Clare Townhill

"Dear Homeless Man Who Totally Witnessed Me Losing It Last Week"

I've loved McSweeneys publications (home of The Believer and McSweeney's Quarterley) for a while. One of their new site additions is the publication of open letters: funny, poignant, sad, sweet, and some just downright weird. Here's one I particularly liked this morning:

Dear Homeless Man Who Witnessed Me Totally Lose It Last Week,

When I ignored you and kept walking down 10th street, it was inconsiderate. When I told you to fuck off after you pressed me for change, it was rude. When you followed me into the crosswalk and I took the seventy-odd cents from my pocket, threw it into the intersection, then told you to go after it, I was being... Christ, I don't think there are words for how heartless that was. I'm so sorry. You saw me at my worst. The look on your leathery face haunted me for days. If I could do it over again I would've put the change in your hand. Shit, I'd buy you lunch, too.

You probably noticed I was wearing a suit and figured I had money to spare. That was a ruse—I never wear suits, and that day I was only wearing one to impress people at a networking event I'd just left. I went in hopes of finding a job, but the event ended up being a crowded hotel ballroom full of tacky, obnoxious people who insisted on using empty phrases like "social media strategy" and "brand evangelism." It was an MBA petting zoo. I only managed to meet one HR worker while I was there, and right after she felt that I was out of visual range, she folded my business card in half and tossed it into the nearest garbage can.

I've been unemployed for the past seven months. The only reason I went to that networking event was the naive hope that someone there would save me. My ship of ambitions has been smashed against the cold, rocky coastline of corporate reality, and there were no survivors.

Defeated, I walked down 10th street back to my car and saw you in the distance. I'm embarrassed to say it, but I laughed at you. I used your misfortune as a springboard to vault myself out of unhappiness. I glared and smugly found reasons why I'm better off than you are. "I wonder if he ever interned for a P.R. company," I thought. "Or stayed up until 5 a.m. carefully sizing and aligning the text on his business card."

And then it hit me: what if you did?

What if you pursued your career goals and experienced rejection so many times that it broke you?

I pictured myself two years into the future. Unshaven and reeking of cheap whiskey, I would stand at the on-ramp of highway 85 North holding a cardboard sign with WILL USE CORPORATE JARGON FOR FOOD scrawled in Sharpie marker. I saw the future me walking Williams Street late at night, starving and broken, as a closeted businessman pulls over his hybrid Civic and calls me into the passenger seat. As I unbuckle his belt, I would catch a glimpse of his shiny new Blackberry and weep quietly about the career that left me behind. Then with the last part of my dignity completely wrecked, I would sit on the sidewalk and beg people for change. This was the exact moment you asked me for money. To have my what-if-I-become-homeless nightmare interrupted by an actual homeless person was more than I could deal with.

I saw that, with the slightest change in variables, I could be begging for quarters, too. And it drove me to hysterics.

I'm not saying this excuses my behavior, but I just want you to know why I acted the way I did. For what it's worth, I'm sorry. If I see you again I'll give you five dollars and a hug.

Sincerely, 
Mark Rooke

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/openletters/5homeless.html

 

"When we pop out of the womb we are all natural hackers"

Really enjoyed the Hacking and Innovation talk this week courtesy of Canvas8 and W+K. At the heart of the talk was the notion that following the rules is robbing us of life and that somewhere in the conflation of sticking to the rules and judgements about our goodness as people it all went wrong. Plus f course some great examples where benevolent rule-breaking can take you. Josh Klein and Bill Jensen co-authors of 'Hacking Work' said some great stuff. Here are some of the soundbites that inspired me most:

"When we pop out of the womb we are all natural hackers"

"We were at our best and brightest when we were driving our parents crazy by asking 'why, why' why? But then unfortunately we grew up being taught that following the rules and being good people equate to the same thing."

