Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Vic.
1. What to expect from 2020
Now we’ve put another decade behind us, I’m absolutely stoked for what 2020 will bring. Especially if I base it on predictions from yesteryear. Which I am.
So, if by December 31st, we don’t have any of this cool stuff, I’m going to be very disappointed.
- Mail sent via rockets
- Teleportation
- Personal helicopter
- Monkey chauffer
- A SINGLE GIANT TOE IN PLACE OF A HUMAN FOOT
Check out the full list of 2020 predictions from the olden days here.
2. The future is here, now
Using just our brain to control things (without having your skull and grey matter drilled into) sounds futuristic as flip, but it’s getting closer to becoming a reality.
Wanna send a text, call up a favourite image, or scare friends by flicking the lights on and off using the power of your mind alone? Good news if you do, because NextMind has been developing a ‘noninvasive neural interface’ that just pops on the back of your bonce and taps into brain waves, turning them into data. And they aren’t the only ones – there’s a whole bunch of tech startups racing to be the first to develop accessible brain-computer interfaces.
Wired has a fabulous write up on the startups pioneering in mind-control devices that’s well worth a read.
3. Weirdos wanted – apply within
If you want to work for a Tory Government (oof), and you’re a bit strange, there might be a job going for you.
Dominic Cummings posted a rambling call for applicants, which included developers, project managers, and policy experts, as well as ‘super-talented weirdos’.
If you can make any sense of what he’s on about (and he doesn’t appear to), apply now, I guess?
Super-talented weirdos
People in SW1 talk a lot about ‘diversity’ but they rarely mean ‘true cognitive diversity’. They are usually babbling about ‘gender identity diversity blah blah’. What SW1 needs is not more drivel about ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ from Oxbridge humanities graduates but more genuine cognitive diversity.
We need some true wild cards, artists, people who never went to university and fought their way out of an appalling hell hole, weirdos from William Gibson novels like that girl hired by Bigend as a brand ‘diviner’ who feels sick at the sight of Tommy Hilfiger or that Chinese-Cuban free runner from a crime family hired by the KGB. If you want to figure out what characters around Putin might do, or how international criminal gangs might exploit holes in our border security, you don’t want more Oxbridge English graduates who chat about Lacan at dinner parties with TV producers and spread fake news about fake news.
By definition I don’t really know what I’m looking for but I want people around No10 to be on the lookout for such people.
We need to figure out how to use such people better without asking them to conform to the horrors of ‘Human Resources’ (which also obviously need a bonfire).
4. Choo choo! All aboard the vegan trend train
If you missed it last week, our Olivia wrote an awesome post on the top 100 vegan influencers brands can connect with this Veganuary.
Unsurprisingly, many, many brands have launched vegan products this week, including McDonald’s, KFC, Greggs, and Pizza Hut.
It will be interesting to see how many of these brands (and the gazillion others) continue supporting veganism past the point that it’s profitable (i.e. February when Veganuary is over).
5. Eggciting stuff
I hate Creme Eggs with a passion. They are far too sugary and eating them makes me feel like my teeth are going to rot out of my head in real-time.
In fact, I hate eggs full stop. All forms of egg can go to hell.
That’s why I will not be sitting down to watch any eggy shenanigans, courtesy of creative agency, Elvis, who recently worked with Cadbury’s to launch ‘EATertainment’ – a streaming service that promises to turn the Creme Egg eating experience into entertainment… while also simultaneously enjoying the sensation of your teeth dissolving, I assume.
CREME EGG EATERTAINMENT HAS LANDED! Goobye Netflix. Goo away iPlayer. Crack into a brand-new streaming eggsperience like no other and get ready to eat with your eyes and ears: https://t.co/X7yqzjOpPA pic.twitter.com/iDXzLuCDgF
— Cadbury UK (@CadburyUK) January 3, 2020
If you love to eat chocolate and sugar goop, and enjoy entertainment about eggs, and hate having teeth, check it out.
