Alberto Cottica

Post-growth economist, citizen, runner. Network science, complex systems, digital anthropology, collective intelligence. Co-founder of Edgeryders, currently with the United Nations Development Programme. Ex minor rockstar. Polyamorous. Thoughts my own.

Boosting does not imply agreement.

#economics
#degrowth
#postgrowth
#anthropology
#NetworkScience

No license, implied or explicit, is granted to use any of my posts for training AI models.

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Last Notes

2026-10-24 07:03:54 UTC

@nprofile…y789 help me out here. Are you or EPRU aware of successful applications of agentic AI to plan and purchase #crossBorderRail trips? Seems the perfect application for a machine. It is time consuming and annoying.

2026-10-23 12:44:25 UTC

"A highlight was a ticketing challenge hosted by cros-border rail connectivity campaigner Jon Worth’s recently founded European Rail Passengers Union, which saw four teams compete to calculate optimal fare options and itineraries for complex rail journeys within the EU, highlighting the work still to be done to optimise sales and distribution in the rail market."
Way to go @nprofile…y789 !
https://www.railwaygazette.com/innotrans/2026/09/22/eu-policymakers-promote-global-rail-development-on-charter-train-to-innotrans/
#crossBorderRail

2026-10-11 12:18:36 UTC

At the #CLIMATEMARCH26 in Brussels with my #cohousing group ❤️
#brussels #ClimateCrisis
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/117/422/229/155/664/787/original/abcfc2b92a083ffa.jpg

2026-09-26 09:16:48 UTC

I just applied for membership with @nprofile…fmuh . Way to go, @nprofile…y789 and everyone else!
#crossBorderRail

2026-09-25 15:08:44 UTC

This is very interesting: preliminary estimates of the costs of the 2026 heat waves in #Belgium are at or above 1% of GDP. One estimate says it will offset the entire predicted economic growth for 2026.
So, the powers that be refuse to take #climateAction because it would jeopardize "growth". Then #climateChange eats up the growth anyway.
It would be funny, except excess deaths in Belgium this summer stand at three. Thousand. People.
Well done, growth death cult.
1/2
#degrowth
#economics

2026-09-20 15:59:25 UTC

Today is #carfreesunday in Brussels. Largest pedestrian area in Europe, for one day a year.
Everyone's out on their bikes, roller skates, or just running or walking.
But the most impressive part are the children. So many! Children of all ages, on tiny bikes, steps, skates, skateboards... You can really see how the automobile did not replace horses. It replaced children playing in the street.
https://www.brussels.be/car-free-sunday

2026-09-10 13:05:08 UTC

Un'altra falla nella nostra autonomia digitale: le app del settore pubblico che usano Play Integrity. Siccome quella è un'infrastruttura americana, l'amministrazione USA può bloccare tutto con un provvedimento esecutivo, senza difesa e senza processo.
Da @nprofile…juh3 , che Dio ce lo conservi.
https://blog.quintarelli.it/2026/09/di-app-io-eudiwallet-autistici-corte-di-giustizia-e-sovranita-digitale/

2026-09-09 08:53:05 UTC

Tonight is the inaugural journey of European Sleeper's Brussels-Milan journey. Will give it a try in the next season. Interested in hearing about other people's experience
Cc @nprofile…y789 #CrossBorderRail
https://www.lesoir.be/769886/article/2026-09-09/trains-de-nuit-une-nouvelle-destination-au-depart-de-bruxelles-des-ce-mercred (French, possibly paywalled)

2026-08-28 12:09:05 UTC

Because of the unacceptable environmental and climate impact of data centers (and other stuff), I feel bad using AI and try to do so with sobriety. Am I doing enough? Am I just self-serving? Am I doing too much, even, as "AI is inevitable, and individual choice do not matter much"?
https://www.cottica.net/2026/08/27/living-according-to-my-values-in-the-age-of-sociopathic-technologies/
Thread 1/n
#AI
#crypto
#aviation
#cars

