ADVENTURES IN TRACKING ONLINE ANONYMITY
VOL. 118 NO. 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 $6.99 troll hunters
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convention.bio.org MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW VOL. 118 | NO. 1 TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM From the Editor
in “the troll hunters” (page 50), a marketplace of ideas are mostly com- Adrian Chen writes, “Old-school hate is fortable with such a limited constraint. having a sort of renaissance online, and But others are not so comfort- in the countries thought to be furthest able (see “Q&A: Shanley Kane,” page beyond it. The anonymity provided by 26). Threats are seldom prosecuted, the Internet fosters communities where because words are slippery things and people can feed on each other’s hate.” anonymous trolls cannot be found eas- Chen reveals the scale of näthat ily. More, the harm principle is not (“Net hate”) in Sweden, a country known simply extended to harassing speech for its tolerance, where anonymous post- that seeks to oppress or silence minori- ers to websites nonetheless rage against ties and women. Activists would like to immigrants who (racists believe) are see a wider legal deinition of harm, or destroying “Swedish culture.” As in broader intolerance for harassment. the United States and elsewhere in the Chen’s feature describes one con- world, Internet trolls in Sweden also troversial approach in Sweden, where persecute women, often just for the “a group of volunteer researchers called strange satisfaction of frightening them. Researchgruppen, or Research Group, Trolls must be moved by bitter has pioneered a form of activist jour- resentments they cannot otherwise nalism based on following the crumbs express and liberated by the heady unac- of data anonymous Internet trolls leave countability of anonymity. Harassing behind and unmasking them.” Research comments found on websites are sincere Group scraped the comments of a expressions of how a portion of human- right-wing publication named Avpix- ity really feels. Some people hate other lat, and matched the encrypted e-mail people, and technology ampliies the addresses of commenters against a data- expression of views that (at least since base of publicly available addresses. The the end of World War II) were mostly researchers gave the names of many of whispered in private or shouted at rallies Avpixlat’s most proliic commenters to of inefectual political movements (see Expressen, a Swedish tabloid, which “Free Speech in the Era of Its Technolog- then reported that dozens of prominent ical Ampliication,” March/April 2013). Swedes, including politicians from the But what can be done about trolling far-right Sweden Democrats, had posted in open societies like Sweden and the racist and sexist comments. Some politi- United States is a vexed question about cians and oicials resigned. which citizens ardently disagree. Research Group’s public shaming Both the United States and Swe- of trolls was controversial in Sweden. den have set high bars for criminaliz- MIT Technology Review readers may ing speech: speech is presumptively free also feel troubled: they might want to unless it violates the “harm principle.” distinguish between real threats to indi- In America, speech can be banned if it is viduals and the expression of views that, a “real threat,” either because it consti- however reprehensible, have a tenuous tutes an incitement to hurt someone or connection to immediate harm. But the (as Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote data journalists of Research Group were in 2003) to protect people “from the fear responsible for an innovation: they put of violence” and “from the disruption a cost to trolling. By stripping away the that fear engenders.” Citizens who value cloak of anonymity, they demonstrated free speech and believe it necessary for that while speech is free, it is not always
democracy, individual expression, and without consequences. VITTIGUIDO 2 Who will make “searching for a signal” a thing of the past?
