Misc

Responding to Daesh in the way the world responds to Global Warming


Here is a brief comment following the terrible terrorist attacks in Paris.

I have been reading a lot over the last days. It is apparent how people all over the world struggle with understanding what is going on; how a few lunatics can do so barbaric things. I struggle too, but I want to suggest a way to look at Daesh (that’s how everyone should call IS), which might help with the big picture.

I see Daesh and other radical terrorist groups as a phenomenon similar to global warming: As a by-product of the modern, industrialized, capitalist world.

By now, apart from a few hardline ideologists, there is a widespread international consensus and acknowledgement that the human progress of the past 150 years has come with a large cost: A rapidly changing climate which poses serious challenges to humans’ future existence. Even though counter-measures are being implemented slowly, a general agreement about the need to reduce carbon emissions exists.

I suggest to start seeing Daesh and other internationally active terrorist groups the same way: As a by-product of rapid human expansion and growth. To get a better understanding about the connection between globalization and terrorism/fundamentalism, read this piece.

If you consider this way of thinking about the rise of terrorism and radicalism, it changes the way you look at possible solutions. Suddenly, notoriously ineffective, ever-increasing surveillance and reduction of civil rights don’t seem like an intelligent response anymore. If the correct response to global warming is the reduction of carbon emissions, then the main response to Daesh should be about treating the actual cause of fundamentalism.

What carbon dioxid is to global warming, X is to fundamentalism and terrorism. Let’s find X, instead of letting too many people reach the point of total radicalization and then hoping to catch them before (or even worse: after) they commit their murders.

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The developed world is in a crisis of beliefs


The urge to believe in something is part of human nature. No one can live a long life without having a belief in something. At least, I am not aware of anyone who has managed. Many people choose religion as their core belief, because it comes with a handy predefined set of rules and some kind of historic “credibility”. Others believe in materialistic things and the pleasure resulting from these, in political/philosophical ideologies, in space travel, singularity, immortality, animal rights, a better world, equality, freedom, democracy and so on. While most people combine multiple beliefs (often with one umbrella belief that dominates and influences all other sub-beliefs), everyone has chosen or being introduced to at least something to believe in at each moment of his/her existence.

Unfortunately, in the democratic and developed countries, I currently notice a crisis of beliefs. People struggle with finding something to believe in. There is a widespread disappointment in many of the modern “mainstream” beliefs. The era of constant economic growth has ended or at least taken a long pause. World peace looks as distant as it always has. The trust in the governing organizations and the democracy itself is eroding in many countries. The disruptive consequences of the digital revolution, of globalization, of climate change and the current migration wave cause a lot of people to worry about their personal well-being and standard of living. With the possible exception of climate change, these concerns often are either irrational/exaggerated or at least destructive and not very pragmatic. But they are persistent and hard to erase from people’s minds. Continue Reading


Thoughts and observations from Ho Chi Minh City


I just spent a week in Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest city and commercial hub of Vietnam (also known as Saigon). I have traveled to South-East Asia multiple times. However, this was my first visit to Vietnam. Here are my observations and thoughts, with a certain focus on aspects of urban life, tech and infrastructure.

The near-death but also amazing experience of crossing a road

Road

Vietnam is infamous for the craziness that happens on its roads. Basically every grown-up among the country’s 93 million population owns a motorbike. Thus, the dynamics and (unwritten) rules of street traffic are very different than those in car-centric countries. For tourists, crossing a road in Ho Chi Minh City (or Hanoi, which allegedly is even more crazy in regards to traffic), can become a near-death experience: The motorcyclists do not stop for pedestrians. So standing on the site of the road, even at a pedestrian crossing, won’t make anyone hit the breaks. Instead, the rule is to start walking – no matter if there are plenty of motorbikes approaching.