2026-08-28 08:42:26 UTC

This is a useful analogy from @nprofile…ugpy : COVID was an opportunistic infection. It killed disproportionately people suffering from other pathologies, and we, collectively, struggled to attribute the deaths of COVID patients to COVID itself rather than those other pathologies. Eventually there was a sort of agreement that excess mortality is a reasonable way to measure COVID's impact.
THREAD 1/n
https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/20/epistemic-void/#expert-agencies
#disinformation
#AI

2026-08-08 09:29:59 UTC

Mamdani 's hackers: New York City's Public Interest Technology initiative encodes a vision of technology as an enabler for ordinary people.
... and 3,000 super-skilled techies applied for 35 jobs, though the paycheck is not what it would be in Big Tech and there's no stock options, because most people want their work to be meaningful. Getting people to click on ads is not meaningful.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/08/find-yourself-a-city/#to-hack-in
h/t @nprofile…ugpy

2026-08-07 07:44:36 UTC

Breakthrough!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/salem-brought-guillotine-oppose-data-151045877.html
I am joking, but protest is only effective as a social pressure valve if it wins. When large, peaceful, polite protests get nowhere, it is necessary to find a way to communicate the rage.
#ClimateCrisis
#guillotine

2026-07-28 10:38:06 UTC

It turns out that welcoming to your country lots of migrants, who tend to be young and highly motivated, is good for employment. And therefore for financing welfare. We knew, but it's nice to see the data.
https://mastodon.social/@eunews/116997132869716726
#economics
#migration
#spain

2026-07-25 12:52:16 UTC

The Age of the Digital Armbreaker is here. @nprofile…ugpy has a compelling post on how the practices of finance (which, let's face it, was always there usury lenders in a trench coat) converge with those of Big Tech. Makes me itch to bring the guillotines out!
#finance #bigtech
https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/25/cruel-cruelty-oh-cruelty/#digital-arm-breakers

2026-07-09 12:10:13 UTC

Finito il periodo di embargo, posso condividere un mio saggio pubblicato qualche mese fa sul libro "Non viceversa. L’economia per le persone, i territori e la democrazia", a cure di Francesca Battistoni e Daniela Freddi. Il mio capitolo sostiene che le politiche di sistema - quelle che UNDP chiama "portfolio approach" - sono indispensabili per montare economie sociali territoriali.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21278848
#socialEconomy
#economiaSociale
#openAccess

2026-06-11 16:27:52 UTC

It's not that we are getting old (though we definitely are), the world *really is* getting shittier. We *really are* losing our agency to corporate bosses and their conservative politician minions. And the solution is, as always, collective, political and messy.
Don't take my word for it – take @nprofile…ugpy 's, and your own experience: https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/11/lapsarianism/#nostalgia-is-a-toxic-impulse

2026-05-25 14:18:37 UTC

Does anybody know how @nprofile…ugpy posts in this form ("Long thread/n" followed by "Show more/Hide post")? Is it some form of content warning?
And: what is the logic? He worries people will be annoyed by long threads? Are they?
#askfedi
#mastodon
#nevent1q…4k9f

2026-05-15 07:05:50 UTC

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@nprofile…v2v2 your reasoning is solid. And yet, I am old enough to remember being told by infosec friends to adopt Signal, way overkill for my infosec needs, to help normalize it so that people with keener needs than mine could hide among the normies. That worked, kind of, better than with PGP plugins on Thunderbird and such, anyway. So yes, you are right, but to some extent this was the result of a consciously made compromise and not a mistake. Or?

