An abbreviated weeknote this time, as I've not long got back from Orford Ness.
Orford Ness is a strange and interesting place. Used by the air force as a bombing run and a research centre, it has been partly rewilded, but with the unmistakable detritus of military and industrial use. In some ways, it reminded me of parts of the industrial edges of Derby combined with the brutal flat farm land of southern Derbyshire. But with shingle. Lots and lots of shingle. It's stark and beautiful, and I recommend a visit.
I started scribbling down a story based in part there last night, which I want to outline further. I'm going to crack into writing a short novel in November and see where I get with it: I would like to get a draft completed, although as I don't yet have a plot outline I'm a bit behind already. That will be this week's work.
Also on the agenda for this week is the second weekly post on my Substack, which focuses on the intersection between technology and the publishing business. Last week I posted about the impact of AI-driven changes in search on the ability of publishers to get traffic, the short version of which is “oh bugger”. There's no doubt in my mind that Google and Facebook really are intent on answering more queries without sending traffic to anyone else. That raises some huge problems, but there are ways out.
This week is all about using AI to create content, and the threat that poses to publishers. “Threat,” you're saying, “isn't it an opportunity?” Well, no – and tomorrow I'll explain why.
The three things which most caught my attention
- How tiny Qatar hosts the leaders of Hamas. In among the entirely correct condemnation of Hamas, what's being ignored is the role of “friendly” countries in “hosting” the Hamas leadership. Qatar, a country which has a track record of human rights abuses as long as your arm, gets rewarded with hosting World Cups and much more while it materially supports terrorism. Why does the West ignore this? In Britain's case, perhaps because of the [£40bn or so “investment” the country makes] – which mostly means buying and inflating property prices, benefiting our Tory masters.
- Many people jumped on the story that Spotify made higher-than-expected profits, citing the top-line number of around 1bn euro earnings. What they didn't cite was the actual profit: just 32m euro. Bearing in mind that it was after a quarter of crackdowns on password sharing, large increases in subscribers, and increases in prices, it's hard to see how Spotify will ever be a seriously profitable business.
- All the Whole Earth Catalog is now available online. Nostalgia in a bucket load.
