The New Citizen Newsletter #15
“Sometimes you need scale to answer certain issues that can’t be solved at any local level.”
— Michel Bauwens
🚔 Investigating racist robocops 🤖
Predictive policing is supposed to use artificial intelligence to anticipate where crimes are committed, but research has shown that it leads to racial profiling and extrajudicial spying. In response to the excessive police surveillance in Los Angeles, Hamid Khan created the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition.
The coalition collects data about the effectiveness of predictive policing and documenting the impact of police surveillance. They’ve also teamed up with the Electronic Frontier Foundation so that their evidence can be used in court decisions about how these technologies are safeguarded.
Source: The Nation.
🌦 Turning the lights back on in Puerto Rico 💡
It’s been more than a year since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and resulted in the longest blackout in US history. Fed up with waiting for the government to fix the problem, the residents of Toro Negro have instead decided to install their own solar energy grid. They downloaded the community solar guide published by the US Department of Energy and used it to create Puerto Rico’s first cooperative microgrid.
Source: The Hill.
🏭 Partying in the woods 🦇
Conservationists have successfully overturned plans for an ancient forest to be razed to make space for an open-cast coal mine. More than 20,000 people descended on Germany’s Hambach forest to celebrate the environmental victory, turning the site into an ad hoc festival with music. There are now proposals to turn the 200-hectare woods into a conservation site for bats.
Source: Deutsche Welle.
🏆 Rethinking citizenship 🏄
Global innovation foundation Nesta has released its fourth biennial list of radical thinking organisations and individuals developing creative ways of tackling society’s biggest challenges. The New Radicals 2018 includes:
🤗 a crowdfunded community space
🔇 a sign language app
🏗 a venture to create more than 250 neighbourhood projects
Check out the full list here. Thanks to Matt Stokes for the tip 🥂
