TikTok

Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China's ByteDance
by Matthew Brennan
Published 9 Oct 2020

2019-12-12 https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/furry-fandom-tiktok-gen-z-midwest-furfest-924789/ ‘Old Town Road’ proves TikTok can launch a hit song 2019-05-05 https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/5/18296815/lil-nas-x-old-town-road-tiktok-artists-spotify-soundcloud-streams-revenue How TikTok Made “Old Town Road” Become Both A Meme And A Banger 2019-04-08 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/tiktok-lil-nas-x-old-town-road Teens Love TikTok. Silicon Valley Is Trying to Stage an Intervention 2019-11-03 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/technology/tiktok-facebook-youtube.html TikTok Hires Veteran YouTube Exec to Grow App in the U.S. 2019-02-08 https://medium.com/cheddar/tiktok-doubles-down-on-u-s-with-hire-of-veteran-youtube-exec-91d5bd9353d9 TikTok’s Chief Is on a Mission to Prove It’s Not a Menace 2019-11-18 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/technology/tiktok-alex-zhu-interview.html China’s ByteDance scrubs Musical.ly brand in favor of TikTok 2018-08-02 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bytedance-musically/chinas-bytedance-scrubs-musical-ly-brand-in-favor-of-tiktok-idUSKBN1KN0BW TikTok-Trump-Complaint.pdf 2020-08-24 https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7043165/TikTok-Trump-Complaint.pdf Zhang Yiming Letter to staff 2020-03-12 https://www.toutiao.com/i6803294487876469251/?

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Use of machine learning to classify and recommend videos had been the key to unlocking the potential of both platform’s vast pools of content. TikTok cringe compilation - part 14 “Why are moms using TikTok? Why is anyone using TikTok?” 265 shouted the world’s most popular YouTuber towards the camera. Swedish gamer PewDiePie was recording his second of fifteen “TikTok Cringe Compilation” videos after the first had proved to be a hit. Each episode was ten minutes of him reacting to painfully embarrassing TikTok videos. TikTok hadn’t paid anything to PewDiePie. The A-list global internet mega-celebrity was creating video after video about TikTok because his audience loved it. This should have been the kind of authentic influencer promotion that online marketers dreamed of.

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t=123 308 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/14/tiktok-has-mountain-view-office-near-facebook-poaching-employees.html 309 https://therealdeal.com/2020/05/28/the-biggest-new-tenant-in-new-york-city-is-tiktok/ 310 https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7043165/TikTok-Trump-Complaint.pdf 311 Data source: Sensor Tower 312 https://turner.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-tiktok-and-understanding 313 https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-10-ways-tiktok-will-change-social-product-design 314 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/tiktok-boom-how-exploding-social-media-app-is-going-hollywood-1293505 Epilogue “We’re looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things.” - Donald J. Trump 315 * * * 315 July 2020, the Trump re-election campaign runs anti-TikTok adverts on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture
by Kyle Chayka
Published 15 Jan 2024

Trevor Boffone, a scholar of theater who took up work as a high school teacher, gave me an apt description of what algorithmic culture amounts to: “The films that do well are films that have TikTok followings; the Billboard Hot 100 is dictated by TikTok; you go to Barnes and Noble and you see a BookTok table,” he said. (BookTok is a term for TikTok’s community of literary influencers.) In other words, for a piece of culture to be commercially successful, it must already have traction on digital platforms. Boffone’s career, too, has been shaped by algorithmic feeds. When he began learning TikTok dance moves with his teenage students and posting videos of them online, he quickly accrued hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and other platforms.

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I recognized his face only because he had recently started showing it on TikTok, whereas previously he had filmed himself only from the shoulders down. Kabvina’s TikTok audience had become big enough to financially sustain him, though its vast scale still bemused him. “Imagine going to your kitchen and making a cup of tea and imagine thirty people walking into the room staring at you intently. Then try to imagine a million,” he said. Every month, his TikTok videos were getting forty million views. Kabvina’s videos, the algorithmic feed, and the rapacious audience formed a feedback loop. He called it “instant gratification”: “I can post on TikTok and in ten minutes I can check back and see thirty thousand people have watched it.”

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It’s often not the original creators of a meme or trend who get credit, attention, and thus financial gain from its popularity in an algorithmic feed. TikTok choreography itself is an example. The TikTok influencer Charli D’Amelio became famous in 2019 for her dance videos on the platform. But one of the moves she popularized and was often credited with, called the Renegade, was actually created earlier by Jalaiah Harmon, a Black teenager from Georgia. The Renegade was a series of front-facing movements perfect for the TikTok screen, with swinging punches and hip shakes—not too difficult a sequence, but also tough to memorize and thus rewarding to re-perform.

The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power
by Jacob Helberg
Published 11 Oct 2021

A guide to the rumors and the real privacy risks.” 99 Salvador Rodriguez, “TikTok insiders say social media company is tightly controlled by Chinese parent,” CNBC, June 25, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/tiktok-insiders-say-chinese-parent-bytedance-in-control.html. 100 Ibid. 101 Georgia Wells, Shan Li, and Liza Lin, “TikTok, Once an Oasis of Inoffensive Fun, Ventures Warily Into Politics,” Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-ventures-warily-into-politics-and-finds-complications-11594224268. 102 Wells, Li, and Lin, “TikTok, Once an Oasis of Inoffensive Fun, Ventures Warily Into Politics.” 103 Ursula Perano, “TikTok executive says app used to censor content critical of China,” Axios, November 7, 2020, https://www.axios.com/tiktok-censor-content-privacy-app-uighur-c4badd9d-a44f-4568-8cbc-af664f6bf78b.html. 104 Tanya Basu, “This girl’s TikTok “makeup” video went viral for discussing the Uighur crisis,” Technology Review, November 27, 2019, https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/11/27/65030/feroza-aziz-tiktok-makeup-video-went-viral-for-discussing-the-uighur-crisis/. 105 Eva Xiao, “TikTok Users Gush About China, Hoping to Boost Views,” Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-users-gush-about-china-hoping-to-boost-views-11592386203. 106 “The TikTok War,” Stratechery, July 14, 2020, https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/. 107 Sherisse Pham, “TikTok could threaten national security, US lawmakers say,” CNN, October 25, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/tech/tiktok-national-security/index.html. 108 Chen Du, “Exclusive: ByteDance Cuts Domestic Engineers’ Data Access to TikTok, Other Overseas Products,” PingWest, June 7, 2020, https://en.pingwest.com/a/6875. 109 Paul Mozur, “TikTok to Withdraw From Hong Kong as Tech Giants Halt Data Requests,” New York Times, July 6, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/tiktok-google-facebook-twitter-hong-kong.html. 110 Cecilia Kang, Lara Jakes, Ana Swanson, and David McCabe, “TikTok Enlists Army of Lobbyists as Suspicions Over China Ties Grow,” New York Times, July 15, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/tiktok-washington-lobbyist.html?

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Innovation,” Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, January 2018, https://admin.govexec.com/media/diux_chinatechnologytransferstudy_jan_2018_(1).pdf. 83 Faith Karimi and Michael Pearson, “The 13 states that still ban same-sex marriage,” CNN, February 13, 2015, https://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/us/states-same-sex-marriage-ban/index.html. 84 “Suicide Facts,” Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, https://save.org/about-suicide/suicide-facts/. 85 Jamie Wareham, “Map Shows Where It’s Illegal to Be Gay—30 Years Since WHO Declassified Homosexuality As Disease,” Forbes, May 17, 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2020/05/17/map-shows-where-its-illegal-to-be-gay-30-years-since-who-declassified-homosexuality-as-disease/#5d42c32e578a. 86 Adam Taylor, “Ramzan Kadyrov says there are no gay men in Chechnya—and if there are any, they should move to Canada,” Washington Post, July 15, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/07/15/ramzan-kadyrov-says-there-are-no-gay-men-in-chechnya-and-if-there-are-any-they-should-move-to-canada/. 87 Wareham, “Map Shows Where It’s Illegal to Be Gay—30 Years Since WHO Declassified Homosexuality As Disease.” 88 Jethro Mullen and Steven Jiang, “Chinese firm buys gay dating app Grindr,” CNN, January 12, 2016, https://money.cnn.com/2016/01/12/technology/grindr-china-beijing-kunlun-tech-deal/index.html. 89 Simon Elegant, “The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name—Discreetly,” Time, January 13, 2018, http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1703180,00.html. 90 Peter Moskowitz, “Grindr user ‘outed North Dakota politician in retaliation for anti-gay vote,’ ” The Guardian, April 28, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/28/north-dakota-politician-randy-boehning-outed-grindr-nude-photos. 91 Echo Wang and Carl O’Donnell, “Exclusive: Behind Grindr’s doomed hookup in China, a data misstep and scramble to make up,” Reuters, May 22, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-grindr-exclusive/exclusive-behind-grindrs-doomed-hookup-in-china-a-data-misstep-and-scramble-to-make-up-idUSKCN1SS10H. 92 Echo Wang, Alexandra Alper, and Chibuike Oguh, “Exclusive: Winning bidder for Grindr has ties to Chinese owner,” Reuters, June 2, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-grindr-m-a-sanvicente-exclusive/exclusive-winning-bidder-for-grindr-has-ties-to-chinese-owner-idUSKBN2391AI. 93 Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Is it time to delete TikTok? A guide to the rumors and the real privacy risks,” Washington Post, July 13, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/13/tiktok-privacy/. 94 Craig Chapple, “TikTok Crosses 2 Billion Downloads After Best Quarter for Any App Ever,” Sensor Tower Blog, April 29, 2020, https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-downloads-2-billion. 95 Fowler, “Is it time to delete TikTok? A guide to the rumors and the real privacy risks.” 96 Ibid. 97 Mike Isaac and Karen Weise, “Amazon Backtracks From Demand That Employees Delete TikTok,” New York Times, July 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/technology/tiktok-amazon-security-risk.html. 98 Fowler, “Is it time to delete TikTok?

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A guide to the rumors and the real privacy risks.” 96 Ibid. 97 Mike Isaac and Karen Weise, “Amazon Backtracks From Demand That Employees Delete TikTok,” New York Times, July 10, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/technology/tiktok-amazon-security-risk.html. 98 Fowler, “Is it time to delete TikTok? A guide to the rumors and the real privacy risks.” 99 Salvador Rodriguez, “TikTok insiders say social media company is tightly controlled by Chinese parent,” CNBC, June 25, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/tiktok-insiders-say-chinese-parent-bytedance-in-control.html. 100 Ibid. 101 Georgia Wells, Shan Li, and Liza Lin, “TikTok, Once an Oasis of Inoffensive Fun, Ventures Warily Into Politics,” Wall Street Journal, July 8, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-ventures-warily-into-politics-and-finds-complications-11594224268. 102 Wells, Li, and Lin, “TikTok, Once an Oasis of Inoffensive Fun, Ventures Warily Into Politics.” 103 Ursula Perano, “TikTok executive says app used to censor content critical of China,” Axios, November 7, 2020, https://www.axios.com/tiktok-censor-content-privacy-app-uighur-c4badd9d-a44f-4568-8cbc-af664f6bf78b.html. 104 Tanya Basu, “This girl’s TikTok “makeup” video went viral for discussing the Uighur crisis,” Technology Review, November 27, 2019, https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/11/27/65030/feroza-aziz-tiktok-makeup-video-went-viral-for-discussing-the-uighur-crisis/. 105 Eva Xiao, “TikTok Users Gush About China, Hoping to Boost Views,” Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-users-gush-about-china-hoping-to-boost-views-11592386203. 106 “The TikTok War,” Stratechery, July 14, 2020, https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/. 107 Sherisse Pham, “TikTok could threaten national security, US lawmakers say,” CNN, October 25, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/tech/tiktok-national-security/index.html. 108 Chen Du, “Exclusive: ByteDance Cuts Domestic Engineers’ Data Access to TikTok, Other Overseas Products,” PingWest, June 7, 2020, https://en.pingwest.com/a/6875. 109 Paul Mozur, “TikTok to Withdraw From Hong Kong as Tech Giants Halt Data Requests,” New York Times, July 6, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/tiktok-google-facebook-twitter-hong-kong.html. 110 Cecilia Kang, Lara Jakes, Ana Swanson, and David McCabe, “TikTok Enlists Army of Lobbyists as Suspicions Over China Ties Grow,” New York Times, July 15, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/technology/tiktok-washington-lobbyist.html?

Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology
by Anu Bradford
Published 25 Sep 2023

China Morning Post (Aug. 4, 2021), https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3143800/kuaishou-pulls-its-video-app-us-after-failing-make-dent-tiktoks. 108.Rita Liao, With 170M Users, Bilibili Is the Nearest Thing China Has to YouTube, TechCrunch (May 19, 2020), https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/18/with-170m-users-bilibili-is-the-nearest-thing-china-has-to-youtube/. 109.Global Search Engine Market Share Held by Baidu From January 2018 to September 2021, Statista (July 7, 2022), https://www.statista.com/statistics/1219413/market-share-held-by-baidu-worldwide/. 110.Michael Schuman, Why America Is Afraid of TikTok, The Atl. (July 30, 2020), https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/07/tiktok-ban-china-america/614725/. 111.Rachel Kraus, TikTok Surpasses 2 Billion Global Downloads, Mashable (Apr. 29, 2020), https://mashable.com/article/tiktok-2-billion-downloads. 112.Alex Sherman, TikTok Reveals Detailed User Numbers for the First Time, CNBC (Aug. 24, 2020), https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/tiktok-reveals-us-global-user-growth-numbers-for-first-time.html. 113.Schuman, supra note 110. 114.Demetri Sevastopulo and James Fontanella-Khan, TikTok to Be Banned from US App Stores from Sunday, Fin.

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Times (Aug. 3, 2020), https://www.ft.com/content/6a1b9b4d-ddbc-4b62-9101-221510fb7b45. 145.Arthur Parashar, UK Parliament Shuts Down Its TikTok Account After Concern from MPs About the Social Media Firm’s Links to China, Daily Mail (Aug. 4, 2022), https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11077205/UK-Parliament-SHUTS-TikTok-account-MPs-concern-social-media-firms-links-China.html. 146.Tom Simonite, Europe’s New Law Will Force Secretive TikTok to Open Up, Wired (May 4, 2022), https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-transparency-dsa-europe/. 147.Taylor Lorenz & Drew Harwell, Facebook Paid GOP Firm to Malign TikTok, Wash. Post (Mar. 30, 2022), https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/facebook-tiktok-targeted-victory/. 148.Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta, Speech at Georgetown University (Oct. 17, 2019), in Tony Romm, Zuckerberg: Standing for Voice and Free Expression, Wash.

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The US government fears that this influence will ultimately be wielded not just by TikTok but by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As a Chinese corporation, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance must obey Chinese law, including the Chinese government’s potential requests for the data that the company accumulates. For example, Republican Senator Josh Hawley has called TikTok “a surveillance apparatus for Beijing” and “a Trojan horse on people’s phones.”113 President Trump warned in 2020 that TikTok posed a national security threat as its data collection could facilitate corporate espionage or be used for blackmailing individuals.114 In essence, the US concern about TikTok is twofold.

Four Battlegrounds
by Paul Scharre
Published 18 Jan 2023

Over time, the algorithm’s choices are refined based on user feedback, but the TikTok algorithm’s functionality is even more opaque than other platforms in which content derives from the user’s network or who the user follows. On numerous occasions, TikTok has appeared to censor political content. In June 2020, TikTok issued a public apology because “a technical glitch made it temporarily appear as if posts uploaded using #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd would receive 0 views,” according to TikTok. TikTok also had to issue an apology after it said a “human moderation error” caused it to block a user who had posted a viral video criticizing the Chinese government’s treatment of Muslims. (TikTok also briefly took down the video before reinstating it.) TikTok similarly apologized after clips of “tank man” (the unknown protestor who stood in front of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989) was temporarily censored.

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Reg. 31423, (June 11, 2021), https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/11/2021-12506/protecting-americans-sensitive-data-from-foreign-adversaries. 147TikTok videos are often quirky and uplifting: Kevin Roose, “TikTok, a Chinese Video App, Brings Fun Back to Social Media,” New York Times, December 3, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/technology/tiktok-a-chinese-video-app-brings-fun-back-to-social-media.html. 147President Trump’s personal support for a proposed deal: Bobby Allyn, “TikTok Ban Averted: Trump Gives Oracle-Walmart Deal His ‘Blessing,’” Weekend Edition Sunday, September 20, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/20/914032065/tiktok-ban-averted-trump-gives-oracle-walmart-deal-his-blessing. 147control of the algorithm: Ben Thompson, “The TikTok War,” Stratechery (blog), July 14, 2020, https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/. 147algorithm plays a central role in shaping the content: John Herrman, “How TikTok Is Rewriting the World,” New York Times, March 10, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/style/what-is-tik-tok.html. 147algorithm’s functionality is even more opaque than other platforms: “How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou,” TikTok, June 18, 2020, https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/how-tiktok-recommends-videos-for-you. 147censor political content: Fergus Ryan, Danielle Cave, and Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Mapping More of China’s Technology Giants (report no. 24/2019, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2019), https://www.aspi.org.au/report/mapping-more-chinas-tech-giants; Fergus Ryan, Audrey Fritz, and Daria Impiombato, TikTok and WeChat (report no. 37/2020, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2020), https://www.aspi.org.au/report/tiktok-wechat. 147“a technical glitch made it temporarily appear”: Vanessa Pappas and Kudzi Chikumbu, “A Message to Our Black Community,” Tiktok news release, June 1, 2020, https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/a-message-to-our-black-community. 148viral video criticizing the Chinese government’s treatment of Muslims: Brenda Goh, “TikTok Apologizes for Temporary Removal of Video on Muslims in China,” Reuters, November 27, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bytedance-tiktok-xinjiang/tiktok-apologizes-for-temporary-removal-of-video-on-muslims-in-china-idUSKBN1Y209E. 148“incorrectly partially restricted”: Yaqiu Wang, “Targeting TikTok’s Privacy Alone Misses a Larger Issue: Chinese State Control,” Human Rights Watch, January 24, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/24/targeting-tiktoks-privacy-alone-misses-larger-issue-chinese-state-control. 148suspicious absence of videos of Hong Kong pro-democracy: Drew Harwell and Tony Romm, “TikTok’s Beijing Roots Fuel Censorship Suspicion as It Builds a Huge U.S.

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Reg. 31423, (June 11, 2021), https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/11/2021-12506/protecting-americans-sensitive-data-from-foreign-adversaries. 147TikTok videos are often quirky and uplifting: Kevin Roose, “TikTok, a Chinese Video App, Brings Fun Back to Social Media,” New York Times, December 3, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/technology/tiktok-a-chinese-video-app-brings-fun-back-to-social-media.html. 147President Trump’s personal support for a proposed deal: Bobby Allyn, “TikTok Ban Averted: Trump Gives Oracle-Walmart Deal His ‘Blessing,’” Weekend Edition Sunday, September 20, 2020, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/20/914032065/tiktok-ban-averted-trump-gives-oracle-walmart-deal-his-blessing. 147control of the algorithm: Ben Thompson, “The TikTok War,” Stratechery (blog), July 14, 2020, https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/. 147algorithm plays a central role in shaping the content: John Herrman, “How TikTok Is Rewriting the World,” New York Times, March 10, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/style/what-is-tik-tok.html. 147algorithm’s functionality is even more opaque than other platforms: “How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou,” TikTok, June 18, 2020, https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/how-tiktok-recommends-videos-for-you. 147censor political content: Fergus Ryan, Danielle Cave, and Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Mapping More of China’s Technology Giants (report no. 24/2019, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2019), https://www.aspi.org.au/report/mapping-more-chinas-tech-giants; Fergus Ryan, Audrey Fritz, and Daria Impiombato, TikTok and WeChat (report no. 37/2020, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2020), https://www.aspi.org.au/report/tiktok-wechat. 147“a technical glitch made it temporarily appear”: Vanessa Pappas and Kudzi Chikumbu, “A Message to Our Black Community,” Tiktok news release, June 1, 2020, https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/a-message-to-our-black-community. 148viral video criticizing the Chinese government’s treatment of Muslims: Brenda Goh, “TikTok Apologizes for Temporary Removal of Video on Muslims in China,” Reuters, November 27, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bytedance-tiktok-xinjiang/tiktok-apologizes-for-temporary-removal-of-video-on-muslims-in-china-idUSKBN1Y209E. 148“incorrectly partially restricted”: Yaqiu Wang, “Targeting TikTok’s Privacy Alone Misses a Larger Issue: Chinese State Control,” Human Rights Watch, January 24, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/01/24/targeting-tiktoks-privacy-alone-misses-larger-issue-chinese-state-control. 148suspicious absence of videos of Hong Kong pro-democracy: Drew Harwell and Tony Romm, “TikTok’s Beijing Roots Fuel Censorship Suspicion as It Builds a Huge U.S.

