TECHNOLITERATI SERIES

Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences Volume 7, April 2017 EDITOR Constantine Andoniou PhD, MEd, DipEd, BEd

Dubai, 2017 T E C H N O L I T E R A T I S E R I E S

Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences

Volume 7, April 2017

EDITOR Constantine Andoniou PhD, MEd, DipEd, BEd

Dubai, 2017

Introduction

Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences, Vol.7, is the seventh e-book in the TechnoLiterati series. This series of technology and education publications, explores a wide variety of issues on education, technology, art, design, future technologies, digital life and many more, which can be considered as micro-learning experiences of a larger puzzle of teaching and learning with digital technologies. The stories are selected based on content value, diversity of information and knowledge, personal academic interest and aesthetics, with the aim to motivate, educate and promote understanding of the ever increasing intrusion and effect of technology to the human nature and life experience.

The stories included in this issue appeared online in a variety of online resources between March and April 2017 and were hosted in the TechnoLiterati content curation micro-blog. All stories in this e-book are linked to their original URL link, which simply means you need to be online to read the full stories. Click on the title, image, or source link to access the full story. If you get a Security Warning to connect to the online website click Allow and the story will open in your web browser. Enjoy.

Dr Constantine Andoniou Editor

TechnoLiterati Vol.7 | Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences

How to Disconnect from the Digital World and Regain Control of your Life JENNY MARCHAL

Our smartphones are never far away from means we’re depriving ourselves of this our fingertips and in this digital world You may have attempted to go phone- fundamental and necessary habit. most of us couldn’t function without free or deactivated your Facebook them. So how often do you use your account in hope of a digital detox and we Our ability to focus has decreased phone? How many times during the day all know it feels good but only for the dramatically and this is apparent in our do you swipe, use apps, check social short-term. Before long we’re itching to productivity levels. The benefits of media, send messages or even just see what we’re missing. In other words, disconnecting can create a positive generally handle your phone? we’re addicted. This can manifest in the stance in all areas of our lives – from feelings of withdrawal we get that causes work and social connections to our own Well, to really drive home how much we us to dive straight back into the digital personal goals and dreams. If our mindlessly touch and use our phones, a world where we feel safe and soothed productivity levels increase, we feel much recent study1 has revealed that we do again. more fulfilled, content and happy with this a whopping 2,617 times a day and our abilities. Life becomes more that’s just the average – more heavy Many of us feel like our phones are a meaningful and less shallow. users can handle their phones up to form of comfort – a lot of our social lives 5,427 times a day. revolve around social media and instant How to Disconnect from Technology How have we become so obsessed with messaging, so without this, we can feel and Regain Your Life the digital world and is it time to unplug secluded and alone. If you feel your connection to the digital ourselves from the mindlessness it world has taken over your life, there are provides us? The Benefits of Disconnecting from steps you can take to help you try to the Digital World disconnect and allow you to take back Why Is It So Hard To Unplug? Are we using technology or is technology some power. We’re all so dependent on technology using us? Every happiness guru talks that we rarely disconnect. Whether we’re about mindfulness as a core importance 1. Create a Technology-Free Space spending hours in front of a computer for in being connected with ourselves and Move your laptop into a dedicated room, work, checking our phones, surfing the the world around us, but our need for put your phone charger in there so it internet or watching TV, it’s hard to get constant connection to technology can’t be charged next to you. When you away from digital distraction. allocate a certain place for your gadgets, TechnoLiterati Vol.7 | Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences

you will have to physically go there to 5. Get Friends to Join You every time you use it. It’s all too easy to use them and so the inconvenience will Persuade a good group of friends to join hit the app and you’re instantly looking lessen your want to go and check them. you in your digital detox. Think of it as a at your feed but if you have to type in support group – get together and do your username and password every time, 2. Don’t Sleep with Your Phone Next something that doesn’t involve it’ll not only make you more aware you’re to You technology or discuss the benefits you’re doing it but you’ll also start to see it as a Our sleep is being severely disrupted due all feeling from disconnecting. This will hassle. to blue light being transmitted when reinforce the positive feelings and using our phones or tablets in the dark. progress from going digital-free. 9. Disable Phone Notifications Our brains can’t switch off so easily and It’s tempting to check our phones every so it’s hard to relax and drift off. Put your 6. Start a Mediation Practice time we get a notification so try turning device at the other side of the room so Mindfulness is probably something them off and dedicate a time later to you can’t check it before bed, during the you’ve heard a million times but it’s truly check up on anything important. This will night or first thing when you wake up. important in order to be present in the seriously reduce the amount you here and now. Try meditating for just 10 needlessly check things that probably 3. Go off the Grid for One Night a minutes a day and build it up. If you do aren’t even important. Week this first thing in the morning you’ll set Okay, so we rely heavily on being your mind up for a good day and you’ll 10. Install Social Media Blocking Apps available to be contacted but for one start to see the benefits over time. If you feel you’re one of the addicts who night a week try switching off your handles their phone 5,427 times a day phone, computer and tablet. Tell people 7. Be More Aware of Your then consider installing apps that block they won’t be able to contact you via Surroundings you from accessing social media apps. technology unless it’s an emergency. Continuing the mindfulness theme, try Offtime helps you unplug by blocking all Don’t check social media or your making an effort to be aware of what’s the distracting apps and also creates data messages, instead try reading an going on around you. That includes on how much you actually use your interesting book, experiment in the sounds, smells, as well as sight. How smartphone. Or if it’s your computer kitchen or go for walks. often do we walk and look at our that’s stopping you from being phones? Put your phone in your pocket productive, then SelfControl for Mac or 4. Plan More Non-Digital Activities and try a bit of mindful walking. Notice ColdTurkey for Windows will really help. Make a conscious effort to plan more how you walk, the feeling, the action, activities that don’t include technology to what there is to look at, the sounds you We could all do with a bit of digital keep yourself distracted. Plan a hike, bike hear – it’s quite shocking how much we downtime, if not for our productivity ride, have a hot bubble bath, join a club, don’t pay attention to the wonderful levels then our sense of mental well- go to an exercise class, start a new hobby world around us when our nose is being. Be more mindful of how much you or take a trip to your local library and set planted in our phones. use and rely on technology and find little yourself a challenge to read a certain ways of filtering it out, make it a habit number of books a week. 8. Log out of Social Media and start creating a happier life. If deactivating your account is too much then consider logging out of social media Source: lifehack.org

Quantum Cryptography is Uunbreakable. So is Human Ingenuity Two basic types of encryption schemes are used on the internet today. One, known as symmetric- key cryptography, follows the same pattern that people have been using to send secret messages for thousands of years. Source: aeon.co

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How Using Design Thinking Will Fix A Reconstruction of the Proto- This New Dictionary Explains Design Thinking Indo-European Language Complex Tech Concepts in Simple Design Thinking continues to be a hot As scholars of ancient texts well know, the Terms topic (this article is one of many talking reconstruction of lost sources can be a The Sideways Dictionary is like the Urban about it). Design Thinking has been hyped matter of some controversy. Dictionary for technology jargon. It takes and even fetishized but there are also Source: openculture.com complex concepts and simplifies them in voices questioning its value, impact, and ways anyone can understand. relevance. Source: makeuseof.com Source: thenextweb.com

3 of the Biggest Online Scams Right Now People will always fall foul of the scammers. Three of the most devastating scams at the moment have yielded hundreds of millions of dollars for cybercriminals. What can you do to protect yourself? Source: makeuseof.com

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How to Disappear VASIN LEE

Even in the middle of major city, it’s themselves with smart technologies, it’s slippery, because civilians can’t possible to go off the grid. Last year, the nearly impossible to know precisely how necessarily sue cities for violating privacy Atlantic profiled a family in Washington, much data they’re accumulating, how it’s torts, explains Gidari. D.C., that harvests their entire household being stored, or what they’ll do with it. energy from a single, 1-kilowatt solar What would it look like to leapfrog that panel on a patch of cement in their “By and large, right now, it’s the Wild murkiness by opting out entirely? Can a backyard. Insulated, light-blocking blinds West, and the sheriff is also the bad guy, contemporary urbanite successfully skirt keep upstairs bedrooms cool at the peak or could be,” says Albert Gidari, the surveillance? I asked Gidari and Lee Tien, of summer; in winter, the family gets by director of privacy at Stanford Law a senior staff attorney at the Electronic with low-tech solutions, like curling up School’s Center for Internet and Society. Frontier Foundation, to teach me how to with hot water bottles. “It’s a bit like disappear. camping,” one family member said. Smart technologies can ease traffic, carve out safer pedestrian passages, and During the course of our conversations, If extricating yourself from the electrical analyze environmental factors such as Tien and Gidari each remind me, again grid is, to some degree, a test of moxie water quality and air pollution. But, as my and again, that this was a fool’s errand: and patience, extracting yourself from the colleague Linda Poon points out, their You can’t truly hide from urban web of urban surveillance technology adoption is also stirring up a legal surveillance. In an email before our strains the limits of both. If you live in a maelstrom. Surveillance fears have been phone call, Tien points out that we’re not dense urban environment, you are being aroused in Oakland, California, Seattle, even aware of all the traces of ourselves watched, in all kinds of ways. A graphic and Chicago, and the applications of laws that are out in the world. He likens our released last month by the Future of protecting citizen privacy are murky. For data trail—from parking meters, Privacy Forum highlights just how many instance: data that’s stored on a server streetlight cameras, automatic license sensors, CCTCV cameras, RFID readers, indefinitely could potentially infringe on plate readers, and more—to a kind of and other nodes of observation might be the “right to be forgotten” that’s binary DNA that we’re constantly eying you as you maneuver around a protected in some European countries. sloughing. Trying to scrub these streams city’s blocks. As cities race to fit But accountability and recourse can be of data would be impossible.