2026-05-11 05:07:18 UTC

Ok, Fediverse experiment. I am currently walking the Camino de Santiago. Is anyone else? Would be fun to meet up if itineraries allow.
#caminodesantiago
#caminofrances

2026-05-05 20:23:00 UTC

Calling all you #rail and #CrossBorderRail experts in the Fediverse! I am walking the Camino de Santiago, and plan to leave it at or near Leon. How do I get to France and then to Brussels? Should I aim for the Euskotren from San Sebastian to Hendaye? RailEurope wants me to go through... Madrid, but that can't be right.

2026-04-14 07:48:32 UTC

1/4
I am delighted to announce that the European Citizen Initiative (ECI) asking the EU to suspend the association agreement with Israel on human rights grounds has collected over one million signatures. The @nprofile…fu0r and the European Parliament have now a legal obligation to respond. 300K signatures were collected in less than one week!
I know this because six days ago I wrote a thread to explain how ECIs work and ask people to support this ECI in particular.
#gaza
#iran
#peace
#nevent1q…yef7

2026-04-12 10:10:46 UTC

I had managed to miss this magnificent essay from @nprofile…ugpy . His main point: what's obnoxious about #AI is not the technology, but the economics. For example, I can easily imagine a world in which LLMs are deployed benevolently by not-for-profit actors of the social and solidarity economy. But AI plus capitalism... ugh.
"AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/18/tech-ai-bubble-burst-reverse-centaur
#economics

2026-04-08 14:48:04 UTC

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@nprofile…ugpy Scholars of industrial organization pointed out that some workplace skills are hard or impossible to transmit in an abstract medium, and need to be learned on the job. The consequence of this is that tacit knowledge is an attribute of human COLLECTIVES, not individuals. Certain areas, known as "industrial districts", have acquired a productive specialization, with many companies working in the same business.
2/

2026-04-08 14:45:19 UTC

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@nprofile…ugpy for the sake of, ahem, interoperability with industrial economics: what this thread calls "process knowledge" is generally called "tacit knowledge" by economists. The invention of the term is attributed to Michael Polanyi, writing in the 1950s and 1966s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_knowledge
1/2

2026-04-08 08:44:48 UTC

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So, for once clicktivism is not a travesty. It's easy, and it could have a big impact. At a minimum you are giving pro-human rights MEPs ammo to demand a public debate on why we are in business with Israel, and, more in general, what price "being in business" comes with, and for whom.
6/

2026-04-08 08:28:29 UTC

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Let's acknowledge these countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden. Well done!
The second condition is on track to be met and exceeded, too. As I write this, the petition stands at 712,525 – almost 3/4 of the way, with still 9 months to go. This could easily be the most successful ECI ever.
5/

2026-04-08 08:22:25 UTC

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There are two success conditions. First, petitions need to gather at least one million signatures within a year of starting collection. Second, in at least seven different member states certain minimum thresholds must be reached in the number of signatures collected nationally.
Most ECIs fail, but this particular petition is doing VERY well. It started collection in January; the second condition is already exceeded, with ten member states achieving over 100% of their thresholds.
4/

2026-04-08 08:17:55 UTC

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An ECI is a "very official" form of petition, run by the European Union itself. If it is successful, the @nprofile…fu0r has a legal obligation to respond with an official act. Additionally, the European Parliament organizes a hearing centered on the petition, and might (but it is far from certain) also discuss it in plenary.
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/how-it-works_en
3/

2026-04-08 08:11:42 UTC

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This treaty is the legal cornerstone of cooperation between the two parties. Its suspension would be a big deal for Israel: the EU is by far its main trading partner, and its universities rely on the Horizon Europe programme for research funding.
Early this year, a group of people launched a European Citizen Initiative (ECI) to demand its suspension:
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2025/000005_en
2/

2026-04-08 08:09:06 UTC

If you are a European Union citizen, there is a concrete way you can support a peaceful resolution in Iran and Gaza: you can demand the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in view of Israel’s violations of human rights.
#peace
#palestine
#iran
THREAD 1/

2026-04-02 06:53:51 UTC

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@nprofile…x9tq that's not how I understand it. Is resilience not a property of systems? When applied to individuals it would still refer to.some kind of system, for example if I live and work in the same dense neighborhood my life is more resilient to shocks that affect transport and mobility.