If you have never been to Vietnam or a country with similar conventions, you might now wonder: How do you do that without getting killed? The answer: There is somewhat of a silent agreement between motorcyclists and pedestrians: The people on the motorbikes stick to moderate speeds and drive around you as long as you walk slowly, in a predictable way, without suddenly changing your direction or pace. It sounds insane and highly dangerous to Westerners. It also is. Yet, it does work, and over time and with some practice, you get better at it. Check out this video to get a better understanding of the process (there are plenty of videos on YouTube about the “art of road crossing” in Ho Chi Minh City). Continue Reading


How one country lost a great talent and another country gained one


Here comes a little anecdote about how one country lost a great talent and another country gained one.

My girl friend had been studying in the U.S.. She graduated with a two-year Associate Degree in Computer Science, which she funded herself. Her dream was to continue Bachelor studies in the same field, in the U.S.. However, for her, as a foreign citizen with a Turkish passport, the plan simply turned out to be too expensive. As is widely known, proper education in the U.S. costs a fortune, especially if you are not U.S. resident (which also makes it almost impossible to take a student loan). Since her student visa did not permit her to apply for a job or do anything other than studying in the U.S., she basically was forced to leave the country. A fake marriage with an American to obtain a Greencard, which many in that situation at least think about, was no option for her. Continue Reading


Mini-posts: Snapchat vs Facebook, app unbundling, Stockholm’s tipping point


I’m trying out a new format with a post comprising of 2-3 mini-posts about trends and news from the tech world. A maximum of 10 sentences per post.

4 billion video views

Snapchat has announced 4 billion daily video views. Usually I would not pay any attention to such a vanity metric. But in this case, the number allows for an enlightening comparison: Just a couple of months ago, in April, Facebook reached the same milestone of 4 billion daily video views (sidenote: YouTube did so in the beginning of 2012). Facebook has almost 1 billion daily active users, compared to Snapchat’s nearly 100 million daily active users. The videos on Snapchat are extremely short, presumably much shorter than those on Facebook. That aside, an average Snapchat user views 10 times as many videos a day as a Facebook user. No surprise Snapchat is so hot.

Unbundling works – for Google and Facebook

Last year, many major Internet companies started to move certain features from their existing apps into newly launched, separate apps. “Unbundling” (or “app constellations“) was the latest trend, utilized by all the big names. A new comScore report shows for which companies this has worked the best: Facebook and Google (which in fact had been relying on this strategy for quite some time already). Among the top 10 most popular smartphone apps in the U.S. on iOS and Android combined, 3 are owned by Facebook (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram), and 5 by Google (YouTube, Search, Google Play, Google Maps, Gmail). Pandora Play and Yahoo Stocks are the only apps within the top 10 that are not owned by either company. Facebook’s initially controversial move to spin-off Messenger totally paid off. Meanwhile, unbundling did not work so well for other tech giants. Related news: Just this weekend, Google released Street View as yet another seperate app.

comScore

Stockholm’s tech tipping point

The VC fund SparkLabs recently published a ranking of the 10 hottest startup ecosystems in the world, and Stockholm ranked second after the Silicon Valley. While the accuracy of these kind of reports always can (and should) be questioned, the good result of the Swedish capital did not surprise me. In fact, it seems apparent to me that the city has reached its tipping point. From now on, past success and experience helps to build new, even bigger successes, with guaranteed international attention. Last Wednesday I attended a great conference, Stockholm Tech Fest. The amount of local bigshots among the speakers who shared their insights and experiences was astonishing. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, Skype-founder and seriel entrepreneur/VC Niklas Zennström, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Delivery Hero CEO Niklas Östberg (Berlin-based but Swedish), Truecaller Co-founder Nami Zarringhalam were among the speakers. I am truly excited about what comes next.

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The world changes. Deal with it.


The partly hostile reaction of European citizens to the ongoing and growing refugee crisis shows yet again that too many people struggle with accepting change as a natural part of life.

Millions are fleeing from war in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Northern Africa. Many of them look for a better life in Europe. But a significant number of European citizens does not approve. They are afraid of change. They think they are entitled to that everything stays the same.