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Moreover, as the tools of surveillance want city officials to know where they shot. But he stresses that they’re only a have become more sophisticated, parked or when, Gidari says, would have partial prophylactic: “Nothing that will detecting them has become a harder to outwit license plate recognition tools make you immune from the problem.” task. “There was a time when you could by obscuring their license plate, such as spot cameras,” Tien says. Maybe a with the noPhoto camera jammer, a new Other techniques include employing bodega would hang up a metal sign $399 device that fires a flash at red light Tor—a network that tries to anonymize warning passersby that they were being cameras in an attempt to scramble a the source and destination of your web recorded by a clunky, conspicuous readable image. Obscuring license plates searches by routing traffic along a device. “But now, they’re smaller, is already illegal in many cities and states, convoluted path—and Signal, which recessed, and don’t look like what you and others are chewing on new offers encrypted messaging and phone expect them to look like.” procedures. Arizona’s new measure takes calls. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s effect this summer, and a bill outlawing Surveillance Self-Defense toolkit also Other cameras are in the sky. As Buzzfeed attempts to foil license plate cameras is suggests particular tools and behaviors reported last spring, some federal currently winding its way through the for specific scenarios. People surveillance technologies are mounted in Louisiana state senate. participating in protests, the guide sound-dampened planes and helicopters suggests, might consider stripping meta- that cruise over cities, using augmented In their book Obfuscation: A User’s Guide data from photos, to make it harder to reality to overlay a grid that identifies for Privacy and Protest, Finn Brunton and match them with identities and locations. targets at a granular level. “There are Helen Nissenbaum, both professors at But this isn’t a perfect solution, either, sensors everywhere,” Gidari says. “The New York University, champion a strategy Tien says, because you can only control public has no ability to even see where of “throwing some sand in the gears, what you post. “If I take a picture and they are.” kicking up dust and making some noise,” scrub the metadata, that’s one thing,” essentially relying on the melee of data Tien says. “If my friend takes a picture of The surest way to dodge surveillance is to jamming to “hide in a cloud of signals.” A me, I can’t do anything about that.” The not encounter it in the first place—but number of apps, websites, and browser Intercept just produced a video that’s not a simple ask. While various extensions attempt to aid users in this illustrating step-by-step instructions for groups have tried to plot out routes that type of misdirection—say, for instance, phone security at a protest, from adding allow pedestrians to literally sidestep by running in the background of your an access passcode to turning on nodes of surveillance, they haven’t been regular web activities, trying to cover encryption settings. especially successful. In 2013, two your digital tracks by throwing software developers released a beta surveillance off your scent. On a daily basis, Tien tells me, “I don’t version of an app called Surv, which think you or I can exercise much aspired to be a crowdsourced guide to For example: A site called Internet Noise meaningful self-help against the kind of cameras mounted in cities around the searches for randomized phrases and tracking we’ll be seeing in real-world world. The app would detect cameras opens five fresh tabs every ten seconds. (I physical space.” That’s fodder for a point within a 100-meter radius of the user’s left it running as I wrote this, and now my he makes about a fundamental phone, but it failed to meet its browser history includes pictures of asymmetry in the information that’s crowdfunding threshold on Kickstarter. badgers, an online mattress store, an available to the bodies that install the NPR article about the Gorsuch cameras and those who are surveilled by The most effective solutions are also the confirmation hearing, and a research them. There are relatively few laws least practical ones. To defeat facial paper about gene mutation in hamsters.) relating to the expectation of privacy in a recognition software, “you would have to As a cloaking technique, it’s not a perfect public space. The officials and wear a mask or disguises,” Tien says. veil, writes Emily Dreyfess in Wired: “It’s organizations that install sensors, “That doesn’t really scale up for people.” actually too random. It doesn’t linger on cameras, and ever-more-sensitive Other strategies include makeup that sites very long, nor does it revisit them. In devices, he says, “have much more screws with a camera’s ability to other words, it doesn’t really look human, money than you do, much more recognize the contours of a human face, and smart-enough tracking algorithms technology than you do, and they don’t or thwarting cameras by blinding them likely know that.” The site is more of a have to tell you what they’re doing.” with infrared LED lights fastened to a hat protest over Congress rolling back a not- or glasses, as researchers at Japan’s yet-implemented FCC regulation that Ultimately, Tien and Gidari both take a National Institute of Informatics would have stymied ISPs from selling long view, arguing that the most payoff attempted in 2012. Those techniques are users’ browsing history. will come from pushing for more hardly subtle, though—in trying to trick transparency about just what this the technology, you would stick out to Still, Tien advocates a certain degree of technology is up to. Part and parcel of the naked eye. And as biometrics self-protection. He views these measures that, Tien says, is resisting the idea that continue to advance, cameras will likely as a kind of digital hygiene—the data is inherently neutral. The whole be less dupable, too. There are also legal “equivalent of washing your hands when messy, jumbled mass of it contains hiccups to consider: Drivers who don’t you go to the bathroom,” or getting a flu information that could have tangible

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consequences on people’s lives. Tien says surveillance “might not be such a good says—as he wrote in a blog post for the citizens need to remind their elected thing when we’re interested in protecting CIS in February, “no one wants to live in a officials what’s at stake with data—and in immigrants and the federal government ‘dumb’ city.” But he says that opting out the process, maybe “dampen their is interested in deporting them.” shouldn’t need to be the default: “I don’t enthusiasm” for the collection of it. think you should have been opted in in The practical strategies for opting out— the first place.” He points out that sanctuary cities could of becoming invisible to some of these be a prime example. There, he says, some modes of surveillance—are imperfect, to Source: nextgov.com advocates of immigrant rights are say the least. That’s not to say that data realizing that data collected via municipal collection is inherently nefarious, Gidari

Millennial Hoarders Most people think of millennials as minimalists, of sorts: either the hip sort or the poor sort. The New Yorker imagines: what would a millennial hoarder look like? Source: boingboing.net

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Google is Crushing the Internet A Search for the Zombie Websites Interview with Amazon’s Alexa and Five to 10 years ago, independent of 1995 Google’s Assistant bloggers used to be able to get by on The must-visit destinations from early If you are Star Trek fan, you know that the internet advertising, like the broadsheets cyberspace are mostly gone now. primary way that the crew of the of yore. But that changed quite quickly, Source: theatlantic.com Enterprise interacted with their computer and for two big reasons: Facebook and was through voice commands. Google Source: gigaom.com Source: theweek.com

The Henn-na Robot Hotel in Tokyo For his latest episode of Abroad in Japan, British expatriate Chris Broad traveled to Tokyo to spend a night at the Henn-na Hotel that is mainly staffed by robots. Source: laughingsquid.com

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Why You Should Never Click on Links in Emails Email phishers are at it again -- there's a new exploit in modern browsers that can trick you into visiting fake and harmful sites. Here's how to avoid it. Source: makeuseof.com

Torching the Modern-Day Library The Playful Eye: a Virtual Feast of A Universe Explodes: an of Alexandria Games and Visual Tricks Experimental e-Book That Gets Somewhere at Google there is a database These vintage cards and old placards Edited Every Time it Changes containing 25 million books and nobody display optical illusions, visual witticisms, Hands is allowed to read them.” hidden images, rebuses, and artistic vvBest viewed on a mobile device, it's Source: theatlantic.com paradoxes from yesteryear. about 20 pages long and has 128 words Source: boingboing.net per page. Source: engadget.com

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Inside Every Utopia is a Dystopia Inside Every Utopia Is a Dystopia from Boston Review. A new biography of Norman Bel Geddes, designer of the Futurama, tells the story of American innovation. Source: bostonreview.net

Kinsetsu Kinsetsu, a short fictive macro sci-fi journey to planet nine. All footage was shot using live action and practical effects, no cgi involved. Source: vimeo.com

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02. 'The kerning is so off' Ah, the Wacom pen, the TV remote of the Most regular Joes won’t even know what design world. Why is it these things kerning is – more fool them we say. But always go missing? Even though there’s a when we see any kind of kerning or little stand for it on your desk. After leading errors we just can’t let it go. asking everyone in the office (John in Whether on a menu, sign or... well, accounts thought you’d lost your ‘style’) anything. Most think ‘ah, so what?’ but you find it by the kettle in the next for us designers it’s a huge bugbear. It’s kitchen – and you can’t even remember the difference between flick and... well, making tea that morning. we’ll let you work that one out. 08. 'There’s too much copy!' 03. 'Black is not a colour!' Who in everyday life looks at something "And I just love wearing black, it’s such a and says ‘there’s too much copy on this great colour on me,” you overhear on the page’? No one, that’s who. Apart from tube. You have to bite your tongue the designer. We know exactly how much almost to the point of dismemberment. text should be on a page or spread. Black, as we all know, is not a colour – it’s Eager clients want to cram all the words the absence of colour. AND THEREFORE they can onto their one-pager, but the NOT A COLOUR. Just try not to scream it designer revolts, making them cut it back too loud for fear of ousting our higher until it’s more aesthetically pleasing than intelligence. the golden ratio itself.

04. 'You’re using Windows?' 09. 'I bought a typeface yesterday' 10 things designers say that It’s a fact that most of the world uses Normal people don’t buy typefaces, it’s a normal people don’t Windows. And whilst you may dabble, fact. When was the last time you heard of ROB CARNEY you’re still a bit shocked when any of someone in the world outside of design your friends pull out their laptop and it’s bragging that they just picked up Designers have their own special lingo, not a MacBook Pro. And if it’s anything Gotham? Yes, most people just search which can cause confusion when uttered below Windows 10 – gasp – then they through reams and reams of free in the presence of normal folk. Here are pretty much won’t be considered your fonts (yes, fonts!) before finding some of the worst offenders. friend any more. something relatively suitable.

We designers are a special breed. We 05. 'You call that a brief?' Us designers however, have to have the understand the world in a different, We like to have a certain amount of perfect typeface – even if that means arguably better, way to ‘normal’ people. freedom, but a one-sentence brief is the shelling out. So we will pore over all our Whilst we blend into society with aplomb, most frustrating thing on the planet, options before reaching for the credit we’re obviously a superior species – sent especially when followed up with a raft of card. And then explain why we purchased from a distant universe to make things changes that weren’t set out originally. it whilst experiencing blank stares from look better. And our nation has certain Picture it now, holding up a printout and our non-designer buddies. distinct phrases that you won’t hear a saying to yourself ‘You call that a brief?’ normal puny human utter. Yeah, we’ve all done it. 10. 'Are you sure that’s So if you hear any of the following in CMYK/RGB/[insert colour mode passing, you know you’ve been in the 06. 'It’s not empty… it’s negative here]?' company of a higher being… space' This is why clients employ designers and There’s a temptation for clients to want don’t do things themselves. We know 01. 'It’s not a font, it’s a typeface' to fill up every part of a page or design. about colour modes and formats. And When chatting to non-designer friends, But we all know the correct use of when something isn’t supplied in the they may casually mention that they used negative space is as important as the right way, we like to tell people about it. new fonts in their latest work project. But imagery and typography itself. So next We’d also like to give an honourable what they really mean is a typeface. They time a client says ‘so what’s with all the mention to resolution, which is one of used more than one weight. If there’s white space?’ respond ‘it’s negative space life’s greatest mysteries to those not in anything more infuriating to a designer and it’s important to the balance of the the design world. it’s the mixing up of these two terms. design’ 15 times, or until they hang up or Font = one weight, typeface = the whole leave. Anything else you say that other people set. just don’t? Is our satire bang off target? 07. 'Has anyone seen my stylus?' Tell us in the comments below… This little guy can wind up in the unlikeliest of places Source: creativebloq.com TechnoLiterati Vol.7 | Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences

How Nature Documentaries Are Fake Everyone loves BBC's Planet Earth, but how much of it is real? Source: vimeo.com

The Most Awkward Wrong Number Calls and Texts Ever We asked for your most bizarre, awkward wrong number calls and text messages and, boy, did you deliver. These tales of “whoa” involve everything from clueless callers to tactless texters, playful responses to toilet phones, and everything in between. Source: lifehacker.com

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Kottke's List of the Web’s Best It’s Time to Spend Less Time on Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the Hidden Gems Facebook and Actually Learn Web, Plots a Radical Overhaul of Jason Kottke asked his readers to tell him Something His Creation “what were the best web sites that they Chastened by the negative effects of The creator of the web just received the knew about that most people have never social media, Mark Zuckerberg says he will equivalent of the Nobel Prize for heard of. tweak his service and upgrade society in computing. But his work is far from over. Source: boingboing.net the process. Source: wired.com