Tech Titans of China: How China's Tech Sector Is Challenging the World by Innovating Faster, Working Harder, and Going Global
by Rebecca Fannin
Published 2 Sep 2019

In China, where Facebook is blocked, users spend well more than one hour daily on the app, more than the average user of Facebook or Tencent’s WeChat and Weibo. There’s also an English version, TopBuzz, with 36 million monthly users. Its short-video platform, TikTok, has surpassed 500 million monthly active users globally.10 And TikTok is ranked as one of the world’s top downloaded iPhone apps, in the top 20 league with YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Messenger.11 TikTok got a boost internationally when its parent company bought and then merged in Musical.ly, a Chinese social video app with a large following outside China. ByteDance founder Zhang, 36, grew up in the southern province of Fujian and graduated as a software engineer from Nankai University in Tianjin.

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That goal post got a lot closer when, in November 2017, ByteDance paid about $900 million to acquire Musical.ly, a social video app based in Shanghai with more than 200 million users worldwide. The deal combined TikTok’s AI-fed streams and monetization track record with Musical.ly’s product innovation and grasp of users’ needs and tastes in the West. The result was a multicultural DNA. After ByteDance folded the four-year-old Musical.ly into TikTok and rebranded it to a single application under the TikTok name, the app immediately gained some 30 million new users within three months. ByteDance also got inroads into Hollywood with Musical.ly and its deals with Viacom and NBCUniversal for short-form video shows.

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A comparable Chinese video streaming site themed in comics, animation, and games, Bilibili, already went public, on Nasdaq, in 2018. Table 3-2 At a Glance: ByteDance Founder: Chinese serial entrepreneur Zhang Yiming Launched: 2012 Location: Beijing Main innovation: AI-powered apps TikTok for video and Toutiao for news Status: privately held at a $75 billion valuation, top unicorn in the world Notable: could be China’s first global internet success story Zhang is riding high with the success of TikTok. It’s actually similar to the US short-video–sharing app Vine that Twitter bought in 2012 and shut down four years after it failed to keep pace in the United States. You can bet now that Twitter wishes it had held on longer.

Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube's Chaotic Rise to World Domination
by Mark Bergen
Published 5 Sep 2022

Instead YouTube shifted resources into Shorts, a feature for bite-sized videos. It was an obvious TikTok clone and attempt to fend off the threat it posed. Old-school YouTubers likened TikTok’s playful canvas to early YouTube, that long-gone era, where creative types could experiment and flourish. (“It’s just come out of nowhere,” Wojcicki admitted about TikTok in 2020, even though Google had previously tried to buy Musical.ly, the company that would become TikTok.) YouTube launched Shorts in India, where TikTok was banned, and started a $100 million fund bankrolling creators of these brief clips. It would sort out the business model later.

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GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT admitted about TikTok: hankschannel, “YouTube, Pandemics, Creators, and Power: An Interview with Susan Wojcicki and Hank Green,” YouTube video, May 6, 2020, 54:38, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XPXht-gyj4. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT would become TikTok: ByteDance, a tech firm based in Beijing, acquired Musical.ly in 2017 and later refashioned that company’s app as TikTok. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on its talks with Musical.ly. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Americans watched more TikTok: The study covered only Android phones. On iPhones, TikTok ranked as the most popular app in the world.

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Of course, the main algorithmic metric for Shorts, like that for all of YouTube, remained watch time. Most signs indicated that TikTok did chip away at YouTube’s dominance. A 2021 report revealed that for the first time Americans watched more TikTok than YouTube on their phones. But thanks to its smart-TV app and streaming service, YouTube was growing enormously on television screens. YouTube’s sales team still focused on eating into TV’s market share, not TikTok’s, and its product team tinkered with ways for TV viewers to like, comment, and subscribe, making TV even more like YouTube. Besides, TikTok didn’t have stockpiles of yoga videos, bread-baking tutorials, “Let’s Play” gamers, beauty gurus, and billions of hours of toddler fodder.

The Age of AI: And Our Human Future
by Henry A Kissinger , Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher
Published 2 Nov 2021

The international political and regulatory debates over TikTok, an AI-enabled network platform for the creation and sharing of short, often whimsical videos, offers an unexpected early glimpse of the challenges that can arise when relying on AI to shape communications, particularly when that AI is developed in one nation and used by citizens of another. Users of TikTok film and post videos with their smartphones, and many millions of users enjoy watching them. Proprietary AI algorithms recommend content those individuals might enjoy based on their previous use of the platform. Developed in China and having become popular globally, TikTok neither creates content nor appears to set extensive restrictions on it—beyond a time limit on videos and community guidelines that prohibit “misinformation,” “violent extremism,” and certain types of graphic content.

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Developed in China and having become popular globally, TikTok neither creates content nor appears to set extensive restrictions on it—beyond a time limit on videos and community guidelines that prohibit “misinformation,” “violent extremism,” and certain types of graphic content. To the general viewer, the primary attribute of TikTok’s AI-assisted lens on the world appears to be whimsicality—its content consists primarily of silly short video snippets of dances, jokes, and unusual skills. Yet because of government concerns about the application’s collection of user data and its perceived latent capacity for censorship and disinformation, both the Indian and American governments moved to restrict TikTok’s use in 2020. Further, Washington moved to force the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a U.S.-based company that could hold user data domestically, preventing it from being exported to China.

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As AI deployments multiply, the same factors—inherent riskiness, regulatory oversight, market forces—will likely distribute them across the same spectrum, with AIs that drive cars being subjected to significantly greater oversight than AIs that power network platforms for entertainment and connection, such as TikTok. The division between the learning and inference phases in machine learning permits a testing regime like this to function. When an AI learns continuously, even as it operates, it can develop unexpected or undesirable behavior, as Tay, Microsoft’s chatbot, infamously did in 2016. On the internet, Tay encountered hate speech and quickly began to mimic it, forcing its creators to shut it down.

Exponential: How Accelerating Technology Is Leaving Us Behind and What to Do About It
by Azeem Azhar
Published 6 Sep 2021

Digital technology can help us here too. It seems fatuous to point to TikTok as an example of how people can reskill – but apps like this may well be the future of education. TikTok is rife with DIY videos – particularly in lifestyle areas like home improvement, cooking and skincare. But people with specialist interests can also find communities and continue to learn. Teachers, academics and nutritionists, for example, all have big communities on TikTok, and many use their followings to disseminate information or to correct widespread misconceptions. In June 2020, TikTok announced that it would be commissioning experts and institutions to produce educational content as part of a new trend for micro-learning.

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Within two weeks, 2 million Koreans – about 4 per cent of the country – had opened an account. By the summer of 2019, more than 20 per cent of Koreans had done so.14 And as soon as we get to grips with one fast-moving exponential age product, another shows up. Take TikTok, a social network for funny videos. It went from an unheard-of service to the most downloaded app in the world in a matter of months. And with that growth came an unparalleled flow of sales. ByteDance, Tiktok’s parent company, reported sales of $7 billion in 2018; two years later its revenues had more than quintupled. For comparison, just five years earlier, Facebook had exceeded the same milestone of $7 billion in revenue; in its next two years, its revenues had only tripled.15 This increasing speed is the legacy of Moore’s Law.

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People costs didn’t deliver the same levels of deflation. 7 600 million litres is 600,000 cubic metres, or a cuboid 100 metres × 100 metres × 60 metres high. 8 Al Bartlett, ‘Arithmetic, Population and Energy – a Talk by Al Bartlett’ <https://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy.html> [accessed 3 December 2020]. 9 Joanna Stern, ‘TikTok?! Clout-Chasing Millennial Learns About Memes and More’, WSJ Video, 23 January 2020 <https://www.wsj.com/video/series/joanna-stern-personal-technology/tiktok-clout-chasing-millennial-learns-about-memes-and-more/3C218B25-59AA-437C-BE7A-3F215B786DDA> [accessed 30 July 2020]. 10 Of course, there are stories from antiquity that tackle this question as well. These normally tell the story of a vizier who asks to be rewarded by grains of rice placed on the squares of a chessboard.

Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future
by Jean M. Twenge
Published 25 Apr 2023

The swift pace of technological change during Gen X’ers’ lifetimes created crisp generational divides almost as soon as each device or app was introduced. Computers and email cleaved Gen X from Boomers, texting Millennials from Gen X, and TikTok Gen Z from Millennials. For the last ten years of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st, your generation often dictated how you communicated: Silents and Boomers wanted to see you in person or call you on the phone, Gen X’ers wanted to email you, Millennials wanted to text you, and Gen Z wanted to send you their resume as a TikTok video. Back in the early 2000s, before grandmothers were on Facebook, Gen X’ers saw lack of technology savvy as the unfortunate calling card of Boomers and Silents.

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Twitter is a prime example: If it’s negative, everyone has a lot to say; if it’s positive, there are often crickets. The site is sometimes a giant complaint machine. TikTok, Gen Z’s social media of choice, seems more positive with its cool dances, but it often features dark humor. In one video, a young man sings a catchy tune about how everyone needs to do their part to help the environment—but it soon becomes clear he’s being sarcastic (“Don’t dump 2.4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico!”). Like many TikToks, it ends abruptly (with the exclamation “Metal straws!”). The message: Sure, we can all talk about what to do to help the environment, but it’s big companies that are destroying it, so what’s the point?

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At least, it did until 2021 when the pandemic dealt a blow to work ethic and teens backed off their post-recession willingness to focus on work. Perceptions of Gen Z’s work ethic took a further hit in 2022 when the term quiet quitting (doing the minimum at work) started making the rounds, often on the Gen Z haunt TikTok. “Goal for today—500 calls?! We’re doing 50,” says a young woman in a TikTok skit on quiet quitting. “Don’t give me extra work,” she tells her boss. While it’s true that young employees were in the driver’s seat due to low unemployment and labor shortages, some pointed out that coasting at work was first publicly popularized not by Gen Z but by the “slackers” of the 1990s, Gen X.

The Revolution That Wasn't: GameStop, Reddit, and the Fleecing of Small Investors
by Spencer Jakab
Published 1 Feb 2022

MagnifyMoney, a media firm owned by LendingTree, surveyed more than fifteen hundred people in the Generation Z and millennial demographic groups in late January 2021 and found that nearly half had consulted social media in the preceding month for “investing research.” Video and images rather than boring old text seem to be the preferred medium: the largest source by far was YouTube, owned by Google, with 41 percent having consulted it. TikTok and Instagram were in second and third place, with 24 percent and 21 percent having consulted those sources, respectively. Then came Facebook groups and Twitter, with Reddit bringing up the rear at 13 percent.[13] TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is popular with the younger side of the young cohort and had amassed nearly 7.5 billion views of videos with hashtags such as #FinTok and #investing by July 2021.[14] Influencers on the platform can make serious money no matter how good or bad their advice as long as they get views and followers.

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A meme-loving retail-investor army putting one over on the big guys? People posting screenshots of their brokerage statements showing 5,000 percent gains and million-dollar balances? The attractive young couple with a grand total of five months’ trading experience in a raucous bull market putting up instructional TikTok videos about how they don’t have to work anymore because they only buy stocks that rise? Wall Street feels about as badly about someone walking away with millions of dollars of “its” money and crowing about it as Las Vegas does—not at all. It is why lights and sirens go off when someone hits the jackpot and the person who wins the Powerball lottery is asked to pose for reporters with a giant check.

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Young investors were flocking to the market in record numbers and seeking out advice about what to buy on social media from people who were funny and relatable. Around the same time, a young man who made a fraction as much while exclaiming “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing” racked up half a million followers on TikTok.[2] Gill, on the other hand, knew precisely what he was talking about. He had earned a gold-plated investing credential, passing all three of the rigorous exams needed to earn the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. The average candidate spends almost one thousand hours studying for them combined, and most don’t pass either the first or the second of the three exams on their initial attempt.

The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset That Drives Extraordinary Results
by Andrew McAfee
Published 14 Nov 2023

Eisenberger, “Acetaminophen Reduces Social Pain: Behavioral and Neural Evidence,” Psychological Science, vol. 21 (2010), 931–7. 60 “Our sensitivity to social rejection”: Lieberman, Social, 67. 61 “assemblage of reasonable beings”: Augustine of Hippo, Wikiquote, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo. 62 “common hatred for something”: Anton Chekhov, Wikiquote, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov#Note-Book_of_Anton_Chekhov_(1921). 63 “If you hang around a place long enough”: Toffler and Reingold, Final Accounting, loc. 3986–90, Kindle. Conclusion 1 650 million users: L. Ceci, “Number of TikTok Users Worldwide from 2018 to 2022,” Statista, September 5, 2022, www.statista.com/statistics/1327116/number-of-global-tiktok-users/. 2 “most popular app”: Meghan Bobrowsky, Salvador Rodriguez, Sarah E. Needleman, and Georgia Wells, “TikTok’s Stratospheric Rise: An Oral History,” Wall Street Journal, updated November 5, 2022, www.wsj.com/articles/tiktoks-stratospheric-rise-an-oral-history-11667599696. 3 “defining characteristic”: Mark Zuckerberg, “Founder’s Letter: Our Next Chapter,” About Facebook, October 28, 2021, https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/founders-letter/. 4 investment was $15 billion: Martin Peers, “On Metaverse Spending, Zuckerberg Doesn’t Care What Critics Say,” The Information, October 26, 2022, www.theinformation.com/articles/on-metaverse-spending-zuckerberg-doesn-t-care-what-critics-say. 5 two hundred thousand users: Jeff Horwitz, Salvador Rodriguez, and Meghan Bobrowsky, “Company Documents Show Meta’s Flagship Metaverse Falling Short,” Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2022, www.wsj.com/articles/meta-metaverse-horizon-worlds-zuckerberg-facebook-internal-documents-11665778961. 6 “Why don’t we love the product”: Alex Heath, “Meta’s Flagship Metaverse App Is Too Buggy and Employees Are Barely Using It, Says Exec in Charge,” The Verge, October 6, 2022, www.theverge.com/2022/10/6/23391895/meta-facebook-horizon-worlds-vr-social-network-too-buggy-leaked-memo. 7 from Adi Robertson: Adi Robertson, “Meta Quest Pro Review: Get Me Out of Here,” The Verge, updated November 22, 2022, www.theverge.com/23451629/meta-quest-pro-vr-headset-horizon-review. 8 less than 60 percent: Mike Isaac and Cade Metz, “Skepticism, Confusion, Frustration: Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Struggles,” New York Times, October 9, 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/technology/meta-zuckerberg-metaverse.html. 9 an open letter: Meghan Bobrowsky, “Meta Investor Urges CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Slash Staff and Cut Costs,” Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2022, www.wsj.com/articles/meta-investor-urges-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-to-slash-staff-and-cut-costs-11666634172. 10 Zuckerberg holds: Katie Canales, “‘The Most Powerful Person Who’s Ever Walked the Face of the Earth’: How Mark Zuckerberg’s Stranglehold on Facebook Could Put the Company at Risk,” Business Insider, October 13, 2021, www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-control-facebook-whistleblower-key-man-risk-2021-10. 11 tried to back out: Jacob Kastrenakes, “Elon Musk Officially Tries to Bail on Buying Twitter,” The Verge, July 8, 2022, www.theverge.com/2022/7/8/23200961/elon-musk-files-back-out-twitter-deal-breach-of-contract. 12 carrying a sink: Elon Musk (@elonmusk), “Entering Twitter HQ—let that sink in!

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Quibi fell out of the top 50 list of free iPhone app downloads a week after its launch, and was sitting at number 125 on May 11. In a New York Times interview published that day Katzenberg said, “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything.” Others weren’t so sure. They pointed out that smartphone use had soared during the pandemic, as had the popularity of TikTok, YouTube, and other apps that featured short videos. TikTok, for example, saw its monthly active users climb from 40 million in late 2019 to more than 100 million by August of 2020. Observers also pointed out the Quibi app had some puzzling shortcomings. For one thing, it didn’t let users share snippets of content they particularly liked on Facebook, Instagram, and other popular social networks.

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What’s more, progress in AI, optimization, simulation, and several other fundamental aspects of computing would experience a, well, quantum leap forward. Incumbents in these areas would be in for a tough time. TikTok, an online platform for sharing short videos, is a lesser innovation than quantum computing. But its rapid growth probably has some folk at Meta—the parent company of both Facebook and WhatsApp—worried. Those two social media platforms both had global scale and strong network effects, and they both allowed users to post videos. So how much room could there be for yet another video-sharing service? Plenty, as it turns out. TikTok was launched in 2016; by 2021 it had more than 650 million users around the world and was, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “the most popular app in the world.”

Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet―and Why We're Following
by Gabrielle Bluestone
Published 5 Apr 2021

When I really just want to lay on the sofa with my hair in a messy bun and some sweatpants.” Maybe that’s why Blanco thinks apps like TikTok, which allows users to use technology to transform both their own images and other found material on the internet, is a more honest experience than Instagram, which revolves around the notion of stripped-bare authenticity, despite its inherently performative nature. “On Instagram, you can only post a picture or a video. TikTok lets you emulate what someone else is doing side by side, unless you use voice-over, since you can be someone else. It literally allows you to be a whole ’nother person through other apps on the internet.

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Taylor Lorenz, "Welcome to the Era of Branded Engagements," The Atlantic, June 20, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/06/was-viral-proposal-staged/592141/. 15. Koh Ewe, "Influencer Licks Toilet Seat for TikTok Fame in ‘Coronavirus Challenge,’" VICE News, March 18, 2020, https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dm43a/coronavirus-influencer-lick-toilet-seat-tiktok. 16. Dee LaVigne, "I Buy the Cheapest Thing on Hermes!!!," YouTube video, April 2, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1b7j4XnMfc. 17. Sophie Shohet | Fashion Beauty Lifestyle, "I Looked for the Cheapest Thing Cartier Sold... 6 *Insane* Luxury Items Under £495 | Selfridges AD," YouTube video, June 17, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

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Nowadays, of course, the 2009 film’s satire seems almost too subtle, given the Kardashian-Jenner-West family’s tidy conversion of their reality show’s Nielson ratings into hundreds of millions of Instagram followers and billions of dollars in direct-to-consumer sales, or the existence of a number of gated Los Angeles mansions inhabited exclusively by teenagers who can afford an entry fee of what appears to be a minimum of one million TikTok followers. Or the fact that in 2019, an eight-year-old YouTuber named Ryan Kaji made $26 million just for opening and reviewing toys12 you and I have probably never heard of. (Most of that money apparently came from a video he made about plastic eggs?? I don’t profess to understand any of it, but I’d be happy to do a collab if you’re reading this, Ryan.)

