New Week Same Humans #36
China sends bitcoin into a tailspin. Google debut three-dimensional video calls. Plus more news and analysis from this week.
Welcome to the mid-week update from New World Same Humans, a newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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💡 On Sunday I wrote about virtual humans and the coming rise of the pseudonymous economy. Go here to read Avatars Are Go.💡
This week, the latest crypto turbulence raises a troubling question: what if decentralisation isn’t such a strength, after all?
Also, Google debut an entirely new kind of video call. And an AI startup wants to help celebrities clone their voice.
Let’s go!
💸 What goes up
This week, a crypto bloodbath.
The price of bitcoin fell below $34,000 for the first time in three months. Meanwhile, Ether lost 25%, and the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin was down 29%. The drop in market capitalisation across the entire crypto sector approached $1 trillion.
Two big drivers were at work.
In China, the CCP signalled a crackdown by banning financial houses and payment companies from involving themselves in crypto transactions. Meanwhile, Elon Musk said Tesla would stop accepting payment in bitcoin due to concerns over its energy sustainability.
It was only two months ago that Musk helped drive up the price of bitcoin by announcing that Tesla would accept it. And Dogecoin’s recent journey into the stratosphere was propelled by his relentless, meme-fuelled advocacy. Investors had come to see him as something close to a crypto messiah.
Now what Musk hath given, he doth suddenly taketh away. The crypto community were furious, accusing him of intentionally sending bitcoin and Doge on a rollercoaster for the LOLZ. Thousands took to Twitter to denounce Musk; a few got busy launching a new currency ‘dedicated to destroying the biggest market manipulator of them all’: $STOPELON.
⚡ NWSH Take: Good banter. But there’s more going on here. // We all know crypto currencies are volatile. And a fuss when bitcoin falls below $34,000 is a sign of just how far the currency has come. But look at what’s driving the volatility, and some deep implications start to emerge. // The early internet pioneers dreamed of a radically democratic informational space, outside the control of the powers that be. It didn’t turn out that way. Are we about to see the same journey when it comes to crypto? Sure, blockchains are decentralised; there is no single guiding authority. But does that very lack of centralised control leave cryptos open to a form of spiritual takeover by those with vast economic and cultural might? Bitcoin is supposed to be a subversive internet money that hands power back to the people. But it's being yanked around on a chain by the world’s second richest person, who also happens to be the culture’s emblematic techno-overlord. // How do we stop cryptocurrencies becoming just another toy in the hands of those who hold the cash and make the memes? If we can’t find an answer, then the blockchain revolution won’t be so decentralising after all.
🧑🤝🧑 I’ll be there
Google held their annual I/O developer conference this week.
The most eye-catching amid a welter of new announcements was their work on Project Starline: a next-generation 3D video chat booth. The platform leverages multiple cameras and sensors to create a three-dimensional model of the user in real-time; a light field display broadcasts that image to the person on the other end of the line.
Yes, this is a promotional video, but there’s no denying Starline looks a compelling experience:
⚡ NWSH Take: Regular readers will be familiar with the injunction to view new technologies through the lens of fundamental human needs. In other words, if you want to glimpse the lasting impact of an emerging technology then ask yourself: how will this unlock new ways to serve age-old needs such as security, or convenience? // There’s no denying, though, that there’s something special about the human need for connection. We’re social animals, hard wired to be with one another. When an emerging technology or innovation unlocks a new way to serve that need, it touches us in a way others don’t. That’s why the video above is so compelling. And why it’s possible to imagine the Starline in millions of homes one day. // Before that, Google say they’ll target enterprise use. Could this be a reason to head back to the office?
🧑💻 Want to write online?
I’ll be back on Clubhouse this week, hosting another room in association with the new smart social app Faves!
This one brings together a stellar panel of some of the biggest writers on Substack to talk all things writing: from building an audience, to generating ideas, to staying consistent.