Source: technologyreview.com

Stop Blaming the Tech Industry for the World’s Problems Everything we do is terrible, says the trope. We’re oppressive. We’re exploitative. We’re sexist, racist, classist. We deify horrible frat-boy brogrammer assholes, while funding, and celebrating, morally bankrupt apps that exist to stand in for their mothers and/or servants. We destroy jobs and displace the working class. We cater to the rich and privileged urban elite, while the poor masses fall further behind. How can we possibly claim to be building a better world? Source: techcrunch.com

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The Internet isn’t Making us Dumber - it’s Making us More ‘Meta-Ignorant’ WILLIAM POUNDSTONE

At five-foot-six and 270 pounds, the bank cameras. He tested this out before the Dunning and a graduate student, Justin robber was impossible to miss. On April heists, putting juice on his face and Kruger, embarked on series of 19, 1995, he hit two Pittsburgh banks in snapping a selfie with a Polaroid camera. experiments testing this premise. They broad daylight. Security cameras picked There was no face in the photo! (Police quizzed undergraduate psychology up good images of his face — he wore no never figured that out. Most likely students on grammar, logic, and jokes, mask — and showed him holding a gun Wheeler was no more competent as a then asked the students to estimate their to the teller. Police made sure the photographer than he was as a bank scores and also estimate how well they footage was broadcast on the local robber.) Wheeler reported one problem did relative to others (on a percentile eleven o’clock news. A tip came in within with his scheme: The lemon juice stung basis). The students who scored lowest minutes, and just after midnight, the his eyes so badly that he could barely had greatly exaggerated notions of how police were knocking on the suspect’s see. well they did. Dunning had expected that, door in McKeesport. Identified as but not the magnitude of the effect. His McArthur Wheeler, he was incredulous. Wheeler went to jail and into the annals first reaction to the results was “Wow.” “But I wore the juice,” he said. of the world’s dumbest criminals. It was Those who scored near the bottom such a feature, in the 1996 World estimated that their skills were superior Wheeler told police he rubbed lemon Almanac, that brought Wheeler’s story to to two-thirds of the other students. juice on his face to make it invisible to the attention of David Dunning, a Cornell security cameras. Detectives concluded psychology professor. He saw in this tale Later research went far beyond the he was not delusional, not on drugs — of dim-witted woe something universal. university. For one experiment, Dunning just incredibly mistaken. Those most lacking in knowledge and and Kruger recruited gun hobbyists at a skills are least able to appreciate that trapshooting and skeet-shooting Wheeler knew that lemon juice is used as lack. This observation would eventually competition. Volunteers took a ten- an invisible ink. Logically, then, lemon become known as the Dunning-Kruger question gun safety and knowledge quiz juice would make his face invisible to effect. adapted from one published by the

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National Rifle Association. Again, the gun statements such as “An ostrich’s eye is which they were directed to view specific owners who knew the least about firearm bigger than its brain.” Each person was artworks. Some were instructed to safety wildly overestimated their instructed to type all 40 statements into a photograph the art, and others were knowledge. computer. Half the volunteers were told simply told to take note of it. The next to remember the facts. The other half day both groups were quizzed on their Like most rules, this one has exceptions. weren’t. Also, half were informed that knowledge of the artworks. The visitors “One need not look far,” Dunning and their work would be stored on the who snapped pictures were less able to Kruger wrote, “to find individuals with an computer. The other half were told that it identify works and to recall visual details. impressive understanding of the would be erased immediately after the strategies and techniques of basketball, task’s completion. Our unconscious curators of memory for instance, yet who could not ‘dunk’ to must be aware of how quickly and easily save their lives. (These people are called The volunteers were later given a quiz on any needed fact can be called up. This coaches.)” But of course coaches the facts they’d typed. Those instructed implies that our broadband networks understand their own physical limitations. to remember the information scored no have created a new regime of learning Similarly, “most people have no trouble better than those who hadn’t been told and memory, one in which facts are less identifying their inability to translate to do so. But those who believed that likely to be retained and are more quickly Slovenian proverbs, reconstruct a V-8 their work would be erased scored much forgotten. In a few years, we’ll probably engine, or diagnose acute disseminated better compared to those who believed it all be wearing devices that shoot a 24-7 encephalomyelitis.” would be saved. This was true whether video stream of our lives. Will social they were trying to remember the facts media make amnesiacs of us all? The Dunning-Kruger effect requires a or not. minimal degree of knowledge and Uploaded keystrokes are just one of experience in the area about which you The conscious mind exercises little choice many ways we have of storing are ignorant (and ignorant of your in remembering and forgetting. Nobody information outside our brains. Long ignorance). Drivers, as a group, are decides to forget a client’s name or to before our virtual social networks, we subject to the effect — bad drivers remember forever the lyrics of a detested shared memory, knowledge, and usually think they’re good drivers — but pop tune. It just happens. expertise among our real social networks. those who have never learned how to I’m not a foodie, but I have friends who drive are exempt. The Harvard experiment’s results are can recommend interesting new consistent with a pragmatic system of restaurants. I don’t know doctors, but I Since Dunning and Kruger first published memory. It is impossible to remember have a general practitioner who can their results in the 1999 paper “Unskilled everything. The brain must constantly be recommend a specialist. We get by in the and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in doing triage on memories, without world, not by knowing everything but by Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence conscious intervention. And apparently it knowing people. Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments,” the recognizes that there is less need to stock effect named for them has become a our minds with information that can be Distributed memory can counteract meme. It strikes a universal chord: As readily retrieved. (It may be a very long misinformation — to a degree, anyway. Dunning put it, the overconfident airhead time before you need to know how big Surveys have shown that most people “is someone we’ve all met.” Actor John an ostrich’s eyeball is.) So facts are more think antibiotics will fight viruses. Wrong. Cleese concisely explains the Dunning- often forgotten when people believe the But as Dan M. Kahan of Yale points out, it Kruger effect in a much-shared YouTube facts will be archived. This phenomenon hardly matters. “Most people” are not video: “If you’re very, very stupid, how has earned a name — the Google going to self-prescribe azithromycin. The can you possibly realize that you’re very, effect — describing the automatic important thing is to know that it’s a very stupid? You’d have to be relatively forgetting of information that can be good idea to go to a doctor when we’re intelligent to realize how stupid you are found online. sick and to follow that doctor’s … And this explains not just Hollywood instructions. but almost the entirety of Fox News.” But If you take the Google effect to the point the 1999 paper makes clear the authors’ of absurdity, selfies would cause amnesia. The Google effect is another adaptation opinion that the first place to look for a But a 2013 study conducted by Linda to distributed memory. The cloud is a Dunning-Kruger ignoramus is in the Henkel of Fairfield University pointed in friend who happens to know everything. mirror. that direction. Henkel noticed that It’s always available, provides the answer visitors to art museums are obsessed in seconds, and never gets upset with There is now an active field of research with taking cell-phone shots of artworks dumb questions. It’s little wonder we into how the internet is changing what and often are less interested in looking at depend on it to the point of absurdity. we learn and remember. In a 2011 the art itself. So she performed an Economist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz experiment helmed by Daniel Wegner of experiment at Fairfield University’s noted that the third-most-common Harvard, volunteers were presented with Bellarmine Museum of Art. Google search containing the phrase “my a list of 40 trivia facts — short, pithy Undergraduates took a docent tour in

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penis” is “How big is my penis?” You’d The contemporary world regards The poorly informed don’t necessarily think a ruler would have a better answer. knowledge with ambivalence. We admire know less. They just know different learning and retain the view that it is a things. A gamer who spends all his free Most — more than 50 percent — of desirable end in itself. But our more time playing video games will have an millennials can’t name anyone who shot a entitled side sees learning as a means to encyclopedic understanding of those U.S. president or discovered a planet; an end — to social advancement, wealth, games. He is ill-informed only by they don’t know the ancient city power, something. We are suspicious of arbitrary standards of what’s important. celebrated for its hanging gardens, the education that lacks an ulterior motive; Not everyone agrees that there is a fixed one destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, or the we click on listicles entitled “8 College set of facts that all should know. But emperor said to have fiddled while Rome Degrees With the Worst Return on absent such a set, the concept of being burned; and most millennials can’t name Investment.” well-informed becomes a hopelessly the single word uttered by the raven in relative one. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem. Ours is the golden age of rational — and rationalized — ignorance. Information is Today’s mediascape does not provide The conventional reaction to such reports being produced, devalued, and made much guidance. It encourages us to is a blend of shock and amusement. It’s obsolete at a prodigious rate. Every day create personal, solipsistic filters over terrible how little young people/ordinary the culture changes beneath our feet. It is information, making it unprecedentedly citizens know — right? It’s worth asking harder than ever to keep up or even to easy to gorge on news of favorite how we know it’s so terrible and whether be sure that keeping up matters celebrities, TV shows, teams, political it’s terrible at all. anymore. We are left speculating about ideologies, and tech toys. This leaves less how important it is to stay current on the time and attention for everything else. Ignorance can be rational. Economist Middle East, contemporary novels, local The great risk isn’t that the internet is Anthony Downs made that claim in the politics, wearable technology, and college making us less informed or even 1950s. He meant that there are many basketball. A friend recently wondered misinformed. It’s that it may be making situations in which the effort needed to aloud whether it was okay to not know us meta-ignorant — less cognizant of acquire knowledge outweighs the anything about Game of Thrones. The what we don’t know. advantage of having it. Maybe you got observation that you can look up any your diploma and a high-paying job needed bit of information dodges the Source: nymag.com without ever learning about that poem issue. You can’t Google a point of view. with the raven in it. Why learn it now?

When Pixels Collide Cassius ft. Cat Power Pharell The Voynich Manuscript: Secret Source: 3quarksdaily.com Williams | Go Up Knowledge or a Hoax? Directed by Alex Courtès • Produced by When Umberto Eco, the semiologist, DIVISION™ for Ed Banger Records medievalist, and author of the best-selling Source: vimeo.com medieval puzzle-novel The Name of the Rose, lectured at Yale to celebrate the Beinecke Library’s fiftieth anniversary, the only one of its many treasures he asked to see was the Voynich manuscript. Source: nybooks.com

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14 Secrets of Secret Service Agents They have ways of keeping tabs on you, and one of them is probably in your desk drawer right now. Source: mentalfloss.com

Ooho Edible Water Orbs: Goodbye Galactic Garbage Magic AI: Optical Illusions that Plastic Millions of pieces of human-made trash Trick, Tool, and Flummox Ooho' by Skipping Rocks Lab is an edible are orbiting the Earth. Some are tiny, but Computers water bottle created out of brown algae all pose a risk. There’s a scene in William Gibson’s 2010 that's an environmental-friendly Source: bbc.co.uk novel Zero History, in which a character alternative to plastic bottles. embarking on a high-stakes raid dons Source: mashable.com what the narrator refers to as the "ugliest T-shirt" in existence — Source: theverge.com

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Briggs Land: an Eerily Plausible The Cambridge Face Memory Test The 'Internet Noise' Project Source: Version of our Near Future theverge.com Thomas Beller on Dan Schultz’s “Internet Briggs Land is a complex, intelligent crime Noise” project, which aims to confuse the drama that is so American at its core, but Internet-service providers recording your a slice of America we rarely get to see. browsing history Source: boingboing.net .Source: newyorker.com