The Dark Cloud: How the Digital World Is Costing the Earth
by Guillaume Pitron
Published 14 Jun 2023

But let us not forget that, like this stroke of marketing genius now subscribed to by 16 million followers on Twitter and Instagram, the ‘climate generation’ is predominantly made up of young consumers hooked on digital tools. In the US, teenagers spend up to seven hours and twenty-two minutes of their free time per day in front of a screen.17 Three hours of that time is spent watching videos on Netflix or Orange Cinema Series (OCS), and at least one hour is spent on social networks such as TikTok, SnapChat, Twitch, House Party, and Discord. In France, eighteen-year-olds have already owned an average of no fewer than five mobile telephones. And the younger you are, the more often you change your devices, despite these accounting for nearly half of digital pollution.18 For the first time in history, an entire generation has taken a stand to ‘save’ the planet, to bring governments to justice for climate inaction, and to plant trees.19 Parents lament having ‘three Greta Thunbergs at home’ up in arms against eating meat, using plastic, and air travel.20 This is also the generation that makes the most use of e-commerce, virtual reality, and gaming websites.

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And even though your colleague is just ten metres away, your signal has travelled thousands of kilometres.55 There truly is a geography of a ‘like’. As a result of our intangible activities — sending an email via Gmail, a message on WhatsApp, and an emoticon on Facebook, or posting a video on TikTok or photos of amusing felines on Snapchat — we have built an infrastructure that, according to Greenpeace, ‘will likely be the largest single thing we build as a species’.56 Yet, as we have seen so far, the available literature tends to prove that the benefits of digital outweigh the drawbacks. That is, until the think tank The Shift Project really put its foot in it with its thoroughly researched report published in 2018: ‘The digital transition as it is currently implemented participates in global warming more than it helps to prevent it.’57 Furthermore, the risk that digital results in ‘a net increase in the environmental footprint of digital sectors is therefore very real’.58 So who do we believe?

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An investigation by the New York Times revealed that certain underused data centres can waste as much as 90 per cent of the electricity they consume.22 And, of course, nothing will change so long as technicians’ bonuses remain indexed on the hyper-availability of the machines rather than on the reduction of their employer’s energy expenditure. ‘We can reverse this phenomenon if you and I decide to start communicating using smoke signals. But the reality is that my daughter can’t stop posting nonsense on TikTok’, complains Philippe Luce.23 In any case, says engineer Paul Benoit, ‘the cost for the environment is having instant access to everything, all the time’.24 Obviously, ‘we can’t even imagine the number of gigawatts it takes to operate this lunacy,’ says researcher Thomas Ernst.25 In fact, we now know very well that data centres are among the biggest consumers of electricity in a metropolitan area.

The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider
by Michiko Kakutani
Published 20 Feb 2024

Billboard Hot 100 chart with his country-rap single “Old Town Road,” which took off on TikTok. Chance the Rapper, who refused to sign with a record label or charge for his music, became the first artist to win a Grammy (in fact, three of them) for a streaming-only album, and the first artist to have a streaming-only album chart on the Billboard 200 (debuting in its top ten). As for the enterprising users of social media who call themselves “content creators,” many have turned their hobbies and niche interests into multimillion-dollar businesses, in some cases acquiring tens of millions of subscribers on their podcasts, TikTok feeds, and YouTube channels—posting dance videos, lip-synching contests, comedy sketches, how-to advice, cat videos, stupid human tricks, true crime recaps, and reviews of appliances and gadgets.

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The pair raised $120,000 on GoFundMe and began talking to fellow workers, figuring, as Smalls reasoned, that it made more sense to build “from the inside out.” They posted TikTok videos, listened to workers’ complaints, and outside the warehouse offered home-cooked soul food made by Smalls’s aunt—baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, and candied yams. In the case of Starbucks, more than 330 locations—as of mid-2023—had voted to unionize. While the union effort was supported by Workers United, much of the actual organizing was done by young baristas, using Zoom and Discord (an instant messaging platform popular among gamers) to communicate with one another, and TikTok to post public videos. These self-organizing efforts among young workers on a store-by-store basis stand in sharp contrast to traditional union organizing, which tends to rely on national or regional leadership, and are yet another sign of how decentralized grassroots power is replacing old-fashioned top-down models

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The globalization of culture is even more pronounced in pop music, where The Economist concluded in a 2022 study of Spotify that “the hegemony of English is in decline” and Bloomberg.com found that “a growing number of the biggest pop stars in the world are from outside the traditional capitals of the continental U.S. and U.K.”—most notably, from Puerto Rico, South Korea, India, and Colombia. Platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok have spurred this development, allowing fans across the world to easily access music from many cultures. In 2022, Billboard announced that the K-pop group BTS had secured the most No. 1 hits on its Hot 100 chart during the preceding decade. Also in 2022, the Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s album Un Verano Sin Ti—recorded entirely in Spanish—was Billboard’s year-end No. 1 on its 200 Albums chart.

Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 7 Sep 2022

Culkin, “A Schoolman’s Guide to Marshall McLuhan,” Saturday Review, March 18, 1967, 51–53, 71–72. 164   I wrote my dissertation : Douglas Rushkoff, “Monopoly Moneys,” PhD diss., Utrecht University, 2012. 164   the more frequently retail traders transacted : Dalbar, Inc., “Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior 2011” (Boston: Dalbar, Inc., 2011). 165   The stock shot upwards : Eric Lam and Lu Wang, “Steely Meme-Stock Short Sellers Stare Down $4.5 Billion Loss,” Bloomberg , June 3, 2021, https:// www .bloomberg .com /news /articles /2021 -06 -03 /defiant -meme -stock -short -sellers -stare -down -4 -5 -billion -loss. 166   A platform like TikTok : Shelly Banjo and Shawn Wen, “A Push-Up Contest on TikTok Exposed a Great Cyber-Espionage Threat,” Bloomberg , May 13, 2021, https:// www .bloomberg .com /news /articles /2021 -05 -13 /how -tiktok -works -and -does -it -share -data -with -china. 167   “They all know the algorithms” : Taylor Lorenz, Kellen Browning, and Sheera Frenkel, “TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally,” New York Times , June 21, 2020, https:// www .nytimes .com /2020 /06 /21 /style /tiktok -trump -rally -tulsa .html. 167   formed a union : Zoe Schiffer, “Exclusive: Google Workers across the Globe Announce International Union Alliance to Hold Alphabet Accountable,” Verge , January 25, 2021, https:// www .theverge .com /2021 /1 /25 /22243138 /google -union -alphabet -workers -europe -announce -global -alliance. 167   “sometimes the boss is the best organizer” : Kate Conger, “Hundreds of Google Employees Unionize, Culminating Years of Activism,” New York Times , January 4, 2021, https:// www .nytimes .com /2021 /01 /04 /technology /google -employees -union .html. 169   an open letter about the frightening potential : Wikimedia, “Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence,” https:// en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Open _Letter _on _Artificial _Intelligence, accessed August 10, 2021. 170   “Things are getting … currently doing” : Cat Clifford, “Billionaire Tech Titan Mark Cuban on AI: ‘It Scares the S— Out of Me,’ ” CNBC , July 25, 2017, https:// www .cnbc .com /2017 /07 /25 /mark -cuban -on -ai -it -scares -me .html. 170   “Is the country going to turn” : Evan Osnos, “Doomsday Prep for the Super Rich,” New Yorker , January 22, 2017, https:// www .newyorker .com /magazine /2017 /01 /30 /doomsday -prep -for -the -super -rich. 170   Employees protested : Peter Kafka, “Google Wants out of the Creepy Military Robot Business,” Vox , March 17, 2016, https:// www .vox .com /2016 /3 /17 /11587060 /google -wants -out -of -the -creepy -military -robot -business. 170   four thousand Googlers : Kate Conger, “Google Employees Resign in Protest Against Pentagon Contract,” Gizmodo , May 14, 2018, https:// gizmodo .com /google -employees -resign -in -protest -against -pentagon -con -1825729300. 171   “the one who becomes the leader” : Associated Press, “Putin: Leader in Artificial Intelligence Will Rule World,” CNBC , September 4, 2017, https:// www .cnbc .com /2017 /09 /04 /putin -leader -in -artificial -intelligence -will -rule -world .html. 171   “I think the danger of AI” : Elon Musk Answers Your Questions!

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The gamers found what hackers would call an “exploit,” and the traders were hoisted by their own petard, at least for a time. Technologies that were developed in large part to control human beings have instead turned out to be unleashing all sorts of chaotic energies. A platform like TikTok , for example, is at the very bleeding edge of persuasive technology design, complete with algorithmic content selection, mimetic entrainment, and surveillance features developed in China. Yet K-pop fans and other teenage prankster-activists used TikTok to organize a stunt where they ordered over a million tickets to a Trump rally—and didn’t show up. As one of the organizers explained to the New York Times , “They all know the algorithms and how they can boost videos to get where they want … The majority of people who made them deleted them after the first day because they didn’t want the Trump campaign to catch wind.

Who’s Raising the Kids?: Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children
by Susan Linn
Published 12 Sep 2022

Platforms popular with teens and preteens, like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, teach kids to sell themselves—if not for money, then for virtual approval in the form of “likes,” “shares,” “friends,” and “followers.” As with so many of digital technology’s innovations, it’s possible for social media to play a positive role in children’s lives. Producing videos for TikTok and YouTube can be wonderfully creative. Facebook and Instagram can facilitate connections for kids who don’t fit easily into their communities’ norms. The problem is that social media sites are home to some of the worst tech industry business practices. TikTok’s infinite scroll is designed to keep users on the site indefinitely.

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Take Meta, which also owns Instagram and has sometimes been lauded for promoting social justice movements like Me Too and Black Lives Matter.24 Yet the company has also been under fire for its long history of encouraging hate speech and perpetuating the growth of white supremacy groups.25 Within a week of George Floyd’s murder, a video claiming that his murder was faked reached 1.3 million Facebook users—mostly in groups run by avowedly white supremacists.26 To understand how the racism promoted by social networks and other popular tech platforms is linked to commercialism, we need to remember that algorithms governing what content we see and don’t see are created by people who, in addition to having their own biases, often work for huge conglomerates whose primary priority is to generate profits for their stockholders. For ad-driven social networks like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, profits depend on how much companies are willing to spend on advertising—and that depends on how successful the site is at (a) grabbing our attention and (b) holding it for as long as possible. After all, the more of us who use an ad-supported site and the longer we remain, the more exposed we are to its embedded advertising and the more lucrative the site becomes.

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What we see next is based not on truth or social justice or what’s best for humanity, but on what’s likely to capture and hold our attention. Of course, the major social media sites are purportedly just for teens and adults, so you might think their biases or record of choosing profit over truth or accuracy would have no effect on younger children. Yet, tweens and even younger children have been using sites like YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for years.27 Just as adults do, kids turn to social media for information about the world.28 And also as adults do, kids use social media to represent themselves to the world, including posting curated selfies and other pictures. But the “self” they present isn’t necessarily really what they really look like.

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
by Cal Newport
Published 5 Mar 2024

GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT It started with a TikTok: He later changed his username to @ZaidLeppelin. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT In early August: James Tapper, “Quiet Quitting: Why Doing the Bare Minimum at Work Has Gone Global,” The Guardian, August 6, 2022, theguardian.com/money/2022/aug/06/quiet-quitting-why-doing-the-bare-minimum-at-work-has-gone-global. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT The New York Times and: Alyson Krueger, “Who Is Quiet Quitting For?,” New York Times, August 23, 2022, nytimes.com/2022/08/23/style/quiet-quitting-tiktok.html. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT NPR followed with: Amina Kilpatrick, “What Is ‘Quiet Quitting,’ and How It May Be a Misnomer for Setting Boundaries at Work,” NPR, August 19, 2022, npr.org/2022/08/19/1117753535/quiet-quitting-work-tiktok.

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The concrete strategies that follow are designed to help those in standard contemporary jobs (e.g., not financially independent early twentieth-century artists) to reclaim at least some degree of natural variation in their efforts. SCHEDULE SLOW SEASONS In July 2022, when I was deep in the early stages of writing this book, a relevant trend went viral online. It started with a TikTok user named @ZKChillen posting a seventeen-second video in which soft piano music plays over scenes of New York City: a subway, a downtown street, a residential street, and then, for some reason, a child’s bubble-blowing machine. “I recently heard about this idea of quiet quitting,” the narrator begins, “where, you’re not quitting your job, but quitting the idea of going above and beyond in your work.”

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“I recently heard about this idea of quiet quitting,” the narrator begins, “where, you’re not quitting your job, but quitting the idea of going above and beyond in your work.” He goes on to reject the “hustle culture” belief that your work is your life. “The reality is that it’s not,” he concludes. “And your worth as a person is not defined by your labor.” As the original @ZKChillen video gained attention, more TikTok videos followed, most featuring young narrators making their own earnest declarations about their own embrace of quiet quitting. Predictably, the legacy press soon picked up on the trend. In early August, The Guardian published an article featuring a subhead that’s notable for its casual nihilism: “The meaninglessness of modern work—and the pandemic—has led many to question their approach to their jobs.”

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud
by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman
Published 17 Jul 2023

At some point, we were joined by Katie, a publicist who had quickly become a friend and indispensable guide to the internal politics (and parties) of SXSW. Charles took an early opportunity to grope her butt. Katie took us to a TikTok-sponsored party at a fancy hotel. In line, Charles and Paul started worrying, a bit histrionically, that they would have to install TikTok, or a TikTok-related app, on their phones to enter the party. TikTok, of course, was Chinese. Charles asked Jacob if he had ever had TikTok on his phone. “I’m not sure. Maybe once,” said Jacob. “Well, then you’re fucked, even if you deleted it.” Eventually, through the alchemy of TV celebrity and Katie’s connections, we bypassed the line and headed upstairs.

…

Through Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms, MLM members are able to expand their reach and engage with a wider social circle more efficiently than in the past. The hours-long Tupperware party of the 1950s has been replaced by a sixty-second TikTok video. When viewed through that lens, many crypto influencers appear uncannily similar to someone pushing an old-fashioned MLM. Crypto-world celebrities employ a number of social media channels, hawking this or that cryptocurrency based on technobabble “fundamentals,” rumors, misinformation, or just a sense of optimism. Twitter, YouTube, Discord, Telegram, and TikTok were essential platforms for crypto influencers, but there was almost no scrap of web real estate they didn’t touch.

…

It’s getting to the point that we, as a country, never hold white collar criminals or politicians accountable. Maybe we’re still in shock from 2016, I ventured. We were scammed by the biggest con man of them all, and our collective exhaustion was blinding us to an obvious, dangerous fraud happening right then, live on cable TV and Twitter and TikTok for all to see. Apologies if this is melodramatic, I said, but I’m a father and I’m worried about our country and the world we are leaving for our children. Sitting in the bar, I went on about how trust was breaking down, people were being manipulated in all sorts of ways. It felt like no coincidence that in the era of rampant misinformation, fraud was spreading like a virus.

The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything
by Matthew Ball
Published 18 Jul 2022

Then in 2019, Instagram launched its own dedicated Snapchat-like app, “Threads from Instagram,” though almost no one noticed. Facebook Gaming, the company’s Twitch competitor, launched in 2018, as did Facebook’s TikTok competitor, Lasso. Facebook Dating released in 2019, with Instagram adding a TikTok-like feature named “Reels” in 2020. Facebook’s efforts have undoubtedly curbed these services’ growth, yet each service is larger than ever and still expanding. By the end of 2021, TikTok had more than billion users and was reportedly the most visited web domain of the year, with Google and Facebook rounding out the top three. Though the top integrated virtual world platforms are mighty and fast-growing, they also represent a far smaller portion of the gaming industry than Facebook does in the social web.

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In early August, South Korean gaming giant Krafton, maker of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (also known as PUBG) completed its IPO, the second largest in the country’s history. Krafton’s investment bankers made sure to tell would-be investors that the company would also be a global leader in the Metaverse. In the ensuing months, Chinese internet giants Alibaba and ByteDance, the parent company of the global social network TikTok, both began to register various Metaverse trademarks and acquire various VR and 3D-related start-ups. Krafton, meanwhile, committed publicly to launching a “PUBG Metaverse.” The Metaverse captured more than the imagination of techno-capitalists and sci-fi fans. Not long after Tencent publicly unveiled its vision of hyper-digital reality, the Communist Party of China (CCP) began its biggest-ever crackdown of its domestic gaming industry.

…

Or where Reddit’s stock investing forum, combined with free and easy investing via platforms such as Robinhood, would drive the rise of “You Only Live Once” trading strategies—which in turn saved companies such as GameStop and AMC Entertainment from COVID-19–driven bankruptcy. Or where 60-second-long TikTok remixes would define the Billboard charts, and with it, the soundtrack of our daily commutes. In 1950, IBM’s product planning department reportedly spent the entire year “insisting that the market would never amount to more than about eighteen computers nationwide.”16 Why? Because the department could not imagine why anyone would need such devices, except to use the software and applications IBM was developing at the time.

Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life
by Kristen R. Ghodsee
Published 16 May 2023

Those who believe that a total rupture with the past is necessary reject the transformative value of a group of people joining together to build a phalanstery or live in an intentional community. Utopians are derided as clueless dreamers at best; as wealthy, self-indulgent, virtue-signalers at worst. This disdainful attitude rears its ugly head in the comments on the niche TikTok hashtag #communelife, where disenchanted Generation Zers who have decamped to sustainable farms post about their experiences.37 Marxist TikTok, or LeftTok as it is sometimes called, is peopled with a fair number of utopia bashers. One representative video posted by @namastehannah on December 4, 2021, racked up more than three thousand comments in its first month on the platform.

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Kirkpatrick, “Dictatorships & Double Standards,” The Commentary, November 1979, https://www.commentary.org/articles/jeane-kirkpatrick/dictatorships-double-standards/. 32 Kirkpatrick, “Dictatorships & Double Standards.” 33 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3207. 34 Richard Allen Chapman, “Leviathan Writ Small: Thomas Hobbes on the Family,” The American Political Science Review 69, no. 1 (1975): 76–90, https://www.doi.org/10.2307/1957886. 35 Slavoj Žižek, The Year of Dreaming Dangerously (New York: Verson Books, 2012); “Expanding the Floor of the Cage: Noam Chomsky Interviewed by David Barsamian,” Z Magazine, April 1997, https://www.chomsky.info/199704__/. 36 Graeber and Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything, 502. 37 Chloe Meley, “Should You Join a Commune in 2021? TikTok Says Yes!” i-D Vice, January 28, 2021, https://www.i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/v7mqm9/should-you-join-a-commune-in-2021-tiktok-says-yes. 38 Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011). 39 Ryan Grim, “The Elephant in the Zoom,” The Intercept. June 14, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1xp50ZM_wk. 40 Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011). 41 Holly Jean Buck, After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration (London and New York: Verso Books, 2019). 42 Howard Zinn, “The Optimism of Uncertainty,” The Nation, 2004, https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/optimism-uncertainty/. 43 Donna Haraway suggests that we should all be “making kin.”

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Wade, 197, 216 Roland, Pauline, 208–9 Roman Empire, slavery in, 141 Romania, abortion outlawed in, 152 Rosa (Ghodsee’s great-grandmother), 171 Roskilde, Denmark, Ibsgården cohousing community in, 55–56 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 108–9, 110 roxi_sixx (TikTok user), 252 Russell, Andrew F., 184 Russian Orthodox Church, 213 Russian Revolution (1917), 46, 213 Rustybucketkam (TikTok user), 251–52 Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, 154–55, 155, 156 Sættedammen cohousing project, 54–55 Safe Haven laws, 176–77 St. Francis’ College (Tanzania), 121 St. Lucy’s School (Newark), 172 Saint-Simon, Henri de, 8, 207–8, 253 Saint-Simonians, 207–9, 211, 250, 251 same-sex marriage, 216, 217, 250, 262 sandek, 222 Sandel, Michael, 127 Sandhill Farm cohousing community, 60 Santos, Laurie, 127 Scholl, Hans and Sophie, 103–4, 124 Schooling in Capitalist America (Bowles and Gintis), 105 Scotland, same-sex marriage in, 216 Second International Congress of Socialist Women (Copenhagen), 92 Shakers, Shaker communities, 154–55 celibacy practiced by, 154, 205, 258 gender equality in, 154 on Sabbathday Lake, 154–55, 156 Shakespeare, William, 199 sharing economy, 169 Shintoism, 162 Siren House, 66 Skinner, B.