2026-04-01 15:14:41 UTC

Yes, @nprofile…ugpy , participating in markets costs cognitive energy. Especially in real (as opposed to theoretical) ones, where suppliers hate to compete on price, and so make all kinds of baroque bundles that are not 1-to-1 comparable with the bundles of the competition ("$20 for the first month, then $60 from the second month on, but you need to sign up for a minimum of 12 months" and so on).
THREAD 1/n
https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/30/players-of-games/
#economics

2026-03-08 21:06:21 UTC

Many moons ago, I used #RSS feed readers to read blogs. A recent post by @nprofile…ugpy has pointed out that this technology is not gone, and we can use it to make the experience of the Internet, to borrow Cory's word, bearable.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/
OK. To all you out there in the know, a request for advice: what do I use on Ubuntu? I would really like not to see ads by the reader, it kind of defeats the purpose.
Huge thanks for suggestions.

2026-03-04 13:24:25 UTC

"The key idea is that instead of public revenue being raised by taxing income from labour or economic activity, we should ensure that public revenue is raised by taxing wealth, financial assets, immovable property, financial transactions, and all the ills of the economy, including from the extractive industry and especially of fossil energy.”
Olivier De Schutter, the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/03/un-de-schutter-outlines-plan-for-redistributive-global-economy
#degrowth #un #humanrights #economics

2026-03-04 12:48:24 UTC

I federalisti europei d'Italia ci riprovano. E fanno bene, il vento contrario non cancella la saggezza di andare verso una vera unione poltica, economica, diplomatica, militare etc. per tutte le genti d'Europa. https://www.piueuropa.eu/tutta_l_europa_che_manca
#EU

2026-01-17 10:39:05 UTC

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@nprofile…jdxz I was there too. Between that and some weak signals I picked up in the Brussels bubble, there seems to be some change in the air. Am I overly optimistic?

2026-01-03 17:35:45 UTC

Ok everyone, let's just skip directly to 2027.

2025-12-21 22:05:02 UTC

It's exhausting. They keep coming and coming and coming, with their lobbyists, and their money, and their conservative think tanks and their damn moral panic.
STAND.
#nevent1q…vdjx

2025-12-17 08:39:42 UTC

It's great we are in the middle of a browsers war, reminds me of 1993. So, what do y'all recommend I use, and why? Mac, Ubuntu, Android. Happy to read, within reason. Thanks!

2025-12-06 11:14:12 UTC

"Serving the interests of Big Oil and the Trump administration does not increase the EU’s “competitiveness” or strengthen the EU’s position in the world."
Leaked documents reveal how a group of powerful, mostly US-based fossil fuel companies worked from the shadows to capture EU institutions and dilute our environmental and human rights regulation.
Is this not a case for the Commission to resign en masse?
https://www.somo.nl/the-secretive-cabal-of-us-polluters-that-is-rewriting-the-eus-human-rights-and-climate-law/?mc_cid=0ef71f2ec5
#europe #environment #humanRights

2025-12-01 19:36:40 UTC

Meta's new top EU regulator is contractually prohibited from saying mean things about Meta
Fresh off @nprofile…998y 's press. Long may he endure!
https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/01/erin-go-blagged/#big-tech-omerta

2025-11-22 19:05:26 UTC

I am old enough to remember having hope in the COP process. 🙄 #cop30 #ClimateCrisis

2025-10-04 08:16:14 UTC

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@nprofile…qz4x Cory, these are really great data points. There is an antecedent: municipal socialism in the 19th century in parts of Europe, including my native Emilia Romagna, in Italy. There it was not (always) coops, but City Halls building up substantial investments, including utilities (energy, water, waste...) and transit. Eventually some of those companies federated to serve millions of people.
Something for your Green New Deal world?