Dogolrax: a Surreal, Shifting Game of Distorted Places and Gore Dogolrax will have you exploring the remains of a dead alien in one moment, meeting monochrome priestesses the next, and then shift to gunplay against floating brains followed with a meetup with a decayed fetus deep within metallic caverns. It is endlessly moving and endlessly surreal, dragging whoever plays it deep into its twisting narrative. Source: indiegames.com

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Facebook is Turning Into a Confusing Social Nightmare DAMON BERES

Facebook! It's a confusing mess these you're supposed to do when you log in bobs you'll supposedly enjoy interacting days. each day. with based on what the company's algorithms understand about your The network, in its efforts to become a A quick rundown: In the past few weeks, behavior. That's a lot! bit more social again, has drowned users Facebook has introduced a "Stories" And actually, it's an incomplete list — we in new features, tests and other feature, a new way to post colorful blocks just wanted to brace you. Facebook has distracting knickknacks — and for of text as status updates, a "false news" also rolled out a new pop-up tab system perhaps the first time in the service's 13- identification tool, and, for some users, a on desktop that shoves comments in year history, it's not altogether clear what new "rocket" icon that connects to an your face if you're mentioned. Combined alternate news feed filled with bits and with other features, you get something that looks like this:

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Also in March, Facebook introduced a mobile app, so it looks a bit more like rejiggered way to display comments in its text messaging someone:

So that's six fairly large updates to the largest and most successful online social more like the other apps you actually user experience rolled out in a matter of network, is no longer the cool place for enjoy using in the vain hope that you'll days, and that's only considering people to post their personal content, as return to its blue and white pastures. But Facebook's core app. (Many of us also a 2016 article in The Information the mishmash of features has made use Messenger, which just saw the explained. But people and their data are Facebook a confusing mess to navigate, release of a new automated assistant.) Facebook's bread and butter. and it may be the clearest signal yet that our social interactions online are And the pile-on seems more reactionary Thus, the social network is doing becoming fractured. than innovative: Facebook, the world's whatever the heck it can to look a bit

You may sense this already. Perhaps your Instagram — and some of them are hours — because you post visual media daily app regimen consists of Facebook, better at certain things than others. on those platforms already. Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram now. Snapchat and Instagram make sense as They're all incredibly refined products — repositories for your Stories — sequences Facebook, meanwhile, shoved Stories note, of course, that Facebook owns of photos and video that are live for 24 into its core app, and no one's using it —

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probably because it flies against the way significant turning point in how we cracks in its platform started to show. many of us are accustomed to using its interact with one another through We'll see if it patches them up. product. computers. Source: mashable.com The social network is an important And no, the sloppy roll-out of a few product: 1.23 billion people use it every mediocre features won't ruin Facebook. day, and its degradation would mark a But mark this moment as one when the

It Hurts to be Beautiful! Ransomware Asks for High Score Memoria Esterna: Mika Taanila’s Here are 10 Terrifying Beauty Gadgets Instead of Money Time Machine from the Past. Creator apologizes for a “joke” that really The first solo show of Mika Taanila in Italy, Source: vintag.es requires expert play to unlock files. at the RITA URSO Artopia Gallery in Milan. Source: arstechnica.com On view: the video works produced by the artist using archive materials, and which deal with issues related to technology, media obsolescence, and the archaeology of the future. Source: digicult.it

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The Internet Warriors Why do so many people use the internet to harass and threaten people, and stretch the freedom of speech to its limits? Source: youtube.com

The Web Looks Like S**t The Six Types of Cybercriminals Using the internet shouldn’t be this hard. Defence group BAE Systems faces “serious and persistent” cyber Source: theoutline.com attacks twice a week from hackers trying to steal the defence giant’s secrets. Source: telegraph.co.uk

How 'The Apprentice' Manufactured Trump He didn't have to be a successful business man in real life because he played one on TV. Source: theatlantic.com

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How not to Protect your Privacy Online Privacy advocates across the country let out a collective sob this week when Congress dismantled a set of Obama-era internet privacy rules. In effect, the Republicans just gave big telecom companies unfettered access to your browsing history and will even let ISPs sell that data for profit. As we’ve argued before: this sucks. Source: fieldguide.gizmodo.com

372 Simple Ways to Protect Your Digital Life Vernon Chatman devises a humorous list of cybersecurity tips, including decoy subject lines for e-mails and countless password changes. Source: newyorker.com

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Trolls Are Winning the Internet, Technologists Say ADRIENNE LAFRANCE

Many of those polled said that we’re now mood and the context of the discussion up on the wrong side of the bed—can witnessing the emergence of “flame wars they were in, the researchers got it right lead to worse moods among other and strategic manipulation” that will only 80 percent of the time. participants, and even more troll get worse. This goes beyond obnoxious comments elsewhere,” the Stanford and comments, or Donald Trump’s tweets, or They learned that being in a bad mood Cornell researchers wrote. “As this even targeted harassment. Instead, we’ve makes a person more likely to troll, and negative behavior continues to entered the realm of “weaponized that trolling is most frequent late at night propagate, trolling can end up becoming narrative” as a 21st-century battle space, (and least frequent in the morning). They the norm in communities if left as the authors of a recent Defense One also tracked the propensity for trolling unchecked.” essay put it. And just like other battle behavior to spread. When the first spaces, humans will need to develop comment in a thread is written by a Using technology to understand when specialized technology for the fight troll—a nebulous term, but let’s go with and why people troll is essential, but ahead. it—then it’s twice as likely that additional many people agree that the scale of the trolls will chime in compared with a problem requires technological solutions. Researchers have already used conversation that’s not led by a troll to Stopping trolls isn’t as simple as creating technology to begin to understand what start, the researchers found. On top of spaces that prevent anonymity, many of they’re up against. Earlier this month, a that, the more troll comments there are those surveyed told Pew, because doing team of computer scientists from in a discussion, the more likely it is that so also enables “governments and Stanford University and Cornell University participants will start trolling in other, dominant institutions to even more freely wrote about how they used machine- unrelated threads. employ surveillance tools to monitor learning algorithms to forecast whether a citizens, suppress free speech, and shape person was likely to start trolling. Using “A single troll comment in a discussion— social debate,” Pew wrote. their algorithm to analyze a person’s perhaps written by a person who woke TechnoLiterati Vol.7 | Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences

“One of the biggest challenges will be tools can complement human efforts. But who are optimistic that the trolls can be finding an appropriate balance between they’ll also complicate things. beaten back, and that civic discourse will protecting anonymity and enforcing prevail online, there are myriad consequences for the abusive behavior “When chatbots start running amok— unknowns ahead. that has been allowed to characterize targeting individuals with hate speech— online discussions for far too long,” Bailey how will we define ‘speech’?” said Amy “Online discourse is new, relative to the Poland, the author of “Haters: Webb, the CEO of the Future Today history of communication,” said Ryan Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Institute, in her response to Pew. “At the Sweeney, the director of analytics at Online,” told Pew. Pseudonymity may be moment, our legal system isn’t planning Ignite Social Media, in his response to the one useful approach—so that someone’s for a future in which we must consider survey. “Technological evolution has offline identity is concealed, but their the free speech infringements of bots.” surpassed the evolution of civil discourse. behavior in a certain forum over time can We’ll catch up eventually. I hope. We are be analyzed in response to allegations of Another challenge is that no matter what in a defining time.” harassment. Machines can help, too: solutions people devise to fight trolls, the Chatbots, filters, and other algorithmic trolls will fight back. Even among those Source: theatlantic.com

Is Technology Contributing to Increased Inequality? As global poverty continues to decline, another issue emerges. According to the World Economic Forum, rising income inequality and the polarization of societies pose a risk to the global economy, and may lead to increased polarization and lack of political stability. Source: techcrunch.com

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Twilight Zone Plot Generator Imagine, if you will, an internet generator that will give you the perfect absurd writing prompt to inspire your next bestseller.All you have to do is click the link, and suddenly you have a protagonist, a setting, an action, and a complication, right out of The Twilight Zone.Sometimes they are internally inconsistent, sometimes they are boring. But keep trying, and you'll find a real gem. It's all possible, in The Twilight Zone. -via the A.V Source: neatorama.com

The 473 Phone Scam and What You Need to Know About it What is the so-called "473 scam"? Should you be concerned? And what can you do to make sure no one you love becomes a victim? Source: makeuseof.com

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Project Adrift: the Secret World of Quantum Questions Inspire New The Law of Conservation of Space Junk Math Complexity The hidden world of space junk. Adrift is a In order to fully understand the quantum IT complexity will not go away. The good short documentary that explores the world, we may have to develop a new news is that there's a rule to help you hidden world of space junk. The film realm of mathematics. decide what should tame yourself and reveals an issue that is troubling and Source: quantamagazine.org what part you should let go beautiful,… Source: outsystems.com Source: vimeo.com

Want a New Emoji? Good Luck How a nearly invisible cabal of tech industry leaders controls what you can and can’t type. Source: thenib.com

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Technofossils: the new Geological Layer of Earth Produced by Human Junk Almost anything that’s not recycled has the potential to fossilize. Source: slate.com

Lessons from Fahrenheit 451 for the Modern Day While books like 1984 and Brave New World are getting a lot of buzz right now because of the political climate of the country, I think there’s a classic dystopian title which is even more deserving of our reading (and re-reading): Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Source: artofmanliness.com

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Raising the Snapchat and Instagram Generation BEN BAJARIN

I was walking near the creek behind my So here I am behind our house for 20 the U.S. We continually heard how they house with my 14-year-old daughter and minutes trying to get the perfect shot frequently post a picture on Instagram, her friend. Walking ahead of me they while they stand together with their then go onto Facebook, Snapchat, and suddenly huddled together so I couldn’t hands carefully woven together in the other social media outlets to ask their hear what they were saying. Giggling, shape of a heart, and placed in just the friends to like their photo on Instagram. they pointed to the trees, then the creek, right spot so you can see a design in the then turned back to me to say “here dad, tree in the background. We also heard frequently in our take our picture.” As my daughter interviews about teens deleting their handed me her iPhone I could see she It’s All About The Likes photos from Instagram if they don’t get had Instagram (or “Insta” as she calls it) Professional Instagrammers, professional enough likes in a short amount of time. open on the screen. So I knew this would photographers, artists, models, upstart Apparently, it’s embarrassing to kids to be no ordinary photo. brands, and large companies understand have a photo on Instagram with just a the like button is valuable social currency. few likes, so better to just delete. It made Every single picture, and I do mean every Over the years YouTube videos and blog me remember all the stuff I did in junior single picture, my 14- and 12-year-old post how-to’s have shown up explaining high and high school that I wish I could daughters put on Instagram is heavily the right way and wrong way to take an have just deleted from the social produced. It is never random. They spend Instagram picture to maximize that consciousness of the school. Apparently, a lot of time planning the pose, the currency. in the digital age, this is now possible. content of the picture, and how it is all laid out. Every little thing is planned out. But for my daughters, this form of social The dynamic of social currency on There are no accidents in Insta shots. I’ve currency impacts the social dynamic in Instagram, and how it translates into real- observed this pattern so many times now the real world of junior high school. As world social standing in junior high and that I groan inside when they ask me to much as I hate the sound of it, Likes high school, is unavoidable for kids. They take a shot. I know it’s going to take a really do play a role in kids’ social status either ignore the service entirely (to their while since the picture has to be and popularity at school. social peril), or play the game and chase “perfect.” the likes. I thought I had it tough when I To put some science behind this view, was a teenager in the ’90s. our firm spoke to a dozen teens across

