I think, in ten years or so, software development will be done in the way project management is done now: as a marshaling of resources rather than the craftwork that currently defines it. The resources will mostly be machine intelligence, bent to the task of mapping fuzzily-defined specifications into executable code. There’ll be a few old crutzers still building things by hand, but such bespoke work will be expensive, and valued more for the aesthetic appeal than the practical benefit.

Ian’s skill set will be much more relevant than mine at that point.

Debbie Dingell is worried.

Godfrey: What could Trump do to change things up and win your district in November?

Dingell: I got yesterday, from somebody, something called a confession. [Editor’s note: It was a viral, anonymous social-media post.] I used to think I was pretty much just a regular person. But I was born white into a two-parent household, which now labels me as privileged, racist, and responsible for slavery. I’m a fiscal and moral conservative, which by today’s standards makes me a fascist because I plan a budget. But I now find out that I’m not here because I earned it, but because I was advantaged … I think and I reason, and I doubt much of what the mainstream media tells me, which makes me a right-wing conspiracy nut. I’m proud of my heritage and our inclusive American culture. It makes me a xenophobe.

That’s what I’m worried about. This letter right here is what worries me.

(from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/07/debbie-dingell-doesnt-believe-polls/614428/)

You can’t go anywhere but a few Caribbean Islands on a US passport right now, and that’s likely to be the case for at least a year, I think.

In the end, Trump did what he said. He built a wall around America and made the world pay for it. He just never told Americans that they’d be stuck inside.

https://medium.com/@indica/the-plague-states-of-america-53b20678a80e

https://time.com/5863684/greta-thunberg-diary-climate-crisis/

Getting tired of hearing state reps from around the country whining about how they did the right thing, but the virus infections are going back up. The virus doesn’t care. You can follow recommendations, or not. Recommendations represent everything from our current best guess at how to deal with the problem to politically motivated bullshit. No panacea. Virus doesn’t care which you do.

This is priceless.

The aspect of inequality I am concerned about is the fortunate group evading any need to address the problems of the world, because they can use their money and power to insulate themselves from the effects: climate, crime, housing shortages, …

But not this, apparently. Hope springs eternal.

https://www.thelocal.it/20200703/treated-like-criminals-italian-police-turn-away-american-tourists-arriving-by-private-jet

If the 40 most powerful people in the world have more sway than the poorest 50%, then fixing all our problems amounts to convincing 21 people, doesn’t it? That sounds easier than convincing half the planet. Inequality for the win.

Figures show significant fall in prosecutions in England and Wales and victims waiting longer for justice
— Read on www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jul/26/rape-cases-charge-summons-prosecutions-victims-england-wales

Tech might help here. I can imagine an app, running on your watch, that in response to a keyword starts an audio or video recording. This might bring the same phenomenon of radical transparency to this crime that we see having such results in the use of cellphone video for violent crimes in general.

Unfortunately, the main candidate for an app like this, the Apple Watch, doesn’t have a mic or a camera; it’s focused on touch and sight as primary interfaces.