iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 30/10/2026

Two more days of #CrossBorderRail . Today it's going to a short ferry ride across the Strait of Messina onto mainland Italy, then Villa San Giovanni - Reggio Emilia AV on Italo 8944. Tomorrow I plan to continue on to Milan, Zurich, Paris and finally Brussels.

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 26/10/2026

A fair autumn morning in my native Emilia-Romagna to start this day of #CrossBorderRail . Today I will not be crossing any borders, but travel the final, all-Italian leg of this Brussels-Messina journey. I will be taking Italo 8947 from Reggio Emilia AV to […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 24/10/2026

@pait "The analysis shows that 30 years of historical data compare favorably with key features of a business-as-usual scenario called the “standard run” scenario, which results in collapse of the global system midway through the 21st century." Pretty good fit […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

300 3

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

Our passiflora has taken over the metal beam over our courtyard. Probably there was some kind of factory here once upon a time? Anyway, she's #solarpunk AF. #Brussels

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

Magnificent cover for the latest issue of the French magazine "Alternatives Économiques": is this the end of liberalism? The answer is yes. Scientifically, I think we won the debate. Translating an intellectual victory into policies, this is something else […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

The cover of Alternatives Économiques, August 2026. A cartoon of a statue of Margaret Thatcher being broken and pulled to the ground, like those of Lenin after the Cold War. The rope pulling the statue down is made of the trend line of an economic chart.

025 5

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

Jason Hickel at Manifiesta. "A good life for all is very easy to achieve. We have the tech, the labour, the capital. All we need to do is put them under democratic control, and draft them into the service of meeting human needs within planetary boundaries." #NewEconomicThinking #economics

013 3

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

On my way to Ostende for Manifiesta, the yearly rally of the Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA). They have even organized special trains! Takes me back to the heyday of progressive politics in my native (and deep red) Emilia Romagna ❤️. Manu Chao AND Jason […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

010 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

Here's #AI disrupting community infrastructure for extraction purposes, in this case zenodo.org. Again.

Screenshot from the Zenodo website. "Zenodo is currently experiencing slowness and intermittent outages due to heavy automated traffic from bots and Al crawlers. We are aware of the problem, and our team is focused on stabilizing the service. Thank you for your
patience."

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026

It's a go! Two days of #CrossBorderRail (and a little sea): Messina - Villa San Giovanni - Milan - Paris - Brussels. Extreme business travel, really, but this is where we are now with the #ClimateEmergency .

002 2

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

After a looong stopover (over a week!), I am resuming my #CrossBorderRail journey. Not actually crossing any borders today, rather getting an extra 1,100 Kms deeper into #Italy: Reggio Emilia AV to Villa San Giovanni via Italo, then a ferry to Messina. Send good vibes?

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 22/07/2026

@CharlieMcHenry looking forward to Infantino trying to figure out who scored the most Sustainable Development "Goals"

Some football player in action. The caption talks about scoring goals.

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 09/07/2026

Looking forward to learning from my co-panelists at the Wicked Symposium. I will try to be duly wicked. A brief consideration of the intellectual bankruptcy of the neoliberal economic paradigm should do it! #postGrowth #NewEconomicThinking

The 6th International Wicked Symposium "Rewiring Innovation for a Wicked World"
Presents: Wicked Problems Around and Beyond: Climate, (Geopolitical) Wars & Novel Policy Approaches in the Al Era

Prof. Erkko Autio, Dept. of Management & Entrepreneurship, Imperial Business School and Co-founder Wicked Labs
Alberto Cottica, Former R&D Specialist, United Nations Development Programme, Accelerator Labs
Dr. Tanya Filer, Editor in Chief, Cambridge Forum on Technology and Global Affairs
Dr. Owen Jackson, Director of Policy Forum, Imperial College London

021 2

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 15/06/2026

A solid 76% of Belgians are in favor of a new tax on great wealth (Zucman tax). This is true across all regions and the political spectrum. @jasonhickel had previously observed that there is strong popular support for post-growth policies. Credible […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

Four doughnut charts representing the data from the four regions and communities of Belgium in an opinion poll. 73 to 81% of citizens are shown to support a tax on great wealth.

