#hannah and turing are coming back

[gfl-neural-cloud]

Dear Professor,

The new event [Critical Cascade] is coming soon! Return to Rossum, where a cataclysmic crisis is raging.

—Stay tuned!​

[andromedahawking]

NaNoWriMo Day 4

6667 words! Apologies in advance, I wrote this in a sleep-deprived haze when nothing was real, so this probably makes absolutely no sense, but hey, it’s 1667 words. Enjoy!

It made Maria feel a lot better seeing how smoothly this meeting went. Nothing like the previous group projects she’d been a part of. Everybody contributed, everybody had something to pitch in.

“…but the deal with New York was, even though Mazer was really popular, they weren’t totally wooed, right? A bunch of people still refused to vote red…”

“…and in Arizona, it was pretty much guaranteed they’d swing towards the more liberal candidates, so Hanover was going to win no matter what, since she was the most liberal Progressive…”

“…the 29th Amendment only went into effect for this election, it was ratified back in 2046, so there was a 10-year delay before the changes went into effect…”

It was great to see everybody so involved, but as with any assignment, Maria left that day feeling mentally exhuasted. Her head was swirling with all sorts of maps and quotes, blurring together into a big mess of… bleh. She needed to spend a few hours without any heavy thinking and go to bed early.

She ended up doing exactly that when she got home. She went straight to her room, and took a nap for four hours before waking up and doing her homework for the next day. Then she ate dinner, and went back to bed again, not waking up until the next morning.

—

This time, the windows shone brightly with streaming sunlight when she woke up, unhidden by the fog that had conjured up yesterday. She tried to convince herself to get out of bed immediately, but the covers were so warm, and the sun was lighting her room just so… it was a little too intoxicating to let go of just yet. So she made sure her second alarm was set, and drifted off back to sleep again.

This time, when her second alarm went off, she was able to extricate herself from her bed and make her way downstairs. She was still awake before Thalia, although at this point, that was saying more about Thalia than herself. It was 8 already! Shouldn’t she be up too?

“Hey, Thalia, it’s already 8 in the morning! You have one hour to get ready for school, okay?”

“Mmmrrrmmm, school’s not ’til 10!”

“And it’ll take you another half an hour to get your lazy ass out of bed and start getting ready before your ride comes, I know you! If you don’t get up soon you’re going to be late!”

“I knooow!”

Maria sighed angrily. “I’ll be back around 18, don’t do anything too stupid while I’m gone!”

Today was Thursday, so that meant two things: she had both English and History today, and she had work in the afternoon. She tried not to let the familiar sensation of dread hit her too hard as she realised that, but it was… difficult. Work was always a bit of a grating time, but lately, it just seemed like everybody was being just a little bit more insufferable than usual, and it was getting hard to hold her tongue when they were being insufferable to her face. Nathan was her only saving grace at this point. How that man managed to deal with so many people who didn’t know the first thing about social etiquette was beyond her.

She walked into History class with just a few minutes to go before half past. “Mornin’, Professor.”

“Mornin’,” Monaca said back. “Have a good Wednesday?”

“Yeah. Got a good start on the project.”

“Good! I hope you’re ready to work on it today, too?”

Maria rubbed her eyes tiredly. “I hope so. I slept like the dead last night, so I would like to think that maybe I’ll be more awake today.”

“If only it were that easy,” Monaca sighed. “Find a menthol stick, that’ll wake you right up if you start nodding off. Those things are strong as all get-out.”

“Menthol sticks?” Adrien said. “That sounds like some sort of torture method the government would come up with.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised, Adrien, ‘cause I also hate menthol with a passion,” Monaca said. “I’ve tried them once, and let me tell you, it woke me right up. Strongest taste out there next to black coffee.”

“That’s honestly frightening.”

—

“Okay, so, 2051!” Monaca said. “I know you guys were al saying that 2050 sounded like a very dull year, but 2051 has some stuff that should actually interest you.”

“Hurrah!”

“Quiet, Hank!”

Monaca laughed. “I’m glad you’re so enthusiastic. Now, in 2051, the groundwork for one of the biggest landmarks in today’s America got laid down: Teller City came onto the map.

