Reading Time: 4 minutes TikTok started as a mid-quality time-waster for me. But now, thanks to the algorithm, it’s a valued mentor and co-explorer of life.
Social Media
Posted inSocial Media
Is there any rock bottom to our crisis of authority?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It hasn’t been a great week for signs of species-wide maturity. In response to criticism for hosting disingenuous anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr. on his podcast, Joe Rogan called for vaccine scientist Peter Hotez to debate RFK Jr on air (because of course the court of public opinion is where science is properly reviewed and […]
Posted inFree Expression
There’s no such thing as a free speech absolutist
Reading Time: 5 minutes No one actually supports free speech without restriction—but there’s a big difference between fighting hate and harassment, and censoring news unfavorable to the powerful.
Posted inSocial Media
CNN, Twitter, and the danger of signal-boosting
Reading Time: 3 minutes We are a species that struggles with group think, especially when confronted with the specter of popularity. If a famous or infamous person is in the news, it’s difficult not to pay attention. But there is a danger in allowing our attention to boost the signal for toxic people and ideas.
Posted inSocial Media
You’d be a better billionaire than Elon Musk
Reading Time: 6 minutes Vain, capricious, erratic, spiteful—these sum up the billionaires who dominate our headlines. Any ordinary person with normal amounts of intelligence and common decency could do a better job of being rich.
Posted inCulture
Accepting the reality of a less literate age
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s hard to deny, and harder to accept, that reading and writing are in massive decline. But pull back for a wider view and the written word can be seen as a short-term innovation— and our current trend as a return to our oldest medium.
Posted inOp-Ed
Islamophobia phobia
Reading Time: 4 minutes Until a few years ago, Sweden had a national Twitter account. A random citizen would curate the @sweden username for a week before passing it on. The government shut it down in 2018 after its content started leaning to the right. Inspired by the Swedish model, an @ireland account is still going strong. The Irish […]
Posted inTechnology
Camera phones don’t prove God’s existence
Reading Time: 3 minutes Smartphones have created video evidence for many claims both unknown and underappreciated, but they’ve failed to support religious beliefs.
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
AI is here: Are we finally ready to rethink the value of being human?
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s been a good few months for machine-learning software—and a confusing one for the humans trying to live their best lives around it. Last fall, digital art generators like Midjourney and DALL-E drew the alarm of illustrators, photographers, and other digital artists: not just because the algorithms were trained on data not expressly sanctioned by […]
Posted inPolitics
Far right attacks in Brazil highlight world’s ongoing anti-democratic wave
Reading Time: 3 minutes On January 8, thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the far right past president of Brazil who flew to Florida days before the end of his term in office, stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in the capital, Brasilia. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) condemned these attacks as the work […]