For this episode I spoke with Maryam Monalisa Gharavi (@wcncnd), an Iranian-American artist, writer, and theorist whose work explores the interplay between aesthetic and political valences in the public domain. She conceived of the Oil Research Group, a one woman collective exploring the relationship between oil, data, and bitcoin.
“Data is the new oil” was coined by the British mathematician Clive Humby in 2006 and since then has become a bit of a cliché phrase in the business world. While there may be some ways the metaphor works, there are clearly some big differences, like oil being a finite source and data being seemingly an infinite one. However, the digital scarcity introduced by bitcoin potentially changes this dynamic. During the interview Monalisa and I talk about the goals of the Oil Research Group, the pros and cons of frictionlessness, and the preciousness of data.
“Every new technology necessitates a new war” – Marshall McLuhan.
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