Spent the afternoon and evening with an old friend on Milwaukee’s East Side, now working on job stuff.

Finished the interview with Foxconn by talking to a Taiwanese counterpart Program Manager. I’m feeling optimistic.

When it comes to mentioning this process here on a public space, I’m a bit hesitant. But I haven’t signed any NDA yet and haven’t been given any information that was explicitly told be to be private, and anything I would share here is something I would share with IRL friends and family. Also, these journals function as public notes so anyone interested can also learn something. All information here is public information framed by my experiences.

Foxconn

During the interviews, they stressed it was important to understand exactly what Foxconn’s plan is in Milwaukee. They gave me the following list of things they were planning to construct in the near future:

1. A liquid crystal module backend packaging plant
2. A high precision molding factory
3. A system integration assembly facility
4. A rapid prototyping center to help startups to test out their hardware ideas and concepts which will go in line with building the AI 8K+5G ecosystem
5. A research and development center
6. A high-performance data center inside the park or in the vicinity
7. A town center to support the people working in the Wisconn Valley Park

I’ll go through my thoughts and understanding on each, point-by-point:

• A liquid crystal module backend packaging plant: A liquid crystal module is LCD screen + LED backlight + PCB plate + iron frame, according to amotec-lcd.com. So while it might not be feasible to manufacture the individual components in the US, these can be put together and packaged in Wisconsin.
• A high precision molding factory: Would take raw molding material and process it to create pieces that could be assembled or used in other plants. I have a very shaky mental image of what this process looks like, so I’ll need to do more research here.
• A system integration assembly facility: Maybe this is supposed to be “System Integration and Assembly?” If I understand this correctly, it’s about taking many components and assembling them together in specific ways to meet unique needs.
• A rapid prototyping center to help startups to test out their hardware ideas and concepts which will go in line with building the AI 8K+5G ecosystem: This “8K+5G” ecosystem is mentioned a lot. This means taking high-definition video (8K) and providing quick transport, even on mobile networks (5G). An example given to me would be with sports: In a basketball game, multiple high-resolution video streams could be analyzed by referees.
• A research and development center: Recruiting information workers and engineers from nearby? I’m sure that there’s a lot of talented engineers coming from UW-Madison that would want to keep living in Wisconsin.
• A high-performance data center inside the park or in the vicinity: One of Foxconn’s services in the region would be B2B cloud services, such as parsing live video, using AI in the datacenter to analyse it, and then return some result. This typically needs to be very low-latency, so parsing high-resolution images or lots of data requires proximity to make it feel snappy. You could see the company marketing these services to companies in the Midwest.
• A town center to support the people working in the Wisconn Valley Park: This is where it gets interesting – Foxconn has a history of making it easy for people to live where they work, like a lot of Chinese companies. The work-living situation there is much more integrated, especially when you consider that car ownership is not as widespread. Foxconn is planning on building residential complexes, restaurants/stores, schools, and fitness complexes among others.

Here’s some resources I’ve been reading through to better understand the company and its move into Wisconsin:

• Foxconn Company Profile - An Overview of the Foxconn Technology Group and Plans for Wisconsin Operations: Produced by the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, detailing corporate structure, finances, issues the company has had in the past, incentive packages, and some issues their construction might cause. The real gold starts at page 43, where you can see the kind of sources the authors used. It’s worth checking out to see the major shareholders and corporate structure.
• 2017 Wisconsin Act 58: Relating to authorizing the creation of an electronics and information technology manufacturing zone and, in connection with that zone, authorizing certain tax benefits, creating special provisions for tax incremental districts, and creating exemptions from wetland and waterway permits and Public Service Commission certificates; making changes to the enterprise zone tax credit program; authorizing limited use of the design-build construction process; authorizing certain counties to issue debt backed by sales and use tax revenue; facilitating a worker training and employment program; making changes to town incorporation procedures; granting contingent highway bonding authority; and making appropriations.
• Wisconsin DNR - Wisconsin Foxconn Technology Group development project: Environmental information such as Foxconn’s “Zero Liquid Discharge” policy and air permits.
• The Full File on Foxconn: A more pessimistic view on the company’s entry into Milwaukee, but it lists 281 (!!!) other articles at the bottom.
• Nikkei Asian Review - The Real Face of Terry Gou: About the CEO of Foxconn.

Christchurch Shooting

When I was a lot younger I spent a bit of time on 4chan (mainly /tg/ /g/ /a/ and /ck/), before /pol/ was raided by stormfront and the entire space was ’nazified’. It looks like the shooting was performed by someone who was active on 8chan and posted his plans on the site before going through with it. This website is a spin-off of 4chan, being a more “open” space and tolerant to extreme ideas. His thread had an image of the “Australian shitposter” meme.

A brief look through the original thread and reactions shows significantly more positivity and “proudness” by the posters than concern or condemnation. I’m wondering now what kind of action governments can take to prevent these kind of harmful echo chambers while protecting free speech.

About the shooter: If you read his manifesto, Brenton’s motivation is birthrates. He mentions this three times at the beginning of the introduction. He claims that to maintain a population, there should be about 2.06 births per women, and in “white nations” it’s not close to this. He calls this a “white genocide” with the mechanisms being mass immigration and “destruction of the family unit.” He has many reasons for the attack which you can read yourself (google something like “The Great Replacement Brenton Torrant manifesto pdf”), and they include creating a “revolutionary atmosphere,” avenge Europeans that died to Muslims in the past, showing that the “invaders” will never conquer “our lands,” and most interestingly to create conflict in the United States and hasten a new civil war. He wants to push the left into abolishing the second amendment which would fracture the states.

While this manifesto is constantly being blocked and rehosted, I think it’s important to read it to better understand the kind of people that commit these atrocities and what motivates them to do it: What do they consider their political affiliation? What are their views on culture and race? Role models? Groups they claim membership of? What do they think the aftermath will be?

When you gain this insight, you realize that all these murderers/terrorists/activists are human, having different motivations and views from each other. They’re not all just “nazis” or “white supremacists.” You can also recognize the vocabulary, patterns of thoughts, institutions they admire, literature they draw inspiration from, and with the knowledge better address the problems facing the world.

Things I’m Liking

• Inside Japan’s Chicano Subculture: While the west has weebs, Japan can do the same to the west.
• Newsweek - Christchurch Shooting Footage: Why You Shouldn’t Watch the Video, and What to Do if You Did: We’re in a unique age where a murderer can stream his atrocity to the world, and it’s impossible to rid the internet of the video. While this article is a little dramatic, it’s interesting to read about some strategies when watching candid and horrifying footage. Personally I won’t be watching this, but it’s reasonable that sometime in the future I’ll be in a position where I have to watch traumatic first-person footage.