ISSUE 2.16

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You Aren't You

Tortured targeted individuals, buying shares in a person, knowing thyself, and monitored cities.

Never one to leave you without music, I bring you a bluesy, funky, non-electronic (gasp!) track, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - Shoe Boot. A good knockin' little track for contemplating yourself, your life, and this issue of Glitchet.

[wired.com]

Mind Games: The Tortured Lives of ‘Targeted Individuals’

Targeted individuals are people who believe that they are being directly targeted by hyperfuturistic technology controlled by the government, crime syndicates, or their neighbours. While I'm interested in seeing more studies on electromagnetic hypersensitivity, the claims of TIs do tend to stress even my most woo-woo believability (although perhaps some of them really are targeted). Still, this is a great article and look into the dynamics and psychology of mutual sufferers coming together to find human bonding in scenarios where nobody believes them.

[technologyreview.com]

If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Turns out it’s just chance.

Basically: computer model models a model for people with distributions of varying talent, intelligence, etc., then throws luck into the equation. The richest by the end? The luckiest. Nothing to do with talent, intelligence, or anything like it. I do have some misgivings with simplification--you'd better believe the richest are also those most willing to be Machiavellian and ruthless in their pursuit of money or power, and they create their own luck.

[montag.wtf]

Buy A Share Of Mike

This one is absolutely fascinating. Mike Merrill has been living his life for the past 10 years where his weekends and nights are dictated by the decisions of the shareholders who bought literal stock in his life. They unanimously voted for him to answer this interview, although they also barely avoided having him get a vasectomy. His girlfriend crashed his market in order to gain primary control of shares when they had an Exclusive Romantic Agreement, and he hasn't met his 3rd largest shareholder in person. "He could be a serial killer trying to take over my life like the Talented Mr. Ripley… I have no idea. . . This is a man who has more say in my life than my family." This is a fascinating look at capitalism-as-performance art. Also, can you imagine having this conversation with someone you're trying to date? "Listen, I like you, but you need to know that I'm part of a shareholder-driven corporate entity that controls my nights and weekends. And we have decided to ask you out."

[otia.io]

Way Spurr-Chen, Front End Developer on Glitch Art

Hey, it's me! (I'm not me.) I was interviewed by OTIA, a mag about tech people and the not-tech things they do, which I appreciate. Herein I talk about my background, Glitchet, glitch art, and my overall view on the role it serves in the.. internet? world? idk. One weird thing is that part of their standard is to remove contractions, so I sound a little bit like a strangely irreverent robot. Please either lean into this or stitch my "I am"s into "I'm"s. Thank you.

[theatlantic.com]

People Don't Actually Know Themselves Very Well

Studies show that coworkers are often twice as accurate about your personality traits like stability, dependability, friendliness, outgoingness (is that really a word?), and curiosity. What you do know is your own emotional stability, internally. What you don't know better is how assertive you might be in a group discussion, or performance on an IQ and creativity test. We overestimate our generosity, intelligence, amount of bias, and the more objective we think we are the more we tend to discriminate. Ultimately there's some political tie-in into presidential/politician intelligence here but this article is really a vehicle to talk about self awareness and objectivity. Good looking out. Know thyself and all that.

[theguardian.com]

'Living laboratories': the Dutch cities amassing data on oblivious residents

Just a quote for the dystopian qualities at play here: "Lamp-posts have been fitted with wifi-trackers, cameras and 64 microphones that can detect aggressive behaviour and alert police officers to altercations. There has been a failed experiment to change light intensity to alter the mood. The next plan, starting this spring, is to diffuse the smell of oranges to calm people down. The aim? To make Stratumseind a safer place. . . . All the while, data is being collected and stored."