Now more than ever, sharing your writing online is a powerful way to increase your impact on the world. It’s changed my life; it can change yours! If you want to get started, or if you’re already in the game and want to grow, this is the room for you.
The room opens on Friday 21 May at 9am PST, 12pm EST, 6pm CET, and you can register here.
🎤 Voice as a Service
A new platform wants to let celebrities and creators use their voice without having to use their voice.
Veritone says its new MARVEL.ai can create highly realistic, professional standard voice emulations. The idea isn’t new; we’ve seen these kinds of voice deepfakes advance enormously across the last few years.
What’s intriguing is the business model that Veritone are pushing. They hope celebrities, actors, and creators will use the platform to create voice emulations that can then be licensed to brands and others for ads and voiceover work.
In other words: train the AI once, get paid for effortless voiceover work forever.
⚡ NWSH Take: Back in NWSH #21 I wrote about how AI will afford creators a kind of endless, ghostly afterlife. Artists, writers, and actors will spend a lifetime training an AI via their work. After their death, that AI will be able to emulate their style, and generate new works, indefinitely. See how fans went nuts when a South Korean TV show used AI to reincarnate legendary folk singer Kim Kwang-seok. // MARVEL.ai pushes that vision further. In short, Veritone are asking creators: why wait until you die? Why not create an AI version of yourself now, and license it? Heinz want you to be the voice of baked beans? Great, send the AI. Pixar want you to voice a minor character? Send the AI. Fans want to speak to…you get the idea. // MARVEL.ai itself will live and die by the quality of its voice emulations; the samples on its site are only okay. But the underlying idea here is powerful, and just getting started.
🗓️ Also this week
📱 A massive study found ‘little association’ between mental health and use of social media in young people. Oxford University’s Internet Institute surveyed 430,000 children age 10 to 15.
🏥 Surgeries were postponed in New Zealand when hospital computers were infected with ransomware. The Waikato District Health Board say it entered hospital systems via email.
👟 NFT startup RTFKT are making virtual sneakers for every CryptoPunk. CryptoPunks are virtual characters created by digital agency Larva Labs, and sold as NFTs. If you own a CrytoPunk, you can buy the associated pair of sneakers from RTFKT.
✍️ Google documents will start to police speech for gender neutrality. A user who writes a word such as chairman will see an auto-suggestion for a gender neutral alternative.
🏅 Sony published a patent for a bitcoin-fuelled esports gambling platform. Viewers would be able to view livestreamed esports events and bet on the outcomes.
🔌 A new report says bitcoin mining uses half the energy consumed by the global banking system. This argument will run and run.
💳 Twitter is considering a new paid subscription offering called Twitter Blue. Users will pay $2.99 a month to be able to undo tweets and organise tweets into collections.
🚗 Video surfaced of a Waymo driverless car trying to run away from its handlers. The car got stuck at an intersection in Chandler, Arizona, and then tried to drive away from the team sent to rescue it.
🌍 Humans of Earth
Key metrics to help you keep track of Project Human.
🙋 Global population: 7,866,858,838
🌊 Earths currently needed: 1.7845222643
💉 Global population vaccinated: 4.7%
🗓️ 2021 progress bar: 38% complete
📖 On this day: On 19 May 1962 Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday to President John F Kennedy at Madison Square Garden.
Hologram Futures
Thanks for reading this week.
Growing up, I dreamed about a time to come when I’d have video calls instead of plain old telephone calls.
My children will come to look back on video calls the way we do on handwritten letters. Mixed reality calls, and hologrammatic representations, are coming.
New World Same Humans will be watching as these new technologies reimagine the fundamental human need for connection.
And there’s one thing you can do to help with that mission: share!
Now that you’ve made it to the end of this week’s instalment, why not forward the email to someone who’d also enjoy it? Or share it across one of your social networks, with a note on why you found it valuable. Remember: the larger and more diverse the NWSH community becomes, the better for all of us.
I’ll be back on Sunday. Until then, be well,
David.
P.S Thanks to Monique van Dusseldorp for additional research and analysis.