Dear friends,
So here are some things I’ve been thinking about recently, including some topics I teased in previous issues (Does this bode the end of my Arrested-Development-style approach of failing to follow through on teasers for future episodes?):
Countersurveillance as a Fashion Statement
In ongoing news of Our Excitingly Cyberpunk Present, we now are at the point where researchers are developing and releasing practical fashion statements that defeat commercialized surveillance.
There’s this anti-microphone jammer from UChicago:
There’s this anti-automated license plate reader shirt from Kate Rose:
And of course, who could forget CV Dazzle makeup?:
Is this enough? Nope, each of these solutions are only effective against narrow types of threats. If bad guys are using hacks on your Alexa-knockoff smart speaker to listen in, and you’re focused on blocking facial recognition with your makeup, you’re screwed.
But at the same time, it’s exciting for me to see a world where researchers are beginning to tackle the challenges of privacy with joy and creativity. I don’t think these problems can be solved by a few individual solutions like these — but gosh, isn’t it refreshing to see something that individuals can do to help take a little bit of privacy into their own hands without having a user experience that feels like a combination of filing your taxes and role-playing as Sisyphus?
May This Baby Dolphin Bless Your Timeline
Judaism is In Scope for This Newsletter
For those less familiar, one of the common Things DC Rabbis Say about Judaism is that it’s a “meaning making technology.” This is good, because otherwise 100% of our Judaism coverage here on the Intersections of Technology and Society beat would have to be about why Coca-Cola is kosher.
The argument, generally, is that Judaism is a set of institutions, rituals, traditions, ideas, experiences that enable you to help you elevate and pay attention to everything you do every day. Be awake, so you pay attention. So you see the moment you’re in, the people you’re interacting with, as real and important, not just Non-Player Characters — and so that you have ways of living a little more like the protagonist in your own story. (To be clear: the argument isn’t that only Judaism does this — othe religions do, secular institutions do too — e.g., I think CrossFit is also a meaning-making technology, albeit with really different ends).
But here’s the thing — meaning-making is an idea that is sadly not the lived experience, or even the desired experience, in lots of people’s Jewish experiences. Instead, Judaism is often the Thing We Ask Rabbis to Do At The Front of the Room; something mysterious and important for unclear reasons, only really open to “old people” who lead the congregation, and unfortunately, boring and seemingly pointless. Growing up, I think the only place where Judaism seemed to really be open to everyone — a shared protocol instead of a hierarchy — was Jewish summer camp. Definitely not synagogues.
And so, when my family for a mix of financial, faith, and family reasons chose not to have me bar mitzvahed, I didn’t really miss it.
This past weekend, two of my dear friends got married (mazel tov to them, and howdy to the high percentage of newsletter recipients who were there too). The day before their wedding, they had an aufruf, a celebration for the couple during the Shabbat morning Torah service. And, in a fit of extreme kindness, or unwarranted optimism, or both, they asked me to be one of the folks reading from the Torah that day…
But, well, I’d never read from the Torah publicly. In the years since high school, I’d spent a lot of time trying to figure out what this Judaism thing meant for me. In that time, I’ve had a lot of experiences with other Jews with really different perspectives, folks of other faith backgrounds, and even folks who have taught me that being an atheist can be a tradition deeply steeped in kindness and love, too. But my Jewish skills competency is, at best, mixed. So, yeah, I only did okay — I definitely had trouble reading a few of the words on the Torah scroll, I was so nervous that I was practically shaking (an experience I basically never have in public speaking any more) — but I am a bar mitzvah man now.
There’s an argument — familiar to the anthropologists in the room — that some of the point of marriage ritual is to be demonstrative so that little kids remember, and can testify to it later should it ever be in doubt— oh yeah, such-and-such inheritance is valid, because I was there and can testify that they were married. I ate the sweets tossed in celebration at the grooms, I heard the glass break and the shouts of mazel tov, I watched them dangerously powerlifted in chairs by people who’d definitely skipped leg day. And though I am no longer officially in the under-13 bracket, I certainly know that for me, I’ll remember this weekend for the rest of my life.
And if Judaism can be a meaning-making technology, perhaps it also can remind us of the meaning we already have in our lives. The ways our friends support us: by recording and iMessaging us voice memos of the Torah portion, even though they’re hundreds of miles away; by a happy couple make space for us on the day before the biggest day of their lives to let us try something new; by our loved ones celebrating us, even when we’re afraid of stealing focus from others in the room, and helping us fill in holes in our lives, in our experiences, in our adulthood, that have been there so long we forget they’re even there.
Mazel tov.
Other news:
I strongly recommend that you see Hadestown, and advise that you don’t read too much about it before you go.
The IRS briefly attempted to treat video game microtransactions like Bitcoin (more or less)
“WHERE IS OHIO,” German man asks. Ohio 2 is clearly the right answer to his question.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is the first known writer to have used the word “T-shirt.”
Next time, on Dave Kasten:
Are cats good, or are they great?
Why is the CW’s Legacies the next evolution of both Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Will I ever write about the things I listed last time?
Disclosures:
Views are my own and do not represent those of current or former clients, employers, friends, or my cat.
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