January 2018
This newsletter is a collection of things I have found in the last month that I enjoyed, found interesting, or simply wanted to share.
You can follow me more closely at my personal website or if you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a home, you can point them to my real estate website.
The Way The World Ends: Not With A Bang But A Paperclip
Wired takes a look at Paperclips, a clicker game from Frank Lantz based on speculations in Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies.
In a Huffington Post interview, Bostrom makes his point much more succinctly, albeit less thorough, than a game or his book:
Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible. The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so, there would be fewer paper clips. Also, human bodies contain a lot of atoms that could be made into paper clips. The future that the AI would be trying to gear towards would be one in which there were a lot of paper clips but no humans.
Born To Be Chased
Plant Earth II has been added to Netflix. Just as interesting as the action on screen is the action behind the camera. Early last year, Vox went behind the scenes to show how the famous ‘Snake Island’ chase was filmed.
- How the BBC makes Planet Earth look like a Hollywood movie
- How wildlife films warp time
- How the BBC films the night side of Planet Earth
Bits from Books
This is my second year compiling some of my favorite passages from books I’ve read throughout the year.
Links
- The 100 Greatest Props in Movie History, and the Stories Behind Them
- Google’s Year in Search 2017
- How to Read Sheet Music
- Drone’s Eye View of NYC
- Google Maps’s Moat
- Building ‘Hey Arnold’s’ City
Book ‘Em
A Seth Godin quote from Tim Ferris’ book, Tools of Titans:
‘First, Ten,’ and it is a simple theory of marketing that says: tell ten people, show ten people, share it with ten people; ten people who already trust you and already like you. If they don’t tell anybody else, it’s not that good and you should start over. If they do tell other people, you’re on your way.”
I suppose my hope is that 10 of you might share this first issue as a way of showing me you have enjoyed it.
Sign Off
Do not hesitate to reply to this months email to share links, wisdom, or thoughts.
Thanks for reading. Have a great month,
Clay
How kind of you to make your way down here.
A bit about me: I can be interested in anything, for better or worse. I love photography, travel, golf, and baseball. My latest pursuit is learning the guitar. I write a rad newsletter that I publish monthly.