Thanks so much for sharing this. One thing my ADHD brain is grappling with is where to focus attention among all my subscription channels (Substack, podcast subscriptions, newsletters, articles shared by friends/family, etc.). Have you played at all with using Alfred to filter these channels and make suggestions (i.e curate your own "algorithm")?
I haven't built anything yet, but one idea that we discussed with my wife was to satiate my hunger for knowledge and my curiosity in a way that doesn't find me the screens would be some sort of automated creation feed that curates stuff I would want to read every week. But instead of sending it to my inbox it would automatically send it to a printing service who would then send it to me in some ways so I could get my own weekly magazine fully personalised for my interests all managed by Alfred.
I have no idea if it's possible, but that would be cool
That’s EXACTLY how I’ve been thinking of this project.
Douglas Rushkoff points out in his brilliant polemic, Team Human, that normal people are always one communications revolution behind the elite. E.g. priests of antiquity used their literacy to interpret the Bible to an illiterate set of commoners. But when the Guttenberg press was invented and commoners became literate, elite now controlled what books got published. It goes on like that through the telegraph, radio, television, the Internet, and now we’re seeing it beginning for social media, and because things are moving so fast, maybe even for agentic AI as well.
Beginning right here, in this comments section.
As those with the most systemic power now have access to build AI models and influence the world through their weights, we have an ability to build software. This is why we’re hearing about the death of SaaS right?
But it could (must?) also be the death of the dominance of the previous media revolution.
A good intro to how algorithms work might be the Netflix Doc (based on Rushkoff’s work) The Social Dilemma. If you want to dig deeper, Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff is maybe a little outdated now, but an excellent explanation of how the data that we generate by existing gets converted into advertising dollars by companies that can build a predictive profile of us.
And now, I’m seeing all these OpenClaw users naturally inclined to connect as much of their personal data to these tools as possible so that they can make predictions.
Well that’s LITERALLY democratizing the behavioral prediction algorithms and not to get grandiose, but there could be a massive boost in wellness and agency amongst the broader population if tools like Alfred handed that power to normal people.
Meanwhile, the tools themselves “go meta” on the previous communications revolution by bundling feeds and making a single umbrella under which the old world is contained. Just exactly as you suggested.
One concept I’m battling with in my mind right now is how far to lean into a dependency on an AI agent.
This is the deepest integration into daily life that I have seen so far. The level of trust placed in the system feels all encompassing. I have to admit, it triggered a certain level of anxiety in me.
Do you feel like Alfred is helping you build real world skills that you could take with you if the Internet failed?
I might try this out just for the mind map visualization alone. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much for sharing this. One thing my ADHD brain is grappling with is where to focus attention among all my subscription channels (Substack, podcast subscriptions, newsletters, articles shared by friends/family, etc.). Have you played at all with using Alfred to filter these channels and make suggestions (i.e curate your own "algorithm")?
I haven't built anything yet, but one idea that we discussed with my wife was to satiate my hunger for knowledge and my curiosity in a way that doesn't find me the screens would be some sort of automated creation feed that curates stuff I would want to read every week. But instead of sending it to my inbox it would automatically send it to a printing service who would then send it to me in some ways so I could get my own weekly magazine fully personalised for my interests all managed by Alfred.
I have no idea if it's possible, but that would be cool
Oh I like that idea to reduce screen time! An aggregate audio channel could also work for me.
I love this idea, I've been building something like this myself with a WordPress App, but I think your Alfred system would be much more streamlined.
That’s EXACTLY how I’ve been thinking of this project.
Douglas Rushkoff points out in his brilliant polemic, Team Human, that normal people are always one communications revolution behind the elite. E.g. priests of antiquity used their literacy to interpret the Bible to an illiterate set of commoners. But when the Guttenberg press was invented and commoners became literate, elite now controlled what books got published. It goes on like that through the telegraph, radio, television, the Internet, and now we’re seeing it beginning for social media, and because things are moving so fast, maybe even for agentic AI as well.
Beginning right here, in this comments section.
As those with the most systemic power now have access to build AI models and influence the world through their weights, we have an ability to build software. This is why we’re hearing about the death of SaaS right?
But it could (must?) also be the death of the dominance of the previous media revolution.
A good intro to how algorithms work might be the Netflix Doc (based on Rushkoff’s work) The Social Dilemma. If you want to dig deeper, Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff is maybe a little outdated now, but an excellent explanation of how the data that we generate by existing gets converted into advertising dollars by companies that can build a predictive profile of us.
And now, I’m seeing all these OpenClaw users naturally inclined to connect as much of their personal data to these tools as possible so that they can make predictions.
Well that’s LITERALLY democratizing the behavioral prediction algorithms and not to get grandiose, but there could be a massive boost in wellness and agency amongst the broader population if tools like Alfred handed that power to normal people.
Meanwhile, the tools themselves “go meta” on the previous communications revolution by bundling feeds and making a single umbrella under which the old world is contained. Just exactly as you suggested.
One concept I’m battling with in my mind right now is how far to lean into a dependency on an AI agent.
This is the deepest integration into daily life that I have seen so far. The level of trust placed in the system feels all encompassing. I have to admit, it triggered a certain level of anxiety in me.
Do you feel like Alfred is helping you build real world skills that you could take with you if the Internet failed?
I might try this out just for the mind map visualization alone. Thanks for sharing.
This is everything 🫶🏽👌🏽🫡 thank you 🙏🏽
screenshot chops
This read is GOLDEN. Ive beem building a "brain funnel", but this seems next level. This on on the top of my ToDo. Thanks David.
Going to try it soon, thanks for sharing, David.