Join 📚 J'S Highlights
A batch of the best highlights from what J's read, .
As an example, Campolo and Schwerzmann describe how 23andMe try to use data to “objectively” define ethnicity, an arbitrary sociopolitical concept invented by humans.
> To categorize a consumer's ancestry via DNA from a saliva sample, 23andMe relies on a group of initial testing subjects who are asked to self-identify based on what they know about their ancestors and their geographic origins. 23andMe then draws the lines around what it considers as forming a distinctive population by identifying and labeling genetic patterns discovered in the dataset.
The Blackbird Must Be Flying
Substack
But the real leap came once traders replaced themselves with algorithms capable of aggregating data from all the trading platforms and executing high-frequency trades at a rate and volume beyond the cognitive capacity of hundreds of human beings. These derivatives markets quickly outpaced the traditional trading activity on the stock market. Derivatives trading became so dominant that the New York Stock Exchange was actually purchased by its derivatives exchange in 2013. The stock market—already an abstraction of the real marketplace—was swallowed by its own abstraction.
Survival of the Richest
Douglas Rushkoff
There are no words to describe the opposite sensations of being at-our-job and being not-at-our-job even if we know the feeling of crossing that threshold by heart.
The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age
Thea Lim
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
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