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Venkatesh Rao

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/author/admin

Experiments in refactored perception. Venkat is the founder and editor-in-chief of ribbonfarm. Follow him on Twitter. The Liminal Explorer of the Adjacent Possible. August 25, 2016. 8220;Would it be bourgie to say ‘this is perfect’? 8221; asked the ginger-infused cold brew. Ginger cold-brew shuffled uncomfortably, “Well, you know what I mean. The bay view, the weather, the coffee. Not, you know, life.”. Trace of the Weirding. August 11, 2016. For 2016 (thanks Grace Witherell. And turned it into a narrate...

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New Horizons

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/07/14/new-horizons

Experiments in refactored perception. July 14, 2015. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to start a second track of weekly content on ribbonfarm, featuring short, dense pieces in text or visual form. I can’t think of a better way to kick that off than with an image more dense with significance than almost any image I’m likely to see in my lifetime. In this one picture of Pluto, taken just ahead of the (now completed, with data streaming back. Comet lander mission and the Dawn. July 14, 2015 at 11:09 am.

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Cooperative Ignorance

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/07/16/cooperative-ignorance

Experiments in refactored perception. July 16, 2015. Sarah Perry is a contributing editor of Ribbonfarm. 8220;Ironically, once ignorance is defined, it loses its very definition.”. Mdash;Linsey McGoey, “ The Logic of Strategic Ignorance. Similarly, information and options are valuable, but in certain situations,. Getting information are valuable, too. There is power both in. Limiting the responses that are available to you. Thomas Schelling, in his 1960 book. The Strategy of Conflict. Calls “the po...

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Inbox Zero versus Flow Laminar

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/07/21/inbox-zero-versus-flow-laminar

Experiments in refactored perception. Inbox Zero versus Flow Laminar. July 21, 2015. Folders even if you don’t call them that). This is dangerous because you’re just moving unprocessed chaos from a procrastination zone with strong temporal cues (the Inbox) to a denial zone with broken temporal cues (the set of. Breaking or weakening the natural temporal structure of information flow, and the lack of accountability in individually controlled information organization tools, both play a big part in this sup...

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Frontierland

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/08/06/frontierland

Experiments in refactored perception. August 6, 2015. Sarah Perry is a contributing editor of Ribbonfarm. Disneyland is the most important place in America, and Frontierland is the most important part of Disneyland. By area, it is the largest part of Disneyland. The design of Frontierland occupied a special importance for Walt Disney himself (Richard Francaviglia, Walt Disney’s Frontierland as an Allegorical Map of the American West. Disneyland Main Street Station, 1960. 2014; characterized as “rom...

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Welcome to the Future Nauseous

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2012/05/09/welcome-to-the-future-nauseous

Experiments in refactored perception. Welcome to the Future Nauseous. May 9, 2012. Both science fiction and futurism seem to miss an important piece of how the future actually turns into the present. They fail to capture the way we don’t seem to notice when the future actually arrives. Sure, we can all see the small clues all around us: cellphones, laptops, Facebook, Prius cars on the street. Yet, somehow, the future always seems like something that is. To happen rather than something that. Our ongoing t...

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The Chinese Compressibility Parable

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/07/30/the-chinese-compressibility-parable

Experiments in refactored perception. The Chinese Compressibility Parable. July 30, 2015. I read the story somewhere as a kid and can’t recall the source now (perhaps one of you can help me). It goes something like this. There was once a Chinese emperor who wanted to know about everything that had ever happened. This was before Wikipedia, so he instructed his court scholars to go write it all down so he could read it. The scholars toiled for 10 years, and returned with a caravan of 20 camels. Skipping li...

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Low Humanity Orbit

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/08/11/low-humanity-orbit

Experiments in refactored perception. August 11, 2015. I acquired a new hobby last week: watching the International Space Station. Zip across the sky. The ISS is in low Earth orbit (LEO), with altitude varying between 200-270 miles. It moves fast enough (and is bright enough) to be mistaken for a plane. That gives you an idea of how quickly it moves along in its 93-minute orbit. Since Seattle airport flight paths also pass over where I live, the comparison is quite stark. Venkat is the founder and editor...

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Where do Electric Forces Come From?

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/06/23/where-do-electric-forces-come-from

Experiments in refactored perception. Where do Electric Forces Come From? June 23, 2015. There’s a good chance that, at some point in your life, someone told you that nature has four fundamental forces: gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and the electromagnetic force. This factoid is true, of course. Fundamental (to the best of our knowledge):. Let me back up a bit. To understand what a force is, one first has to accept the idea that empty space is not really empty. Empty space, o...

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A Neptune Kid, Waiting to Always-Already Know Pluto

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/07/01/a-neptune-kid-waiting-to-always-already-know-pluto

Experiments in refactored perception. A Neptune Kid, Waiting to Always-Already Know Pluto. July 1, 2015. If you’ve ever wondered what it means to. Know something, you’re about to get a powerful demonstration, along with the rest of the planet. If all goes well with the NASA New Horizons. Mission, in a few weeks, you will. Know what Pluto looks like. At crater-level detail. Know what Pluto looks like. And those of us who. Degrees of Knowing Pluto. For a group larger than a handful,. Until New Horizons got...