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Snapchat Is Different Teens, and everybody else, must know their image on social networks only adds Despite all the criticism Snapchat takes, I the social implications of the content to the stress. appreciate its whimsical and fun nature. they post on this social site or that. While teens do curate the content they Millennials are well aware of the social Ultimately as parents raising this put up for all their followers to see on horror stories in which their older peers generation we need to help our kids Snapchat, there’s less social pressure and lost a job after posting something navigate these uncharted waters. Parents stress around the levels of engagement embarrassing on Facebook. But they’re should help their kids avoid getting the content gets. And teens often choose learning their own lessons, too. And the caught in the trap of associating their to use Snapchat’s messaging/chat feature stakes can be high. Online bullying and value as human beings with their social to share things with much smaller shaming have become real problems. media account. groups, instead of with all their followers. Under Pressure Rather, my hope is that my girls will So it’s easier for my daughters to express So the good news is that teens are found their identities as women in their their creative and playful sides in their becoming more responsible for the character, skills, quality relationships, and Snapchat posts, compared to the more content they post to the public. The bad in their ability to accomplish their goals. serious and produced content they put news is that they have to think about it. on Instagram. School life is already a high-pressure Source: fastcompany.com social situation for teens, and keeping up

How to Prepare for Employment in the Age of April Fools’ Day Tech Jokes Artificial Intelligence April 1 is the day you shouldn't believe anything, especially tech For centuries, humans have been fretting over “technological product releases. Everything we've featured on our list is total unemployment” or the loss of jobs caused by technological nonsense. change. Never has this sentiment been accentuated more than it Source: digitaltrends.com is today, at the cusp of the next industrial revolution. With developments in artificial intelligence continuing at a chaotic pace, fears of robots ultimately replacing humans are increasing. … Source: thenextweb.com

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The Secret Museum of Mankind: a Collection of Strange & Secret Photographs of Tribes from Across the Continents Published in 1935, The Secret Museum of Mankind is a mystery book. It has no author or credits, no copyright, no date, no page numbers, no index. Published by "Manhattan House" and sold by "Metro Publications", both of New York, its "Five Volumes in One" was pure hype: it had never been released in any other form. Source: vintag.es

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Technology is Killing Jobs, and Virtual Reality Standards: Too Early The Life-Changing Magic of Only Technology Can Save Them or Long Overdue? Tidying up Your Computer Are we living in historically unprecedented Standards for virtual reality need to be Someone once told me that consumerism times for job loss? Or is this part of a cycle put into place to overcome the API is the process whereby our happiness is that predates even the Industrial fragmentation found now. With this, ripped from us so that it can be sold back Revolution? Is it possible to.. innovation and adoption could skyrocket. to us at a profit. Source: techcrunch.com Source: readwrite.com Source: engadget.com

How We Lose Billions of Hours and Money on Social Apps Without Even Noticing it Find out how your go-to remedy for boredom literally kills time (and money). Source: lifehack.org

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'V-mail': The WWII Program That Scanned Letters Onto Microfilm V-Mail allowed 1,600 personal letters to be shrunk down to a roll the size of a pack of cigarettes. Source: mashable.com

Phishing Scams and How to Avoid Them How to Protect all of your Accounts Online Phishing is a bigger threat than ever, here are some things you From Google to Facebook, get all of your major online accounts can do to defend yourself. locked down and safe from harm by following these Source: wired.com straightforward tips. Source: popsci.com

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The 6 Riskiest Social Media Habits to Avoid at Work KELLY SHERIDAN

Cybercriminals are turning to Facebook, The risk is poised to grow, says Marc access to your corporate email account Twitter and other platforms to launch Laliberte, information security threat could easily guess the password recovery attacks via employee behavior that could analyst at WatchGuard Technologies. questions," he explains, citing "Who was be putting your business at risk. Social Attacks uncommon in early 2016, like your best friend growing up?" and "What media is a popular gateway for hackers malware delivery via Facebook, are a city were you born in?" as common to access corporate networks, and growing threat one year later. Social examples. Both answers could be found employee behavior is driving the trend. media threats will evolve from the "carpet in public profiles on Facebook or Most people don't recognize the inherent bomb" era of attacks we're currently in, LinkedIn. Blair explains how both danger of social media, says Evan Blair, to more sophisticated and convincing executives and privileged users, who have cofounder at ZeroFOX. They trust attacks. There are several ways access to sensitive information on clients platforms like Facebook because they use employees' social media habits are and partners, are at high risk of being these tools to establish connections with putting your organization at risk. Here, targeted. Administrators are also key people, not usernames or email experts discuss which behaviors are most targets because they manage executive addresses. People rarely approach social common, the dangers they pose, and accounts and could be hackers' gateways media with the same caution they what you should do about them. into an organization. While these employ for suspicious emails or shady privileged users are often the most websites. This behavior leaves plenty of Oversharing sensitive information security savvy, he says, they are also at opportunities for cybercriminals to take Most people don't think twice about the greatest risk. Oversharing may also lead advantage of their trust and launch personal information they make publicly to physical security risks, a concern successful attacks. "Exploitation of trust is available. Social media accounts are "a especially relevant to high-ranking always something we've seen, but on a treasure trove" of birthdates, education company officials, says Blair. Threat device level," says Blair. "Now we're histories, and family relations. All of this actors can easily determine someone's seeing it at a human level, which is data is commonly used in security checks location from a Facebook post or tweet. almost a greater risk because humans are for password recovery forms, says "If you're the executive of a big company, the weakest link in the cyber kill chain." Laliberte. "An attacker trying to gain

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that's opening yourself up to an employer a target. Blair echoes the he/she didn't use different passwords for incredible amount of risk," he cautions. importance of watching what you post the accounts. online. "Nothing is ever private, and Clicking every link everything lasts forever on social media," Not having an account at all Open engagement is a dangerous risk on he cautions. The potential cost of cyberattacks via social platforms, says Blair, citing the social media may seem to outweigh its broader issue of user trust. On social Misusing enterprise social tools benefits. Why bother using Facebook, media, people are likely to click on links The rise of internal collaboration Twitter, or Instagram when the risk is so they would typically avoid in an email. platforms like Slack, Hipchat, and Google great? Not owning an account, or "There is no culture of awareness around Hangouts has put an interesting spin on neglecting to claim your company's social media security," he notes. Blair social media risk for businesses, says official name on social media, could illustrates this risk with the example of Blair. This new wave of business-friendly prove a risk as well. This puts you at risk how fraudulent news articles spread on social media runs all the same risk as for brandjacking, a type of attack in social platforms. Users who don't read Facebook or Twitter; it's still which an attacker creates a social account these articles and simply click "share" unmonitored, but it's sanctioned by the or blog designed to mimic a specific automatically send unverified links, enterprise. Most average employees business. From there, they can share affecting millions of people. This lack of don't put themselves at risk for a physical information that conflicts with the healthy skepticism is driving the rapid attack by sharing information, he business' values. They may also claim a spread of malware and ransomware, he explains. The greatest risk for them is username matching a company's brand continues. "If your friend creates a social unintentionally sharing information that and post fake information under the media post saying, 'hey, check out this is damaging to the business. This risk guise of an official source. website,' you are more likely to visit it follows employees into business-focused than you would be if some unsolicited social collaboration platforms, where they Sharing best practices email told you to," says Laliberte, For want to be open and share information. Social media security is a tricky problem example, users may get a notification On Slack, for example, users may add for security managers to navigate stating a friend has tagged them in a third parties to groups because they are because it's impossible to keep track of comment. When they click the working on projects and want partners to every user's social activity. However, notification, their PC downloads malware. engage. It becomes a problem when much of the risk can be alleviated if More cybercriminals are using social outsiders are in a business group and employees follow basic cybersecurity platforms like Facebook to distribute have access to sensitive data. These practices: using unique passwords to limit malware via phishing campaigns, and employees are also at great risk of saying exposure in a data beach, being wary of hijack accounts to distribute ransomware something in jest, and putting their links posted by friends. Businesses can and malicious browser extensions. If an organization in a liable position, says start forming their social media security attacker can gain access to a user's Blair. "People won't write certain things in strategy by gaining some level of visibility account, they can use it to spread their an email, but they will post them on into their organization guided by what's campaign through the person's friend Slack, Hipchat, or Hangouts," he explains. important: what do they care about? list. "That can be used as evidence against What do they expect to do; hope to company employees." protect? How will they structure their Controversial posts program to manage risk? This sets the Some people like to frequent forums and Reusing passwords stage for organizations to engage social networks to post and comment If you don't use unique passwords for employees by creating awareness and about controversial topics. Their each social media account, an attack on training on what these risks are, and the behavior, regardless of their political one could prove dangerous for all of privacy challenges on social media views, could make them hacker targets, them. Cybercriminals frequently target networks. Laliberte notes some says Laliberte. "Hacktivist entities like social media because they contain businesses restrict social media access to Anonymous are known for specifically sensitive information, and people experts who require it for their jobs and targeting individuals and organizations typically use the same passwords for are property trained in recognizing with conflicting social and political social media accounts and more sensitive common cyber attacks. Most companies views," he explains. Employees who draw purposes, for example, online banking. have dedicated social media employees attention to themselves by posting Laliberte cites the example of LinkedIn's to maintain their public online presence, controversial opinions on public forums 2016 data breach, which put more than and they should be trained to spot could risk provoking cybercriminals with 100 million account credentials at risk. potential problems. personal agendas. If someone tweets From these, attackers took the credentials from their organization's IP address or of a DropBox employee and were able to Source: darkreading.com posts controversial opinions from a leak 60 million more credentials because corporate account, they risk making their

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Can We Travel Back in Time to Change History? Physicist Paul Davies responds to “Mr. Thursday,” Emily St. John Mandel’s short story about time travel. Source: slate.com

Google’s New Invisible reCAPTCHA Many of you may be familiar with reCAPTCHA, the system that weeds out online bots by asking users to tick a checkbox in order to verify the user as human. Well, that system is getting an upgrade soon as Google is looking to make reCAPTCHA invisible. Source: hongkiat.com

TechnoLiterati Vol.7 | Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences

The Distracted Classroom JAMES LANG

One day near the end of the spring semester last year, I was standing at the front of the room in my British literature survey course, as students completed a writing exercise. One of the best students in the class, "Kate," finished early and sat back to await our discussion.

This talented senior represented something of a puzzle to me. On the one hand, she wrote well, contributed to discussions, sat in the front row every class period, and was always pleasant. On the other hand, she sometimes seemed distracted in class, as if she were secretly on her phone or using social media on a laptop. But no laptop or phone was ever in sight. I chalked up her occasional inattention to senioritis.

Once the class discussion began that day, I had drifted toward the row of desks where Kate sat when something on the floor caught my eye — it was a flash of light, as if from a cellphone. Kate was staring down at it as well, in one of her distracted states. I realized that she was gazing inside her purse, where her phone had been carefully positioned to allow her to see any texts that arrived during class. She couldn’t respond to them, but she could read them. New ones lit up her black screen, and she just had to turn her head ever so slightly to keep up with her group chats throughout the class session.