2025-06-10 17:44:58 UTC

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@nprofile…h59f @nprofile…xs9j @nprofile…e4ae maybe @nprofile…qz4x got tired of the "future is not evenly distributed yet" quote and decided to give that distribution a push.
I know these days he is pretty much my economist of reference.

2025-06-10 16:59:48 UTC

R.I.P my UNDP colleague Ramzi Khader, who was killed alongside his wife, six children, and more than 36 members of his extended family in an airstrike by the IDF in Jabalia, Northern Gaza, on the first day of Eid Al-Adha on 6 June 2025.
Over 300 United Nations personnel were killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, side by side with over 50,000 of the Palestinians they served. What a tragedy. What a waste.
#Palestine

2025-06-09 18:56:14 UTC

New study (longitudinal data!): protected bike lanes *cause* people to take up cycling as their way to commute. Painted bike lanes have no discernible effects. ROI on protected bike lanes is the highest of all bike infrastructure.
Who could possibly have imagined it, eh 🤣
https://momentummag.com/want-more-bike-commuters-build-protected-bike-lanes-says-new-study/

2025-05-24 17:46:22 UTC

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@nprofile…vuu7 sometimes the middle ground is a bad solution. Like in @nprofile…qz4x 's radium suppositories story: the right amount of radium suppositories to put up your rectum is zero, not a compromise between zero and whatever fans of radium suppositories are proposing.
In this case though I am all for EVs, provided they are minimalistic in material and energy consumption, like e-bikes. 2 tons of plastic and marketing to carry 70 kilos of flabby human flesh? Hard pass.

2025-05-20 12:54:58 UTC

Reading academic papers and detecting a strong whiff of Gen AI.
Specifically all these meta-analyses could become quite fast if academics, rather than reading papers, ask LLMs to summarize them. The incentives are certainly there, because publish or perish.
Does anyone have a perception whether this is happening?
#academia
#generativeAI

2025-05-16 11:17:45 UTC

INCREDIBLE comeback of the European Citizen petition to ban conversion therapy - 700K signatures in one week, standing at over 930,000 as I write this.
Only a few more signatures are missing. I BEG you to protect the freedom of our fellow Europeans to choose who they want to be, and sign it. DO IT NOW, the deadline is today. ❤️
https://eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#/screen/home/allcountries

2025-05-14 15:54:30 UTC

Book club coming up! To prepare, I am re-reading @nprofile…qz4x 's "The Lost Cause" looking for characteristics of the economy of the world in which the novel is set. So far I spotted:
* Modern Monetary Theory
* Job Guarantee
* Anti-monopoly policy (several large companies have been broken up: "Baby Ikeas" etc.)
* Crypto-friendly theories of money (refuted, but with some empathy).
What am I missing?
Everyone welcome! Info and link: https://lu.ma/8ldrqsgk
#economics
#sciencefiction

2025-05-09 06:49:41 UTC

"Make war not just unthinkable, but materially impossible." Today marks 75 years since the Schuman Declaration.
A bit of European history to be proud of. Let's cherish it.

2025-04-30 17:59:14 UTC

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@nprofile…3w02 Blair lied about the "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, so how do we know he is not lying now?

2025-04-23 13:55:33 UTC

Chapeau, @nprofile…qz4x . Ye Gods, Facebook...
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114387533803607548

2025-04-20 17:00:25 UTC

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@nprofile…w24g @nprofile…ewft @nprofile…qz4x the old joke is that Parisians dislike three kinds of people: (1) foreigners, (2) other French people, (3) other Parisians. Perhaps less true today.