Aiming High: Masayoshi Son, SoftBank, and Disrupting Silicon Valley
by Atsuo Inoue
Published 18 Nov 2021

In 2018, Son introduced Claure to a 35-year-old Chinese entrepreneur by the name of Zhang Yiming, the CEO of ByteDance, although Claure could not really grasp what Son meant when he described Zhang as the head of a ‘new media company’. ByteDance operated TikTok, a service where hundreds of thousands of people could record and upload video content, with the algorithm showing users those it thinks they would like to see. Users would spend all day watching videos, and the products featured in the adverts between videos were selling quite well. Son told Claure that TikTok was the future of media and e-commerce, to which his counterpart chuckled, ‘Masa, you are always dreaming.’ ‘Bytedance and TikTok, in my opinion, will be one of the world’s most valuable companies’ Marcelo recalls.

…

‘Compare this model to the New York Times website where everyone is reading the same type of news – there is an absence of personalisation. TikTok shows you the videos about the news you want to see and the news you are interested in, and the figures speak for themselves, with average viewing times for the New York Times website standing at just two minutes per day; for TikTok average viewing times are 90 minutes per day. Looking at these figures from an advertising revenue standpoint TikTok is vastly superior, underscoring the capacity of ByteDance’s algorithm to provide users with the content each and every one of them wants to see.’

…

Responding to a question put to him by Andrew Ross Sorkin (DealBook editor and CNBC presenter) at the DealBook Online Summit organised by the New York Times held on 17 November 2020 concerning his failed stake in Bitcoin, Son stated, ‘I was told to look into it, so I did, but now I don’t bother with it any more.’ He would also talk about the optimistic outlook he has for ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company), as the SoftBank Vision Fund is a major investor. Furthermore, he spoke about the extensive monetisation operation under way, stating the SoftBank Group had ‘80 billion dollars (approximately 8.32 trillion yen, inclusive of deals such as the sale of ARM, which should be concluded by March 2022) in cash in hand.

Off the Edge: Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything
by Kelly Weill
Published 22 Feb 2022

Anti-fascist activists often work to get neo-Nazis banned from popular websites, because disrupting their online activities and kicking them off these sites makes it harder for fascist types to recruit. When the video-sharing app TikTok blocked hashtags associated with QAnon in July 2020, it removed one of the most straightforward means for Q supporters to discover and network with their peers. But while Silicon Valley giants like YouTube can curb the spread of conspiracy theories by taking away their artificial algorithmic boost, big tech firms are unlikely to deliver us, as a species, from the meaning-making thought processes that misfire when we craft conspiracy theories. TikTok can ban a hashtag, but it has less control over the feelings of fear and uncertainty that send us searching for alternative explanations.

…

Even when content isn’t explicitly against the law, social media companies’ moderation powers can stray into censorship under enough government pressure. TikTok, a China-based company, secretly ordered employees to censor videos about protests and political movements that opposed the Chinese government, like the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the Tibetan independence movement, according to leaked documents obtained by the Guardian in 2019. TikTok was also accused of censoring footage of then-ongoing protests in Hong Kong, a charge the company has denied. Authoritarian regimes aren’t the only ones contemplating a crackdown.

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I Wasn’t,” Medium, May 23, 2020, https://fightfortheftr.medium.com/facebook-told-my-followers-i-was-spreading-misinformation-about-government-surveillance-i-wasnt-63622dd7ae56. 204 “harassment and bullying” Sam Levin, “YouTube Under Fire for Censoring Video Exposing Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones,” Guardian, April 23, 2018, www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/23/youtube-alex-jones-sandy-hook-media-matters-video. 204 purge in 2019 Kelly Weill, “YouTube Crackdown on Extremism Also Deleted Innocent Videos,” Daily Beast, June 6, 2019, www.thedailybeast.com/youtube-crackdown-on-extremism-also-deleted-videos-combating-extremism. 205 accidentally flagged factual content Jay Peters, “Facebook Was Marking Legitimate News Articles about the Coronavirus as Spam Due to a Software Bug,” Verge, March 17, 2020, www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184445/facebook-marking-coronavirus-posts-spam-misinformation-covid-19. 205 Ethiopia passed a law “Ethiopia: Bill Threatens Free Expression,” Human Rights Watch, December 19, 2019, www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/19/ethiopia-bill-threatens-free-expression; Simon Marks, “67 Killed in Ethiopia Unrest, but Nobel-Winning Prime Minister Is Quiet,” New York Times, October 25, 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/world/africa/ethiopia-protests-prime-minister.html. 205 basis to arrest a journalist Edrine Wanyama, “Ethiopia’s New Hate Speech and Disinformation Law Weighs Heavily on Social Media Users and Internet Intermediaries,” Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa, July 22, 2020, https://cipesa.org/2020/07/ethiopias-new-hate-speech-and-disinformation-law-weighs-heavily-on-social-media-users-and-internet-intermediaries; “Ethiopian Journalist Yayesew Shimelis Detained Following COVID-19 Report,” Committee to Protect Journalists, April 1, 2020, https://cpj.org/2020/04/ethiopian-journalist-yayesew-shimelis-detained-fol/. 205 leaked documents obtained by the Guardian Alex Hern, “Revealed: How TikTok Censors Videos That Do Not Please Beijing,” Guardian, September 25, 2019, www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-videos-that-do-not-please-beijing. 206 when and where to vote “Fighting Digital Disinformation,” Warren Democrats, https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/fighting-digital-disinformation. 206 exclusive banner Kelly Weill, “Flat Earthers Call Trump’s Space Force Idea ‘Impossible,’ ” Daily Beast, August 10, 2018, https://www.thedailybeast.com/flat-earthers-call-trumps-space-force-idea-impossible. 207 Flat Mars Society Elon Musk (@elonmusk), “Why is there no Flat Mars Society!?”

You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All
by Adrian Hon
Published 14 Sep 2022

“Robinhood CEO Testimony Transcript GameStop Hearing February 18,” Rev, February 18, 2021, www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/robinhood-ceo-testimony-transcript-gamestop-hearing-february-18. 43. Katherine Rosman, “How the Case of Gabrielle Petito Galvanized the Internet,” New York Times, updated October 20, 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/style/gabby-petito-case-tiktok-social-media.html; Sarah Sloat, “TikTok Has Created a West Elm Caleb Cinematic Universe,” Wired, January 22, 2022, www.wired.com/story/tiktok-west-elm-caleb-cinematic-universe; Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler, “‘FIND THIS FUCK:’ Inside Citizen’s Dangerous Effort to Cash In on Vigilantism,” VICE, May 27, 2021, www.vice.com/en/article/y3dpyw/inside-crime-app-citizen-vigilante. 44.

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Notably, all photos came with a public count of how many times they had been viewed or favourited. Twitter, with its all-important follower counts along with favourite and retweet counts for individual tweets, established a template for game-like competition on later social networks like Instagram and TikTok. Stack Overflow, a question-and-answer website for programmers, incentivised users to participate by awarding them reputation points and badges for answers deemed helpful by the community; today, the site is practically an essential utility for programmers, and the Stack Exchange network covers subjects as diverse as mathematics, anime, coffee, and video games.

…

Yoni Freedhoff, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, told the New York Times.24 The measure can be useful for understanding large populations for epidemiologic research, but it’s no good for helping individuals understand their own health: it was created using data mostly from white men, meaning it’s inaccurate for women and people of colour; it doesn’t account for muscle or bone mass; it’s bad at predicting metabolic health; and it can lead to harmful weight stigma. Though these flaws were known long before Wii Fit’s launch in 2007, the game used BMI to calculate a Wii Fit Age.25 Perversely, even when a player had a BMI in the “normal weight” range, the game still suggested they try to lower it, according to Ana Diaz at Polygon.26 TikTok is rife with funny but desperately sad jokes on how Wii Fit made players feel terrible. Thankfully, Nintendo didn’t repeat its mistake in Ring Fit Adventure, which never told me to lose weight. None of this is to diminish people’s enjoyment of exergames or the fact they’ve helped many get fit. Rather, it’s that exergames aren’t a panacea.

Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
by Adrienne Mayor
Published 27 Nov 2018

GODS AND ROBOTS Copyright © 2018 by Adrienne Mayor Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to permissions@press.princeton.edu Published by Princeton University Press 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TR press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Control Number: 2018938106 ISBN 978-0-691-18351-0 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Editorial: Rob Tempio and Matt Rohal Production Editorial: Lauren Lepow Text Design: Chris Ferrante Jacket/Cover Design: Jason Alejandro Production: Jacquie Poirier Publicity: Julia Haav This book has been composed in Adobe Text Pro, Abolition, and Refuel Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 for my brother MARK MAYOR I sometimes wonder whether robots were invented to answer philosophers’ questions —TIK-TOK CONTENTS List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xv INTRODUCTION. Made, Not Born 1 1 The Robot and the Witch: Talos and Medea 7 2 Medea’s Cauldron of Rejuvenation 33 3 The Quest for Immortality and Eternal Youth 45 4 Beyond Nature: Enhanced Powers Borrowed from Gods and Animals 61 5 Daedalus and the Living Statues 85 6 Pygmalion’s Living Doll and Prometheus’s First Humans 105 7 Hephaestus: Divine Devices and Automata 129 8 Pandora: Beautiful, Artificial, Evil 156 9 Between Myth and History: Real Automata and Lifelike Artifices in the Ancient World 179 EPILOGUE.

…

Here and there, I point out similar themes in modern mythologies of fiction, film, and popular culture, and I draw parallels to scientific history to help illuminate the natural knowledge and prescience embedded in mythic material. Along the way, the age-old stories, some very familiar and others long forgotten, raise questions of free will, slavery, the origins of evil, man’s limits, and what it means to be human. As the evil robot Tik-Tok in John Sladek’s 1983 science-fiction novel remarks, the very idea of an automaton leads one into “deep philosophical waters,” posing questions of existence, thought, creativity, perception, and reality. In the rich trove of tales from the ancient mythic imagination, one can discern the earliest traces of the awareness that manipulating nature and replicating life might unleash a swarm of ethical and practical dilemmas, further explored in the epilogue.

…

Type III, as yet undeveloped, would possess theory of mind and the ability to anticipate others’ expectations or desires (fictional examples: Star Wars’ C-3PO, Hephaestus’s Golden Servants, the Phaeacian ships). Type IV AI of the future would possess theory of mind as well as self-awareness (fictional examples include Tik-Tok in John Sladek’s 1983 novel and Eva in the 2015 film Ex Machina). Since she is capable of deceit and persuasion, Pandora seems to fall between Types II and III. artificial life. Systems, beings, or entities that simulate natural life, natural processes; or replicate aspects of biological phenomena; human or animal artifacts brought to life.

Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
by Madhumita Murgia
Published 20 Mar 2024

Yet, as I came to discover, data workers are as precarious as factory workers, their labour is largely ghost work and they remain an undervalued bedrock of the AI industry.4 As this community emerges from the shadows, journalists and academics are beginning to understand how these globally dispersed workers impact our daily lives: the wildly popular content generated by AI chatbots like ChatGPT, the content we scroll through on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, the items we browse when shopping online, the vehicles we drive, even the food we eat, it’s all sorted, labelled and categorized with the help of data workers. Milagros Miceli, an Argentinian researcher based in Berlin, studies the ethnography of data work in the developing world.

…

The algorithms lob images back and forth between them, with the false images being continuously fine-tuned to become ever more convincing, until the detective algorithm can no longer spot a fake. The technique can doctor faces or entire bodies into realistic-looking photos and videos – like the eerily lifelike deepfake Tom Cruise videos that went viral on TikTok in 2020. GANs can generate high-quality images and videos exponentially faster and more cheaply than professional visual-effects studios, making it an attractive alternative in the entertainment industry. Film studios like Disney’s Industrial Light and Magic, and VFX companies like Framestore are already exploring the use of deepfake algorithms to create hyper-real CGI content and synthetic versions of celebrities, alive and dead, for advertisements and films.

…

As far as he was concerned, he was creating tools to help save children and find terrorists, and everything else was just noise. But it wasn’t that straightforward. Technology companies, both large and small, had access to far more face data, and a commercial imperative to push forward facial recognition. Corporate giants such as Meta and Chinese-owned TikTok, and start-ups like New York-based Clearview AI and Russia’s NTech Labs, own even larger databases of faces than many governments, and certainly more than researchers like Karl. And they’re all driven by the same incentive: making money. These private actors soon uprooted systems from academic institutions like Karl’s and started selling immature facial recognition solutions to law enforcement, intelligence agencies, governments and private entities around the world.

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
by Max Fisher
Published 5 Sep 2022

But hints of the machines’ power have occasionally slipped through. TikTok, a Chinese-made app, shows each user a stream of videos selected almost entirely by algorithms. Its A.I. is so sophisticated that TikTok almost immediately attracted 80 million American users, who often use it for hours at a time, despite most of its engineers not speaking English or understanding American culture. “A machine-learning algorithm significantly responsive and accurate can pierce the veil of cultural ignorance,” the investor Eugene Wei wrote of TikTok. “Culture can be abstracted.” Or, as one engineer on YouTube’s algorithm team told the Wall Street Journal, “We don’t have to think as much.”

…

The pattern was playing out across all the major platforms, converting Americans’ fear and confusion first into softer conspiracy belief, then into full-blown QAnonism, a huge engagement booster on the platforms. Wellness channels on YouTube and fitness influencers on Instagram drifted from astrology to coronavirus conspiracies to QAnon. Facebook’s largest anti-vaccine network filled with Q dog whistles. TikTok surged with Pizzagate conspiracies. One twenty-year-old TikToker, who’d helped spark the Pizzagate resurgence, said she’d learned about it from a viral YouTube video. When Plandemic’s producers released a sequel, the video was predominantly pushed via Q pages. By the pandemic’s outset, the QAnon cause, amid its now almost impenetrably dense lore and esoterica, had sharpened around a core belief: President Trump and loyal generals were on the verge of a glorious military coup that would overturn the cabal that had orchestrated Pizzagate and that secretly dominated American life.

…

Jessie Alexander Rush, Robert Jesus Blancas, Simon Sage Ybarra, and Kenny Matthew Miksch, Case CR-21-0121-JD, March 23, 2021. 35 their groups attracted 900,000 users: “Facebook Removes Some Events Calling for Protests of Stay-at-Home Orders,” Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News, April 20, 2020. 36 But thousands remained active on the pages: See, for example: “Extremists Are Using Facebook to Organize for Civil War amid Coronavirus,” Tech Transparency Project Report, April 22, 2020. 37 QAnon belief now infused: “QAnon Booms on Facebook as Conspiracy Group Gains Mainstream Traction,” Deepa Seetharaman, Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2020. 38 Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation: Tweet by Nina Jankowicz (@wiczipedia), May 27, 2020. twitter.com/wiczipedia/status/1265629272988954625 39 filled with Q dog whistles: “Facebook Bans One of the Anti-Vaccine Movement’s Biggest Groups for Violating QAnon Rules,” Aatif Sulleyman, Newsweek, November 18, 2020. 40 TikTok surged with Pizzagate:“‘PizzaGate’ Conspiracy Theory Thrives Anew in the TikTok Era,” Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frenkel, New York Times, June 27, 2020. 41 That summer, ninety-seven: “Here are the QAnon Supporters Running for Congress in 2020,” Alex Kaplan, Media Matters, January 7, 2020 (updated through July 27, 2021). 42 Hunter yelled, “Justice for Floyd”: USA v.

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning
by Justin E. H. Smith
Published 22 Mar 2022

Since the nineteenth century, many have been captivated by the idea that mass culture—whether religion, as for Karl Marx, or popular music and movies, as for Theodor Adorno—is in some metaphorical sense an “opium.” More recently China’s delivery of TikTok to the West, with the political and cultural upheavals it has triggered, has recently been described as “revenge for the Opium Wars,” sending back, after a century and a half, a new sort of addictive drug that also threatens to exacerbate geopolitical instability.37 With TikTok and similar online platforms, the comparison of mass entertainment to opium may now be passing from metaphor into literalism. The science of addiction is revealing that the brain’s reward system works in largely the same way whether the hit it is receiving comes as true opium or as a like on Facebook.

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New York Times, August 4, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/opinion/qanon-conspiracy-theory-arg.html 35. Lynn, “The Big Tech Extortion Racket.” 36. For an engaging analysis of this phenomenon, see Vanderbilt, You May Also Like. 37. Niall Ferguson, “TikTok Is Inane. China’s Imperial Ambition Is Not,” Bloomberg Opinion, August 9, 2020. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-09/tiktok-is-the-superweapon-in-china-s-cultural-warfare?sref=ojq9DljU 38. Lanier, Ten Arguments. 39. Tweet from the @AliceFromQueens account, dated May 13, 2019. Chapter 2. The Ecology of the Internet 1. Farag, Zhang, and Ryu, “Dynamic Chemical Communication.” 2.

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See Cantwell Smith, Brian sociobiology, 71 Source, The (computer network), 8 Spotify, 47–49, 164 Srinivasan, Balaji, 29 Stanley, Manfred, 6–7 Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), 35 telecommunication: among humans, 59, 83–84, 124; among plants and animals, 56–59, 73–74, 83–84 teledildonics, 164 TikTok, 50 Tinder, 21 Tormé, Mel, 47 trolley problem, 13 Trump, Donald, 44, 49 Tupi (language), 108 Turing test, 30 Turing Tumble (toy), 110–11 Twitter, 32, 53–55, 122, 155, 164 Tyson, Neil DeGrasse, 90 Uber, 45 Vaucanson, Jacques de, 98, 119, 128–30 video games, 41, 43–45, 122 virality.

Vassal State
by Angus Hanton
Published 25 Mar 2024

A hard reality of US power was revealed by the incident: mostly, Washington is happy for the British to have their own conversations and make their own decisions, and there is no need for the US to show its teeth, but if the Brits act against perceived US interests, American diplomats go to work, even threatening ‘the special relationship’. It demonstrated the language of partnership coupled with the actions of control. The targeting of Chinese technology extends far beyond Huawei too. Debates about banning Chinese-owned TikTok are about markets as well as security: it has been calculated that by totally excluding TikTok from the US and UK the authorities would boost the value of TikTok’s American competitors by as much as $400 billion (mostly helping Meta, Snap and YouTube).24 The UK government tried to support the US by banning the app on official phones. Australia did the same, but the platform was so popular that politicians started using ‘burner’ phones to get access, and in the end the government gave up.