In amongst all this goodness I met Giles Phelps and had a great but brief chat to be continued at a later date. He's just posted this lovely video 'Hacking People and Culture', sweet, thought-provoking and a perfect content piece for this post. Thanks Giles.

 

People Watching Plus from Rune Madsen on Vimeo.

The Next Big Leap: Psychic Computer Shows Your Thoughts on Screen

Things are going to get very weird and very noisy:

Scientists have discovered how to “read” minds by scanning brain activity and reproducing images of what people are seeing — or even remembering.

Researchers have been able to convert into crude video footage the brain activity stimulated by what a person is watching or recalling.

The breakthrough raises the prospect of significant benefits, such as allowing people who are unable to move or speak to communicate via visualisation of their thoughts; recording people’s dreams; or allowing police to identify criminals by recalling the memories of a witness.

The possibilities of creation, perversion and imagination are just mind-bending. 

TheTimes

UsNow Feedback

Rohan from Nesta sent us all a link to check what each of us wrote on our cards after the viewing. I'm extremely embarassed that I wrote my fullname on mine.

Responses To Us Now (Complete)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: feedback audience)

Valley of the Dolls

David Levy was in conversation last night with Bill Thompson from the BBC at the ICA. The discussion: Love, Sex + Robots. It was weird but very, very, interesting. I also left feeling that maybe it wasn't an unfeasible proposal either, not least because of what is already occuring in Japan and South Korea in 'Doll Brothels'. No, I'm not joking:

Elegant, feminine, and lively at all times… High-quality robot is available at a reasonable price with varieties of costumes to choose from for more opportunities to make better use of it.

No, I haven't ever seen this much 'lively robot'.

Roombaphilia

Duke is careering noisily across a living room floor resplendent in the dark blue and white colours of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He's no student but a disc-shaped robotic vacuum cleaner called the Roomba. Not only have his owners dressed him up, they have also given him a name and gender.

Duke is not alone. Such behaviour is common, and takes myriad forms according to a survey of almost 400 Roomba owners, conducted late last year by Ja-Young Sung and Rebecca Grinter, who research human-computer interaction at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

"Dressing up Roomba happens in many ways," Sung says. People also often gave their robots a name and gender, according to the survey (see Diagram) which Sung presented at the Human-Robot Interaction conference earlier this month in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The iRobot site has a special 'owners' page for stories and anecdotes. These are my two favourites:

Rescue Roomba
My daughter bought us this as a Xmas gift last year and my husband and I both agree that it is the best gift we have ever had. Four months ago I had a hip replacement with all the restrictions that involves and my husband, at 82 years old, did all the housework. He cannot praise Roomba enough to all our friends and says if the house catches on fire, I will have to fend for myself as he will only rescue Roomba!! Thank you so much for isuch a wonderful invention. You are a blessing to the older generation.
— Alma D.

Mating Ritual
I have just bought a Roomba, I know everyone says how well it cleans the floor, and they are not wrong, I was very surprised at just how clean everywhere is after Roomba has done it's thing. I've had my new pet for about a week now and some of it's behaviors are hilarious, first of all, I opened all the doors to all my rooms just to see how Roomba would cope (very well I must say !) I had not quite opened the bathroom door properly so when roomba went in, and tried to get out, it bumped into the door and locked itself in, I know we all like our privacy in the smallest room, seem Roomba feels the same ! The next thing just had me laughing out loud, I also bought a docking station which I placed in the corner of the room, the carpet is a little uneven there so Roomba was having a tiny bit of difficulty in docking first time, but it did not give up, it backed off and tried again a few more times, and then docked successfully, I could not help think it was taking part in a mating ritual with the docking station, Roomba would climb onto it's partner as if trying to mount it, and just like real life, didn't get it right first time, but persistance paid off in the end. Also when Roomba undocks and reverses off it's docking station, those little reversing bleeps are a very nice touch, A robot that cleans the floor is great enough in itself, but this robot cleans the floor and has a sense of humour built in, what more could you want?
— Paul

