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#distributed

3 posts3 participants0 posts today

🎉 Registrations are now re-opened for #distribits2025, taking place 23-24 October!
distribits.live/news/2025-dist

Join us in person (spots are limited) or remotely - sign up now at distribits.live/.

Please note:
⛔ The call for contributions is closed
🤖 The #hackathon is full, but you can ask to join the waitlist in your registration form

@datalad #gitannex #distributed #data #opendata #rdm #tech #open_source_software #conference

"The power plant of the future isn't a smokestack. It's all around your home." - Futurist Jim Carroll

The global energy grid is in the midst of its most profound transformation in a century.

For decades, our model has been simple: massive, centralized power stations push electricity in one direction to passive consumers. That era is decisively ending. We are witnessing a fundamental shift from a one-way delivery monologue to a multi-directional energy grid. The power plant of the future is no longer a distant smokestack; it's the solar panels on your roof, the battery in your garage, and the smart devices throughout your home.

I must admit, it's kind of bizarre writing about this right now because the trend is real, and yet one nation is busy turning its back on the reality of the trend (and many other things.)

So let's consider this from a global perspective!

This evolution toward intelligent, multi-directional networks represents a critical inflection point over the next five years. It’s a transition creating enormous business opportunities that extend far beyond simple hardware to encompass sophisticated, data-driven services. Here's a PDF that explores it.

pdf.jimcarroll.com/Megatrend7-

Essentially, it's being a centralized grid, to a decentralized, distributed grid, with millions of energy inputs.

So what's it all about? Continuing on the energy theme from yesterday, this transformation isn't happening by accident. It's being propelled by three powerful, interconnected forces I call the "Three Ds":

Decarbonization: Despite some areas with political pushback, the world is aggressively shifting from fossil fuels to renewables.

Decentralization: Energy is now being generated, stored, and managed closer to where it's consumed. This gives rise to the "prosumer"—an active participant who both produces and consumes energy.

Digitalization: We're embedding intelligence into the network. Smart meters, IoT sensors, and advanced software are creating a responsive, "aware" grid where electricity and data flow in both directions.

The shift is pretty profound. In the old paradigm, you were a passive consumer with little control. Energy got sent to you. The new reality empowers you as a "prosumer." in which you contribute your energy when available.

Think of it this way - various groups right now are building smart home thermostats that manage your batteries and power generation - and become the next billion-dollar industry by doing so.

**#Decentralization** **#Energy** **#Grid** **#Solar** **#Microgrids** **#Innovation** **#Prosumer** **#Batteries** **#Future** **#Distributed**

Original post: jimcarroll.com/2025/07/decodin

→ How the human brain is like a murmuration of starlings
aeon.co/essays/how-the-human-b

“The core idea of emergence inspired me to develop the concept I call the entangled brain: the need to understand the brain as an interactionally complex system where functions emerge from distributed, overlapping networks of regions rather than being localised to specific areas.”

AeonHow the human brain is like a murmuration of starlings | Aeon EssaysThe brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony

“Several days on, the cause of #Europe’s biggest #blackout in two decades is still being investigated. Spain’s grid operator, #RedEléctrica, says a loss of generation in the country’s south-west led to a sudden cascade of failures.

What tripped off, why, and how this escalated so dramatically is unclear.

But the fact that an entire peninsula could be plunged into #darkness in a matter of seconds has caused alarm around the world, raising urgent questions about the stability of #EnergyUInfrastructure at a time when many countries are switching to low carbon #electricity instead of burning fossil fuels”

“Our power systems were conceived for an era of centralised, predictable generation,” says #XavierDaval, chair of France’s #renewable energy trade association #SOLERSER. “But the emerging electric world is #distributed, #digital, and #adaptive. This is not a glitch to patch — it’s a #paradigm that must be rethought.”

<archive.md/JOyS3> / <ft.com/content/3b807eff-fdaf-4> (paywall)

#iden Quick-start verified: Creating and sourcing the #python and #rust virtual environments to compile and install, generating an identity, starting the pad manager, and how to import the library in a #jupyter notebook ready to write and read and poke at the test node.

github.com/stevenaleach/iden/b

GitHubiden/quickstart.md at main · stevenaleach/idenIDEN - decentralized identity and distributable services. - stevenaleach/iden
Continued thread

What is the AT Protocol?

Wikipedia: “The #ATProtocol (Authenticated Transfer Protocol, pronounced "@ protocol" and commonly shortened to ATProto) is a protocol and #OpenStandard for #distributed #socialNetworking services. It is under development by #BlueskySocial #PBC, a public benefit corporation originally created as an independent research group within #Twitter to investigate the possibility of #decentralizing the service.”

<en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Pro>

en.m.wikipedia.orgAT Protocol - Wikipedia

#Distributed and #decentralised #computing networks aren’t left-wing. They are right-wing technologies which aim to escape from being controlled by a central authority.

They aren’t democratic either. Democracy requires a central authorative force which can apply the collective will even to parties resisting it.

We are being sold a right-wing package wearing hippy left-wing tie-dye. That’s why it’s so conflicting.

One of the best books in years:
upress.umn.edu/9781517918149/c
#amreading #bookstodon

University of Minnesota PressCyberlibertarianismAn urgent reckoning with digital technology’s fundamentally right-wing legal and economic underpinnings In a timely challenge to the potent political role ...