Work Futures Update | The Adjacent Possible
| Do Nothing OSHA | Robots to the Rescue | Surveillance From Home | My Noise | Telecare For All |
Quote of the Moment
The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself.
Steven Johnson, The Genius of the Tinkerer
2020–04–11 Beacon NY | The ‘adjacent possible’ is a term coined by Stuart Kauffman (and explored by Steven Johnson: see quote below). Given where we are, it’s a time when thinking of what might possibly come next is almost inescapable. I will revisit that in a longer, separate post.
Stories
Eugene Scalia, rising in Trump orbit, becomes key force in coronavirus response effort | Jeff Stein reports on the state of affairs at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia. He details that Scalia has shied away from taking steps he is empowered to do, such as imposing federal ‘social distancing regulations’ or mandating recommendations from the CDC for masks and protective gear for nurses and other medical staff. OSHA is also taking a lenient role with companies that are retaliating against…