I was so taken aback by this discovery that I had to pause and compose myself in order to keep the discussion on track. I didn’t say anything to Kate then or later. She was a second-semester senior, and it was the last week of class. The prospect middle-school teachers — I am in a discussions, group work, or other tasks. of haranguing one of my favorite constant battle with cellphones and So a roomful of half-present students students about phone use in class during laptops for the attention of my students seriously detracts from what we can her last week of college just depressed in the classroom. accomplish on any given day. me. I know from both personal experience The answer is not banning all devices But the experience brought into clear and scads of published research that from the classroom. As I have argued focus the deep nature of the problem of when students have phones or laptops before, such a ban can single out distraction in college classrooms in the out in class — and are texting, surfing the students with accommodations who need 21st century. web, or posting on social media — they those devices to participate in class. And are only half-present (if that). I try to given the direction of the world and the Like every faculty member these days — make my classes as interactive as omnipresence of technology in our lives, and like most high-school and even possible, with students engaged in

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a ban seems to me a quixotic gesture at "The reason why goal interference in Experiments from Gazzaley’s lab have best. particular is so prominent in our lives," documented that, while older adults can they write in The Distracted Mind, "is the fully retain their ability to focus their For a long time now, I have felt stuck at inherent complexity of our goals and the attention, their capacity to block out an impasse on the challenge of how to limitations we have in fulfilling them. Our irrelevant distractions diminishes with handle these digital distractions. But a ability to establish high-level goals is age. That’s one reason why older adults new book on the more general nature of arguably the pinnacle of human brain may have more trouble concentrating on distraction and attention has helped me evolution. Complex, interwoven, time- a conversation in a crowded restaurant see some pathways forward. The delayed, and often shared goals are what than younger people. Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a allow us humans to exert an High-Tech World (MIT, 2016) represents unprecedented influence over how we The conflict between our complex goals a collaboration between neuroscientist interact with the world around us, and our cognitive-control limitations Adam Gazzaley and psychologist Larry D. navigating its multifaceted environments occupies the first part of The Distracted Rosen, and it should be required reading based on our decisions rather than Mind and sets the stage for the second for every teacher today — and probably reflexive responses to our surroundings." part — which I will take up in next all humans. In a series of columns, I plan column in this series — about how our to explore their ideas and how their But our admirable goal-setting ability digital devices are reshaping our research can help us reshape our runs up against the fundamental experiences with attention and teaching practices. limitations of our "cognitive control distraction. abilities." Those abilities "have not Almost every book or article I read about evolved to the same degree as the But even before we get there, I hope this issue begins with a run-down of all of executive functions required for goal readers can begin to see how The the ways in which distraction can setting," Gazzaley and Rosen write. "Our Distracted Mind has the potential to shift interfere with learning. But The Distracted cognitive control is really quite limited: the nature of our conversation about Mind provides a broader context: We have a restricted ability to distribute, digital distractions in the classroom. Distraction occurs, the authors argue, divide, and sustain attention; actively when we are pursuing a goal that really hold detailed information in mind; and When I walked out of class after matters and something blocks our efforts concurrently manage or even rapidly discovering Kate’s surreptitious phone to achieve it. switch between competing goals." scanning, the questions I asked myself were about her, or about my ability to After all, we don’t consider ourselves Put simply, they say, distraction can be control her behavior: Why can’t she focus distracted when we are scrolling through visualized as "a mighty force" (i.e., our in class? How can I keep students away Facebook on a Friday night with nothing goals) colliding "head on with a powerful from their distracting devices in class? else to do — we are only distracted when barrier, represented by the limitations to we are scrolling through Facebook while our cognitive control." But when I reconsidered the experience trying to grade papers. through the lens provided by Gazzaley Drawing on research from Gazzaley’s and Rosen, a new set of questions began Distraction from any particular goal — neuroscience lab at the University of to emerge: What goal had I established putting aside the digital angle for the California at San Francisco, The Distracted for Kate’s learning that day? How had I moment — can come from multiple Mind presents some intriguing findings created an environment that supported sources, Gazzaley and Rosen write. Those on those cognitive-control limitations. her ability to achieve that goal? And sources can be generated externally (the They diminish our ability to direct and perhaps most important — assuming bird at my window feeder, a child sustain our attention, to remember that the class had a learning goal that clamoring for my attention, a colleague things, and to switch back and forth mattered for her — did she know about knocking on my office door) or internally between tasks. An especially fascinating it? (making a cup of tea, switching from one thread in the book considers how those task to another, or, yes, checking limitations shift over the course of our The more powerful the goals we establish Facebook). lifetimes: The challenges to our attention for ourselves, and the more we feel and working memory are different for ownership over those goals, the more we They argue that distraction actually arises children and adults, and become more are able to pursue them in the face of from a conflict between two fundamental intense in certain key areas for older both internal and external distractions. features of our brain: our ability to create adults. and plan high-level goals versus our We all know this from experience. Most ability to control our minds and our For example, our ability to stay focused of us can shut out distractions when we environment as we take steps to on a task depends upon two separate are pursuing something that really complete those goals. neural processes: (1) directing our matters to us. So if we want to deal with attention to goal-related activities, and distractions in teaching, an obvious place (2) blocking out irrelevant distractions. to turn would be toward our goals for the

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classroom: Who creates them? How control — the same limitations that support her learning (I’ll consider some much do they matter? And how well do plague us all, and have done so for all of of those, too, in this series), it also offers students understand them? human history. her increasingly slick road ramps to distraction. For faculty members, it sets Of course, even if I had established a But that phone in her purse, as The up increasingly more complex barriers to clear goal for Kate’s learning that day, Distracted Mind explains — and as I will the student learning we hope to foster in and helped her understand and take consider in more detail in the columns to our courses. ownership of it, she would still face come — exacerbates the nature of those challenges to her achieving it from the challenges. Even while it presents Kate Source: chronicle.com fundamental limitations of her cognitive with a host of new ways to enhance and

Big in China: Murder Villages and Scam Towns In some rural areas, crime has become a cottage industry. Source: theatlantic.com

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The Most Dangerous Town on the Internet: Sealand A Basic Guide to Proper Email Etiquette Norton explores the secret world of bulletproof hosting that’s One recent Adobe survey of more than 1000 white-collar hidden deep in underground bunkers, isolated at sea, and workers revealed that we spend an average of four hours per day spread across the Web. Uncover the threats that lie within these checking work-related emails. services, such as botnets, malware, ransomware, and the black Source: mentalfloss.com market, and learn how to protect yourself in “The Most Dangerous Town on the Internet – Where Cybercrime Goes to Hide” Source: youtube.com

The Lost Logos of the U.S.S.R. With keen detective work, one designer is compiling the lesser-known graphic history of the Soviet era Source: fastcodesign.com

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Why China’s Internet Use has Overtaken the West We’ve reached a watershed moment in Chinese people’s online lives – and their innovation will lead the way for the rest of the world DAVID ROBSON

Four years ago, the British anthropologist very drab and boring and constraining and the ways people are using them, the Tom McDonald set-up home in Anshan, a place, whereas actually, Chinese internet Chinese are now a long way ahead of the small rural town between Beijing and users are incredibly creative and the West. And we would do well to watch Shanghai. His aim was to study the way internet is incredibly lively,” he tells me. places like Anshan as well as Beijing, if we local people used social media – but even “It was more like an online carnival.” want a glimpse of our own future. Based they were perplexed at his decision. on raw statistics, China has been at the “They wanted to know why on Earth I’m visiting McDonald in his office at the forefront of internet access for almost a someone would choose to live in a place University of Hong Kong, for a wide- decade. Having overtaken the US in 2008, like this,” says McDonald. To them, the ranging conversation about China’s there are now nearly 700 million Chinese town was a backwater that many hoped digital world and the ways that everyday users online today – many with high- to escape – hardly the thriving hub of people have integrated these speed connections. And although a technological change. But Anshan’s developments into their own traditions. majority of those users come from the relative isolation was the precise reason Even the connectivity in somewhere like country’s big metropolises, around 178 McDonald had come. Anshan beats many places in the West. million of those users can be found in “Before I left the field site, they had 4G,” rural towns like Anshan, whose Most writing about China’s internet had he says. “I mean, the village where I’m population numbers just 6,000. explored metropolitan elites living in the from in Yorkshire still doesn’t have 4G! So country’s huge cities – and had tended to there are these interesting contrasts – Notwithstanding a few crossed-wires – focus on the issues of censorship and people have modern lifestyles and lots of some of the locals believed that he was government control, painting a joyless exposure to modernity in rural China an IT expert, and would often ask him for place straight out of George Orwell’s now.” help with their technical issues – 1984. Yet here in Anshan, McDonald was McDonald found that Anshan’s residents surprised to find a vibrant and innovative And that progress is only accelerating. were more than happy to help with his online world. “It is easy for us to assume Both in the services available – including research on their internet use. At the that ‘the Chinese Internet’ ought to be a the widespread use of virtual money – time, two social networks proved to be

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the most popular – QQ and WeChat – One of the core differences, from British this way, it has already proven to be far while the microblogging platform Sina social media use, was the fact that the more popular than credit cards – which Weibo, arguably the more famous people of Anshan tended to shy away tended to be harder to obtain for people network outside of the country, had far from political pronouncements on their without permanent jobs. fewer users. One of the primary profile pages – “not because of attractions was the apps’ instant censorship, but just because all the Clearly, these companies are gathering a messaging, used in place of regular email people around them would ask why are huge amount data from their users, yet it at work and at home. “There’s still very you posting that on here,” says doesn’t seem to be a primary concern for much a sentiment that the people you McDonald. Instead, their updates tended many of these workers. “A lot of work with should be your friends, which to be centred on the family and Westerners would think, ‘why am I giving makes working in China exhausting, relationships with somewhat saccharine all my data to just one company?’” says because you are more committed to your images and messages – perhaps as a way Guo Yanan, one of McDonald’s students colleagues,” McDonald says. “But it also of upholding some of the values at the who also worked on the project in means that people value a form of heart of their rural community. Shenzhen. Instead, she says that many interaction, where you can continually Chinese people are just pleased to have message people in an informal way.” And McDonald found that the users were so much of their life consolidated in one Both QQ and WeChat are far more than always experimenting with the ways they app. “Maybe it’s because of the an email replacement, however. QQ, for could adapt and apply the technology: government having taken care of instance, offers a profile page (in the one local business owner, for instance, people’s life, but they think it’s just Qzone), complete with a personalised tried to use his Tinder-style feature to convenient.” It’s an interesting animated introduction sequence, along attract customers to his barbecue comparison. In the past, Chinese workers with a timeline and diary to share your ta restaurant. “So when they were looking would have had to invest their money in de dongtai (‘happenings’). It can also be for people nearby, they would see his a bank backed by the government. “And used to access an extensive gaming restaurant.” He was also struck by the so it’s a very important moment in China, network to access international games colourful memes shooting around the where money’s leaving these state- like World of Warcraft as well as home- Qzone, and the lively emojis – including, owned enterprises and it’s going into a grown games like Dream of Three for instance, hundreds of ways of private company,” McDonald explains. Kingdoms. expressing Happy New Year. “There’s this This comes with a risk, of course – a kind of vernacular creativity that is really state-owned bank is far more protected If QQ is a supercharged Facebook, astounding.” All of which helped to show against bankruptcy. Yet very few people WeChat is something like WhatsApp on that Chinese internet use is far more had thought about that possibility. “The steroids. McDonald demonstrates the varied and colourful than many had penny hasn’t dropped that this is a really Drift Bottle function, for instance, which appreciated – a thesis that McDonald important change in people’s relationship lets you record a short message and recently presented in his book (which is with the state.” throw it into a virtual ocean, where it will free to downoad). Chinese technology be retrieved by a random user at a later moves fast, however. And since Whatever the risks it brings, McDonald point. WeChat will also let you view and McDonald left Anshan for Hong Kong in thinks that we have only just witnessed chat to people nearby – “So it is more like 2014, many new features have emerged – the beginning of this revolution – and we Grindr or Tinder or whatever” – and if you including the networks’ own digital could learn a lot from that creativity. “We are feeling lonely, you can also vigorously money. “You can book a taxi, get food used to think that Chinese people just shake your phone – which again, makes deliveries, use it for savings, use it to pay copied the West, but when you go onto you visible to strangers across the whole your electricity bill, use it to book train WeChat and TaoBao and AliBaba, it’s just network who may also feel like a chat. It tickets,” he says. He recently explored the astounding because it’s so much more proved to be popular for university phenomenon among relatively poor, than what we have in the UK – you can students, for instance, who used the migrant workers in Shenzhen, who had get anything, do anything, and it’s linked ‘Shake’ function to make friends. travelled across the country to work in together in a very logical and easy to use (Currently, WeChat has more than 700 phone factories. “We were walking down way. We’ll be looking at them a lot in the million users worldwide, most of whom the street and almost every shop takes future.” are in China.) the stuff – so you can pay for a bottle of water or can of Coke with it,” he says. In Source: bbc.com