“Teller City wasn’t exactly anything special before 2051. It was found in 2033, in the middle of Montana, and got started as a manufacturing city. It wasn’t very big, and it really didn’t have a reputation to speak. But that all changed in 2051. In February that year, a bidding process began for one city to become host to the second headquarters of a fledgling artificial intelligence company that some of you may or may not have heard of: Hawking/Turing Laboratories.”

The class laughed at that line. “Yeah, I don’t think many people really know about HT, Professor,” Hannah called out.

“I didn’t think so either,” Monaca tossed back. “The bidding process took only a couple months, and Teller City was chosen on July 28th. At the time, HT was starting to really get a name for itself, but it hadn’t gotten the reputation it has today just yet. Artificial intelligence was still far from perfected in 2051 and a lot of their resources were being allocated towards energy production to make a profit while their research and development department worked on the androids they’d become known for in the 60s. That meant whichever city won the auction for the second headquarters could count on a pretty healthy influx of jobs and population growth. Teller City had already gone through a pretty amazing growth spurt in the late 40s, but they were confident enough in their infrastructure handling that they were willing to take on another wave of workers coming in to work for Hawking/Turing Labs. They won the auction, and as predicted, there was a big uptick in job growth and population growth in Teller City over the next couple of years as a result of that win. But, that’s only one part of the reason this was such an important year for Teller City.

“Since they won the auction, that meant that this city, in the middle of Montana, which hadn’t really been paid too much attention in the past few decades, got put in the spotlight when President Plenard signed the Energy Restoration Act of 2051.”

“Wait, that sounds familiar,” Tatie said from the back. “Wasn’t the Energy Restoration Act the one that started the energy grid?”

“Exactly!” Monaca said. “The Energy Restoration Act gave a huge burst of government funding to a few energy companies based in the United States as a way to combat the growing energy crisis that was starting to cause major problems for electricity as a result of the oil shortage of the late 40s going into the 50s. And one of those companies was Hawking/Turing Labs, which meant that two cities were given a huge boost of productivity and publicity: namely, Columbia, South Carolina, and Teller City. They started mass-producing cutting-edge solar grids that were to be used to replace the power plants running on fossil fuels, and eventually became the two major hubs of today’s solar grid. In 2051, this was a huge deal, because something on this scale hadn’t been done since the middle of the 1900s, when the interstate highways were built. Teller City got most of the attention, because it produced by and large the biggest amount of panels, gridding, and infrastructure out of any of the other major manufacturing cities in the United States. They sort of had to, since Montana and the West in general is very sparsely populated, so to create a national grid meant they would have to reach all the way out to Washington, Wyoming, Utah, all the small states that have more land than anybody really knows what to do with.”

“Wait, so was this mainly a Hawking/Turing project that was funded by the government, or was this more decentralised?” Maria asked.

“Good question! Hawking/Turing was the main benefactor of the Energy Department’s funding, but a couple of th eother energy juggernauts like PG&E got some pretty substantial extra cash to work on this projet. It took until about 2056 for them to complete the grid, but when they did, it worked pretty damn well. Of course, anything on this level is gonna be rife with lots of little problems, but they did a pretty good job of making it work. Teller City has sort of been given a paragraph to itself in the history textbooks for being at the center of the whole thing. So, if you ever wondered what was so special about Teller City, now you know: they won the second headquarters for HT Labs, and they built a metric shitton of stuff for the solar grid as part of the Eneergy Restoration Act of 2051.”

—

“Okay, it’s official, this class is gonna murder my hands with all the stuff I have to take down,” Adrien said to Maria as they left. “Like, it's interesting and all, and I love it, but Jesus Christ she talks at the speed of sound sometimes.”

“She’s very easy to get excited,” Maria agreed. “Sometimes I wonder if we’d be better off if we put half a sleeping pill in that Snapple bottle of hers before class so we could maybe hear more than just every other word.”

“Ha! Yeah, that probably would help out at least a little.” He checked his watch. “Oop! Sorry, gotta jet, I’ve got Astronomy in five minutes.”

“What?! Dude, run! Run, run! Get going!” Maria exclaimed. “You’re not gonna make it if you don’t book it!”

“I know that already!” he said, already breaking into a jog. He sprinted across the courtyard, then vanished into the sprawl of buildings.

