[Petit Fours #385] On Halfway to the Future, BusinessTown, and Talking about Machines
Hi, all! While the weather calls for a hot cup of chai, here's what I'd like to share with you:
#1 Recently, I've been reading Julian E. Orr's book Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job. It's a classic so it sort of goes without saying that this a great read for anyone interested in work practice. Learning In Work: The influence of Julian Orr's 'Talking about Machines' offers a quick primer.
#2 Got 6 minutes? Check out this short talk by Lilly Irani on The Labor that Makes AI Magic. Still timely: "Automation doesn’t replace labor, it displaces it."
#3 The Halfway to the Future conference is happening again, with a paper deadline in the end of May. This promises to be one of the more compelling academic gatherings this year (so I'm feeling more than a bit of FOMO since I won't be able to go).
#4 For something else entirely, and to lighten the collective mood, I'd like to remind you about the existence of BusinessTown, that is, what happened when The Busy World of Richard Scarry was invaded by Silicon Valley.
-A