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Imposing Architectural Photography Hamburg-based photographer Sebastian Weiss is known for taking stark, clean images of remarkable buildings against bright blue mid- day skies. The results are remarkable. Source: boingboing.net

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How Normal People (Like you) The Quest to Crystallize Time Virtual Space Vacations with the Become Internet Trolls Bizarre forms of matter called time Intergalactic Travel Bureau It turns out that normal people frequently crystals were supposed to be physically The Intergalactic Travel Bureau has engage in trolling, and researchers at impossible. Now they’re not launched a new virtual reality app to take Source: Stanford and Cornell Universities have an nature.com aspiring space explorers to the moon, idea why. Mars and beyond. Source: mashable.com Source: space.com

'Terms and Conditions': iTunes EULA Combined with Extraordinary Comic Book Mashups Back in 2015, cartoonist Robert Sikoryak started publishing single pages from his upcoming graphic novel Terms and Conditions, in which he would recount every word of the current Apple iTunes Terms and Conditions as a series of mashup pages from various comics old and new, in which Steve Jobsean characters stalked across the panels, declaiming the weird, stilted legalese that "everyone agrees to and no one reads." Source: boingboing.net

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Genecraft: Art in the Biogenetic Age Baby Bottle Robot BOM has launched Genecraft: Art in the Biogenetic Age, This robot can be used to feed kids aged 0-7. After that they showcasing collaborations between artists and scientists making tend to dodge. responses to landmark genetic research taking place in Source: youtube.com Birmingham. The exhibition forms part of a wider programme at BOM presenting art at the frontiers of science. Source: digicult.it

Hybrids Source: shortfilmmasterpieces.tumblr.com

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Are We Living in the Matrix? JOE HESCHMEYER

On Monday, the New Yorker suggested smart enough to see the implications of conscious (as they would be if the that “the bizarre finale to Sunday night’s their own religious and philosophical simulations were sufficiently fine- Oscar ceremony brought to mind the views. Three errors in particular are at the grained and if a certain quite widely theory—far from a joke—that humanity root of this: accepted position in the philosophy is living in a computer simulation gone of mind is correct). Then it could be haywire.” Lest you think that such a self- Mistake #1: Reducing the Mind to a the case that the vast majority of evidently absurd theory is a mere cry for Computer minds like ours do not belong to the attention from a dying publication, the original race but rather to people idea that we’re all in the Matrix was If you’re a materialist – that is, if you simulated by the advanced actually seriously debated at the think that matter is all that there is – then descendants of an original race. It is American Museum of Natural History’s two conclusions follow: (a) the “mind” is then possible to argue that, if this 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate. The really nothing more than the brain; and were the case, we would be rational list of those partial to this theory include (b) the brain is really nothing more than a to think that we are likely among some of the most prominent scientific highly-advanced computer. You can’t be the simulated minds rather than voices in our culture, and the debate was a materialist and still believe in things like among the original biological ones. moderated by one of the most famous: a soul or an immaterial mind. And so, you’re left with arguments like this one, Moderator Neil deGrasse Tyson, from Oxford’s Nick Bolstrom: director of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, put the odds at 50-50 One thing that later generations that our entire existence is a might do with their super-powerful program on someone else’s hard computers is run detailed drive. “I think the likelihood may be simulations of their forebears or of very high,” he said. people like their forebears. Because their computers would be so So how do people this smart end up powerful, they could run a great advocating a theory this absurd? Simply many such simulations. Suppose put, because they’re atheistic materialists that these simulated people are

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In other words, if there’s no principled Clara Moskowitz, writing in Scientific By this reasoning, is there any moral distinction between us and computers, American, explains: They [members of this difference between owning an iPhone then there’s no reason to think that we’re advanced civilization] would probably not computers. In fact, there would be have the ability to run many, many such and owning a slave — and if there is, is it good reason to believe that we are. simulations, to the point where the vast just that the iPhone isn’t smart enough Technology is rapidly advancing, and majority of minds would actually be yet? there are predictions that computational artificial ones within such simulations, speeds for personal ($1000) devices will rather than the original ancestral minds. As far back as 1983, Robert and Mueller surpass the human brain by about 2025 So simple statistics suggest it is much were asking, Would an intelligent or so: more likely that we are among the computer have a “right to life”? And the simulated minds.” EU parliament just voted in January in Continuing that trend into the future, the favoring of granting personhood rights argument goes, it won’t be long before There are two things to point out about to AI, a conclusion promoted by a study we will be able to create “Sims” that have this theory. First, it follows logically from sponsored by the U.K.’s Department of the full range of human intelligence. materialism. Second, it’s utterly Trade and Industry some ten years ago. These Sims would have no idea that they ridiculous. So that’s where this line of reasoning weren’t real, and we could create a leads. Or more ominously: once virtually limitless number of them. So the If human minds are nothing more than computers become more advanced than odds that such a culture has already done advanced computers, then current human brains (in terms of computational that to us means that the mathematical computers are nothing less than simple powers), this logic would suggest that odds that we’re amongst the nearly- human rights ought to be considered limitless Sim population dwarfs the minds. Shouldn’t human rights (or at inferior to robotic rights. (Ray Kurzweil, likelihood that we’re real. least animal rights) activists start one of the leading futurists advocating advocating on behalf of abused laptops? this, openly recognizes this possibility).

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So let’s make a few things clear. First, skin, and the rest) than you currently In other words, any attempt to reduce human life isn’t reducible to possess. So why don’t we consider those human beings to mere matter will always consciousness (you’re alive even when assorted, discarded cells as the “true” Carl fail, because our matter is in flux. We eat you’re unconscious), and consciousness Sagan, or the “true” you? things, we digest, etc. If we don’t have isn’t reducible to computational ability something immaterial like a soul, there’s (you’re self-aware, and a calculator is And you equal the collection of simply no coherent way we can speak of not). These distinctions are true in molecules that happen to exist within enduring human consciousness. principle, not just based upon current your body at this exact moment, that technology. In other words, the exact collection has only existed for a fraction Or to put it another way, there is a you moment that Bolstrom’s argument goes of a second, and already doesn’t exist by that is made up of cells, and has certain wrong is here: “Suppose that these the time you finished reading this information in your brain, and simulated people are conscious (as they sentence. So it follows that you don’t contemplates things mentally, and which would be if the simulations were exist, or at least, you’re actually a has grown and changed in countless sufficiently fine-grained and if a certain different person than the one who ways. You’re not reducible to any of quite widely accepted position in the started reading this. In other words: if these processes, or to any of the stages philosophy of mind is correct).” Bolstom materialists are right, you are only a few of any of these processes, because these has aptly (if advertantly) demonstrated moments old, and have simply inherited are things happening in you and to you. why a materialist philosophy of mind somebody else’s memories. can’t be true without leading to absurd This problem is nothing new. The Mistake #3: Refusing to Consider God conclusions. seventeenth-century philosopher David as a Possibility Hume argued that minds are “nothing Computers might get (and are already but a bundle or collection of different One of the strongest arguments in favor getting) very good at mimicking human perceptions, which succeed each other of the “we’re living in a computer conversation and thought processes, but with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in simulation” argument is that the universe that doesn’t mean that they’re actually a perpetual flux and movement.” As a is filled with evidence of design. Scientific persons. The mind is not reducible to the result, he was logically forced to deny the American points out: brain, and the brain isn’t reducible to a existence of himself: computer. These bad assumptions are And there are other reasons to think built into Bolstrom’s model, and the For my part, when I enter most we might be virtual. For instance, the model suffers as a result. intimately into what I call myself, I more we learn about the universe, the always stumble on some particular more it appears to be based on Mistake #2: Materialism Can’t Account perception or other, of heat or cold, mathematical laws. Perhaps that is for the Human Person light or shade, love or hatred, pain or not a given, but a function of the pleasure. I never can catch myself at nature of the universe we are living Closely related to the last point, any time without a perception, and in. “If I were a character in a materialism reduces the human person to never can observe anything but the computer game, I would also discover a collection of information, or an internal perception. eventually that the rules seemed processor, or a collection of cells. Carl completely rigid and mathematical,” Sagan put it this way: This also led him to claim he doesn’t exist said Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at when he’s asleep: the Massachusetts Institute of I am a collection of water, calcium Technology (MIT). “That just reflects and organic molecules called Carl When my perceptions are remov’d the computer code in which it was Sagan. You are a collection of for any time, as by sound sleep; so written.” almost identical molecules with a long am I insensible of myself, and different collective label. But is that may truly be said not to exist. And Furthermore, ideas from information all? Is there nothing in here but were all my perceptions remov’d by theory keep showing up in physics. “In molecules? Some people find this death, and cou’d I neither think, nor my research I found this very strange idea somehow demeaning to human feel, nor see, nor love, nor hate after thing,” said James Gates, a theoretical dignity. For myself, I find it elevating the dissolution of my body, I shou’d physicist at the University of that our universe permits the be entirely annihilated, nor do I Maryland. “I was driven to error- evolution of molecular machines as conceive what is farther requisite to correcting codes—they’re what make intricate and subtle as we. make me a perfect non-entity. browsers work. So why were they in the equations I was studying about But if that were true, if you’re only a Of course, Hume’s argument is self- quarks and electrons and collection of molecules, consider what refuting: if I don’t exist, how is there is supersymmetry? This brought me to follows. Over the course of your life, neither an “I” capable of stumbling (and the stark realization that I could no you’ve expelled far more molecules certainly not “always” stumbling), nor a longer say people like Max are crazy.” (sweating, using the restroom, shedding stable “myself” upon which to stumble.