[sfpcschool]

Interview with Computing and Stories Summit presenters

SFPC is hosting the first Computing and Stories Summit on June 1st, 2017. Here's an interview with the organizers and presenters: Amy Wibowo, Jie Qi, Jenna Register, Natalie Freed, Linda Liukas and Taeyoon Choi.

Tell us a little about yourself, how did your interest in computing begin?

Jenna: Little was it known to me that I have been a computer programmer since a very young age. I fell in love with problems like the Towers of Hanoi, Mastermind, and logic puzzles. I found my way into “hacking” my computer games to cheat in some outrageous ways. I even read an entire book on recursion and math… without ever knowing what Computer Science was. When I was required to take my first CS course in college as part of my Brain and Cognitive Sciences degree, I fell in love. I switched everything that I was doing just so I could code. Just so I could finally feel understood by myself. For me, programming is the source of my spirituality. I understand myself through my code!

Taeyoon: As a kid, I was fascinated by computers. I think the first computer I encountered was Macintosh Plus. It had a chatbot that I could interact with. The conversation itself was limited but I liked the idea that I could engage with a computer intimately. I was really into the Internet community as a youth, connecting people over distance. I learned to use digital production tools (mostly photo and video editing) in an art school. I often felt limited by the commercial production tools, I felt like my expression was constrained in the filters and features of the tools. In the mid 2000s, I learned about hackers and new media artists working with software and hardware in playful ways. During my residency at Eyebeam in 2008, I met many friends (Zach Lieberman who I continue to work with on SFPC, the openFrameworks community, Hannah Perner-Wilson, Dan Torop, Geraldine Juárez and more) and their practice demonstrated that I can take liberty to use computers and electronics for creative expression.

Shift Register by Taeyoon Choi, photo courtesy of the artist

Linda: My dad brought home a computer in early 90s and told us there’s nothing we can do with the computer that can’t be reversed. As a result, me and my siblings had a very curious and fearless attitude towards computers and computing - and probably also managed to remove the operating system and dad’s important work files a few times.. I never thought my career would be in technology, but now in hindsight working with education & computing connect all the dots for me.

Natalie: When I was a kid my dad brought home a couple of old Macintoshes for us to play with. My siblings and I spent hours upon hours drawing in Kid Pix. I still love that program, and its great origin story! I also used my computer to make maps and write short stories. I had no clue what computer programming was until my dad, a programmer himself, encouraged me to take a C++ class in high school. I was very unhappy in that class - it was mostly boys and as a shy kid who liked to blend in, I felt out of place. I also wasn’t super interested in the class project of making a computer game. Fortunately I gave programming another shot in college and fell in love, ending up majoring in computer science. It’s magical that you can create things with words and with the logic of language! And the kinds of abstraction you can play with make my brain really happy. Now I teach programming, and also use it as a creative tool to explore concepts and to build tools for making other things.

Stab Bound Books, by Natalie Freed. Photo courtesy of the artist

Amy: As a kid, I loved drawing in MS paint, creating 3D worlds in Corel 3D, making games in Visual Basic, and making Sailor Moon fan websites in HTML in Notepad. I loved making stuff outside of the computer as well (painting, cross stitch, embroidery), so computers and programming to me seemed like just another way to express my creativity.

Jie: I took my first programming course in high school (AP computer science) and did so poorly I ended up dropping the course halfway and thought that programming is *definitely* not for me (other people in the course seemed to glide through and were winning state competitions!). However, in college, I did an internship with Ayah Bdeir and got into electronics and another internship with Leah Buechley and discovered that code could be combined with arts and crafts to bring artworks to life. That’s when I finally “got it” and fell in love with the magical things I could make with programming and electronics.

Picture from Jie Qi’s project “Electronic Popables”, photo courtesy of Jie Qi

What are the creative challenges you are currently encountering in your practice?

Taeyoon: I find it important to connect my work with the history of art, and technology often gets in the way. I find it a challenge to make art that’s timeless as well as current and relevant. There’s often lots of excitement about what is ‘new’ in technology. For example, recently there’s a lot of excitement about A.I. and VR. A few years ago, there was a lot of excitement about 3D printing. And some time ago, there was a lot of excitement about interactivity. But there’s a sense of futility in these short-lived excitement. When I see people wearing VR headsets, I often think of Kasier Panorama. Kaiser panorama is a mechanical contraption where you look into the viewfinder to see a moving diorama, a miniature of Paris or Berlin. It was popular around the turn of the 19th century, lost popularity over the years and then came back to popularity for a brief period right before silent film became mainstream. In a sense, the ‘new’ technologies tend to repeat the excitement and exhaustion, like Kasier Panorama. For me, technology is both the medium and subject of my art.