2025-04-17 21:09:07 UTC

My cohousing group is trying to buy European and open source tech. Things are going mostly well, but we struggle with video conferencing. We are currently on OpenTalk. It works well for small meetings with 4-6 people connected, but plenaries are a disaster.
Did a decent service hit the market in the two years since I last investigated this? Can anyone save us from having to get a Zoom subscription?
#opensource
#videoConferencing

2025-04-14 20:53:17 UTC

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@nprofile…4kmp this is laudable. This dialogue is invitation only, though. Any way for ordinary passengers to participate somehow?

2025-04-10 12:54:18 UTC

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I am curious as to how the choice of Microsoft as a provider was nevertheless made. So I made a FOIA request, which came back today:
https://www.asktheeu.org/request/security_risks_associated_to_the
The result is inconclusive: DIGIT does not have the information. "the European Commission limits its cloud services to be operated within the EU by general principle" (but then Microsoft is considered Irish 🤦‍♂️ ), "adheres to binding public procurement rules when contracting cloud providers", etc.
2/n

2025-04-10 12:48:17 UTC

The @nprofile…4kmp uses Microsoft applications for the everyday work of most its officials. This is puzzling:
* in conflict with the Union's strategic autonomy objective.
* a wasted opportunity to use procurement strategically, bringing business to European IT companies (even better if open-source based).
* disturbing securiy implications as US authorities have eyes and killswitches on all our executive's IT systems.
1/n
#Europe
#infosec

2025-04-01 16:40:08 UTC

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@nprofile…q6te @nprofile…qz4x "it's very hard to make people understand something, especially when their bonuses depend on them not understanding it".

2025-03-31 13:58:49 UTC

The combo of monopoly, unlimited property rights, and erosion of privacy rights souped up by AI has created a toxic world where private companies have both the legal and practical power to deny essential services to people who criticize them. This post by @nprofile…qz4x is his clearest formulation of the problem yet:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/31/madison-square-garden/#autocrats-of-trade
Conclusion: a healthy economy must have strong anti-monopoly provisions, or it won't stay healthy for long.

2025-03-24 09:55:08 UTC

"[CEO of adtech company Kubient] Roberts, according to federal prosecutors, schemed to create $1.3 million in fraudulent revenue statements to bolster Kubient's initial public offering (IPO) and significantly oversold "KAI," Kubient's artificial intelligence tool."
Not the AI's fault, exactly, but since people understand it as magical elves that can do the unexplainable it, AI is great smoke-and-mirrors for grifters. Surprise, surprise.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/ceo-of-ai-ad-tech-firm-pledging-world-free-of-fraud-sentenced-for-fraud/
#AI
#capitalism

2025-03-23 08:56:33 UTC

When the wise point to the monopoly, the fools look at the bot.
#AI
https://aus.social/@DamienWise/114209842383467340

2025-03-17 14:43:25 UTC

"Collectively, the 39 panels have a capacity of over 20 kilowatts — enough to power just one large, energy-intensive American household but more than enough for the lightbulbs, cooker plates and fans in the 180 households in Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba."
Nigeria's minigrids smell like the future.
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/technology/2025/nigeria-bets-on-solar-minigrids-for-climate-livelihood
#nigeria #degrowth #solarpunk

2025-03-17 11:19:47 UTC

"Cognitive ease at a cost: LLMs reduce mental effort but compromise depth in student scientific inquiry".
(I like the experiment's design)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563224002541
#AI

2025-03-01 22:38:09 UTC

All 91 employees of the digital services agency of the American federal government, 18F, have been fired in the context of the so-called DOGE initiative.
https://18f.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18F
#civicTech
h/t @nprofile…606h

2025-02-21 18:11:00 UTC

"Reposting with a comment? Even better – you're telling people why to pay attention [...]. This is why Mastodon's decision not to implement quote-tweeting (over a misplaced squeamishness about "dunk culture") was such a catastrophic own-goal."
I could not agree more, @nprofile…qz4x . Hopefully we are getting quote-toots now.. any day now... right?
#mastodon

2025-02-21 17:41:41 UTC

Do we know any historians into European history? This is a GREAT job opportunity. https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4160805352
#history
#jobs

2025-02-03 21:42:56 UTC

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@nprofile…qz4x Sorry, no. But here's a piece of feedback: first time I tried to claim my reward (from Firefox on a Mac laptop) I got stuck at a login request. Just tried again from an Android phone and I did manage to get to the end of the process. Got a receipt, but no download link yet. Martin Hench awaits...