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[Twitter post] (4 June 2023), https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1665370246126125060. 8 Ibid. 9 ‘Arnaud Montebourg demande au gouvernement d’“interdire” le rachat d’une PME par un groupe américain’, Capital [website] (11 April 2023), http://tinyurl.com/u5m97k39. 10 Ibid. 11 Quoted in Jack Maidment, ‘Boris Johnson promises not to “jeopardise” UK national security ahead of crunch decision on whether to allow Huawei to help build Britain’s 5G network as PM hints at compromise’, Daily Mail (27 January 2020), https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7933473/Justice-Secretary-Robert-Buckland-warns-against-trying-bully-Britain-Huawei.html. 12 Quoted in Adam Payne, Thomas Colson and Adam Bienkov, ‘Boris Johnson defies Trump and gives Huawei the green light to develop Britain’s 5G network’, Business Insider [website] (28 January 2020), http://tinyurl.com/mst4494p. 13 Quoted in James Pearce, ‘UK government approves limited 5G role for Huawei’, IBC [website] (28 January 2020), https://www.ibc.org/trends/uk-government-approves-limited-5g-role-for-huawei/5394.article. 14 Quoted in ‘Reaction to UK allowing Huawei a role in 5G network’, Reuters [website] (28 January 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1ZR1FU/. 15 ‘Trump “apoplectic” in phone call with Johnson over Huawei decision, report claims’, Independent (7 February 2020), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-boris-johnson-huawei-phone-call-angry-5g-a9322826.html. 16 Newt Gingrich, ‘British decision to accept Huawei for 5G is a major defeat for the United Statees [sic] […]’ [Twitter post] (28 January 2020), https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1665370246126125060. 17 Quoted in Ashley Cowburn, ‘Donald Trump official issues veiled threat to Boris Johnson over Huawei 5G decision’, Independent (17 February 2020), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-boris-johnson-huawei-5g-china-brexit-phone-call-a9338791.html. 18 Quoted in Leo Kelion, ‘Huawei set for limited role in UK 5G networks’, BBC News [website] (28 January 2020), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51283059. 19 Quoted in Anna Mikhailova and Mike Wright, ‘Boris Johnson fails to stave off Huawei rebellion as Tory MPs call for tougher measures’, Daily Telegraph (14 July 2020), https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/14/boris-johnson-fails-stave-huawei-rebellion-tory-mps-call-tougher/. 20 Quoted in ‘Defence sub-committee oral evidence: the security of 5G, HC 201’, House of Commons [website] (16 June 2020), https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/534/html/. 21 Quoted in ‘Huawei to be removed from UK 5G networks by 2027’, Gov.uk [website] (14 July 2020), https://www.gov.uk/government/news/huawei-to-be-removed-from-uk-5g-networks-by-2027. 22 Quoted in Lily Kuo, ‘Chinese media calls for “pain” over UK Huawei ban as Trump claims credit’, Guardian (15 July 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/15/huawei-china-state-media-calls-for-painful-retaliation-over-uk-ban. 23 Quoted in Harriet Brewis, ‘Mike Pompeo claims WHO chief was “bought” by China leading to “dead Britons”’, Evening Standard (22 July 2020), https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/mike-pompeo-who-bought-china-a4505081.html. 24 ‘Banning TikTok would boost Alphabet, Meta and Snap – here’s how much their stocks could jump’, Forbes [website] (23 March 2023), https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/03/23/banning-tiktok-would-boost-alphabet-meta-and-snap-heres-how-much-their-stocks-could-jump/. 25 ‘UK chancellor welcomes Huawei’s investment’, Fibre Systems [website], https://www.fibre-systems.com/news/uk-chancellor-welcomes-huaweis-investment. 26 Patrick Wintour, ‘David Cameron’s appointment to investment fund “part engineered by China”’, Guardian (14 July 2023), https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jul/14/david-camerons-appointment-to-investment-fund-part-engineered-by-china. 27 ‘Inflation Reduction Act’, Wikipedia [website], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_Reduction_Act. 28 Victoria Waldersee, ‘Tesla scales back German battery plans, won over by US incentives’, Reuters [website] (22 February 2023), https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-scales-back-german-battery-plans-won-over-by-us-incentives-2023-02-21/; Richard Milne, Patricia Nilsson and Peter Campbell, ‘VW puts European battery plant on hold as it seeks €10bn from US’, Financial Times [website] (8 March 2023), https://www.ft.com/content/6ac390f5-df35-4e39-a572-2c01a12f666a. 29 Ibid. 30 Quoted in ‘Extradition Act 2003: David Davis excerpts’, Parallel Parliament [website] (21 January 2021), https://www.parallelparliament.co.uk/mp/david-davis/debate/2021-01-21/commons/commons-chamber/extradition-act-2003. 31 David Davis MP, ‘David Davis MP holds adjournment debate on the operation of the Extradition Act 2003’ [video], YouTube [website] (21 January 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?

The Kickstarter Handbook: Real-Life Success Stories of Artists, Inventors, and Entrepreneurs
by Steinberg, Don
Published 14 Aug 2012

In April 2011, New York designer/musician Rafael Atijas ran a Kickstarter campaign offering, for $150, a guitar kit that, he said, would sell online later for $215 (it did). He got 308 backers at that pledge level—his most popular level—and raised more than $65,000 after asking for only $15,000. The TikTok+LunaTik wristwatch kits were also offered on Kickstarter at early-bird prices. Backers could pledge $25 to get a TikTok that would later sell for $34.95 (2,432 people chose this reward level). Or they could pledge $50 to get a fancier LunaTik that would later sell for $69.95. That bargain got more than 5,000 backers! But what if you’re raising money to create a phone app that you plan to sell for $10 or less when it’s done?

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He got $35. The site grew fast, evolving from a home for offbeat art ideas to a place where serious designers could test the viability of their products. In November 2010, a project to create a tripod mount for the iPhone, called Glif, attracted 5,273 backers and raised $137,417. In December 2010, the TikTok and LunaTik wristbands, which would allow a user to wear an iPod nano music player as a wristwatch, raised close to $1 million from 13,512 backers. Born as a so-crazy-it-just-might-work notion, Kickstarter was quickly becoming a breeding ground to nurture more such outlandish ideas. But even then, Kickstarter had barely shifted into second gear.

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Tim Schafer, who smashed Kickstarter fund-raising records in March 2012 when he attracted $3.3 million in pledges for the Double Fine Adventure video game, was a known game developer who’d spent more than a decade at LucasArts creating such industry hits as Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, and Psychonauts. Scott Wilson, who in late 2010 raised $942,578 for the TikTok and LunaTik wristbands, which turn an iPod nano into a wristwatch, is a former creative director for Nike whose work has been displayed in museums. The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive, which in early 2012 drew $1.25 million in pledges for Philadelphia illustrator Rich Burlew, was set up to print books of Burlew’s existing webcomics; the passionate fan base he’d spent years developing drove his funding total to dizzying new heights every day.

It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO
by Felix Gillette and John Koblin
Published 1 Nov 2022

A stuffed white owl sat on his shoulder. He looked like a rich guy visiting Burning Man for the first time. Then there was his preoccupation with TikTok. The short-form video-sharing site, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, was exploding in popularity, particularly with young people. There were viral dancing videos. Acting lessons. Fashion tutorials. Recipes. Pranks. Above all else, Kilar wanted HBO Max to have an impressive presence on TikTok. He convened one meeting after the next to discuss the topic. His idea was to hire a group of young interns to make their own videos inspired by HBO and Warner Bros. programming.

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Facing a nearly endless list of emergencies—COVID, Black Lives Matter, programming and technical upgrades to HBO Max—Kilar devoted many hours on the initiative. “It just depends on do you think the internet is a big deal or not?” Kilar says. “I think it distills to that.” Finally, a handful of paid college interns got HBO Max up and running on TikTok. By the end of the summer, they were making videos riffing on the makeup styles of HBO’s teen drama Euphoria and getting ready for a big Halloween marketing push for the coming fall. To several staffers at WarnerMedia, the whole thing seemed like an odd priority. “We were running around saying, ‘Oh my god, there are so many things going wrong,’ ” said one staffer.

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Among other enticements, the movie would feature Michael Gandolfini playing a teenage version of Tony Soprano, the character made famous by his father. After decades of trying to escape the confines of TV, Chase was poised to make a splash on the grand big screen. Then Kilar repurposed Chase’s work as part of Project Popcorn without so much as a heads-up phone call. There’d been time for TikTok, but no time for Chase. The Sopranos creator felt angry and burned. What he wanted was for ticket-paying customers to experience the film communally in a hushed and darkened theater. “Movie magic,” he says. “It’s that simple.” Now, AT&T has gone and jammed the return of the outsize Soprano clan back into home television sets.

Binge Times: Inside Hollywood's Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix
by Dade Hayes and Dawn Chmielewski
Published 18 Apr 2022

Materially, it amounted to a rounding error, factoring little into the tech giant’s weightier deliberations about supply chains and contagion protocols. Quibi, meanwhile, had managed to raise a boatload of initial funding. Its fundamental consumer premise—“quick-bite,” short-form video on the go—suddenly seemed less viable with shelter-in-place orders in effect, though TikTok’s weedlike surge proved that people stuck at home still want to watch videos on their phones. Traditional media companies faced a more vexing conundrum. Their streaming services would still require intensive capital investments, in terms of both hiring and digital infrastructure, as well as a willingness to forgo millions in licensing revenue.

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With this new contender, the pedigree of the founder and CEO made ripe targets for ridicule. Despite the repeated assertions that Quibi had identified an uncluttered “white space” on the entertainment map, the streaming landscape had grown crowded over the service’s three-year gestation. One notable rival, the compulsively entertaining video-sharing app TikTok, was stealing all the thunder, having surpassed 2 billion downloads around the time Quibi finally launched. “The whole hating-on-Quibi thing became such a trend on Twitter, with everyone wanting to shit on Quibi, I found myself getting defensive and hurt,” Heller said. “I got to make my show there.

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“I actually could not be more proud that in that very short amount of time this incredible wall of entertainment—and many, many more—have agreed to be a part of it.” Here was the challenge, though: The millennial viewers Katzenberg hoped to entice with Quibi’s marquee names couldn’t have cared less. They hardly needed Quibi to connect with celebrities through the phone. Stars could readily be found in abundance elsewhere, on TikTok or Instagram. Katzenberg returned to the stage to acknowledge the difficulty of launching a subscription service without a rich catalog of familiar movies and TV shows. Quibi’s bespoke programming strategy wasn’t something it could find off-the-rack. So, it would create every piece of content from scratch, planning to launch a prodigious 175 new original shows over the course of the year—the kind of production slate associated with Netflix, though with a fraction of the streaming giant’s $13.5 billion budget.

100 Things We've Lost to the Internet
by Pamela Paul
Published 14 Oct 2021

But retaining that sense of authenticity is particularly tough on those who’ve committed to making a living off it—the social media stars, the influencers, the online thought leaders. What may begin as a passion project can feel like a trap when it must bend to the whims of an audience. For those who depend on YouTube for income, catering to the algorithm with ever more pleasing posts can be about making a living, which ups the incentive to stay on top. On TikTok, same thing. Maria Shabalin, a TikTok influencer who had two million fans by the time she’d graduated eighth grade, told The New York Times, “There was a part of the app, like a chart that would rank the influencers. And I remember checking it and thinking: ‘Why am I not on the top? What do I have to do to get to the top?’ 

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The corporate gatekeepers—the executive assistants, the agents, the managers, the deciders—no longer stand between you and your überboss, just as there’s no one between you and John Legend and Joe Biden, at least online. You can @ them. DM them. Publicly comment on what they say. Not much insulates them in an environment where you yourself can be a celebrity and an authority, at least for a micro–news cycle, thanks to one successful TikTok. Online, the youngs are always at least three steps ahead, and their parents, teachers, and bosses know it. The whole adult world has to defer to the students, kids, and entry-level associates for tech tips and the latest terminology. On Slack, everyone is in the same typeface; bosses and new hires commingle in millennial lowercase-speak without the slightest nod to the org chart.

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True, not all of it is terrible, and some of it is lovely: heartwarming memories can be accessed at any time, giving them a longer tail and allowing you to bask again in a decade-old glow. You can call up a flattering email your supervisor sent you about your performance and reread it, without rummaging through a file cabinet. You can gaze deep into the eyes of your now twelve-year-old’s baby face because it’s your screensaver. You can watch a happy dance on TikTok or rewatch the final kiss scene in a favorite rom-com at the click of a mouse, and without having to sit through the entire movie. It’s all happening right now. Joy is here for us, at our fingertips. But when past, present, and future all stir together in the ether, it’s harder than ever to differentiate between what’s over and done with and what constitutes the present tense.

Buy Now, Pay Later: The Extraordinary Story of Afterpay
by Jonathan Shapiro and James Eyers
Published 2 Aug 2021

Clearpay has always supported fit for purpose regulation that recognises the diversity of the industry and desire from consumers for flexible payment options that don’t trap them in long term debt.’22 But within a fortnight, a cross-party selection of 60 members of parliament signed a letter to the council to express concerns about the sponsorship deal, urging the event organisers to provide warnings about the ‘risk this form of lending presents’.23 Meanwhile, on social media, users were documenting their love–hate relationship with buy now, pay later as it exploded across America. ‘Someone send me to afterpay rehab I need help,’ wrote one TikTok user, showing her bank account cleared out. Another appeared on her laptop, looking defiant: ‘Me using afterpay to order cloths [sic] with only 10.49 in my bank account’. To Canadian rocker Alanis Morissette’s lyrics ‘I’m broke but I’m happy’, one TikTok user displayed a list of Klarna, Quadpay and Afterpay debits on her bank account, and a Christmas tree surrounded by wrapped gifts, while a girl in another TikTok video shrieked in panic like she’d seen a cockroach, before breathing a sigh of relief: ‘When you almost submit payment with your default debit card instead of clicking the Quadpay button.’

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Natalie Xenita, of IMG Events, which runs the week, had known Molnar from her days editing the teen magazine Girlfriend; back in the day, he had made offers for Ice Online to sponsor fashion editorials.2 ‘After the washout of 2020 there was a palpable sense of hope, relief and renewal as Molnar spoke of his commitment to the Australian fashion industry,’ Sams wrote in her AFR profile. Afterpay was also following its customers onto new social-media platforms, including TikTok, which hosted short, user-made videos. Afterpay conducted a week-long campaign engaging young Australian musicians to create sounds that, as Natasha Gillezeau wrote in The Australian Financial Review, ‘alludes to Afterpay’s payment mechanism that splits payments into four instalments through the lyrics “Pose … two, three, four, strut”.’3 And Afterpay was endearing itself to the industry by embracing philanthropic causes.

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Chapter 15 1 The Treasury, Review of the Australian Payments System, 21 October 2020. 2 The Treasury, Payments System Review: Issues Paper, November 2020. 3 James Eyers, ‘ASIC to call out buy now, pay later “harms that we continue to see”’, The Australian Financial Review, 13 November 2020. 4 Australian Securities & Investments Commission, REP 672: Buy Now Pay Later: An Industry Update, 16 November 2020. 5 The Australian Financial Review Banking & Wealth Summit, transcript, 18 November 2020. Chapter 16 1 Lauren Sams, ‘In Vogue’. 2 Lauren Sams, ‘In Vogue’. 3 Natasha Gillezeau, ‘Afterpay underscores fashion links in TikTok campaign’, The Australian Financial Review, 2 November 2020. 4 ‘Robinhood trader “sticking it to the man”’. Reuters Now, 30 January 2021, <www.reuters.com/video/watch/idPWzc?now=true>. 5 Nicholas Reimann, ‘AOC calls Reddit-fueled GameStop frenzy similar to movement that put her in Congress’, Forbes, 30 January 2021. 6 Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), net short positions archive, <www.afm.nl>. 7 ‘Affirm: The morality of money’, The Generalist, 10 December 2020, <https://thegeneralist.substack.com/p/affirm-the-morality-of-money>. 8 Donna Fuscaldo, ‘Struggling online lender OnDeck sold to Enova International’, Forbes, 29 July 2020. 9 Jeff Kaufli, ‘Inside the billion-dollar plan to kill credit cards’, Forbes, 8 February 2021. 10 Tom Richardson, ‘PayPal flags extraordinary demand in buy now, pay later space’, The Australian Financial Review, 3 November 2020. 11 Ashwini Chandra, Some observations on US BNPL from PYPL’s 4Q20, Goldman Sachs research report, 4 February 2021. 12 Tom Beadle, ‘PayPal’s entry into “Pay in 4”: Running the scenarios’, UBS Global Research, 10 September 2020. 13 Tim Piper, BNPL: Payments giant PayPal enters ‘Pay in 4’, RBC Capital Markets report, 6 September 2020. 14 Tom Richardson, ‘Zip valuation frustrates boss after “absolutely cracking” quarter’, The Australian Financial Review, 21 January 2021. 15 Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald & Tim Boyd, ‘Zip Co goes shopping for US investors, mulls second listing’, The Australian Financial Review, 7 February 2021. 16 Thea de Gallier, Harvey Day & Hannah Price, ‘Influencer: “Why I stopped working with Klarna”’, BBC, 11 February 2021. 17 HM Treasury, ‘Buy-now-pay-later products to be regulated’, 2 February 2021, <www.gov.uk/government/news/buy-now-pay-later-products-to-be-regulated>. 18 Simon English, ‘City watchdog launches clampdown on buy-now-pay-later loans’, Evening Standard, 2 February 2021. 19 Julia Kollewe & Kalyeena Makortoff, ‘Buy now pay later firms such as Klarna to face FCA regulation’, The Guardian, 3 February 2021. 20 Hans van Leeuwen & James Eyers, ‘Britain wields regulator’s rod on buy now, pay later firms’, The Australian Financial Review, 3 February 2021. 21 Danielle Wightman-Stone, ‘London Fashion Week names Clearpay as principal partner’, FashionUnited, 10 February 2021. 22 Danielle Wightman-Stone, ‘London Fashion Week names Clearpay as principal partner’. 23 Danielle Wightman-Stone, ‘MPs criticise London Fashion Week sponsorship deal with Clearpay’, FashionUnited, 22 February 2021. 24 Consumers’ Federation of Australia, ‘Joint consumer submission: Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA) Buy Now Pay Later Code of Practice’, 6 May 2020, <http://consumersfederation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20200506FINAL-Submission.pdf>. 25 James Eyers, ‘ASIC lashes buy now, pay later code of conduct’, The Australian Financial Review, 10 June 2020. 26 John Kehoe, ‘Responsible lending laws to be axed’, The Australian Financial Review, 24 September 2020. 27 James Eyers, ‘Consumer groups attack the new buy now, pay later code of conduct’, The Australian Financial Review, 24 February 2021. 28 James Eyers, ‘Consumer groups attack the new buy now, pay later code of conduct’.

The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time
by Yascha Mounk
Published 26 Sep 2023

GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT a darker side: Carolyn Gregoire, “The Hunger Blogs: A Secret World of Teenage ‘Thinspiration,’ ” HuffPost, Feb. 9, 2012, www.huffpost.com/entry/thinspiration-blogs_n_1264459. For a discussion of the “thinspiration” movement’s move to TikTok, see Laura Pitcher, “2000s Tumblr Eating Disorder Content Didn’t Disappear—It Changed,” Nylon, accessed Mar. 19, 2023, www.nylon.com/beauty/tumblr-eating-disorder-content-is-on-tiktok-how-to-navigate-it. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “Tumblr became a place”: Dee, “Tumblr Transformed American Politics.” GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “Tumblr was the first place”: Sarappo, “How Tumblr Taught Social Justice to a Generation of Teenagers.”

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Over time, such uses of discourse analysis for political ends have increasingly come to focus on phenomena that scholars might, in previous generations, have considered too trivial to deserve attention. In Departments of Media Studies and Comparative Literature, researchers now analyze pieces of everyday culture from sitcoms to TikTok clips. Their goal is both to critique their subtle biases and to have a concrete political impact. By changing how we frame social and cultural issues, they argue, we can help the marginalized resist their oppressors. This has had a major influence on the way in which activists engage in politics.

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And as it happens, that is also a key part in the fascinating story of how the identity synthesis could escape campus and enter the mainstream. HOW A FORGOTTEN PLATFORM HELPED TO BIRTH A NEW POLITICAL CULTURE Pundits and political scientists who study the effects of social media tend to focus on Twitter and Facebook, or perhaps on Instagram and TikTok. All of these platforms played a key role in forging a new internet culture. But when the history of the way in which new technologies transformed Western culture in the second decade of the twenty-first century is written some fifty or a hundred years from now, one important and highly illustrative chapter will be about a comparatively small “microblogging platform” that has, since its heyday, virtually vanished from public consciousness: Tumblr.

Nothing but Net: 10 Timeless Stock-Picking Lessons From One of Wall Street’s Top Tech Analysts
by Mark Mahaney
Published 9 Nov 2021

I also was consistently among the earlier adopters of services and products like Gmail, Netflix streaming, Facebook, Twitter, the Kindle, Alexa devices, Google Glass, Snapchat Spectacles, the Amazon Fire Phone, Stitch Fix, Oculus Virtual Reality headsets, and Uber, partly out of a fun fascination with new services and products and partly out of a need to stay on top of my sector. Later, my four sons came to generate (not always consciously) some of my best insights into the newest social networks, like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Analysts do a lot of odd things. Like looking for correlations in unusual places. Here’s one. My oldest son, Noah, was born on March 12, 2000, just two days after the NASDAQ peak of 5,048. Almost from the beginning, I nicknamed Noah “The Bear,” not at all realizing that his birth date marked the beginning of a multiyear bear market for tech stocks.

