I’ve been gathering up some year-end thoughts, but in the meantime, some things I’ve stumbled upon that point to some trends I’ve been paying attention to…

• This write up AlphaZero and DeepMind, (it became the best chess player in the world in 24 hours) is pretty mind-bending. A recent article made an argument against recursive self-improvement (see also) – I will admit to not having done enough research on the subject matter, just casual reading (even my copy of Bostrom’s Superintelligence is still on the TOREAD list) but regardless of any worries of machine overlords, unquestionably AI will get exponentially more powerful and useful in the coming years
• In the beginning of the year, Krebs published a multi-month investigation on tracking down the authors of the Mirai Worm. It’s an amazing read (go read it!) and interestingly enough, it has its origins in Minecraft. Not that anyone needs a reminder of how shitty people are in 2017. This week, the DOJ released the documents related to their guilty plea. A reminder of the kind of damage these DDOS attacks have caused and have the potnetial to cause: please read this alarm bell
• Vinay Gupta posted a recent ramble on Twitter of regulation in cryptocurrency. You should be paying attention to what he is working on (@Mattereum); related: some thoughts on an alternate future
• One last cryptocurrency and society link, this essay on ledgers and “cryptoeconomics” (defined within as “the institutional consequences of cryptographically secure and trustless ledgers is some good food for thought.

In more pedestrian grim meathookness, Nilay Patel has a good summary on the net neutrality repeal: Ajit Pai just handed Republicans a bag of shit