On the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, Max and Aaron have a 2 part discussion to combine personal recollections with some light historical research. This part covers the key differences between life and the news cycle in 2000-2001 and today along with personal experiences leading up to the morning of September 11th.

Ep. 188 - September 11th Recall Part I - The Before Time

The big news right now is around an analytics company that used a dataset from Facebook - gotten by the company under false pretenses - to help the Trump campaign in 2016. Everyone is SHOCKED - but this kind of data mining was glorified and extolled as a social good when it was used for Obama in 2012. The comparison of the coverage is stark.

How are we going to get out of this? What exactly is the problem? I think that the vast centralization of data services has led to all sorts of problems, and the answer is well articulated in VC Chris Dixon's article from last month about the coming decentralized services. I summarize his article which adds to my optimism about the future.

The Local Maximum

Ep. 6 - Facebook Data and the Election, Decentralization to the Rescue

Aren’t you getting tired of using an internet that’s built to waste YOUR time - I know I am!

Product Manager Marissa Chacko and I discuss the promise and perils of these bots and push notifications. We worked on Foursquare's bot Marsbot together, and produced it to help the user first. What are some ways we can focus on building apps that help users, and what are some of the bad habits that have gotten us apps which aren't looking out for our interests?

Ep. 12 - Virtual Friends & Enemies, Building Products that look out for us with Marissa Chacko

I look at the woe’s of social media and YouTube today, and discover that similar problems have occurred throughout history. Covering the rise of radio in the 1920’s and 1930’s including Fascist orators and federal intervention of radio in the 1930s, Cable News Fights, the FCC worried about explicit content in the 1990s and 2000s.

Finally, I compare the truly decentralized universe of podcasts - the podoverse - with the tech-giant run social media systems like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and why their business models, and the complexity of running such systems have led to internet malaise while at the same time a golden age of podcasting commences.

localmaxradio.com/70

Ep. 70 - Centralizers vs Extremists and an Ode to the Podoverse

We hear from Tassos Noulas, faculty fellow at the NYU Center for Data Science about Urban Data Science and the related theory and projects. In the age of big data, scientists have found a better understanding of how cities develop, how to improve transport networks, and some ideas for future products that can be built around taxis and AR.

Topics include the Future Cities Challenge, Taxi price comparison apps, retail gravitation, central place theory, the relationship with fractal geometry, and wiki atlas.

localmaxradio.com/71

Ep. 71 - Science and The City: From Urban Theory to Mobile Apps with Tassos Noulas

Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency called Libra is supposed to aid international transactions. Does it compete with banks, or does it compete with Bitcoin? And what are the chances that Facebook and their 100-member consortium of companies will follow through on this over the next few years?

We then turn to the idea of voting power, and learn about one important metric when it comes to analyzing voting systems: The Shapely Power Index. We’re dive into how it’s computed, what it means, and what it’s limitations are.

Today’s co-host is Maryam Aly.

localmaxradio.com/72

Ep. 72 - Voting Power, Consortiums, and Facebook's Currency

Talk Python To Me host Michael Kennedy discusses a range of issues with Max, including Python's popularity as a programming language and what we can learn from that, hosting a podcast as part of a business, and how programming skills can fit well with other careers and in our education system.

Ep. 73 - Talking Python with Michael Kennedy

Max follows through on his promise to take down the big lie about Bitcoin - that it’ll consume all our energy and destroy the earth. He goes through the simple math that shows this won’t be a problem, and talk about how Bitcoin can encourage better energy technology.

Jack Ma and Elon Musk were recently in a debate/discussion about AI in Shanghai, and they are in such opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to their philosophical outlook! We talk about what they said, and where they agreed.

Finally, Max starts by responding to Gab CEO Andrew Torba, who threw shade at Foursquare in a recent blogpost.

localmaxradio.com/83

Ep. 83 - Bitcoin Energy Alarmists, Musk and Ma in Different AI Universes, and Gab picks a fight

Scottish Liberty Podcast

My Trip To New York, Automation, AI, Martin Ford Debate with Max Sklar

Rob Bernstein (@robbiethefire) - standup comedian and host of the Run Your Mouth podcast - joins the Local Maximum. The conversation with Max covers podcasting, comedy during the pandemic, his ongoing summer porch tour, New York City, and the presidential election.

Ep. 132 - Rob Bernstein on Podcasting, Politics, and Porch Tours

The internet is about to go into a massive phase shift over the next few years, and the arms race was kicked off in 2021 with the deplatforming of Parler and Donald Trump. In this solo show, Max talks about the development of the internet, the rise of decentralized services like Mastodon, and the rise of decentralized finance.

Ep. 153 - Decentralizing Before our Eyes

Join Max Sklar and guests in this podcast about AI, technology, and society. Email localmaxradio@gmail.com for questions and feedback.

Show notes page on the website: http://www.localmaxradio.com

Ep. 6 - Facebook Data and the Election, Decentralization to the Rescue

The Local Maximum

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