This is a wrong assumption. Change is inevitable, and has always been. Each new shift of the century the world looked dramatically different than during the shift of the century before. But many people don’t want to acknowledge that. They grew up with the mindset of change being something to avoid A mindset of everything having to be in a certain way, forever. Or at least as long as they are alive. The fear of the reactionaries, xenophobes and racists in Europe is not that the values of democracy, freedom and secularism are threatened by immigration – even if they sometimes pretend so. Their actual fear is change. Continue Reading


What the Ashley Madison hack means for the digital age


With a certain amount of fascination and astonishment I am following how the story of the hack of the extramarital dating site Ashley Madison is evolving. It was especially insightful to learn about all the types of questions, worries and concerns that members, scammers and distrustful spouses/partners have about the user data that had been dumped on the Internet following the hack. Many users of the site seem terrified of the thought of being exposed as cheaters. Sadly, even suicide cases by Ashley Madison customers are being reported. Meanwhile, criminals are trying to capitalize on the desperation of users through extortion.

First and foremost, the incident teaches yet another lesson about that in our digital era, sensitive data is not really safe. That itself is not news though. What I find more interesting to muse about is how technology forces us to examine our ways of living and the social contracts and norms that are the foundation of our modern societies. Continue Reading


Apple TV: In 2 years from perfectly working game changer to source of frustration


A bit more than 2 years ago I bought an Apple TV. Shortly after I hardly could imagine living without the black little box. I expressed my enthusiasm both in a tweet and blog post (German only). What amazed me the most was the frictionless and smooth streaming of content from the iPhone and iPad through AirPlay and Apple TV to my TV set. It always worked perfectly and reminded me of why Apple’s legendary promise “It just works” was more than just a marketing slogan. Continue Reading


Writing less while saying more


When I started meshedsociety.com, my plan was to publish 3-4 articles each week in addition to a weekly list of curated links about the tech and digital world. But quickly I had to give up that ambition. One reason is that it costs time to write thoughtful pieces that are valuable and interesting for readers. And I simply have so many other things to do that I lack that time. Also I try to reduce a few “musts” from my life. There is little to be gained from being a workaholic.

But another reason for why I write less than I planned is that the weekly link list format (here is the most recent one, #32) turned out to be a great vehicle to put my thoughts about many of the most exciting, polarizing and world-changing digital developments and trends into words without having to create dozens of individual blog posts.

Let me explain.

Here is the thing about many online texts: They are not necessarily needed. In most cases, at least a few similar pieces have been written already. Particularly (but not only) when it comes to the technology press (including blogs), many pieces are referring to and are built on existing articles and debates. Writers discover a piece that catches their attention. They create their own post around it, summarize the key points and usually add some personal perspective and maybe one or two additional points of reference. Somewhere in middle of the text they (hopefully) link back to the original post. If they are pros, they make the whole piece look like they had the idea to it and found the linked article during research. In reality of course, it was the linked article which inspired them to pen the whole thing. Continue Reading


Skills for a world that constantly changes


You can read a German version of this article here.

For 50 years Moore’s Law has been changing the world at a stunning pace. The constant doubling of computing power that goes hand in hand with increased efficiency and reduced component size is causing a nonstop rapid evolution of what technology can do. Today’s next big thing will be outdated the day after tomorrow. The impact on the economy, on politics and our social life is huge. Forecasts about what comes next are getting harder and harder, even in the short term.

Because of this development, individuals are confronted with permanent uncertainty about what will happen in 10, 5 or even only in 2 years. The questions that are looking for an answer are numerous. Will my profession or customer group still exist? Are fixed employments to be replaced by freelancing and contract gigs? Will robots take away all our jobs? Will cars drive themselves soon? In which city or country am I going to live? How will we deal with climate change? Do we have to expect violent conflicts and wars in our close proximity? Is China about to take over the U.S. in regards to global power and thus changing the world order? Which new gadget will be as revolutionary as the smartphone? Can democracy be defended against the pressure of autocrats, fundamentalism, terrorism and mass surveillance? Is it even worth it to start a family and settle down? Will humans be able to conquer and live on Mars? And so on. Continue Reading