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Growth companies are typically expected to be, well, growing when they stage their IPOs. Airbnb was declining. And it still pulled off a highly successful IPO. Wow! Reflects a lot of trust and hope by investors in Airbnb’s secular growth opportunity post-Covid-19. A lot. And imagine how much interest there would be were TikTok—one of the fastest-growing Internet apps of all time—to announce its IPO intentions! The Covid-19 crisis made some of these Internet companies indispensable. We needed Amazon to keep our pantries and closets stocked during the pandemic. We needed Netflix to keep us entertained and distracted. Pet adoption surged, and so did the customer count at Chewy—rising by at least 1 million per quarter for three straight quarters in 2020.

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After all, more buyers on eBay created a bigger market for sellers, which attracted more sellers, which created a bigger market for buyers, which attracted more buyers, and so on. But a superior value proposition and better execution by Amazon blew up those network effects advantages. Facebook as a social network should be a superb beneficiary of network effects, but somehow Instagram rose up to compete with it (leading Facebook to acquire it), and so did Snap, and so did TikTok, and so will another company. Still, although their impact has often been exaggerated, there definitely is something to network effects, with a company like Uber being a good example. In any one geographic area, the more drivers there are for Uber, the greater the value of the service is for riders (e.g., shorter wait times), which begets more riders, which makes the service compelling for more drivers (e.g., shorter wait times).

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation
by Anne Helen Petersen
Published 14 Jan 2021

“Old Economy Steve” first appeared on Reddit in 2012, pairing a 1970s high school portrait with a caption suggesting he’s now your market-loving dad who won’t shut up about how you should really start putting money into your 401k. Subsequent iterations narrativized his economic privilege: DRIVES UP FEDERAL DEFICIT FOR 30 YEARS / HANDS THE BILL TO HIS KIDS, one version of the meme exclaims; “WHEN I WAS IN COLLEGE MY SUMMER JOB PAID THE TUITION” / TUITION WAS $400 says another.1 More recently, on TikTok, Gen Z popularized the phrase “OK Boomer” as a reaction to someone with an outdated, intractable, and/or bigoted point of view. It could be directed, as Taylor Lorenz pointed out in the New York Times, toward “basically any person over 30 who says something condescending about young people—and the issues they care about.”

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I’m posting a dog walk photo to Instagram and wondering if I’ve posted too many dog photos lately. I’m making dinner while asking Alexa to play a podcast where people talk about the news I didn’t really internalize. I get into bed with the best intention of reading the book on my nightstand but wow, that’s a really funny TikTok. I check my Instagram likes on the dog photo I did indeed post. I check my email and my other email and Facebook. There’s nothing else to check, so somehow I decide it’s a good time to open my Delta app and check on my frequent flyer mile count. Oops, I ran out of book time; better set SleepCycle.

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So they softly urge, manipulate, and command it: through notifications, but also through gamification, which use game-like elements to draw you into otherwise very un-fun activities, like following my Delta Frequent Flyer progress. These days, the phone is where most millennials do our bank account checking, Amazon ordering, ride hailing, route finding, music playing, TikTok watching, photo taking, secondhand clothes selling, recipe finding, sleeping baby monitoring, and ticket (plane, movie, bus, concert) storing. Some of those tasks can still be done off the phone, but they’re increasingly designed to be performed through an app. That’s how phones root themselves in our lives: not through one app or five, but via a whole maelstrom of assault on our attention.

The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World
by David Sax
Published 15 Jan 2022

During the past decade, as ed tech boosters pushed for a more digital future in schools, the argument was that computer-based skills were the tools that the next generation needed to succeed in the world. But what many of us saw, as our children were unleashed onto the internet all day, wasn’t the blossoming of a million Steve Jobses coding the future; it was an orgy of Fortnite and social media and watching random shit on TikTok. One day, I heard my son yapping away under the coffee table into the iPad. He said, “Ninjago pictures. Pictures! Pictures of Ninjago!” until finally the iPad gave him glamour shots of Kai, Cole, and the other plastic heroes he desired. Did his ability to figure out Siri’s integration with Google images make him more prepared for some future career?

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Musicians livestreamed concerts from their homes, from megastars like Elton John and Alicia Keys to my friend Andrew Badali, who took his preschool music classes to Instagram and suddenly found thousands of tots around the world singing along. Selena Gomez and Amy Schumer whipped up cooking shows, while Shakespearean actors read the Bard’s great works on Zoom. Every comedian launched a podcast, while rappers played video games on Twitch and performed in the virtual reality world of Fortnite. Ballet dancers filmed TikTok videos of pirouettes on apartment balconies. Mo Willems taught kids how to draw on YouTube. Museums offered video tours of every exhibit. Erykah Badu built a massive studio in her home in Dallas and self-produced elaborate livestreamed shows, with props and costumes and special effects that transported her fans into a dimension as eccentric and beautiful as the great Badu herself.

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Ever since Rand wrote his first play, he had been told that the future of live theater was doomed. Plays were too costly to produce, television was so good, audiences would rather stay home, and, besides, the younger generation was more interested in digital content. “Just look at how glued teens are to TikTok!” he was told. But every year Rand keeps writing plays, and more of those plays are performed for bigger and bigger audiences, mostly by teenagers for teenagers. Prior to the pandemic, Broadway was posting record ticket sales, and the boom in live performance was just as true for concerts, comedy shows, improv clubs, and sports leagues, despite limitless digital streaming alternatives.

For the Love of Autism: Stories of Love, Awareness and Acceptance on the Spectrum
by Tamika Lechee Morales
Published 23 Apr 2022

On her blog, The Autism Cafe, she shares the ups and downs of raising a severely autistic child while being on the autism spectrum herself. In her free time, Eileen enjoys daydreaming and road trips. Website: theautismcafe.com Email: eileen@theautismcafe.com Social Media Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest: theautismcafe TikTok: eileen.lamb Hashtags #DearAutism #TheAutismCafe #YouAreNotAlone MY JOURNEY FROM NONSPEAKING TO DOCTORATE IN EDUCATION Dr. Kerry Magro, EdD, is an award-winning professional speaker and best-selling author, who is on the autism spectrum. “Autism can’t define me. I define autism.” “You have autism?

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For his efforts, Kerry has been featured on NBC’s Today Show, CBS News, Inside Edition, Upworthy, and HuffPost. Kerry resides in Hoboken, New Jersey. You also can invite him to speak with your school or business via email at Kerrymagro@gmail.com. Website KerryMagro.com Social Media Facebook fan page: KerrysAutismJourney Facebook author page, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok: KerryMagro YouTube: KerrysAutismJourney Hashtag #AutismCantDefineMe DRIVING ON A SELF-DETERMINED ROUTE Andrew Arboe is the Director of Community Outreach for Planning Across the Spectrum and the Founder of Driving with Autism. You can connect with him on autism, driving, transportation, and employment through email and LinkedIn.

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She has single-handedly pushed me just by listening to her advice. Documentaries: Sounding the Alarm, A Mother’s Courage, and Best Kept Secret. Podcasts: Autism Live, Moms Talk Autism, and Uniquely Human Email: belqui@belquistwist.com Website: www.belquistwist.com Social Media Facebook, Instagram, TikTok: belquistwist LinkedIn: Belqui Ortiz-Millili www.​linkedin​.com​/company​/belquistwist​/ Hashtag #AMothersPromise My Love Letter to My Child Connor, You have brought so much joy to my life! I am so grateful that the one day you could have chosen to leave us, you didn’t. You stayed. Ever since then and every single day, you have taught me so many lessons about how to be compassionate, patient, and loving.

Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy
by Andrew Yang
Published 15 Nov 2021

YouTube: Mansoor Iqbal, “YouTube Revenue and Usage Statistics (2020),” Business of Apps, updated Nov. 17, 2020. Twitter: Mansoor Iqbal, “Twitter Revenue and Usage Statistics (2020),” Business of Apps, updated Dec. 5, 2021. Snapchat: Mansoor Iqbal, “Snapchat Revenue and Usage Statistics (2020),” Business of Apps, updated Feb. 12, 2021. TikTok: Mansoor Iqbal, “TikTok Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021),” Business of Apps, updated Feb. 10, 2021. CHAPTER 22: THE RETURN OF FACTS At the beginning of my presidential campaign “Democratic Fundraiser in Iowa,” C-SPAN, Oct. 14, 2018. My speech cited several facts “Available Customized Tables,” U.S.

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After the success with Sam Harris, I would often go on podcasts and pursue interviews with tech figures and business journalists, the kinds of people who spoke to a similar demographic. As time went on, we became increasingly hungry for data. Facebook offers an advertising tool—Custom Audience—where you can target ads across Facebook, Instagram, and a network of apps and sites that includes TikTok, Tinder, and Pandora. Ever notice how ads seem to follow you around the internet from site to site? This is why. If we had enough data to identify our audience, we could scale more quickly. This is particularly true using an advertising feature on Facebook called Lookalike Audience. If you have identified between one thousand and fifty thousand fans on Facebook, you can create a Lookalike Audience—that is, other Facebook users who have the same characteristics as your current audience in terms of age, gender, education, location, media habits, likes, and other factors.

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You don’t get anything that will get you fired.” A friend who works in politics put it this way: “No one knows how we’ll reach voters in twenty years when TV ads no longer work.” They will be replaced by a patchwork of podcasts and tens of thousands of ads and influencer posts through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Clubhouse, and their successors. As people get their information and news in different ways, our politics are likely to evolve in new ways as well. When the gatekeepers go away, does that free up more oxygen in the media ecosystem for candidates like me, who don’t fit so easily into the old guard’s preconceived notions?

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
by Zeke Faux
Published 11 Sep 2023

Judging from social media, the two didn’t exactly appear to be criminal geniuses. Lichtenstein, who went by “Dutch,” had curly hair and an impish grin, like a baby-faced Elijah Wood. He seemed very fond of the couple’s Bengal cat, Clarissa. Morgan’s thing was music—extravagantly bad music that she wrote, performed, and released in videos on YouTube and TikTok. In one, she danced and pretended a toy reptile was her penis. In another, she gyrated down the streets of the Financial District wearing a gold track jacket, a fanny pack, and a flat-brimmed hat reading 0FCKS. She called herself the “motherfucking crocodile of Wall Street.” In one song, she even bragged about her hacking skills: “Spearphish your password / All your funds transferred.”

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That’s what led him to the New York City couple, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan. * * * — MORGAN, THEN THIRTY-ONE, was the founder of a small copywriting business called SalesFolk. She was living with Lichtenstein in a $6,500-per-month high-rise apartment at 75 Wall Street, in New York’s Financial District. In her TikTok posts, the apartment was stuffed with knickknacks, including a crocodile skull, a camel figurine, and an item she described only as “Ukrainian sewer rocks.” A zebra pelt hung on the wall near a zebra-striped elliptical trainer. Two long-horned antelope skulls were mounted there too, along with a framed X-ray of Morgan’s lungs from when she contracted MERS in Egypt.

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“He was one of these fucking nerds that tries to get under your skin,” Eagle, who’s now sober, said. After graduation, Lichtenstein co-founded an advertising technology company, then left it in 2016, around the time of the hack, for reasons he never explained. On social media, he and Morgan posted photos from business class flights to Hong Kong and Mexico. In Morgan’s TikTok videos, he often seems like a grudging participant. “You keep filming me, expecting something to happen, what do you want me to do? You want me to shove something up my ass and do a little dance?” he says in one video, after Morgan asks him about his habit of tasting Clarissa’s cat chow. (“It needs salt, it needs pepper, but other than that it’s pretty good,” he says.)

May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases—And What We Can Do About It
by Alex Edmans
Published 13 May 2024

Adverts for trading courses promise that we can escape the nine to five and live the life we want, accompanied by the gold standard of social media proof – a photo of the guru cruising in a Ferrari waving a wad of cash. Reality TV stars spread the conspiracy that 5G causes coronavirus, playing into popular mistrust about technology.5 At the end of 2022, #luckygirlsyndrome amassed 150 million TikTok views within a month. Videos with this hashtag claimed that telling yourself you’ll be lucky makes it so – leading some people to blame themselves when things go wrong. You might think that only the foolish fall for a TikToker’s tales. But the temptation to believe alluring claims is so strong that even the rich and famous succumb. Founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes, the medical start-up Theranos claimed it could perform hundreds of tests, including the diagnosis of several life-threatening diseases, from a finger-prick of blood.

