New Week Same Humans #19
Free speech social network Parler raises itself from the dead. The Humans of Earth are worried about robots. Plus more news and analysis from this week.
Welcome to the Wednesday update from New World Same Humans, a newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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💡 This week’s Sunday instalment asked what 2020 taught us about the future of capitalism. Go here to read Welcome to Post-Capitalism; Enjoy Your Stay!💡
Inauguration Day! It’s hard for any other news to compete. But that’s not going to stop me trying.
In this week’s instalment:
Free speech social network Parler raises itself from the dead, with a little help from a Russian server. Just how do we defeat toxic social platforms?
The Jack Ma mystery deepens. And Unilever hatch an intriguing plan to get their staff – and developing nations – vaccinated faster.
Let’s go!
💪 How we beat toxic social media
‘Free speech’ social network Parler is back.
The platform was Deleted from the Internet by its host, Amazon Web Services, two weeks ago. AWS took the action after Parler users called for violence, and flooded the platform with hate speech, during the 6 January riot at the US Capitol.
Now, a resurrected homepage – hosted by a Russian server – displays a defiant message from CEO John Matze. He says Parler will be back soon.
Meanwhile a range of alternative, or so-called alt-tech, social platforms are having a moment. That comes in the wake of the sweeping Trump bans enacted by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Little-known Facebook alternative MeWe gained 2.5 million users this week; it was the second most downloaded app in the Google Play Store, nestling underneath TikTok. The platform bills itself as ‘the anti-Facebook’, and promises, ‘no censorship for good people’.
⚡ NWSH Take: How do we solve hate speech and disinformation on social media? This week I interviewed superstar VC Albert Wenger; his firm, Union Square Ventures, was an early investor in Twitter. Wenger’s take? The problem is networks – like FB and Twitter – with centralised control. Instead, we need decentralised networks controlled by their users, who are empowered to tackle bad actors. // So the best way to regulate the social media giants? Force them to open their APIs, and become programmable. // Okay, but how do we stop some users flocking to networks that do allow bad actors? Probably we can’t. At least in a world in which the mainstream networks are decentralised, hate speech and other toxins will be pushed to the fringes.
🤖 Automation anxiety is rising
This year’s Edelman Trust Barometer is live. The communications firm spoke to 33,000 people across the globe to gauge changing attitudes in the wake of 2020.
Turns out, a lot of people are worried that the pandemic has accelerated the March of the Robots.
Recent news won’t provide much comfort.
One glimpse of the automation ahead? In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration has just issued its first approval for a company to run fully-automated commercial drones. Meanwhile, UPS is partnering with telecoms firm Verizon to launch a new drone delivery service in Florida.
🙌 Return of the Ma
Last week I wrote about the strange disappearance of Jack Ma. A quick update: Ma is back!
The Alibaba founder made a brief and intriguing video appearance at an education conference. Alibaba shares jumped 8% on the news that he is alive and, apparently, well.
Still, the 50 second video clip – in which Ma addresses teachers working in rural China – raises more questions than it answers. Where has the tech titan been for the last six weeks? Taking some downtime? Locked in an interrogation room with Xi Jinping? And what of the future of Alibaba and Ant Financial?
💉 Unilever’s ‘buy two, keep one’ vaccine model
Unilever CEO Alan Jope floated an intriguing idea last week.
He said the corporate giant is keen to get its staff vaccinated quickly. One plan under consideration would see Unilever allowed to buy vaccine for staff on a ‘buy two, keep one’ model. The business would agree to give half of the doses purchased to developing nations struggling to afford a comprehensive vaccination programme.
⚡ NWSH Take: In this week’s Sunday instalment I wrote about the need to reinvent the corporation. This, arguably, is a great example of how that can look in practice: a huge corporation leveraging its resources and global reach to deliver vaccine to those in need. // Some, though, will feel deep unease at the idea that we outsource vaccine distribution to corporations. Intuitively, I feel that way too. But if we want to reinvent the corporation as a force for social good – and not just shareholder value – then we’ll need to move past those feelings and build paths forward. // The real answer here? Reform the governance and legal responsibilities of corporations, too, so we can all have more faith in their ability, and intention, to do good in the world.
🗓️ Also this week
🤔 QAnon believers are giving up on their conspiracy theory. The inauguration of President Biden – which was to be prevented in heroic style by Trump according to QAnon lore – caused many in the movement to go online and ask: was Q just one big lie?
🧫 Scientists have found a way to turn bacteria into living data storage devices. Researchers at Columbia University imprinted the message ‘hello world!’ as digital data inside the genome of an E.coli bacterium.
👨💻 The English-language Wikipedia saw its 1 billionth edit. The change – a new link – was made on the page about the 1996 album Death Breathing, by Alec Empire.
👁️ A 78-year-old blind man has regained his sight after being fitted with a synthetic cornea. Developed by Israeli startup CorNeat, the KPro is the first such implant that can be integrated directly into the eye with no donor tissue needed.
⌚ Your Apple Watch knows when you get the coronavirus. Researchers at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in NYC found that the Apple Watch can detect small heartbeat changes in infected users up to seven days before they develop visible symptoms.
🚀 Elon Musk’s SpaceX will turn former oil rigs into floating spaceports. Work on the offshore launch platforms has begun in Texas, near existing SpaceX launch facilities in Boca Chica.
💸 China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, has launched a new e-wallet. The move will see Douyin’s parent company, ByteDance, challenge Alipay and WeChat for payment supremacy in China.
🕹️ This retro computing YouTuber used a 1982 Commodore 64 to contact the International Space Station. Essential viewing if, like me, you harbour a special and nostalgic obsession with all things 8-bit.
🌍 Humans of Earth
Key metrics to help you keep track of Project Human.
🙋♀️ Global population: 7,840,386,421
🌊 Earths currently needed: 1.7763849411
💉 Global population vaccinated: 0.54%
🗓️ 2021 progress bar: 5.5% complete
📖 On this day: On 20th January 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in for his second term as US President, marking the first time a Presidential Inauguration took place on this date.
The world is watching
A new president in the White House. The first ever female Vice President of the United States. Meanwhile, the vaccine is being rolled out worldwide.
Here’s one certainty: none of us will forget these days, or the year we’ve just made it through.
We’re all set for a revelatory 2021. Which changes will stick, and which will prove only transitory? New World Same Humans will be watching, and working to make sense of it all.
I’m so excited about where we can take our community in 2021. If you are too, there’s one thing you can do to help.
To help us grow, why not take a second to forward this email to one person – a friend, relative, or colleague – who’d also enjoy it? Or share New World Same Humans across one of your social networks, and let others know why you think it’s worth their time. The bigger and more diverse our community becomes, the more powerful it will be for all of us. Just hit the share button!
I’ll be back on Sunday. Until then, be well,
David.
P.S Thanks to Monique van Dusseldorp for additional research and analysis. Go here to check out Monique’s brilliant newsletter on the future of events.