Jenna: In order to be creative in my research field, I need to have the hard skills. I can dream up Turing Complete systems for monkeys to use, or functional programming languages that model the human mind… but I need to be able to successfully (and mathematically) write my models. Additionally, I am finding it harder and harder to communicate the work that I do to outside ears. I love sharing the basics of my work, but when it comes to explaining my current interests in a concise way, it requires A LOT of creativity to explain the abstraction.

Data Structures: STACKS, video by Jenna Register

Linda: I think kids are the most efficient learners of all times and it requires a lot of honesty to write and illustrate for them. I don’t want to make things cartoonish or use narratives that they will feel dishonest later in life. At the same time I think it’s important to shield a bit of the complexities to make subjects approachable.

Natalie: I’ve always admired and enjoyed spending time around artists, but didn’t think of myself as one. I’ve recently been realizing that for some of my projects, it would be incredibly useful to learn more about how artists evaluate their own work and think about their process. It feels like there are lenses through which to look at making that are not in my current toolkit. This is actually an exciting realization because I like that feeling of disorientation when you’re learning about something really new to you. One example is that I’m used to a prototyping process that is *relatively* linear and predictable, not one that involves throwing out 90% of what I try! And as a teacher and maker I value process a lot, but I’m not used to thinking that it’s allowed to be integral to the final piece.

Video of “Telescrapbook”, by Jie Qi and Natalie Freed

Jie: The most challenging for me is simply finding the time to explore far far outside of my domain. Lately I’ve been working a lot on toolkits and teaching and explaining-- which is fun and satisfying. But I’m also excited to explore and push my own technical and creative boundaries as well, and miss this different kind of joy. So perhaps giving myself permission and time to really play is my biggest creative challenge right now.

Amy: It's a fun and exciting creative challenge to explain concepts like machine learning, compilers, and operating systems in a way that middle schoolers will find interesting and accessible, in a way that's not condescending or dumbed down. Also, how to build a company that does social good and is ethical, in a monetarily sustainable way.

Why is it important to make computer science and engineering a more welcoming and diverse field?

Taeyoon: The mainstream culture of computer science and engineering is exclusionary. There’s a stereotypes of (typically white men) leaders in the field. In fact, it’s not true. Traditionally, women and queer engineers have pioneered many important aspects of computing and technology. Also, the real workforce and academics who are developing computing, are not homogenous. I think a lot about ways of revealing the complexities of the cultural bias around technology. If we can create counter-narrative to the mainstream image (of white or male – artists / engineers / entrepreneurs) , we can help shape a culture around technology that’s less biased and unfair, ultimately more inclusive for people who are not represented as leaders in the field.

Jenna: I recently returned from a conference where there were 300 women out of 8000 attendees. That is 3.75% female (unsure about Trans individuals). The conference was for GPUs, so very close to hardware (less women the closer to the hardware you get!). But it was a shocking experience. But besides an obvious inequality like this, here is my answer: Problem Solving is Empowering. I find that learning to think logically, and gaining the independent thinking that comes along with programming is empowering. And I want to help those who feel disempowered to find their strengths through STEM.

Excerpt from “How Do Calculators Even” by Amy Wibowo

Linda: I’m writing the book series thinking of what would have made me excited about computing as a kid. A lot of the materials out there today lack this empathy - and that’s why it’s important to have more diversity in the educational field, also going forward.

Natalie: Based on my own experience, my students’ experiences, and my research, I am convinced that many people who would really enjoy computer science miss out on the chance to learn about it. They might get initially turned off by an unwelcoming experience, only get exposure to a narrow application of it that doesn’t match their interests, or leave because of a toxic learning or work environment. I’ve found so much joy and empowerment in this field, and I deeply believe others should have that opportunity as well. Also, technological change has an enormous impact on society. We need all kinds of people deciding what direction that takes.

