Kester Brewin

Category: Culture

  • 14 hallmarks of fascism

    —

    by

    KB
    in , , , ,

    Excellent piece from back in 1996 in the New York Review of Books that came across my timeline this week – Umberto Eco on 14 hallmarks of fascism. Highly recommended read. They really are extraordinarily prescient. In summary: The question I’ve been asking myself is this: how does fascism end? Is war required? Or does…

  • God-Like on BBC Talkback

    —

    by

    KB
    in , , , ,

    Lovely to be invited onto William Crawley’s Talkback show on BBC Radio today. William has a PhD in philosophy, and was ordained too, and is an excellent presenter. The show was digging into the issues presented by the government’s announcement yesterday of the AI Action Plan. What I’ve been concerned about is that this plan…

  • Meta goes… meta

    —

    by

    KB
    in , , , ,

    Welcome to 2025, the year where AI really does its best to embed itself in our lives, for which you can read: get under our skin and up our noses. Meta – the owners of Facebook / Insta etc – already came out of the blocks with the launch of a bunch of AI profiles…

  • What Work Is Not – Future Narratives Lab

    —

    by

    KB
    in , , ,

    Last night I was presenting about work and technology at a panel event for Future Narratives Lab. FNL are a really great organisation who help organisations think through issues in a properly structured way that goes beyond the standard ‘workshop.’ Joining me were two wonderful people. Firstly, Emily Kenway – author of Who Cares –…

  • Take to the streets! (with chocolate)

    —

    by

    KB
    in , , , ,

    It’s hard to know how to process the final run up to the US election. It seems so absurd and unreal – everything drawn in hyper-caricature, no sense allowed to be made, single apostrophes being asked to carry the weight of a whole democracy, and a stunt in a garbage truck more powerful a signifier…

  • Not OK, Computer?

    —

    by

    KB
    in , , , , ,

    “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.” – AI Training Statement / https://www.aitrainingstatement.org/ Over 11,000 artists, writers, actors, musicians and others in the creative industries have signed the above statement, expressing their opposition…