Indeed Paul. Indeed.

iRobot
MyRoomBud: Fashion for Roombas

"I'm Not Lonely or Horny but I am Incomplete"

On February the 14th this year in the NY Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) Jonathan Harris' latest piece of work 'I Want You To Want Me' opened to the public. This elegant and beautifully conceived piece  is an exploration of the effect of online and the internet on dating. Over 50 million people visit dating sites every month. En masse, people have condensed their identities into page or paragraph-long descriptions, sometimes complemented by a handful of photographs or peppered with responses to canned questions.  These personal profiles are modern messages in a bottle, short statements of self, telling not only who people are, but also what people want. In these advertisements for new human relationships people package and present their most loveable qualities to help complete their quest to be loved. Here are some of the sentences taken from forums and sites that make up one of the works' four movements: 'Who I am':   

I am ready for my prince.          
From a 22-year-old man looking for a man in Brooklyn, New York
I am a woman who will listen to your darkest demons and not fear them.          
From a 26-year-old woman looking for a man in Dallas, Texas       
I AM THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER AND A DANCING MACHINE!    
From a 21-year-old woman looking for a woman in Madison, Wisconsin       
I am who I am, and I am a helluva find.          
From a 54-year-old woman looking for a woman in Ocklawaha, Florida       
I am not one of those skinny muscular guys with a 14-inch woody.          
From a 22-year-old man looking for a woman in St. Louis, Missouri       
I am a single mom supporting kids; I don’t need to support no man.          
From a 36-year-old woman looking for a man in Seattle, Washington       
I am not an American citizen.          
From a 32-year-old man looking for a woman in Wilmington, Delaware       
I'm logical, too practical at times, and completely out of my element when it comes to dating.          
From a 26-year-old woman looking for a man in Chicago, Illinois       
I'm wild like that.          
From a 20-year-old woman looking for a man in Upland, California       
I'm more interested in your brain than your bra size 
From a 35-year-old man looking for a woman in Denver, Colorado       
I'm interested in meeting a lusty male who dreams deconstruction and dismantles stale ideologies  
From a 30-year-old woman looking for a man in Denver, Colorado       
I am an experienced Sub who likes to switch          
From a 38-year-old woman looking for a man in Raleigh, North Carolina       
I'm a single dad trying to make it in this crazy world 
From a 30-year-old man looking for a woman in Tampa, Florida       
I'm depressed but I'm thinking how it would be nice to be in a relationship again  
From a 19-year-old woman looking for a man in San Francisco, California       
I am trying to lose weight, but I want someone to like me for who I am now.          
From a 27-year-old woman looking for a woman in Wilmington, Delaware       
I am clean cut, discreet and a perfect gentleman, and promise to leave you totally relaxed after our session.          
From a 43-year-old man looking for a woman in Seattle, Washington       
I'm not lonely or horny, but I am incomplete.
From a 40-year-old man looking for a woman in Raleigh, North Carolina

MoMa: Design for the Elastic Mind

Lone Travellers in The Tide

Lovely article about commutes in America and how this strange surge of people and machines is changing and influencing the way Americans live:

A shower, a quick cup of coffee, a kiss goodbye (if they're lucky), and they're off. Keys are inserted in ignitions, train doors slide open, feet hit the sidewalk, and it begins: that great mass migration from home to work known as the American commute. In its scale and dynamism, it resembles an awesome natural phenomenon—a volcanic eruption or a flood—but viewed up close, it consists of millions of individuals impelled by private preoccupations. They may move as a herd, but they don't feel that they're part of one as they check voicemail, ponder crossword puzzles, or just doze off. And though they may sense that they're part of something big, much of the time they feel acutely alone, even when the subway car is jammed, the overhead bins of the small jet can't accommodate another carry-on, and the carpool lane is bumper to bumper, backed up behind a wreck.

Read the whole article here