Art and Algorithms exercise from Linda Liukas’ “Hello Ruby”, photo courtesy of the artist

Jie: Computer science and engineering are such powerful levers to impact and (hopefully!) improve the world. However, change is rarely about just the technology but rather needs a whole community around it to make sure that the technology itself makes sense and is accessible. Unless we bring more diverse perspectives into the field, people who feel welcome and empathize with problems and see solutions that actually work for *their* community -- ones that the current tech community does not sense-- we cannot see the full extent of how much positive change we can create.

Who are your role model? Tell us about people you look up and feel constantly inspired by?

Linda: I love Sophia Coppola, Tove Jansson and Björk, artists with a strong inner world that they’ve projected consistently, but creatively throughout the years.

Taeyoon: I look up to people who take their work seriously and take on a very long term projects. Recently, I invited Barbara London, who was a curator at MoMA for decades, bringing new media art, video art and sound art, into the museum. Her persistence was admirable. I also think about artists and activists who embed themselves in communities and institutions. There are many, I can’t think of one person right now.

Barbara London, photo courtesy of the Grolsch ArtBoom Festival

Jie: There are so many. But for the most part, I really admire who are both amazing through what they do and maintain a kindness, humility and generosity that invites everyone in. To name a few, Ayah Bdeir (founder and CEO of littleBits) is my entrepreneur role model-- for growing something from bits in a shoebox to an entire movement, fueled by her unique faith and energy. Leah Buechley and Edith Ackermann are my research role models and taught me how to contribute academic research without getting caught up in the machinery. Andrew “bunnie” Huang who has taught me so much about navigating freedom. Finally Sally Rosenthal who has a magical knack for making things happen with firmness, warmth and empathy.

Natalie: So many it’s hard to begin, but Edith Ackermann comes strongly to mind. She was incredibly rigorous about studying play without ever losing her own sense of humor, play, and mischief. She could see the “soul” of your project and would tell you about it, bluntly but somehow in the most warm and inspiring way imaginable. Also, my mom read us Claude Ponti books growing up and his surreal, detailed worlds full of imagined creatures have stuck with me.

“Imagination” from Linda Liukas’ “Hello Ruby”

Jenna: Quite frankly (nobody make fun of me!): All of you! I am so thrilled to get to meet you all. I have not yet come across others who want to inspire through art, technology, fun, and childlike wonder. I couldn’t be happier.

Amy: Simone Giertz is my hero for bringing a sense of fun and play to technology, and for emphasizing that it's ok to build things that are useless. Also, just like Jenna said, all of you! I’m honored to be with so many people whose work I admire!

Data Structures: Hash Tables, video by Jenna Register

What was the last project (art, comic, technology or whatever) you saw that blew your mind?

Taeyoon: I went to the Frieze Art Fair in NYC and saw some great things. I really liked slow moving sculptures by Robert Breer and Andreas Angelidakis’s video art ‘Domesticated Mountain’. I also read a story by a South Korean novelist Han Kang, which I thought was very moving. I’ve been reading Beasts of Burden by Sunaura Taylor, which is an incredible book about disability and animal rights.

Jie: There’s a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne called “The Artist of the Beautiful” about a young watchmaker that makes magical machines in his workshop. The (very emotional) creative process really resonated with me.

Natalie: At the last Autodesk Pier 9 showcase, I ran across Neil Mendoza’s “Fish Hammer Actuation Device.” A camera over a fish tank tracked a goldfish’s movements, which were then transmitted to a hammer moving on a circular track. When the goldfish stayed in the same place for long enough, the hammer would come down and, depending on its position, might smash a tiny piece of furniture placed in its path. I was so delighted by this piece. Something about how completely oblivious the fish was to the destruction it was causing!

Linda: I’m reading Robert Irwin’s Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees and it's helped me understand and navigate a good part of this year.

“Hello Ruby” Skidit Festarit, photo by Otso Kaijaluoto

Jenna: My very best friend is working on a comic to help herself and others overcome their PTSD. The comic is a superhero world, where your “inner demons” manifest in the outside world. We illustrate people as superheroes fighting off demons like Insecurity, Depression, etc. We hope to make illustrations for people who are working through healing, to remind Survivors that they are, in fact, Warriors.