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Front Back 2 From the Editor BUSINESS REPORT 8 Feedback 59 Cities Get Smarter VIEWS How technology can make urban centers more eicient, 10 MOOCs’ Teachable Moment better places to live. How online education can help erase the skills gap. REVIEWS 10 Fixing Autism Research 68 Do MOOCs Actually Work? For starters, we can stop College survived. But online searching for a “cure.” courses are still worthwhile. 11 The World Needs Anonymity By Justin Pope It’s not always a bad idea to 72 The Aura Apps keep your identity to yourself. Do digital ilters change the 12 On Creativity meaning of the “past”? A newly unearthed, previously By A. D. Coleman unpublished essay by science 79 Google Glass Is Dead iction great Isaac Asimov. This wearable computer isn’t a hit, but the vision lives on. UPFRONT By Rachel Metz 15 An End-Around for Consumer Genetics DEMO The FDA has stymied 84 Coal Plant Buries Its Own 23andMe, but tests live on. Greenhouse Gases 20 The Mystery of Autism Can coal be clean? Showing that carbon One problem: nobody agrees p. 84 sequestration can be done. on how to diagnose it. By Peter Fairley 21 Voice Recognition for the January / February 2015 Internet of Things 45 YEARS AGO Getting your thermostat to 88 Education by Machine recognize your voice. 28 | Can Japan Recapture Its Solar Power? When the teacher is a 22 Ultrasound Gets Small A lesson in the political vulnerability of renewable energy. computer, learning can get How a new chip could upend By Peter Fairley personalized. diagnostics. 24 Will a Breakthrough Solar 36 | Solving the Autism Puzzle ON THE COVER Technology See Daylight? A new approach to finding the genes behind autism A startup’s record-breaking shows promise. By Stephen S. Hall cells meet economic reality. 44 | Desalination out of Desperation Q+A Severe droughts are making researchers rethink how we 26 Shanley Kane can get fresh water. By David Talbot Is Silicon Valley hopelessly sexist? 50 | The Troll Hunters Illustration by R. Sikoryak Exposing thugs, bullies, and racists on the Internet seems based on Tintin in Tibet, like a good thing. Can it go too far? By Adrian Chen by Hergé, 1960 PHOTOGRAPH BY JENN ACKERMAN AND TIM GRUBER TIM AND ACKERMAN JENN BY PHOTOGRAPH
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The Letting go of an MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW VOL. 117 | NO. 6 TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM VOL. 117 | NO. 6 obsession with net Q+A neutrality could free technologists to
Peter Thiel classes of drugs or processes that could make online services re uvenate bod parts. I also think that tenfold improvements might be possible in nuclear power. here are miniaturi a- Right Way Peter Thiel has been behind some prominent technologies: he cofounded tion technologies where ou have much PayPal and was an early investor in such companies as Facebook and smaller containment structures, and tech- even better. LinkedIn. But he’s convinced that technological progress has been nologies for disposing of and reprocessing stagnant for decades. ccording to Thiel developments in computers fuel that have been undere plored. and the Internet haven’t signiicantly improved our uality of life. In a new What are ou doing to create this ind o book he warns entrepreneurs that conventional business wisdom is technolog ? By George Anders preventing them and society as a whole from making ma or advances in ell, we invested in pace the private energy health and other areas where technology could make the world rocket compan that has taken over some a better place though he doesn’t ofer detailed answers about how we MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW launches for in after the irst might unlock such breakthroughs. For a review of the book see page . rockets had blown up. he ne t one did VOL. 117 | NO. 6 TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM TECHNOLOGYREVIEW.COM VOL. 117 | NO. 6 Thiel spoke to MIT Technology Review’s an Francisco bureau chief Tom work. e invested in a few biotech com- panies, and we’ve been looking at medical imonite at the oices of his venture capital irm Founders Fund. devices. hese sectors where it’s a multi- ear commitment are wildl out of fashion You claim that we haven’t had signiicant ome. ust not enough. hat line is not among investors. t the same time, I do technological progress since around meant to be a criti ue of witter as a busi- think that there will continue to be inno- 1970. What about computing? ness. I think the compan will eventuall vation in information technolog in the Progress in computers and the Inter- become proitable the , people who decades ahead. bout two-thirds of our net helps with communications, and it’s work there will be gainfull emplo ed for work is there. enabled us to make things far more ei- decades to come. ut its speciic success f you’re like most people, your monthly smartphone bill is steep enough to make cient. On the other hand, most other ields ma be s mptomatic of a general failure. What companies would ou sa are to Fix of engineering have been bad things to go ven though it improves our lives in cer- ta ing on big problems? you shudder. As consumers’ appetite for connectivity keeps growing, the price into since the s nuclear engineer- tain wa s, it is not enough to take our civi- esla is a reall interesting e ample. ost The disparity between the ing, aero- and astronautical engineering, li ation to the ne t level. of the components didn’t involve reall of wireless service in the United States tops $1 a month in many households. chemical engineering, mechanical engi- great breakthroughs, but there was this wo years ago ung hiang, a professor of electrical engineering at rinceton, neering, even electrical engineering. e What inds o technologies might abilit to combine them. I think we’re are living in a material world, so that’s do that? generall too drawn to incremental point believed he could give customers more control. ne simple ad ustment would clear prett big to miss out on. I don’t think here are all these areas where there solutions and ver scared of comple the way for lots of mobile phone users to get as much data as they already did, and we’re living in an incredibl fast techno- could be enormous innovation. e could operational problems like that. logical age. be inding cures to cancer or l heimer’s. he paradigmatic e ample for a large Iin some cases even more, on cheaper terms. arriers could win, too, by nudging custom I’m uite interested in enabling people compan is oogle. ithin large compa- ers to reduce peak period traic, making some costly network upgrades unnecessary. The ounders und’s slogan ta es a to live much longer. here’s an infor- nies, ou often run into internal bureau- swipe at Twitter