2025-02-03 18:02:36 UTC

Today in #AI. Strong vibe of that Meta executive saying "Are you crazy? My kids are forbidden smartphones".
https://www.404media.co/anthropic-claude-job-application-ai-assistants/

2025-02-03 15:00:42 UTC

(What a time to be alive) "Add F*cking to Your Google Searches to Neutralize AI Summaries" https://gizmodo.com/add-fcking-to-your-google-searches-to-neutralize-ai-summaries-2000557710
#AI #enshittification

2025-01-24 19:18:44 UTC

"The enemy of your enemy ? Still your enemy, @nprofile…qz4x dixit. Oh, America, you break m'y heart. https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/113884896027559905

2025-01-24 11:11:49 UTC

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@nprofile…hftj apologies for a slow response, Tommi. Why don't you and @nprofile…sut0 and I share a coffee at some point? A point of attention: I won't be at FOSDEM, so it would be some coffee shop in town. We could also involve @nprofile…s8yn – similar situation to all of you, but we already know each other a bit. And of course it would be a joy to see @nprofile…ucuv again, but I am not sure he'll show up in Brussels this year.

2025-01-22 13:49:59 UTC

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@nprofile…sut0 I live in Brussels if that counts.

2025-01-14 18:10:39 UTC

This conversation between @nprofile…qz4x and @nprofile…gd4t starts off talking about a certain tech billionaire, but it soon veers into more interesting territory. It ends up as a masterclass in regulation #economics. Special treats await, towards the end, those of you who care about the #europeanunion and its attempt to be a civilizational model based on human rights and the rule of law (very imperfectly, I know).
https://www.youtube.com/live/I0kvjNh7czM

2025-01-11 11:20:26 UTC

"Your Iphone isn’t an ad-supported gimme. You paid a thousand fucking dollars for that distraction rectangle in your pocket, and you’re still the product. What’s more, Apple has rigged Ios so that you can’t mod the OS to block its spying.
If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product, and if you are paying for the product, you’re still the product."
Good stuff happens when @nprofile…qz4x joins #SOTW2025
https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/551/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page05.html#post106
#surveillanceCapitalism

2025-01-09 16:51:08 UTC

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@nprofile…ka48 sounds to me like you are calling for a new _economic_ paradigm, one based on the efficiency of public information instead of the exclusivity (hence monetizability) of paywalls. I could not agree more! #NewEconomicThinking #OpenKnowledge

2025-01-07 15:36:18 UTC

Haha @nprofile…qz4x has a 5 mins video to pitch for the latest Martin Hench book. At 1 minute I was like "yep, I'm definitely sold". At 1'40" I was like "OK ENOUGH ALREADY I'M HITTING THE 'SUPPORT THIS' BUTTON". Marty Hench is a hero for the(se) ages. And the religion angle? I had not seen THAT one coming.
I admire Cory not just for his novels, but also for his ability to build trust in his readers.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/picks-and-shovels-marty-hench-at-the-dawn-of-enshittification
#sciencefiction
#accounting

2024-12-28 09:38:19 UTC

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@nprofile…9wyy @nprofile…vrl0 @nprofile…rs68 more of this, less bullshit AI #appropriateTech

2024-12-27 20:42:26 UTC

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@nprofile…4486 one for @nprofile…n2f6 , our mighty instance admin.

2024-12-27 18:21:55 UTC

#bruxellesmabelle
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/726/173/264/409/151/original/7cdc38ab0a70ff72.jpg

2024-12-27 18:07:38 UTC

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@nprofile…yz7c more of this, less bullshit AI.