Amy: When the SFMOMA reopened recently, I was blown away by a wall mural designed by Sol Lewitt. As a conceptual artist, he didn’t paint the mural but instead, contributed instructions for how to paint it, which were written in a way that reminded me of Logo Turtle programming. Algorithms as art!

Electrocutie Hardware Kit by Amy Wibowo

* We are thankful to our sponsors including SFPC, Hello Ruby, The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Paul Ford and Processing Foundation. We are actively looking for sponsors. Please contact taeyoon@sfpc.io if you are interested in supporting this event. 

[touristguidebuzz]

Distribution Upheaval Comes Slowly — Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report

Travel distribution is changing, though still relies on decades-old systems. Some in the industry, including American Airlines, are trying new approaches. In this photo, an American Airlines plane is shown at Miami International Airport. Miami-Dade Aviation Department

Skift Take: The global travel marketplace is ripe for evolution; we're still only at the early stages.

— Hannah Sampson

The Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter focused on the future of corporate travel, the big fault lines of disruption for travel managers and buyers, the innovations emerging from the sector, and the changing business traveler habits that are upending how corporate travel is packaged, bought, and sold.

This week, we took an in-depth (like almost 9,000 words in-depth) look at the way travel is distributed, the giant global distribution systems that dominate, and the disruptors that are trying to bring about change — albeit at a snail’s pace.

Senior writer Andrew Sheivachman points out that the topic is highly relevant to corporate travel. Travel management companies are invested in the status quo, but any changes could have a big impact on how business travel is booked.

As one source in the story said: “We need to radically change and rethink how we innovate. We need to decrease the feedback time between what customers, travelers, or businesses around the world actually need, and what anyone who can produce good software can deliver.”

Speaking of trying to change things up, this week we have even more reaction to the efforts American Airlines is making to incentivize agents to book through a direct connection. Travelport CEO Gordon Wilson described his take as “super skeptical.”

Whether you fall on the side of skeptical, intrigued, or fully on board, keep watching this space. We’ll be following developments closely.

— Hannah Sampson, News Editor 

Business of Buying

Marriott Partners With Alibaba to Court the Chinese Travel Market Even More:  Smart move, Marriott. Given the growth of the middle class worldwide will be led by China, it’s incredibly insightful on Marriott’s part to be doing all it can to establish loyalty and brand recognition with this crucial market sooner than later.  Read more at Skift

Premier Credit Cards for Travel Are Now Requiring a Much Higher Spend: Banks compete for customers by issuing credit cards with lavish perks but there has to be a balance so they can make money. The balance is now swinging back toward the making money part. Read more at Skift

Hyatt Makes Nice With Expedia But Still Talks Up Direct Booking: Hyatt wants to keep important relationships with online travel agencies but emphasize its own channels to foster direct relationships with guests. Read more at Skift 

Airline Bumping of Overbooked Passengers Reaches 22-Year Low: Some airlines had defended overbooking as a must-have tool in their revenue management arsenals but the social media backlash forced them to modify their ways. Read more at Skift

Marriott Unseats Wyndham as Best Hotel Loyalty Program in New Ranking: Alaska Airlines continued to scoop up awards for its distance-based loyalty program while Marriott took advantage of its recent merger in this year’s U.S. News and World Report’s loyalty program rankings. Read more at Skift

Disruption + Innovation

Channel Shock: The Future of Travel Distribution: The global distribution systems aren’t going anywhere. Innovation, however, is happening in the margins of the travel distribution marketplace, with airlines seeking to regain control of their destiny. Read more at Skift

Travelport CEO Is ‘Super Skeptical’ About American Airlines Strategy: American is creating a new distribution path that might tweak the role companies like Travelport play in distribution. Travelport boss Gordon Wilson tells us he’s skeptical. We remain undecided. Read more at Skift

TripAdvisor’s Global Food Delivery Expansion Pressures Hotels to Adapt: TripAdvisor has expanded its food delivery service outside the U.S. and Canada, part of its strategy to grow non-hotel revenues. More travelers can chow on crisp-fried shrimp paste chicken comfortably in their rooms. Hotels have no choice but to say bon appetite. Read more at Skift

Turing Smartphone Lux Concierge Can Book Charter Flights: Appassionato has had production glitches and the $1,000 subscription service is a tad pricy. But the idea of a concierge service on smartphones or other voice-enabled devices is already happening. Read more at Skift 

JetBlue Switches to Customer Service Tool Built by Startup it Funded: JetBlue will be one of the first airlines to build unified records of all the interactions that each customer has with it via phone, text, and so forth. We hope other airlines copy the move to improve their service. Read more at Skift 

COMMENTS

Skift editors Hannah Sampson [hs@skift.com] and Andrew Sheivachman [as@skift.com] curate the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.

