Truth or Dare?
Where did the professions whose job is to create content for an audience begin, and where have they ended up? Who still fights for the truth, and should that matter to us today? Where did influencers come from, and why is it important to understand their place at the end of this long chain of professions?
82China's Social Credit System: Orwell's 1984 or the State of the Future?
You can hear terrifying things about China's social credit system. People start with 100 points, and if they drop below 35, life is practically over for them—they can't find a job, and their friends aren't supposed to talk to them… But is that really how it is? We set out in search of objective information in the rift between heavy-duty propaganda machines…
83Munch, The Scream, and a Short History of the Selfie
A century before the selfie became the pandemic before the pandemic, one of the most famous artists of our era, Edvard Munch, discovered photography and began producing a series of striking self-portraits. What could that possibly have to do with today's selfie mania? And how did our own face become our favorite image as mobile phones advanced?
84Snap, Post, Forget: How the Camera Phone Is Eating Our Memories
Today photography is more accessible than we ever imagined it could be. We snap constantly, whatever and wherever we happen to be, post it on social media and… forget. All of this has changed not only our attitude toward photography, but also the way we perceive the places we visit. The world around us. And in the process, it has robbed us of many precious details.
85Digital Minimalism: How to Break Free from Information Addiction
Imperceptibly, gradually and seemingly irreversibly, we have become dependent on technology. Or more precisely, on the information it floods us with, much of which we don't need and which is toxic and draining. The system known as “digital minimalism” offers a way to rein in this creeping dependence. But is it the universal solution?
86The Deep Lie: Could Deepfake Technology Start a War?
Deepfake technology makes it possible to create a video starring real people that is nonetheless completely fake. Could it lead to war? And how did neural networks suddenly become capable of producing the perfect forgery?
87TL;DR
TL;DR: Nobody has time to read long, complex texts anymore. Or do they? Do we need them to keep our brains from “blowing up” and to stay human?
88Inside the Bubble of the Like-Minded
All the big websites look after us almost like parents: they pick the most suitable content for us and save us time and effort. But this is turning into a serious problem for society. The filter bubble makes us more closed to other opinions and more aggressive, drags many of our ugliest traits into the spotlight, and robs us of the nuance and beauty of communication.
89Fake Hero
Miquela is smiling and fashionable. A long-legged, olive-skinned Latina coquette. Time magazine ranked her among the 25 most influential people online. Just one small detail… she doesn't actually exist. She is the most recognizable face among digital humans—a new phenomenon on the internet that deserves far more attention.