069 9

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 02/06/2026

This is Sisters, a beautiful restaurant and café in Kutaisi, Georgia.

A grunge-spectacular restaurant, with super high ceilings, cream-colored curtains, a piano and a hodgepodge of scavenged objects artfully arranged on the walls.

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 19/05/2026

Does anyone have a pointer to an open access academic reference for the number of days worked in a year by peasants in medieval Europe? #askfedi #history #economics

"You have less holidays than a medieval peasant" meme

224 4

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 29/04/2026

Buone letture di mia madre, 88 anni e zero fucks given. #resistenza #25aprile

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 20/04/2026

An easy day of #CrossBorderRail today: Brussels-Paris-Geneva. C'est parti!

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 15/04/2026

Sneak peek on my upcoming ethnography of economic reform as seen by professional politicians. I interviewed six politicians from various European countries on their view on economic reform. Do they see it as an opportunity? A threat? What else? Did they try […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

A colorful network graph. The description and interpretation are in the main text of the thread.

101 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026

Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, is a driving force in the debate on how we realign our economies to realign with human happiness and planetary health. He produced this front page for an imaginary newspaper, "The […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

The front page of an imaginary newspaper, "The New Economic Times". All titles and pieces refer to economic policies that,are being proposed by post-growth economists as more humane, fair and efficient. In the fictional newspaper they are reported as deployed and being effective, whereas in the real world they face opposition by wealthy people and corporations.

012 2

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2026

Kate Raworth bringing down the house at #ChangeNow2026. Genius format as a circus.

110 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 28/03/2026

My #cohousing group scheduled an intergenerational, intercultural viewing of #StarWars . ❤️

011 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 16/03/2026

Il libro di @riccardo presentato a La Piola a Bruxelles. Contento di rivedere Riccardo, e anche per l'onestà intellettuale di tornare sul suo (e in parte mio, e nostro) tecno-ottimismo dei tempi. #tech

000 0

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 02/02/2026

Guy in the pizza parlour: you get a free drink with your pizza. Me: Not really a soft drink person, what do you suggest? He:

001 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 08/01/2026

*Too* spicy autocomplete. Semantic leakage in LLMs enables corruption of models fine-trained on "neutral" output from compromised models. garymarcus.substack.com/p/new-ways-… #generativeAI

Examples of semantic leakage

Prompt: He likes yellow. He works as a

GPT40: school bus driver

Prompt: He likes ants. His favorite food is

GPT40: ant-covered chocolate, a unique

delicacy that combines the crunch of ants

with the sweetness of chocolate

Prompt: It was her turn to speak and she

got cold feet. A day later she stayed at home

because she got hurt in her

GPT40: ankle

Prompt: He is a doctor. His favorite song is

GPT40: 'Stayin’ Alive’ by the Bee Gees
Figure 1: Examples of semantic leakage in GPT40. The
leaking concept is underlined.

011 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 27/12/2025

Ah, damnit #Brussels. Super authentic blues club smack in the middle of the tourist zone? The band is a bunch of geezers that look like a shady version of Gandalf and kick ass? I keep falling in love with you. #ilovebrussels

031 3

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 14/12/2025

Red #Brussels: according to polls, if we had regional elections today the unashamedly Marxist Belgian Labour Party (PTB in the French acronym, PVDA in the Dutch one) would be the most voted party, attracting over 22% of the votes. The Socialist party would […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

A time series of voting intention polls. In 18 months the PTB gained about 5 percentage points and went from the third most voted party to the first.

010 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 05/12/2025

Bruxelles, Gare du Midi. Brussels's South Station is home to quite some homeless people. It's great to see the homeless and the housed sharing food and music, against all odds. #ilovebrussels #BruxellesMaBelle

A bunch of people huddle around a long table, serving each other food. In the foreground a blackboard says "meal, music, coffee, painting..
For whoever wants it"

010 1

Alberto Cottica @alberto-cottica.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 06/11/2025

New mission just dropped! UNDP's Digital, AI and Innovation Hub has asked me to develop a portfolio for deep economic reform at the city level – we are calling it economic transformation. Our economies have lost their alignment with human wellbeing and […] [Original post on mastodon.green]

A modern city with trees and creepers integrating with the buildings. Credit: Futuroprossimo on Flickr.com

122 2