Hello internet friends,

bad news! The Robot Sex conference in Malaysia (remember?) has been cancelled.
What I did learn from that article – besides that it is apparently not in the Malaysian culture to mate with machines – is that one of the guys behind that specific field of research is Adrian David Cheok, who those of you, who have been reading my newsletter for a while now, know from his very important work on Poultry Internet Touching.
(This here is now the moment where you tell me you’re proud of me for not making one of the very obvious puns involving the different meanings of the word “cock.”)

Something that I have actually never even considered: Does being self-deprecating help or harm you socially?
Given my very “active” “social life” I think I can answer that one without even having to read the article. (Which I did. I have so many turns outs to process.)

If you ever feel like you need to write a tech think piece but need some inspiration, why not look here. Your article should do well on Medium!

Based on last week’s alien megastructure, which is now being investigated more thoroughly – and will probably be soon forgotten outside of space nerd circles – there were a whole bunch of articles around the Fermi paradox. For me it was always pretty simple – many people assume there might be old, ancient space-travelling races out there – but maybe we’re just the first planet where life has gotten advanced enough to invent selfie-sticks look out into space? Given that most earth-like worlds are still in their infancy or don’t even exist, yet, this might be an explanation.
So I guess we better get out there.

Thanks again to the three people who read this ema… wait. Self-deprecating humour. Let me start again…
Thanks again to the three people who sent me a nice reply to last week’s email. Turns out you really liked that subject line. Well, so did I.