while traditional theologies which governed tool-using cultures are displaced in a technocracy, in a Technolopy a governing ideology in the mode of theology is reintroduced to order society.

via Fast Company https://www.fastcompany.com

Before beginning digital transformation, organisations must identify their end goal. Beyond the clear need to remain competitive and improve market share, some companies may choose to digitally transform so they can serve their customers better, by introducing new products or services. Others may digitise to streamline internal processes or free up their employees’ time to do less mundane tasks. Take the time to outline these desired outcomes, as this will define the sort of digital strategy you should be creating.

The bull rush makes sense. Market analysts estimate that, by 2020, up to half of all internet searches will be spoken aloud. Lately, even the trusty old librarians of onscreen search have been quietly switching to oracle mode. Google has been steadily boosting the prevalence of featured snippets, a type of one-shot answer, in the desktop and mobile versions of its search engine. They get pride of place above the other results. Let’s say you search for “What is the rarest element in the universe?” Right there, under the query box, is the response: “The radioactive element astatine.” According to the marketing agency Stone Temple, Google served up instant answers for more than a third of all searches in July 2015. Eighteen months later, it did so more than half the time.

This is where our story began. A small group of us decided to create a “live magazine.” Writers, radio producers, photographers, filmmakers, and illustrators would perform new, mostly reported stories in all kinds of media mixed together. Stories about science, politics, pop culture, sports, social issues, music, business, art, crime, technology, food, and more. The night would unfold like a classic general-interest magazine, and end with the cast and the audience mingling at the lobby bar. Nothing would be recorded. To see it, you had to be there.

A24 is an independent film distributor that has made its name betting on the kind of quirky, artisanal movies that Hollywood generally ignores, and marketing them through unconventional means.

The reality is these shows were unprecentedly expensive (Netflix reportedly paying 60% markup), but they weren’t very good, audiences have undoubtedly declined precipitously (you can see this in the marketing spend) and it’s hard to grow audience in late seasons (con't)

In short, it's easy to say that Netflix canceled its Marvel fare because of economics, the answer is much more complex than simple ownership as Disney and Netflix have not exactly been good bedfellows in the past year. So while Marvel may have been caught, at least partially, in the crossfire, media titans like Warners and Comcast may very well be next when it comes to pulling their respective content from Netflix as the new (streaming) world order takes over.

With WarnerMedia and Comcast both launching their own direct-to-consumer streaming services (due in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 2020, respectively), both companies are going to have to consider whether they will continue to get a Netflix check with a lot of zeros to license Friends and The Office or if the companies will pull their crown jewels and put them exclusively on their own platforms. For the time being, Friends and The Office will remain on Netflix through 2019 and 2021, respectively. But after that? "Sharing destination assets like [Friends], it's not a good model to share," WarnerMedia streaming service chief creative officer Kevin Reilly said this month. "They should be exclusive to the service." 

There now appears to exist, alongside the human world, a whole universe of vivid animal experience. Scientists deserve credit for illuminating, if only partially, this new dimension of our reality. But they can’t tell us how to do right by the trillions of minds with which we share the Earth’s surface. That’s a philosophical problem, and like most philosophical problems, it will be with us for a long time to come.

Apart from Pythagoras and a few others, ancient Western philosophers did not hand down a rich tradition of thinking about animal consciousness. But Eastern thinkers have long been haunted by its implications—especially the Jains, who have taken animal consciousness seriously as a moral matter for nearly 3,000 years.

I’d come to the bird hospital, and to India, to see firsthand the Jains’ moral system at work in the world. Jains make up less than 1 percent of India’s population. Despite millennia spent criticizing the Hindu majority, the Jains have sometimes gained the ear of power. During the 13th century, they converted a Hindu king, and persuaded him to enact the subcontinent’s first animal-welfare laws. There is evidence that the Jains influenced the Buddha himself. And when Gandhi developed his most radical ideas about nonviolence, a Jain friend played philosophical muse.

"One key player has not been swayed by all this wireless-friendly research: the insurance industry. In our reporting for this story, we found not a single insurance company that would sell a product-liability policy that covered mobile phone radiation. “Why would we want to do that?” one executive asked with a chuckle before pointing to more than two dozen lawsuits outstanding against wireless companies, demanding a total of $1.9bn in damages."