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Anders 61, 62–3, 66, 104 errors of commission 250 errors of omission 250 estimation 246 evaluation 223, 233 evidence 5, 12, 13, 122 average results 280, 282 credentials 226–8 identity and 266 is not proof 192–210 scientific management 198–9 lack of 219 limitations of 280, 282 smarter thinking 288–9 in social sciences 224 systematic reviews 222 testing 217–18 validity 199 EXCOMM 237–8, 244, 254 cognitive diversity 238–9, 240 deliberation process 244–5 demographic make up 238 executive pay 67–9 exogenous parts of instruments 178–9, 179–80, 182, 190 experts 223–4 explained components of instruments 178–9 explorers 170, 171–2 external validity 199, 202, 204, 209 Fabo et al. 225–6 Facebook 272 Fact Check (Reuters) 270 fact-checking websites 270–71, 277, 282 facts 12, 13 are not data 89–114 learning from a blank slate 108–13 narrative fallacy 104–8, 113 seeing the full picture 95–104 selected samples 95–6, 102, 113 Steve Jobs and Apple 89, 90–92, 93, 94, 101–2, 103, 106, 107, 200 checking 7–8, 12, 21, 37, 85, 88, 103, 268–9 interpretation of 24 smarter thinking 285–6 failure parties 250 failures 250–51 fake news 271, 272, 282 Faleye, Olubunmi 4 family businesses 181–2 Fancy, Tariq 83–5, 226 fast-food employment 184–5 Fernbach, Philip 251 ‘Fifty shades of QE’ (Fabo et al.) 225–6 Financial Management Association 270 Financial Reporting Council 74 fintech companies 85–6 Fisher, Matthew 54 Fixit (fictional company) 119, 135–40, 137–40 data mining see data mining see also Xinyi (fictional name) Flammer, Caroline 243 flexibility 108 Flint, Austin 174–5 Floyd, George 75 Fong, Geoffrey 262 Fooled by Randomness (Taleb) 274 football 126–7, 188 decline in stock markets 134–5 Euros (2004) 126–7 mood and emotions 126–7, 128, 129 sentiment 129 World Cup (2014) 133–4 Forbes 219 Forbes 15 Best Business Books (2015) 268–9 Ford, Henry 245 Fortune 60, 219, 223 Fos, Slava 241 frequent trading 97–101 Frontiers in Nutrition study 144, 145 Full Fact 270 Galileo Galilei 226 Gallagher, Liam 44 Gama, Vasco da 171 García, Diego 129 Gavin, Jim 23 gender diversity 243 company performance research 118–24, 135–40 data mining see data mining evidence for fund launch 116–18 geoengineering 268 Getting Things Done (Allen) 229, 270 Gibson, Belle 17–20, 103–4 Gimbel, Sarah 28–9 Gladwell, Malcolm 6, 60, 66 Ericsson study 61, 62–3, 66, 104 magazine interview 60, 61, 63 10,000-hours rule 6, 59–61, 62–6 Global Head of Sustainability Research 85 global warming 265–6 Glossner, Simon 243 Golden Circle Model 92 Google 157, 255 Gore, Al 266 gradients 136–7 Grant Thornton 224 Grant Thornton Corporate Governance Index 225 granular world 45, 51–2, 56, 201 Great North Run 47 Gresham College 62, 264 grit 204–5, 207 group discussions 247–8 grouping 137–40, 140, 141 groupthink 236, 237, 241, 247–8, 257 growth mindset 62 Guardian, The 215 Guriev, Sergei 271–2 Guzey, Alexey 270 Halo Effect, The (Rosenzweig) 111 Harris, Sam 28–9 Harvard Business Review 103, 152, 154, 290–91 Harvard University 228 Heeb, Florian 54 Henry, Emeric 271–2 hierarchies 249–50 high pollution 150–51 Holmes, Elizabeth 20–21, 219 homeopathy 6 honorary doctorates 227 Hoxby, Caroline 169, 177–9, 202, 221 HSBC 256 Hughes, Robert 22 Hung, William 207 hunter gatherers 43–4 hydroxychloroquine 6–7 Hypocritical Oath 230 hypotheses 23–5, 66 average output 99 control samples 99, 102 inputs and outputs 98–9 magnitude of underperformance 100 representative samples 99, 102 reverse engineering 124–5 sample size 100 statistical significance 100–101 test samples 99 identity 266 Imperial Tobacco 152 inclusion 243–8 micro-processes 248–9 An Inconvenient Truth 265, 266 inequality 159–61, 162–3 information gathering 214 InfoWars 231 initial beliefs 216 instruments 177–8, 190 endogenous parts 178–9, 180, 182 exogenous parts 178–9, 179–80, 182, 190 natural experiments and 186 relevance 179, 180, 182, 190 ridiculousness and irrelevance 180–81 interaction effect 207 internal validity 199, 200, 202, 209 intervention studies 173 investors 127 Ioannidis, John 219 iPhone 91, 92 IQ (intelligence quotient) 143–4, 145–7 irrelevance of instruments 180–81 Isaacson, Walter 93, 101–2, 103 James (acrobat) 59–60 Jandali, Abdulfattah 89 Janis, Irving 236 Jensen, Michael 69, 70–71 Jobs, Clara 90 Jobs, Paul 89–90 Jobs, Steve 89, 90–92, 93, 101–2, 103, 106 Johnson, Tim 127–8 Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) 236, 237, 239, 240 Journal of Finance 129, 218 Journal of the American Medical Association 219 journal quality 218 journalists 228, 282 checking facts 273 journals impact factor 220 peer-reviews of 217–18 publication bias 220 Joy, Bill 61 Kahan, Dan 263, 266, 268 Kahneman, Daniel 29 Kaplan, Jonas 28–9 Keil, Frank 54, 251 Kempf, Elisabeth 241 Kennedy, General Robert 244, 245 Kennedy, President John F. 244 Bay of Pigs invasion 235–7, 244 Cuban Missile Crisis 235, 237–8, 239–40, 244–5 EXCOMM 238–9, 244–6 Kerry, John 29–30 Khrushchev, Nikita 235, 237, 240 Kirk, Stuart 256–7 knowledge 7–8, 10 biased interpretation 37 biased search 36–7 Krantz, David 262 Krueger, Alan 184–5 Krueger, Joachim 52 Ladder of Misinference 11, 56, 152, 232 Lancet 221 Lancet Public Health study 46 Langley, Samuel Pierpont 200 law of attraction 20 Leavers (Brexit) 214 LeMay, Curtis 239, 240 Lemnitzer, Lyman 239 Lepper, Mark 30–31, 259, 260, 261 Les Décodeurs 270 lies 12 limbic brain 93, 107 Lind, James 172–3, 174 LinkedIn post 153 Lisker, Bruce 21–3, 24 Lisker, Dorka 21–2 Living Wage 76–7 Lodge, Milton 36–7 London Business School 74–5 London Marathon 47 Lord, Charles 30–31, 259, 260, 261 Macintosh 91 marbled world 45, 53–5, 56 Martin, Roger L. 290–92 McDaniel, Mark 48 McGrath Task Circumplex 240 McKinsey 225 report (2020) 78 study (2017) 152, 154, 187, 291–2 McLaughlin, Dan 64–5 McNamara, Robert 239–40, 244 Mearsheimer, John 86 Meckling, William 69, 70–71 Medium 84 Medscape 219 Merton College 213 Merton in the City reunion (2016) 213–14 metal cutting 193–4 micro-processes 248–9, 258, 263 Midvale Steel Works 193 Miliband, Ed 160, 161 minimum wage laws 183–4 misinformation 5–7, 9–10, 67–8, 214, 230, 231, 234 misrepresentation 74–6 MIT 125, 126, 127 moderate world 45–50, 55 moderation 206–7, 209–10 momentum 157 Monsue, Andrew 22–3, 24 Montessori education method 263 Morgan Stanley 125, 130–31, 189, 255–6 ‘balanceworks’ programme 156 motivated reasoning 27–8, 30, 37, 184 Motor Neurone Disease Association 47 Mountain View (later Silicon Valley) 90 Mozart 61 Mullainathan, Sendhil 175–6 Murdoch, Lachlan 181 Murdoch, Rupert 20, 181 my-side reasons 264 naïve acceptance 25–7, 32, 37–8 narrative fallacy 105–8, 109, 113 twin biases 106 National Childbirth Trust (NCT) 143, 144–5 National Geographic 223 National Health and Medical Research Council 222 National Health Service (NHS) website 222 National Security Council (NSC) 237 National Union of Journalists 273 NATO 86 natural experiments 185–6, 187, 190 instruments and 186 Nature 6, 218 neocortex 92, 107 New Scientist 223 News Corporation 181 news feeds 6 Nisbett, Richard 262 No Child Left Behind Act (2001) 196–7 non-pecuniary benefits 70–71 Norli, Øyvind 129 Nyhan, Brendan 270 Obama, Barack 265 Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire 240, 241 observational studies 173 Odean, Terry 96–8 oil spills 25–8 100 Best Companies to Work for 116–17, 156–7, 189 opinions, articulating in detail 251 Organization Stream Analysis 111 organizations 235–58 Oster, Emily 147, 201, 222 other-side reasons 264 out-of-sample tests 133 Outliers 61, 64, 104, 270 over-extrapolation 206–7, 209–10 Pagella Politica 270 Paige, Rod 196, 199 Paine, Lynn 290–91 Palin, Sarah 81 papers, scientific retractions 221 reviewed by scientists 220–21 submitted for review 217–18 parachutes 208–9 Paris Agreement (2015) 49, 50 pausing before criticizing 232–3 pausing before sharing 230–32 pay gaps 3–4, 5 Peak (Ericsson) 63, 104 peer reviewers 8 peer reviews 217–19, 233 books 223 reliability of 220 Pennycook, Gordon 231, 272 Perkins, David 264 Ph.D.s 227 Phillips et al. 242 Pickett, Kate 160–61, 162–3 The Spirit Level 159–60, 161, 163, 165, 200, 225, 270 pig-iron handling 194–5 Pixar 91, 250–51 placebo effect 174–5 PolitiFact 81, 270, 271 Pollock, Joycelyn 24–5 population density 151 Porras, Jerry 110–12 positive correlation 165 post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy 164–5 post-mortem 255 poverty 160–61 power distance 249 power posing 221 Power, Thomas 239 PowerPoint 251–2 pre-mortem 255 precision 170–73 predictions 151, 152, 154, 167 Presence (Cuddy) 269, 270, 274 Preston, Elizabeth 259, 260, 261 Principles of Scientific Management, The (Taylor) 195 processing power 248–52 productivity 193–4 professorship 227 proof 198–9 Psychological Science 221, 269, 270 psychometric tests 108–9 publication bias 220 publication process 273–4 endorsements 274–5 quantitative easing 226 Quest, Richard 133–4 Quote Investigator 270 racial discrimination 175–6 Rambotti, Simone 161 random events 107 randomized control trials (RCTs) 173, 174–6, 189–90 instruments 177–8 limitations of 177 parachute experiment 208–9 randomness 170–73 range of values 206, 207–8 Raquel, Ronald 23 Rassemblement National 271–2 Reading Football Club 159 reasoning 264–5 red teams 254–5 reducing hierarchies 249–50 regression 136–7, 139, 140, 158, 161–2 common causes 158–9 regression coefficient 136 regulation 123 Reifler, Jason 270 Reis, Ebru 4 relevance of instruments 179, 180, 182, 190 Remainers (Brexit) 213, 214 replication studies 221 representative samples 96, 99, 102 research 4–5 best practice 273 boardroom diversity 74–5 confirming opinions 5 data mining 119–20 diversity 117–19 gender diversity see gender diversity open access 35 rigour 8, 117–19 sources 5–6 unvetted 218 research qualifications 226–7 resilient companies 78 Responsible Investment Advisory Committee 248–9 Retraction Watch 269, 270 Reuters 79 reverse causation 164–5, 167, 170, 187 reverse engineering 94, 107–8 review papers 222 Reyes the Entrepreneur 95, 97 rhetoric 215 rheumatism experiment 174 Rice-Davies, Mandy 76–7, 226 ridiculousness of instruments 180–81 Rogers, David 47, 207 Rosenzweig, Phil 111 Ross, Lee 30–31, 259 Rossmo, Kim 24–5 Rothschild, Jesse 221–2 Royal London Asset Management 248 Rozenblit, Leonid 251 Rozin, Paul 51–2 rules 66 Rusk, Dean 240, 244 sailors 170–72 Sainsbury’s 76–7 sample mining 131–3, 141 defending against 133–5 sample size 100 San Francisco Business Times 219 Sanders, Bernie 82 scaffolding 264–5, 281 Schieble, Joanne 89 Scholar’s Mate 32–3 school curriculum 196 schools choice of 169 collective learning 169 competition between 168–9 Schultz, George 20 scientific consensus 222, 233 scientific culture 253–5, 258 scientific curiosity 263 scientific intelligence 263 scientific journals 134 debunking studies 221 papers for review 217–18 scientific management in education 195–7 failure of 198–9 in manufacturing 195 scientific method 24, 25, 98–101, 102–3, 124 scientists 220–21 Scott, Willard 53 scurvy 170–72 citrus fruits 173 endogenous remedy 172 exogenous remedy 172, 173 Select Committee on Business 3–5 CEOs’s executive pay report 67–9 selected samples 95, 99, 102, 109–10, 111 self-help books 229 self-interest 215 semiconductors 53–4 ShareAction 76–7 shareholder returns 120–21 shareholder value 69, 70–71, 71, 85, 86 sharing information 230–32 shoulders of giants 217–18 shovelling technique (Taylor) 194 significance level 100 silent majority 247 silent starts 246, 251–2, 257 Silicon Valley Bank 28 Silicon Valley Business Journal 219 Sinek, Simon 69, 71, 93, 94, 107, 200, 229 sleep 71–3 Sloan, Alfred 254 smarter thinking see thinking smarter smoking 163–4, 202 Snowdon, Christopher 161 social distancing 75–6 social diversity 241–2 social media 10, 230–31, 231, 282 Soeters, Joseph 249 soldiering 193 Spirit Level Delusion, The (Snowdon) 161 Spirit Level, The (Pickett and Wilkinson) 159–60, 161, 163, 165, 200, 225, 270 sports impact on stock market 126–9, 134 mood and emotions 128–9 spurious correlations 122, 127, 141 St Paul’s 159 Start with Why (Sinek) 93, 270 statements 13, 59–88 accepted as facts 12 are not facts 87–8 death panel episode 80–81 inaccuracy 59–63 misrepresentation 74–6 choosing words carefully 71–5 lack of sources 81–2 misportrayal 69–71 misrepresentation 74–6 smarter thinking 283–5 that can never be facts 82–8 examining evidence 84–6, 88 exploring alternative explanations 86 twin biases 83–4 verifying as facts 73 statistical literacy 262–3, 264, 281 statistical significance 100–101, 120, 122, 137 statistics 161 Bayesian inference 23–4 Staw, Barry 107–8, 166 stock market 95–7 brokers 96–8 frequent trading 97–101 sentiment 127, 128 sport, impact on 126–9, 134 traders 96–8, 125–6, 128 trading floor 125–6 stories 104–5, 108 Strange, Angela 85–6 striatum 30 Sun Tzu 11 Sunday Times Rich List 108 superlatives 85, 86 survey papers 222 sustainability 8–9, 215, 267 sustainable investments 54, 83–5 System 1 thought process 29 System 2 thought process 29 systematic reviews 222, 233 Taber, Charles 36–7 Taleb, Nassim 106, 274 targets 49–50 Taylor, Frederick Winslow 192–4 Taylor, General Maxwell 237 tech industry 157 TED 9, 205–6 Telegraph, The 215 10,000-hours rule 6, 64, 66, 104 chasing dreams 64–6 claim 59–61 disheartening 66 evidence 62–3 Tesla 152 test groups 139 natural experiments 185–6 randomized control trials (RCTs) 174–5, 177 test samples 99 theory of everything 199, 200, 204 Theranos 20–21, 219, 226 Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman) 29 thinking smarter data 286–8 evidence 288–9 example of 290–92 facts 285–6 individuals 213–34 organizations 235–58 preliminaries 283 shortcuts 289 societies 259–82 statements 283–5 studies 289–90 Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Kennedy) 244 Thomson Reuters 132 TikTok 20 time-series studies 30, 31 tolerating failure 250–51 Tolstoy, Leo 216–17 Tonight Show, The 40 traders 96–8, 125–6, 128 Trades Union Congress (TUC) 4–5 traits 149–50, 166 Trevithick, Richard 171 Trouble with Europe, The (Bootle) 213–14 Trump, Donald 6–7, 271 trust 153 Trust across America 153 trustworthy companies 153 truth 12, 13, 21–6 Tsoutsoura, Margarita 241 twin biases 56, 66–7, 73, 83–4, 106, 199 Twitter (later X) 230–31 2-4-6 brainteaser 33, 260, 261 UBS 250 unexplained components of instruments 178–9 United States of America (USA) death panels 80–81 healthcare 80–81 universal statements 85 universality 199, 201 unnatural experiments 186–7 US Military Academy 202–3 USSR 235, 244 see also Cuban Missile Crisis vaccination 267–8 Venkateswaran, Anand 4 verification 220 Vigen, Tyler 122 Vioxx 220 Vogue diet 40 Vogue magazine 40 voluntary choice inputs 149, 166 voting 247 Wakefield, Andrew 221 Walker, Matthew 71–3 Wall Street Journal 84, 219 Wason, Peter 33, 260, 261 water intoxication 47 weight loss 40–41 Welch, Jack 71, 85, 86 West Point 202–3, 204, 206 The Whole Pantry app 17–18 Whole Pantry, The 18, 273 Why We Sleep (Walker) 71–3, 270 Wikipedia 200 Wilkinson, Richard 160–61, 162–3 The Spirit Level 159–60, 161, 163, 165, 200, 225, 270 work-life balance 156 Wright Brothers 200 wrongful convictions 24–5 Xinyi (fictional name) 116–19 data mining see data mining see also Fixit (fictional company) Yeh, Robert 208–9 Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina 271–2 Founded in 1893, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS publishes bold, progressive books and journals on topics in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences—with a focus on social justice issues—that inspire thought and action among readers worldwide.

An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination
by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang
Published 12 Jul 2021

Respondents said that of all the options, they were most comfortable with a government mandate to unwind Facebook. The company deployed Schrage’s replacement, Nick Clegg, to bat down the idea. Clegg wrote his own op-ed in the New York Times to refute Hughes’s characterization of Facebook as a monopoly, pointing to competition from Snapchat, Twitter, and the rising threat of the Chinese short-video service TikTok. He warned, “Chopping a great American success story into bits is not something that’s going to make those problems go away.”12 Unlike Schrage, Sir Nicholas Clegg was a natural public speaker and an ambassador for the company with global leaders. The former deputy prime minister had exited British politics in defeat.

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He had banned the Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE from selling equipment in the United States and pressured allies in Europe to reject Chinese tech and telecom equipment and services. When the opportunity arose, Zuckerberg pounced, chiming in that Facebook’s rivals in China were dangerously ascendant. Apps like TikTok and WeChat were among the top in the world, racking up more downloads in the iTunes and Android stores than most of the American competition. The spread of China’s government-sponsored tech sector threatened America’s leadership in innovation and technology, the two men agreed. The hour-long discussion ended on a genial note.

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Once viewed as a hero hacker among college students, Zuckerberg now came off as a rich thirty-five-year-old father of two. The college students were almost a full generation younger than he. They weren’t using Facebook, a site popular with older audiences. Many were on Instagram but were increasingly spending time on Snapchat and TikTok. Georgetown was a deliberate choice. Facebook’s policy and lobbying staff wanted to find a place for Zuckerberg to deliver his speech where his words would carry intellectual and historical import. The staff wanted to do it in Washington, with Zuckerberg’s most important viewers a few miles east, at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

The Stolen Year
by Anya Kamenetz
Published 23 Aug 2022

She wasn’t doing well, her mother told me. She had one friend from preschool who she would see sometimes for playdates, and otherwise it was just the two of them. She wanted her mother’s phone all the time and didn’t want to play outside. She would watch cartoons on YouTube or sometimes videos on TikTok that her mother didn’t understand and worried were inappropriate. Elisa berated herself for not spending more time reading to Serena, who showed little interest in books. My life is very rushed. I don’t have time to sit and read. I would like to sit with her and help her with her homework, help her with her classes, but I can’t.

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It gave the world a tiny little reprieve from talking about COVID, stolen elections, or the dawn of American fascism; but it could definitely be read as an omen, if you were into that sort of thing. Jeannie’s laughter got a little more nervous when the neighbor started sending her QAnon memes on TikTok and telling her Tom Hanks was a child molester who left his wife for a porn star. And she was pretty upset when the neighbor told her the vaccine was a Trojan horse, that “Bill Gates is going to implant the mark of the beast into us.” Jeannie worried that lots of her community would feel the same way.

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As a housing-insecure Black mother below the poverty line, she belonged to several of the demographic groups least likely to be vaccinated for COVID in the first half of 2021. Missouri was also lagging behind other states in its vaccination rate. We stopped for a snack, sitting on the balcony so we could watch a fire display spurting over the lake. Habersham passed up the soda because his football coach forbade it. His oldest brother showed me his TikTok, which featured funny memes about working at Chipotle. The baby wandered back inside through double doors; another family returned him before any of us noticed he was gone. SHOTS AND CHECKS In the spring of 2021, patches of blue sky and sunshine were peeking through the clouds that had hovered over the world for the past twelve months.

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
by Dr. Julie Smith
Published 11 Jan 2022

28: Why reducing stress is not the only answer 29: When good stress goes bad 30: Making stress work for you 31: Coping when it counts 8: On a Meaningful Life 32: The problem with ‘I just want to be happy’ 33: Working out what matters 34: How to create a life with meaning 35: Relationships 36: When to seek help References Resources Acknowledgements Spare tools Index About the Author DR JULIE SMITH has over ten years’ experience as a clinical psychologist and was the first professional to use TikTok to give insights on therapy. After running her own private practice, Julie launched her TikTok channel with the mission of making top-quality mental health education accessible to all. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her audience grew astronomically to 3 million followers as users related to the bite-sized self-help videos she was sharing and put her advice into practice. Those videos have clocked up around half a billion views across her platforms. She was named by TikTok as one of its Top 100 creators. Julie has appeared in two BBC films as well as on CBBC, Good Morning Britain, BBC Breakfast and CNN International.

Reset
by Ronald J. Deibert
Published 14 Aug 2020

At their core, social media are vehicles for the relentless collection and monetization of the personal data of their users. Social media are so overwhelming and omnipresent in our lives, it may feel like they have been with us forever. Some of you reading this may have grown up entirely within the universe of Facebook, Google, Snapchat, and TikTok and not know what it’s like to live without them. I’m among those living generations that have experienced life before and after social media. I remember standing in a long line with nothing to do but think. Not everything is social media, but social media influence everything else, so prominent and influential is the business model at their core.

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A provocative social media post on a sensitive topic might contribute to a lower score, which can then affect an individual’s ability to get a loan, purchase luxury goods or an airline ticket, or obtain a visa to travel abroad. While the system is uneven in various ways, it’s also quickly streamlining, with industry and government agencies sharing databases of “blacklisted” individuals to more efficiently police behaviour. For example, TikTok, the massively popular video streaming app, has partnered with local authorities in some Chinese provinces to show photographs of blacklisted people in between video streams, even offering rewards for information on their whereabouts.224 In Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province, local authorities have developed a plug-in to WeChat that displays the names and locations of nearby debt defaulters, urging users to either avoid or shame them.

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A. (2017). “Cashless Society, Cached Data: Are Mobile Payment Systems Protecting Chinese Citizens’ Data?” Citizen Lab Research Report No. 86, University of Toronto. Retrieved from https://citizenlab.ca/2017/01/cashless-society-cached-data-mobile-payment-systems-protecting-chinese-citizens-data/ TikTok, the massively popular video streaming app: Ahmed. The messy truth. In China, facial recognition systems have been deployed almost completely in the absence of any privacy protections: Qin, A. (2020, January 21). Chinese city uses facial recognition to shame pajama wearers. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/business/china-pajamas-facial-recognition.html SenseTime’s database had inadvertently exposed the … data of more than five hundred million people: Tao, L. (2019, April 12).

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
by Amanda Montell
Published 14 Jun 2021

Search “MLM scam” on YouTube, and endless pages of videos like “The MLM ‘Girl Boss’ Narrative Is a Lie,” “I Filed for Bankruptcy After LuLaRoe and Now Work 2 Jobs,” and “AMWAY: The Final Straw (with Audio EVIDENCE!)—How I Quit My MLM Cult” accumulate millions of views. Anti-MLMers occupy passionate nooks of Instagram and TikTok. In 2020, TikTok banned MLM recruiters from the platform altogether. There is no shortage of incriminating evidence against the #bossbabe industrial complex. And yet MLM rhetoric is such a successful assault on the human spirit, so consistently compelling and adaptable, that these companies only continue to thrive.

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But it quickly became clear that learning about the connections across language, power, community, and belief could legitimately help us understand what motivates people’s fanatical behaviors during this ever-restless era—a time when we find multilevel marketing scams masquerading as feminist start-ups, phony shamans ballyhooing bad health advice, online hate groups radicalizing new members, and kids sending each other literal death threats in defense of their favorite brands. Chani, the twenty-six-year-old SoulCycler, told me she once saw one teenager pull a weapon on another over the last pair of sneakers at an LA hypebeast sample sale. “The next Crusades will be not religious but consumerist,” she suggested. Uber vs. Lyft. Amazon vs. Amazon boycotters. TikTok vs. Instagram. Tara Isabella Burton put it well when she said, “If the boundaries between cult and religion are already slippery, those between religion and culture are more porous still.” The haunting, beautiful, stomach-twisting truth is that no matter how cult-phobic you fancy yourself, our participation in things is what defines us.

Super Founders: What Data Reveals About Billion-Dollar Startups
by Ali Tamaseb
Published 14 Sep 2021

The success of TripAdvisor also made it easier for CarGurus to attract talent and funding, which may have helped Steinert succeed as a solo founder. CarGurus had an IPO in 2017 that valued the company at $1.5 billion. Similar patterns are also found outside the United States. ByteDance, one of the highest-valued privately-owned startups in the world at the time of writing this book and the famous Chinese company behind the video-sharing app TikTok and the content-aggregation platform Toutiao, was started by a solo founder, Zhang Yiming. Ric Fulop didn’t have a single co-founder when he started Desktop Metal—he had six of them. Desktop Metal pioneered the field of additive manufacturing. Its 3D printers print objects from metal powder, a useful process for prototyping or testing metal parts before machining them in high volumes.

…

Founders are regularly told to build a product that addresses a real need. The problem is, no founder has ever thought that their product isn’t solving a real need. All startups position their product as a solution to a problem, and many founders would rather believe that the problem they’re solving is in need of a painkiller. So how were products like Snapchat and TikTok, arguably vitamin pills, so successful? Let’s first understand the differences in these approaches. One strategy is to go after well-defined and deeply annoying pain points felt by customers. Another is to improve on the way something is done, giving customers better value, efficiency, entertainment, or joy.

…

Still, BuzzFeed became wildly popular in a short amount of time. It saw huge traffic surges from readers, and it monetized their patronage by featuring sponsored posts from advertisers. BuzzFeed’s audience spent more than a hundred million hours each month consuming its content, earning BuzzFeed over $100 million in revenues.2 TikTok—a Chinese video-sharing social network that is used to create short and viral lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos—is similarly an example of a vitamin-pill product that has captured audiences and created fans globally. There’s a huge difference between the painkiller and the vitamin-pill approach.