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These scientists have rightly seen that the sense is the key to an understanding And if someone somewhere created universe appears to be mathematical, of the real struggle between science our simulation, would that make this rational, and designed in a way that a and the supernatural. We take the entity God? “We in this universe can randomly self-creating universe wouldn’t. side of science in spite of the patent create simulated worlds and there’s Considering the universe to have absurdity of some of its constructs, in nothing remotely spooky about that,” randomly come-into-being despite its spite of its failure to fulfill many of its Chalmers said. “Our creator isn’t clear order and structure is a bit like extravagant promises of health and especially spooky, it’s just some assuming that the book you’re reading is life, in spite of the tolerance of the teenage hacker in the next universe the product of a series of random ink scientific community for up.” spills that happened to produce the unsubstantiated just-so stories, letters in just such an order. (And a great because we have a prior commitment, Part of the hilarity of these absurd many of the New Atheists’ arguments a commitment to materialism. It is explanations is that they’re so short- amount to saying, “this book couldn’t not that the methods and institutions sighted. The “teenage hacker in the next have been written, because I didn’t like of science somehow compel us to universe up” apparently lives in a Chapter 3!”) accept a material explanation of the universe just as designed and Cosmologists like Tegmark and physicists phenomenal world, but, on the mathematically-structured as our own, like Gates, each of whom regularly bump contrary, that we are forced by our a enabling him to code and omnisciently into evidence of designedness in the priori adherence to material causes to govern this universe. So why is that course of their daily jobs, rightly create an apparatus of investigation universe designed? This explanation just recognize that “the universe just and a set of concepts that produce kicks the can down the road one step. happened” is a bad explanation. It material explanations, no matter how The attempt to avoid God as an answer doesn’t account for the design at all. And counter-intuitive, no matter how succeeds in creating foolish theories, but yet, materialists refuse to accept even the mystifying to the uninitiated. fails in eliminating the need for God. possibility that this might point to the Moreover, that materialism is In other words, the conversation has existence of a Divine Creator. The absolute, for we cannot allow a gone more or less like this: evolutionary biologist Richard C. Divine Foot in the door. Lewontin (himself an atheist) lets the cat Scientists: “You know there’s a lot out of the bag in an essay for The New So no matter how strong the evidence of evidence that this universe was York Review of Books: may be, materialists refuse to accept the designed…” possibility that the right answer might be Materialists: “NO NO NO NO NO What seems absurd depends on one’s a Divine one. And so, if you recognize NO NO!!!!! You’d have to be an prejudice. Carl Sagan accepts, as I do, that the universe is designed, but refuse idiot to believe that!” the duality of light, which is at the to accept God as a possibility, you’re Scientists: “… maybe it was an same time wave and particle, but he forced to come up with ever-more- alien or a teenage hacker?” thinks that the consubstantiality of convoluted explanations instead. That’s Materialists: “Oh, those are valid Father, Son, and Holy Ghost puts the how you end up with amusing moments theories! Let’s consider them mystery of the Holy Trinity “in deep like Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the carefully!” trouble.” Two’s company, but three’s a smuggest popular opponents of religion, There is a more rational explanation, crowd. openly wondering if we live in a guys. Just let the Divine Foot in the door computer. Or this line from the already. Our willingness to accept scientific philosopher David Chalmers: claims that are against common Source: strangenotions.com

Crimeware-as-a-Service Business Philadelphia is a crimeware-as-a-service business that sells a highly customizable ransomware package for budding entrepreneurs who want to dabble in crime. Source: boingboing.net

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TechnoLiterati Vol.7 | Digital Explorations of Diverse Micro-Learning Experiences

Marshall McLuhan: Digital Prophecies - the Medium is the Message A brief primer of the ideas of Marshall McLuhan on how technology or ‘Media’ affects our lives. Source: prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com

Future Technologies: What Lies Mass Spying isn’t Just Intrusive, it’s Black Holes Source: Ahead Ineffective vimeo.com Everyone seems to be interested in the Mass surveillance seems like it would be a future, and while we cannot predict it with valuable national security tool. In reality, any great accuracy, we know what the it's doesn't help much at all. trends are and can follow them to see Source: wired.com where they might lead. Source: steve-wheeler.co.uk

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Facebook is Turning Into a Confusing Twilight Zone Plot Generator Raising the Snapchat and Instagram Social Nightmare http://www.neatorama.com/2017/03/31/ Generation http://mashable.com/2017/04/07/facebo Twilight-Zone-Plot-Generator/ https://www.fastcompany.com/40401306 ok-new-features-confusing/ /raising-the-snapchat-and-instagram- Want a New Emoji? Good Luck generation-2 Briggs Land: an Eerily Plausible https://thenib.com/who-makes-emoji Version of our Near Future Technofossils: the new Geological http://boingboing.net/2017/04/08/resista When Pixels Collide Layer of Earth Produced by Human nce-comics.html http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdail Junk y/2017/04/when-pixels-collide.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology The Cambridge Face Memory Test /future_tense/2017/03/humans_are_creati http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/7/1522 Cassius ft. Cat Power Pharell Williams | ng_a_new_geological_layer_of_technofoss 0230/cambridge-face-memory-test- Go Up ils.html faceblindness-super-recognizer https://vimeo.com/212722584 Trolls Are Winning the Internet, The 'Internet Noise' Project The Voynich Manuscript: Secret Technologists Say http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultur Knowledge or a Hoax? https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ al-comment/theres-nowhere-to-hide-on- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/0 archive/2017/03/guys-its-time-for-some- the-internet 4/20/voynich-manuscript-secret- troll-theory/521046/ knowledge-or-hoax/ The Six Types of Cybercriminals The 473 Phone Scam and What You http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/0 Ransomware Asks for High Score Need to Know About it 4/04/six-types-cybercriminals-identified- Instead of Money http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/everythi bae/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/04 ng-need-know-473-phone-scam/ /do-you-want-to-play-a-game- How not to Protect your Privacy ransomware-asks-for-high-score-instead- April Fools’ Day Tech Jokes Online of-money/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apri http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/how-not- l-fools-jokes-2017/ to-protect-your-privacy-online- Galactic Garbage 1793852034 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us- Technology is Killing Jobs, and Only canada-39521406 Technology Can Save Them Memoria Esterna: Mika Taanila’s Time https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/26/tech Machine The Web Looks Like S**t nology-is-killing-jobs-and-only- http://www.digicult.it/news/memoria- https://theoutline.com/post/1165/the- technology-can-save-them/ esterna-la-macchina-del-tempo-di-mika- web-looks-like-shit taanila/ How to Prepare for Employment in the Dogolrax: a Surreal, Shifting Game of Age of Artificial Intelligence Is Technology Contributing to Distorted Places and Gore https://thenextweb.com/artificial- Increased Inequality? http://indiegames.com/2017/04/dogolrax intelligence/2017/03/26/prepare- https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/29/is- _-_a_surreal_shifting_.html employment-age-artificial-intelligence/ technology-contributing-to-increased- inequality/ The Law of Conservation of Virtual Reality Standards: Too Early or Complexity Long Overdue? http://readwrite.com/2017/03/22/virtual- Project Adrift: the Secret World of https://www.outsystems.com/blog/1- reality-standards-too-early-or-long-overdue- Space Junk simple-rule-taming-it-complexity.html dl1/ https://vimeo.com/186141191 Lessons from Fahrenheit 451 for the The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up How 'The Apprentice' Manufactured Modern Day Your Computer Trump http://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/03/ https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/21/the- https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/ 27/lessons-fahrenheit-451-modern-day/ life-changing-magic-of-tidying-your- 520821/how-the-apprentice- computer/ manufactured-trump/ 372 Simple Ways to Protect Your Digital Life Phishing Scams and How to Avoid Quantum Questions Inspire New Math http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily- Them https://www.quantamagazine.org/201703 shouts/three-hundred-and-seventy-two- https://www.wired.com/2017/03/phishing- 30-how-quantum-theory-is-inspiring- simple-ways-to-protect-your-digital-life scams-fool-even-tech-nerds-heres-avoid/ new-math/

How We Lose Billions of Hours and A Basic Guide to Proper Email Marshall McLuhan: Digital Prophecies - Money on Social Apps Without Even Etiquette the Medium is the Message Noticing it http://mentalfloss.com/article/93221/basi http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/p http://www.lifehack.org/563150/how- c-guide-proper-email-etiquette ost/157915319261/marshall-mcluhan- lose-lot-time-and-money-social-apps- digital-prophecies-the-medium#_=_ and-dont-even-realize The Most Dangerous Town on the Internet: Sealand Black Holes The Secret Museum of Mankind: a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cash https://vimeo.com/channels/shortofthew Collection of Strange & Secret Aq5RToM&feature=youtu.be eek/188075559 Photographs of Tribes from Across the Continents The Quest to Crystallize Time Are We Living in the Matrix? http://www.vintag.es/2017/03/the-secret- http://www.nature.com/news/the-quest- http://strangenotions.com/are-we-living- museum-of-mankind-collection.html to-crystallize-time-1.21595 in-the-matrix/

How to Protect all of your Accounts China’s Internet Mass Spying isn’t Just Intrusive, it’s Online http://www.bbc.com/future/story/201703 Ineffective http://www.popsci.com/protect-your- 09-why-chinas-internet-reveals-where- https://www.wired.com/2017/03/mass- accounts-online were-headed-ourselves spying-isnt-just-intrusive-ineffective/

'V-mail': The WWII Program That Virtual Space Vacations with the Crimeware-as-a-Service Business Scanned Letters Onto Microfilm Intergalactic Travel Bureau http://boingboing.net/2017/03/01/ranso http://mashable.com/2017/03/19/v- http://www.space.com/35886-virtual- mware-for-dummies.html mail/ space-vacation-intergalactic-travel-

bureau.html Risky Social Media Habits to Avoid at

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Can We Travel Back in Time to Change Hybrids History? http://shortfilmmasterpieces.tumblr.com/ http://www.slate.com/articles/technology post/158082068927/hybrids#_=_ /future_tense/2017/03/a_theoretical_phys icist_on_whether_we_can_travel_back_in_t 'Terms and Conditions': iTunes EULA ime_to_change.html Combined with Extraordinary Comic

Book Mashups Google’s New Invisible reCAPTCHA http://boingboing.net/2017/03/03/compl http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/google- iance-is-mandatory-resist.html new-recaptcha/

Future Technologies: What Lies Ahead Big in China: Murder Villages and http://www.steve- Scam Towns wheeler.co.uk/2017/03/future- https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar technologies-what-lies-ahead.html chive/2017/04/big-in-china-murder- villages-and-scam-towns/517809/ Baby Bottle Robot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MO The Distracted Classroom ItXdzaU8&feature=youtu.be http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-

Distracted-Classroom/239446 Imposing Architectural Photography

http://boingboing.net/2017/03/03/impos The Lost Logos of the U.S.S.R. ing-architectural-photogr.html https://www.fastcodesign.com/3068866/t he-hunt-for-lost-logos-of-the-ussr Genecraft: Art in the Biogenetic Age

http://www.digicult.it/science/genecraft- art-biogenetic-age/

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