What does it mean...to be human?
Issue #81
Growing up, I was a major fan of the original Start Trek series. The reruns of Captain Kirk and company venturing out into space, meeting alien civilizations, engaging in battles, advancing a positive future for humanity were incredibly appealing to a boy like myself.
The movie, 2001, A Space Odyssey was a more cautionary tale, but the thought that we could someday venture out to Jupiter and discover alien artifacts was a powerful story for me as the age of American space exploration began to wane.
At the time, computer technology was growing by leaps and bounds but word processing, powerful desktops and “luggable” laptops were still on the horizon. So the low budget technology of the mid 60’s television series didn’t seem off putting.
While reading some articles last week about AI and what it might do to a lot of white collar jobs, I thought about what the technology could possibly do to, or for, the magazine industry. That reminded me of a few episodes where Captain Kirk used human “creativity” to defeat an evil AI.
Will it come to that in the future? Science fiction is full of stories like that from the Terminator movies to the more heartfelt “Murderbot” book series.
Is our future with AI an either-or equation? I don’t know. I’m excited and amazed by the technology. However, I admit that I’m very skeptical that the people who control it will use it wisely and in the best interests of the general public.
What do you think?
First up
_Prove you’re a human
Boma New Zealand founder Kaila Colvin revisits an article she wrote back in 2009 asking the question: How can we prove an entity is human? Is the Turing test obsolete now that AI can seemingly imitate human behavior? How can we be sure that the “people” we’re interacting with are in fact real people, not machines? How can we keep our own selves from being spoofed and hijacked?
This is a worthwhile thought piece and for me another piece in a thought process I’ve been mulling for some time. Is technology outstripping the ability of society to properly integrate its benefits? How do we take out the harmful side effects but retain the things that will actually help us? Just because we can have social media, does that mean that we need or should have social media? You can phrase that question in a hundred different ways with a hundred different pieces of software or hardware (Does it really help to have your toaster connected to the internet?).
What would happen if we could determine when an AI became sentient? Pinocchio wanted to be a boy. Data wanted to explore his emotion chip. The synths on Humans simply wanted to be allowed to live their lives like anyone else.
Next
_Would you trust Twitter to make payments?
What on earth does this have to do with magazines? Well, hundreds of titles still have thousands (or more) followers on the app. Major publishers like Hearst and Dotdash Meredith promote their brands’ articles, subscriptions, e-commerce and more and still consider it a viable, if not major platform.
So, think about how the site is run, how it is managed, who hangs out there and then ask yourself: If they became a payment platform, what would it take for you to trust it?
File under: “Unsurprising”
_The fate of NYC newsstands
Over the years, the sales of magazines and newspapers at the shrinking number of New York City newsstands have been replaced by the sale of food, water, short lived umbrellas, and other necessities of modern urban life. Newsstands have closed, been abandoned and city planners have decided that they don’t like the look of them.
We saw something similar happen in Chicago when the former Mayor Daley decided he liked planters and cast iron fences more than newsstands.
But in this happy instance, the community rallied and for now, a Bronx newsstand has a new lease on life.
For now.
Out of left field
Ralph Nader launches a Corvair Newspaper
Yeah, that Ralph Nader. The head of the Medill Local News Initiative points out that the town Nader is starting this paper up in, Winsted, CT, is not exactly a news desert (Hey Ralph, I know a whole bunch of northern Illinois communities that are actual news deserts. C’mon over!) and local government is actually getting covered. Plus the newspaper he is launching is really just that. Its digital presence will be very limited. Newsprint is a lot like the paper magazines print on: Extremely expensive and not necessarily something every company seems to want to invest in anymore.
Lastly
Ezra Klein (and others) on Barnes & Noble
It does seem like everyone and their uncle has suddenly rediscovered the wonders of the storied bookseller. In many ways, the chain is the unicorn of American bookselling at the moment. Unlike Borders, they survived. And unlike their nearest chain store competitor, they seem to be thriving.
The good news for book lovers (and magazine lovers), is that Barnes & Noble rightly used the pandemic as an opportunity to reimagine themselves. Of equal importance, the company was purchased by actual book people who were able to take a moment and look at what other successful bookstores were doing.
From my perspective (A person in the magazine business), thank goodness for Elliot Management and James Daunt. Barnes and Noble is an excellent retailer of magazines and a champion of that category. We could not afford to lose this important outlet.
Your moment of magazine zen…
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If you’ve got a question or comment, please drop me a line. You can always reach me at joe.berger@newsstandpros.com.
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I hope you have a wonderful week with short meetings, short email threads and a quiet slack channel.