Subscribe to Skift’s Free Corporate Travel Innovation Report

[dimenovelsfromoblivion]

The Preferred Term Is “Limited Existence”

Human mortality is a harsh reality that causes sentient life considerable discomfort. Since death is inevitable life can only be procrastination. Everyone does their best to drag their feet and push off the big day just a little bit longer. It is especially jarring to have to explain death to children. Many children learn about death through incremental experience.

The first time is when they are the most detached most likely it was a pet, beloved but with minimum emotional investment, It's this first encounter that shows them what it means to die but no effort will be made to explain to the child that they share the same unalterable fate. A few years later it will probably be an elderly relative, a grandparent and that’s when the inevitability of death will be addressed, and the developing child or adolescent will have either have to accept that truth or drive themselves to madness trying to deny it.

By the age of thirteen, this was the extent of Christopher’s experience with confronting mortality. His youthfully resilient psyche was perfectly able to reassure itself even if it would happen to him some day it was such a long way off why worry? In the minds of the young nothing is more abstract as the future.

That morning over breakfast Christopher’s mom noticed an obituary the text of which was accompanied by the thumbnail portrait of a cute teenage girl. The name seemed familiar, so her curiosity was peaked.

“Kelly Anne Schroeder,” she read the name in a ponderous tone. “Chris, isn’t that your friend Kyle’s sister?” She asked in a horrified tone.

Kyle had only been a Friend of Chris’s by proxy, a mutual friend if you will. He thought about it for a second. “Yeah I think so,” Chris acknowledged. “But how? she’s only like three years older than we are.”

“It doesn’t say,” replied his mother relieved she wouldn’t have to explain any one of the ways she assumed the teenage girl most likely died.

"Wow, that's crazy," said Chris unable to come with a more insightful response because he had never had the experience of losing a sibling.

“Didn’t Kyle say anything to you about it?” Asked his mother.

“We’re not really close friends or anything. I just know him through Josh,” replied.

“But doesn’t he live just three blocks over?” His mother asked as if this would somehow contradict the information he had just give.

“Yeah, something that like,” nodded Chris.

“Well, why aren’t you better friends with him then?!” Demanded his mother.

“I don’t know,” said Chris now visibly annoyed by the line of questioning.

“You know what I think since he lives so close it would be nice if you brought his homework to him until he’s ready to go back to school. Maybe then you guys can become better friends,” his mother gleefully suggested.

Chris wasn’t thrilled about going out of his way every day to carry textbooks to a household full of people in mourning. Every interaction was sure to be painfully awkward, but all the same, he figured it was a worthwhile gesture maybe not for the reasons his mother was considering but because it seemed like the decent thing to do.

It was 7 minutes before the bell and Chris was burning the last few minutes of the morning scrolling through his various social media feeds. He heard the desk next to him skid as someone settled into it.

It was Kyle. Chris hadn't expected to see him today. He discretely sized Kyle up to see what kind of engagement he might expect to have. Kyle didn’t appear saddened, despondent, or even shaken in any way. As usual, he took his binder and his book out of his backpack placed them on his desk and rested his elbows on them while he used his phone.

“Hey Kyle, what’s going on man?” Chris greeted him warmly.

“Kyle turned and glanced at Chris. “Not much, how’s your morning going?” He asked before turning his attention back to his phone.

“Good, good,” said Chris “Well except for what happened to you obviously,” he blurted out. Chris cringed when he realized how that had come out.

“What do you mean?” Kyle asked somewhat suspiciously.

Chris felt his heart cease to beat while his face contorted into a clenched-toothed squinty eyed recoil.

“About Kelly,” stammered Chris now suspecting he may have somehow managed to make an idiot out of himself.

“You think my sister is ‘dead” Chris?” Kyle asked putting up air quotes on the word dead.

