Society – Mark O'Neill

I buried the most famous person in the world

That’s right. I buried the most famous person in the world. I could tell you their name but for reasons which will become obvious I will just refer to them as TMFP. You knew their name better than your own. You knew their face better than your lover’s. You called your children after them. YouContinue reading “I buried the most famous person in the world”

Daisy Daisy

So the Tony Blair Institute have done another of their Marvel/DC team-ups this time on AI. I was not going to discuss it but on second glance it does have some interesting aspects. The report is good but suffers from many of the same issues that such reports always have: the belief that the UKContinue reading “Daisy Daisy”

All the numbers account for years

The power of paws, no sooner do I write about the lack of any national conversation about digital when we get the modestly titled “A New National Purpose” from the odd Marvel/DC team up of Tony Blair and William Hague. Martha Lane Fox has set out very well the Groundhog Day feelings of those ofContinue reading “All the numbers account for years”

What is Twitter?

The ongoing destruction of Twitter by the idiot Musk has occasioned vast amounts of noise as people flee to Mastodon or even renounce social media entirely. As carts of apples are knocked over and small children separated from their mothers in the rush it’s becoming clear that everyone has a different idea what Twitter is…Continue reading “What is Twitter?”

Slight Return

No sooner had I pressed [Submit] on the last blog post than this happens… My immediate response to this blog post was a sense of recognition. And not just in the sense that it reads a lot like a Hacker News comment. Stripped of the rhetoric, hyperbole, and political bias much of what is inContinue reading “Slight Return”

Things Fall Apart

Today a Civil Servant resigned. That happens. It’s not unusual. I myself quit 2 years ago to save my sanity in the face of unsustainable cognitive dissonance. But it is unusual when a Civil Servant resigns stating, “I am also at a stage in life where I would prefer to do something more rewarding withContinue reading “Things Fall Apart”