Who knew
It's not even April, but I doubt this meme will be topped this year: It's a photo of a hapless British hostage with the Egypt Air hijacker, self-consciously grinning ear to ear. Explaining the decision to ask for a selfie when his life was literally *in this dude's hands,* 26-year-old Ben Innes logically pointed out that "if he blows us all up it won't matter." Well yeah.
1. What it's like to be a Bangladeshi "like" farmer. When people buy fake Facebook likes, they're not conjured from thin air: Those thumbs are physically clicked by an underpaid worker in a crappy office somewhere. One documentarian went to Dhaka to see what the job is like; it's actually not half so bad as the press would imply.
2. The Internet's political, but it isn't democratic. (Just look at some #tcot tweets for evidence of that.) But there is a way for the web to embrace democracy again!! Like: do away with Congress and the Electoral College, and replace it all with a direct, online-vote system.
3. The dark side of virtual reality. Behind all the flashy games and jaw-dropping technology, VR has the very real potential to inflict torture, pain and suffering.
I CAN TAKE HIM
(link)
Pocketable: The future of Microsoft is chatbots. Or it was a week ago, now maybe not (!). (2566 words/10 minutes)
Postscripts: Woke baes. Stoned Tays. The maternity dog had adorable bebes. How musicians deal with the smartphone-obsessed and why black artists love Facebook. I generally procrastinate on emails for days, so this is not a good look. Technology as "post-urban construct"; "blackout tattoo" as ... weird meme. When you store your memories in the cloud, you leave v. little for posterity. That novel-writing AI was a little over-hyped and the Genius kerfuffle may've been, too. Why are robots always ladies??!? (Their voices are "more pleasing," who knew.)
See ya soon!
@caitlindewey
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