life though. Kinda blurrs the line
Posted by
zehnfischer on Thursday December 07, 2017 @06:44AM
from the degruyter.com dept.
Posted by
zehnfischer on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @08:47AM
from the self-post dept.
There is so much criticism about Facebook and Google and the open web is clearly in danger. Instead of fighting a fight without hope, why don't we start to build an infrastructure and community that delivers the original promises of the internet?Let's assume we would start over today with all what we know, what would be the principles of a light net and how can be kickstart it?My first...
Thanks. How about 3D Printing or other means of automation?
Posted by
zehnfischer on Thursday May 05, 2016 @09:24AM
from the ask-hn dept.
I have been a supporter of basic income for some time now, but lately I started to have some doubts about its long term feasibility. Without getting into too much detail, it is mostly because even if you have an universal basic income, the individual and communities still depend on the good will of the political system. Let´s say we have a president Trump and he decides something stupid, it...
Posted by
zehnfischer on Monday July 21, 2014 @06:01PM
from the frugaling.org dept.
Posted by
zehnfischer on Tuesday January 28, 2014 @04:38AM
from the ask-hn dept.
I mean, in the sense of moving away from certain services (Google Analytics etc), metrical cues, like people are less willing to reveal their geolocation etc. What´s your experience? Can you see any change? How do you feel about it? etc.
Posted by
zehnfischer on Monday December 10, 2012 @07:03AM
from the ask-hn dept.
The pirate party is running for election 2013, chances are we gonna break the 5% barrier and get some seats in the national parliament of Germany. Whilst it is pretty easy to nominate yourself right now (login into a wiki, announce nomination), I haven´t seen much conceptwise. The pirates stand for a massive extension of political participation, exploiting the net to make decisions, develop...
Sure, the internet can be a cynical place, remote communication seems to wake the worth in a lot of people. At the same time it is full of wonders. Maybe I can invite you to join a discussion about how it could impact in political decision making?
Click along:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4891571
I think, you see it to theoretical. As a matter of fact, we don´t have valid data about a case just as this. Yes sure, there are examples for this, people being populistic, following the loudest speaker and so forth. But first of all, we are talking about one seat in the national parliament, one of 620, not about being the president of the US or the german chancellorship. The influencing towards the law making process will be pretty limited, if existent. At the same time, I see a chance to get some actual situations about how this works, and quite controlled conditions. I dunno, maybe I am underestimating the stress and such, but could be fun to play with thought around.
Yes, maybe. But first of all, personally I find, it is ok, to not be interested in all political questions. The chance here is to at least borden political influence, so maybe there are just some people, groups involved, why is that not ok?
At the same time I believe people will learn over time, that if they don´t take their chances, they will end up living under laws, they don´t agree with. And since the system I imagine allows constant iteration, there will be ways to change laws to the better, all the time.
Posted by
zehnfischer on Saturday December 08, 2012 @08:38AM
from the ask-hn dept.
The pirate party is running for election 2013, chances are we gonna break the 5% barrier and get some seats in the national parliament of Germany. Whilst it is pretty easy to nominate yourself right now (login into a wiki, announce nomination), I haven´t seen much conceptwise. The pirates stand for a massive extension of political participation, exploiting the net to make decisions, develop...