“Didn’ she die yesterday?” Chris asked now feeling a peculiar mixture of embarrassment and confusion

“She didn’t “die”! She’s not “dead”!” Kyle said putting an emphasis on the words as if they were terms of degradation only someone would use only out malice or sheer ignorance.

“I, I’m sorry man I thought you knew,” pleaded Chris. “Belive me, man; I would never have said anything if I didn’t know…

“Look she just posted on my timeline,” Kyle said shoving his phone directly in Chris’s face. There was a new post on his timeline from his sister with a picture of them as small children playing tee ball.

“Hey, lil bro hope you have an awesome day! Go Willaims kids!” Was the first comment and it was posted by Kelly as well. It had garnered six more likes in the few seconds Chris was looking at it.

“But her obituary was in the paper,” said Chris.

“That’s not because she’s “dead,""  he huffed. “She’s gone A.D,” declared Kyle.

“A.D.?” repeated kyle

“All digital!” Kyle said visibly agitated.

“I’m sorry Kyle I don’t know what that is,” Chris apologized.

Kyle threw up his arms and rolled his eyes. “How ignorant are you?!” He demanded.

Chris was at a loss for words. “A.D. or all digital means she has decided to give up her physical body and just live through her online persona,” A classmate named Hannah explained as part of her sudden intervention into the conversation.

“What does that mean?” Chris asked

Hannah groaned “Ok, so this may not be something you can understand, but some people are born with extra sensitivity to pain. Rather than having to suffer every day they decide to live safely through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or tinder.”

“But she is dead through right?” Chris asked reluctantly.

“I’m not going to let say that about my sister!” Kyle said clenching his fist.

“Wow,” said Hannah leaving her mouth open to portray the apparent shock she had just experienced.

“The funeral is Saturday right?” Chris asked with his hands up to show he hadn’ intended any harm.

“I’m not letting you get away this. I’m going to tell Mr. Bilmer, and you’re gonna get suspended!” Kyle declared as he stormed off.

“Why do you think you get to decide what being “alive” means?” Hannah asked acidly.

Chris was pleading for understanding. “I’m sorry I thought she died. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just going to ask if he was ok!”

“Typical,” replied Hannah in disgust.

Kyle had returned with the teacher and was pointing out Chris to the authority figure.  Mr. Bilmer or Greg as he encouraged his students to call them was barely 15 years senior to the children he taught and was convinced that put him in a unique position to make them feel like they had real agency and independence while he still guided them developmentally.

“Chris Kyle says you said something insensitive about his sister’s less orthodox life choice?” The teacher asked in the manner of an investigator at a crime scene.

“I said I thought she was dead,” Chris explained

“He doesn’t even think anything's wrong with it either,” Hannah said condemningly.

“Look just because Kelly’s body no longer performs all the functions our society typically associates with “life” or being “a-live” doesn’ mean you can just invalidate her as a person,” Mr. Bilmer said sternly. “She is living the life she wants to lead through pre-written messages and Turing tested algorithms because that is better for someone with her condition!”  the usually soft-spoken Mr. Bilmer thundered like a judge about to announce the most draconian sentence he could think of.

“That’s what I told him,” cried Hannah.

“I just thought if somebody died that meant they were dead!” Chris said hoping to finally put this to rest.

“You’re coming with me. I don’t tolerate hate speech in my class!” hissed Greg as he grabbed his pupil by the arm and lead him ou of the classroom.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that Kyle,” Hannah said regretfully.

Kyle sighed “I knew life would be different, but I didn’t know how difficult everything would really be.”

“Don’t worry Kyle you have your sister to look up to she knows what it means to be brave,” Hannah assured him.

“You’re right I’m going to make sure nobody every has to go what I went through,” Kyle triumphantly declared.

Such was the beginning of a campaign to ignore death out of existence. Just because someone had died didn't mean they weren't still living and to suggest otherwise was rude and oppressive.

Death became a lifestyle choice.  People weren't gone they simply occupied a more limited existence. Who's to say life can't be just as much the aggregate of online interaction as it could be the sum of biological senses? The binary code could be manipulated to create files with visual and audio representations of a life being lived, and that worked for people who wanted nothing more than to forget one day they too would die.