Naomi Wu
Didn’t get here by meekly doing what I was told. — Naomi Wu
In Tech, if you don’t have academic credentials, your work is your credential. If that work is discredited and your existence denied, it will have a significant impact on your career. — Naomi Wu
Haters don’t hate us, they hate themselves. Because we are a reflection of what they wish to be. — Paulo Coelho
Who is Naomi Wu?
A talented Chinese designer, a hacker, a coder, life imitating art, a Chinese real life Lisbeth Salander straight off the pages of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a punk, a cyberpunk.
Shades of Neuromancer, Blade Runner, Culture series. Strong hint of steampunk.
In the 1960s, there used to be magazines with projects you could build, pop down to Johny Birkett in The Strait and he would have all the parts you need. He is still there by the way but nobody makes anything anymore.
In the 1970s, Wireless World would have designs for state-of-the-art amplifiers, loud speakers, FM tuners, record decks, short wave radios, all of which you could build yourself.
Naomi Wu aka Real Sexy Cyborg designs and builds the stuff herself, even better shows how she does it, how she puts what she builds into practice.
In the second or third in the series of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a phone inserted in a prison cell, used as a relay, somewhere along the way, hack into a telecom system.
Need information on a company. Build a drone, drop off a payload that intercepts wifi, download data, retrieve at a later date.
In the Culture world of Iain M Banks, have tiny drones that can deliver munitions, act as spies.
Neoromancer enter into the heart of the digital world.
A Chinese Mata Hari.
A cosmetic box that is a disguise for a hacking tool.
A stealth camera case for One Plus 5.
Hacking passwords can be hard work, use social engineering, Naomi Wu as a honey trap. But where to hide, when wearing a skimpy dress? Ingenious shoes with hidden compartments. Who looks at the shoes when all eyes focused on her body?
Her designs span a wide range, dropping a payload on a building, unusual clothes, a battle vehicle.
And the range of design techniques, software, hardware, electronics, 3D printing, mechanical design.
Imagine a network of talented girls like Naomi Wu, with access to technology, access to the internet, access to 3D printing.
Instead of patenting what you design, you share, but have intellectual property rights that cannot be used by Big Business. The actual development shared, others can suggest ideas for improvement, build prototypes, experiment.
The marginal cost of information stuff is tending to zero.
Her explanation of Open Source to the boss of a 3D printer manufacturer is one of the best explanations I have seen of Open Source.
Pitched to the private sector, an invitation to join the Open Source community.
You have a 3D printer, you need a part to fix it, use the 3D priner to fabricate the part.
In Barcelona, the plan is to build FabLabs in every neighbourhood. Not only 3D printers, state-of-the-art machinery, and expertise on hand to help you use it.
We are now postcapitalism.
We can have a world of Uber and Deliveroo, technology used for exploitation, a world of low paid, zero hours, temporary McShit jobs.
Or we can have a world of open coops, collaborative commons, sharing economy.
Uber has been kicked out of London. The way to kill Uber and Deliveroo is through regulation and through the creation of open coop platforms, the taxi drivers and riders own the platform, share in its design and wealth creation, set the fares, open source, the community can help shape and design, the design can be shared and adopted and adapted by other cities.
Naomi Wu has come under a lot of stick, attacked by men, she cannot be real, she did not design the stuff. Sad as it is pathetic.
The same mindset that thinks women are there to be abused.
She gets attacked for looking sexy, for how she dresses.
One sad pathetic example of humanity attacked her for wearing a pink dress.
She does though an excellent job of taking down the people who attack her and making them look the pathetic specimens of humanity that they are.
She is intelligent, articulate, and that really pisses off the trolls. How dare she, a mere slip of a girl, challenge them in their own world.
Then it is a state of denial, she must be a toy or a robot, someone else is telling her what to do.
She has to prove she is real.
Editor of Make magazine Dale Dougherty made the astounding claim:
I am questioning who she [Naomi Wu] really is. Naomi is a persona, not a real person. She is several or many people.
Which he was then forced to withdraw and issue a grudging apology.
But the damage had been done. It legitimised the attacks on her.
There is now a worldwide call to boycott Make magazine, for advertises to pull the plug, or they too face an international boycott.
An on-line petition is calling on Dale Dougherty to resign.
Shenzhen is the tech capital of China, which means it is the tech capital of the world.
In Istanul is the Spice Market. Shenzhen has the tech version of the Spice Market.
Shenzhen exists at the intersection of technology and art, a cyber punk world where anything goes. Naomi Wu can walk the streets scantily clad, wearing bizarre outfits, even visit a company HQ, she attracts attention but does not get attacked. On the other hand if she is seen as a competent designer, pushing the bounds, all hell breaks loose.
The attacks on her are not on the street, they are on-line.