2024-12-27 16:49:49 UTC

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@nprofile…q0ky I am but a mere compiler of the thinking of far smarter people. But indeed: http://www.cottica.net/category/modern-economics/

2024-12-27 09:27:45 UTC

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2/2
Among those paying attention are my colleagues at UNDP. The first order of business is what Thomas Piketty calls "social experimentation", in such a way that it is relevant to the entire world and not just to rich countries in the Global North. And here I see a potential role for the UNDP Accelerator Labs. Like @nprofile…qz4x wrote (in "Walkaway", appropriately): "work needed doing and he could help. What more could he ask for?"
https://medium.com/@undp.innovation/charting-pathways-to-the-transformation-of-economic-systems-dd1091ea8d08

2024-12-27 09:26:30 UTC

THREAD 1/n
After a long political economy winter, spring is here. Academic economists are producing not only new approaches (especially around value theory), but powerful economic policy innovations; decision makers, desperate for a way out of the current mess, are sitting up and paying attention. This is an exciting development, because – for once – the critique to economic theory comes with solid practical alternatives, that we could try out right away.
#economics
#NewEconomicThinking

2024-12-25 18:49:55 UTC

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@nprofile…40u6 extraction is on brand for capitalism

2024-12-25 13:47:56 UTC

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@nprofile…e4uh thanks, that helps.

2024-12-24 16:05:06 UTC

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@nprofile…e4uh they do not seem very active. Are you in touch?

2024-12-24 13:53:38 UTC

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@nprofile…ean3 once you factor in opportunity costs, I suppose there won't be many left.

2024-12-24 08:26:52 UTC

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@nprofile…st8m impressive. Is there something I could read about it? French OK.

2024-12-23 19:53:15 UTC

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@nprofile…skjy By contrast, in Brussels there are 19 communes. Each commune has two libraries, one with material in French, the other one with material in Dutch. Each of the 38 libraries has its own card 😡

2024-12-23 17:11:15 UTC

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@nprofile…g3vn human sympathy does you honour. But the advertising industry is harmful, and it has to go. Anyone choosing to make their living as an influencer is complicit in it. So, sympathetic yes, on a good day. Conflicted, hell no.

2024-12-23 16:59:17 UTC

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@nprofile…jsxz heartbreaking, and also very interesting. Very clear misallocation. These children could be an asset to society if properly cared for, but instead their care is treated as a cost. I believe the reason is that the benefit of them being ok is mainly non-monetary (though there is a robust monetary component as well). Thinking about it.

2024-12-23 13:03:04 UTC

I would like to make a small donation to an organisation focused on #ClimateAction and based in #Belgium. Any recommendations?

2024-12-23 11:11:23 UTC

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@nprofile…zg7e @nprofile…gffv @nprofile…wk6u hell yeah

2024-12-22 08:49:03 UTC

"Making art is not an "economically rational" activity. Neither is attempting to persuade other people to your point of view. These activities are not merely intrinsically satisfying, they are also necessary, at least for many of us."
Amen to that, brother @nprofile…qz4x. Let me take the opportunity to thank you for your blog: your writing is cognitive prosthetics not only to you, but to me too. Happy holidays!
https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/21/blockheads-r-us/#vocational-awe

2024-12-21 16:18:34 UTC

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@nprofile…rrhg nice find!

2024-12-21 16:16:41 UTC

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@nprofile…hglw you can't make this shit up.

2024-12-19 18:37:19 UTC

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@nprofile…c5n8 nice post, thanks!

2024-12-19 14:17:33 UTC

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@nprofile…ktvk thanks Patrick!

2024-12-19 11:21:34 UTC

I need to travel to Istanbul from Brussels in March. Wondering: is there a way to do it by #CrossBorderRail ? Willing to consider a mix of rail, road and sea, and grateful for any pointer.