A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend Them Back
by Bruce Schneier
Published 7 Feb 2023

HACKING TO DESTRUCTION 172he formed a syndicate: Andy Williamson (16 May 2013), “How Voltaire made a fortune rigging the lottery,” Today I Found Out, http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/05/how-voiltaire-made-a-fortune-rigging-the-lottery. 173automatically submitted fake reports: Janus Rose (8 May 2020), “This script sends junk data to Ohio’s website for snitching on workers,” Vice, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxqemy/this-script-sends-junk-data-to-ohios-website-for-snitching-on-workers. 173fake ticket requests: Taylor Lorenz, Kellen Browning, and Sheera Frenkel (21 Jun 2020), “TikTok teens and K-Pop stans say they sank Trump rally,” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html. 174Zimbabwe experienced hyperinflation: Janet Koech (2012), “Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe,” Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute 2011 Annual Report, https://www.dallasfed.org/~/media/documents/institute/annual/2011/annual11b.pdf. 174In Venezuela, hyperinflation began: Patricia Laya and Fabiola Zerpa (5 Oct 2020), “Venezuela mulls 100,000 Bolivar bill.

…

This isn’t necessarily true when the hackers are following some moral or ethical precept. They’re hacking the system because they don’t like the system, not because they want to profit from it. Like the Ohio unemployment website hacker, their goal is to reduce its functionality, undermine its efficacy, or destroy it. We saw another example of this in 2020, when TikTok users coordinated to submit fake ticket requests to a Trump campaign rally in Tulsa, in order to engineer an arena full of no-shows. It was a basic hack, exploiting the fact that all it took to reserve a ticket was an easily obtained dummy email address and a dummy phone number care of Google Voice.

The Capitalist Manifesto
by Johan Norberg
Published 14 Jun 2023

In terms of video streaming and food delivery, the leading company has lost more than a quarter of the market.34 This is partly because of relative newcomers. During the pandemic, we were all on Zoom rather than established companies’ video services. Snapchat and TikTok suddenly made the old social media look rheumatic. Despite it being said that no new arrivals can upset reinforced incumbents, TikTok reached one billion users in just four years – half the time it took Facebook to do the same. Salesforce is becoming increasingly aggressive in cloud services, and in five years Canada’s Shopify has gone from one-seventieth of US e-commerce to one-tenth.

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J., 141 Obama, Barack, 147, 152, 165 Oculus, 177 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), 147, 249–50 Open (Norberg), 297 Our World in Data, 18, 250, 268, 270 Oxfam, 4, 43, 133–4 ozone layer, 236 Pakistan, 219 Palm, 174 Paraguay, 239 Paris, France, 66–7 Paris Climate Agreement, 233 Parks, Rosa, 62–3 Paulsen, Roland, 98 PayPal, 178 Peru, 29–30 Pfizer, 177 Philippines, 248 Piketty, Thomas, 127–31 Pinochet, Augusto, 29, 46 ‘planned obsolescence’, 156–60 Poland, 26 populism, 47–8 pornography, 188–9 Portugal, 26–7, 254 poverty, 12, 17–25, 20, 29–33, 53–4, 110, 291–2 in China, 213, 214 climate change and, 235–6, 245 inequality and, 133–7 Prasad, Chandra Bhan, 64 prices, 67–9 price regulation, 68 profit, 74, 122–4 profit-hunger, 273–5 property rights, 70–72 protectionism, 3, 5, 11–12, 78–9, 115, 117–18 Putin, Vladimir, 5, 39 Quaero, 191–2 Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117 Quartz, Steven, 287 Questioning the Entrepreneurial State, 198 racial segregation, 62–3 racism, 62–3, 111 Radelet, Steven, 24 RAND Corporation, 184, 186 Rao, Madhusudan, 63 Reagan, Ronald, 8–10 Rehbinder, Caspian, 269–70 religion, 26–7 Republican Party (US), 8–9 Ridley, Matt, 188 Ritchie, Hannah, 250, 270 Romer, Paul, 241 Romney, Mitt, 165 Roser, Max, 18 Rosling, Hans, 18 Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban, 148–9 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 279, 284 Rubio, Marco, 181 Rü ck, Christian, 272 Russia, 39, 138 see also Soviet Union Rwanda, 35 Samuelson, Paul, 5 Sanders, Bernie, 43, 122 Sandström, Christian, 183, 240 Scandinavia, 22, 36, 281 Schröer, Gerhard, 191 Schumpeter, Joseph, 89 Segerfeldt, Fredrik, 137 Shah, Parth, 25 Shambaugh, David, 215 Shanghai, China, 209 Shelby, Richard, 202–3 Shopify, 178 Silicon Valley, 141 Singapore, 23, 84 Singh, Manmohan, 25 Sixdegrees, 170 slavery, 31, 73, 75 Smith, Adam, 213, 264 smoking, 137 Snapchat, 178 Soave, Robby, 171 social class, 137 middle class erosion, 93–5, 95 working class, 7 social media, 155, 163, 165–9 social mobility, 90–91 social networks, 169–71 socialism, 11, 44, 75, 120–21, 145 three steps of socialism, 44–5 Swiss bank socialism, 33 Socrates, 65 Son of a Servant, The (Strindberg), 120–21 Sony, 151 South Africa, 45–6, 72, 267 South Korea, 23–5, 84, 225 Soviet Union, 26, 215, 219, 241–2 see also Russia Sowell, Thomas, 62 space programme, 181–3, 191, 201–2 moon landing, 181–3, 191, 201–2 Space Launch System (SLS), 202 SpaceX, 202 Spain, 26, 27, 97 Spanish flu pandemic, 1918, 77 Starbucks, 75–6, 148 Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth, 155 Strain, Michael, 94 Strindberg, August, 120 subsidies, 139–40 suicide, 271 sulphur dioxide, 236 supply and demand, 67–9 supply chains see global supply chains Svensson, Mattias, 256 Sweden, 49–51, 54–5, 66, 75–8, 91, 240, 244–5, 251, 266, 268–9, 271, 285 Swedish Energy Agency, 194 Swiss bank socialism, 33 Switzerland, 285 Taiwan, 23–5, 205, 207, 225, 267 Taliban, 160–61 Tanzania, 239 Target, 178 taxation, 56, 259 tax deductions, 141, 148 Taylor, Robert, 184–6 tech companies, 162–79 competition, 178–80 data, 175–6 GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft), 169–80 regulations, 164, 174–5 Tech Panic (Soave), 171 Technology Pork Barrel, The (Cohen and Noll), 190 technology, 40–41 Thanks a Thousand (Jacobs), 60 Thatcher, Margaret, 8–11, 116 Theranos, 153 Thoreau, Henry David, 82 Thunberg, Greta, 230, 232 TikTok, 178 Times, The, 116 traditions, 26–7 Trotsky, Leon, 73 Trump, Donald, 6, 8, 48, 83, 107, 140, 165, 217 Truss, Liz, 9, 11, 56, 117 trust, 153–6 Turkmenistan, 225 Twitter, 166–7 Uber, 102 Uganda, 35 Ukraine, 5, 215 United Kingdom, 10, 22–3, 38, 49, 97, 101, 268–9, 283 Brexit, 116–17 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 233, 239 United States, 22, 55, 62–3, 80, 85, 97, 110–11, 239, 267–8, 282 China and, 205, 211, 221 crony capitalism, 139–40 ‘deaths of despair’, 7, 108–10, 136, 271, 293 Defense Communication Agency, 187 Jim Crow laws, 63 labour market, 85, 87–93, 101, 104–11 political polarization, 167 productivity growth, 148–9, 152–3 welfare state, 111–14 US–China Business Council, 210 Vance, J.

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
by Tony Fadell
Published 2 May 2022

Upswings will inevitably turn into downswings. And you want to leave when things are going well, when you can hand the company over proudly to the next CEO, not throw it to them in a panic as you get cut loose by the board. As we’re writing this, Zhang Yiming, the founder and CEO of ByteDance, the creators of TikTok, announced that he’s resigning. TikTok has never been more popular. Zhang is experiencing a high that few CEOs ever reach. But he can see a change coming. And in this case, it’s internal. He just doesn’t want the job. It doesn’t suit him. “The truth is, I lack some of the skills that make an ideal manager,” he said.

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It can take a long, long time, but usually their opinions begin to lose their power and they fade away. But not always. Sometimes, even if they’re chased out of the organization, they can still screw you over. So always keep an eye on social media. Don’t just watch for internal rumblings; remember to check Glassdoor, Facebook, Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn, hell—even Quora. TikTok. Whatever. Pissed-off people will poison the water anywhere. Social media is a new weapon in every asshole’s arsenal. If they fail to get what they want from you at work, they can make things very, very personal very, very publicly. This is always problematic and incredibly unpleasant, but if they’re controlling assholes or just your regular, run-of-the-mill asshole-assholes, they’ll probably undermine themselves and the truth will come out eventually.

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See also Facebook; Twitter Soloway, Elliot, 2 Sony, 117, 121, 209 Sony Magic Link launch of, 12–13, 12, 31, 139–40 MagicBus for, 24 target customer of, 15, 35–36, 58 Square, 250 startups angel investors, 192 board of directors and, 183, 184, 218–19, 223, 335, 338–39 building blocks of, 181–82 cofounders and, 180, 183, 184, 186 compensation and, 184–85 crisis and, 206, 207, 208, 209, 218–24 design challenges, 264 employees and, 183–84 equity packages and, 184–85 evolution of, 236 failure rate of, 199 founding team of, 180, 183, 184–85, 197–98, 366 implementation plan, 172 investors and, 169, 181, 184, 189–200 key teams and competencies of, 227 mentors for, 180, 183, 184, 185–86, 194, 218, 223 perks and, 356, 359 prioritizing and, 206–7, 210 readiness for, 180–88 seed crystals, 180, 185 spotting ideas, 169, 171–79, 180, 182 storytelling and, 184, 196–97 stress of, 169, 183, 200 target customer of, 201–5 virtual reality and, 15 vision and, 184 work/life balance and, 206–17 Stebbings, Harry, 22–23 storytelling analogies for, 112–14 decisions and, 63–64 design and, 264–65, 266 empathy and, 111–12 ideas and, 172, 174, 177–78 marketing and, 270, 271, 273–74, 278–79, 278, 285, 286, 290 products and, 107–14, 266, 270, 271, 273, 278, 286, 288 quitting and, 83–84, 235 startups and, 184, 196–97 strategies to deal with assholes and, 74–75 vision and, 63–64, 107, 112 Stripe, 250 Surface products, 124 Swatch, 332 Tamaseb, Ali, Super Founder, 181 Tannenbaum, Harry, 55 Target, 160 teams assistant for, 216 birthday celebrations and, 242–43 breakpoints, 242–60, 283 brown-bag lunches with the CEO, 237 building of, 225–27, 229, 239, 240–41 CEO expectations and, 323–25 crisis and, 218–22, 224, 259 culture of, 229, 234, 236–38, 255, 257–60 decisions and, 57, 61 design thinking and, 261–69 diversity of perspectives on, 231–32 firing people and, 229, 238–40 founding team for business, 180, 183, 184–85, 197–98, 366 hiring process, 229–41 human resource topics at meetings, 240, 241 individual contributor’s perspective, 32–33 integration of new employees, 236–37 internal customers, 233, 325 interview process, 229, 232–36 key teams and competencies, 227 leadership of, 37–41, 45, 46, 247 management of, 41, 43–44, 46, 49–56, 242, 244, 245, 247, 249–50, 331 marketing teams, 270–80 meetings of, 50–51, 240, 241, 253–55 mentoring within, 230, 240, 256–57 multigenerational teams, 229, 230–31 1:1s with, 43, 50–51, 55, 238, 252, 259, 342 organizational design and, 250–51, 258 positive micromanagement and, 236–37 predictability for, 149 product managers and, 230, 270, 273, 281–91 recruiters and, 234, 255–56 rhythms of, 138, 139, 143–46 seed crystals and, 232 size of, 46, 141–43, 242, 243–49, 244, 245, 246, 260, 283 team leads, 47–48, 249 Three Crowns method of hiring, 233 training for, 229, 230, 258 trust of, 45, 48, 49, 51, 128, 233–34 version one product team, 128 version two product team, 128 work process of, 49–50 TeleScript, 15 term sheets, 194 Tesla, 119, 123, 157 Thread, 310 TikTok, 369 Tim Ferris Show podcast, 51n TiVo, 40, 88 Tolstoy, Leo, 336 trust of assholes, 65, 67, 68, 69 in companies, 41, 77, 80 of decisions, 57, 59, 61, 62, 64 of heroes, 25, 27 investors and, 190 of leadership, 62, 64, 330 marketing and, 276 in mentors, xii sales and, 294 of teams, 45, 48, 49, 51, 128, 233–34 Twilio, 250 Twitter, 21, 22, 73, 160, 205, 297 Uber, 16, 156 USB devices, 10, 24 venture capital (VC) firms, 90, 156, 164, 189–99, 200 Verily, 314 virtual reality (VR), startups failing at, 15 virus of doubt, 109, 278 vision of CEOs, 334, 339 for companies, 14, 15, 19, 248, 254 decisions and, 57, 126, 135 disruption and, 119 for ideas, 178 for leadership, 18 for product development, xvii, 1–2, 16, 41, 60, 132, 133, 134, 135 startups and, 184 storytelling and, 63–64, 107, 112 for version one products, 126, 136, 137, 142 for version two products, 127–28, 134 Walmart, 160 Waze, 352 West, Kanye, 311 WhatsApp, 156 Wolf of Wall Street, The (film), 296 work/life balance adjustments in, 11 crisis and, 208, 209, 221, 223–24 eating habits, 215 engineering your schedule, 206, 208, 212, 214–15, 216 exercise and, 215 hiring an assistant, 215–17 prioritizing and, 206–7, 210, 211, 212 scheduling and, 214 sleeping, 213, 221 taking breaks, 212, 214, 217 taking notes and, 210–12 types of, 206 vacations and, 207–8, 212–13, 214 Yahoo, 18, 358–59 Yiming, Zhang, 369 YouTube, 21, 156, 352 Sustainability Information This book is as green as we could make it.

Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement
by Ashley Shew
Published 18 Sep 2023

Robyn Steward’s book The Autism Friendly Guide to Periods breaks down all the stressors of menstruation and walks people through their body’s changes and what to expect during puberty—which is an excellent resource whether or not a preteen is autistic. ASAN has great lists of books and guides. There are so many more autistic-led resources out there right now on social media, too. I’ve mentioned several blogs and social-media hashtags already. I have become a huge fan of the TikTok account that details what to expect when you go into different places (so you don’t get overwhelmed when you visit): quick guides to post offices, Aldi, and other businesses for those who might be more comfortable going if they know what to expect.32 AS SOMEONE WHO WANTS to “fight technoableism,” I am thrilled to see autistic scholars creating and promoting technologies and therapies that cohere with autistic experience and critiquing tech projects aimed at autism that don’t line up with autistic experience.

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But the mythology is a bell, and drooling, and not buzzers and invasive cheek surgeries to measure amounts of drool. 30A list of types of behavioral therapy can be found here: https://www.healthline.com/health/behavioral-therapy#types/. 31The Living Archive & Repository on the Judge Rotenberg Center’s Abuses can be found on Lydia X. Z. Brown’s website: https://autistichoya.net/judge-rotenberg-center/. 32Thanks for your work, heynowhannah: https://www.tiktok.com/@heynowhannah 33November 2020’s Choices and Challenges—Technology & Disability: Counternarratives, https://candc.sts.vt.edu. 34The words “We Move Together” occur to me a lot. And I love the children’s book about Disability Justice called We Move Together (AK Press, 2021), authored by Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, and Eduardo Trejos. 35“Dog” post on Reddit’s r/ADHDmemes: https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHDmemes/comments/nmo16u/dog/. 36See “Land Grab Universities,” https://www.landgrabu.org/, which offers an investigative report from High Country News by Robert Lee, Tristan Ahtone, Margaret Pearce, Kalen Goodluck, Geoff McGhee, Cody Leff, Katherine Lanpher, and Taryn Salinas that tracks “the ties between indigenous dispossession and the funding of land grant universities.” 37ProPublica has done a feature on the plant: https://features.propublica.org/military-pollution/military-pollution-open-burns-radford-virginia/. 38Imani Barbarin, Alice Wong, and other social media–wielding disability leaders have been very clear in this messaging since very early in March and April 2020.

The Hype Machine: How Social Media Disrupts Our Elections, Our Economy, and Our Health--And How We Must Adapt
by Sinan Aral
Published 14 Sep 2020

The social platforms addressed the economic fallout from the pandemic as well. Small businesses used their Facebook pages to sell online. Live videocasts were hosted across social media to replace in-store events that usually generate foot traffic and boost sales. Stage shows were produced and aired over Instagram Stories and TikTok. Yoga classes, guitar lessons, and hairstylist sessions all transitioned to the Hype Machine. Facebook even set up a $100 million small-business relief fund to dole out no-strings-attached cash grants to keep small businesses afloat. These projects were just beginning as I finished this book.

…

But he was supportive nonetheless, and I wrote my PhD thesis on how information flows through digital social networks. As it turned out, social networking wasn’t a phase, and it didn’t pass. Friendster was founded in 2002, MySpace in 2003, Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2006, WhatsApp in 2009, Instagram in 2010, WeChat in 2011, and TikTok in 2012. The New Social Age was born, and I’ve been studying it ever since. My scientific work is firmly rooted both in my deep admiration for technology and in a healthy skepticism about how it is put to use. I’m convinced we are witnessing a new era of human evolution, one in which mass automated, digitized socialization will change the way we interact, communicate, perceive our world, decide, and act.

…

To grow their own businesses, new platforms like Google initially underpriced their attention. So Gary Vee invested his marketing dollars in Google. As it became established, the price of Google’s attention increased, and even newer services, like Twitter and YouTube, came online. So when their price of attention was lower, Gary poured his money into those platforms. Now he’s touting TikTok as the next attention gold rush. He says he has no particular affinity for any channel—he’s “platform agnostic.” He simply engages in attention arbitrage. “I’ve built a career on exploiting underpriced attention. Email marketing in ’97, Google AdWords in 2000, YouTube in ’06, Twitter ’07, Snapchat,” he says.

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World
by Naomi Klein
Published 11 Sep 2023

Peters had written that individuals now had the same need for visibility as major corporations, which are able to purchase “a full flight of TV and print ads designed to get billions of ‘impressions’ … If you’re brand You, you’ve got the same need for visibility—but no budget to buy it.” Well, exactly: normal humans don’t have ad budgets, which is why the whole concept seemed absurd to our 1990s brains. This was, remember, well before Facebook, let alone TikTok or Substack. Even reality television wasn’t yet up and running to pick wannabe celebrities out of obscurity. In short, the idea of personal branding began as a ruse—a transparent sop being pitched in lieu of actual jobs or a stable income by companies and their management consultants, drunk on the cost savings and stock-price inflation born of sweeping downsizing and outsourcing.

…

These influencers gaze at us through the camera’s lens with so much heart-bursting love that it’s easy to forget that what they are actually looking at is their own faces on their phones—their digital doubles—as they coach us all to reach for our own best selves, our body doubles, in the never-ending house of mirrors. Like so much else online, glowing influencer culture, for a time, didn’t seem all that dangerous. Yes, Instagram and TikTok could be brutal on self-esteem, and, sure, a good bit of quackery and dodgy diuretic teas was being peddled. But there were also healthy recipes, and free exercise tips, and some genuinely helpful information. Then came Covid—and this booming, unregulated industry of self-styled health experts collided with a global health crisis that scared the hell out of pretty much everyone, including the professionally well.

…

Procreation has long been viewed, particularly by those who come from wealth, as a form of temporal doubling, with the child sometimes given the same name as the father or mother, extending the parent’s legacy and fortune into the future (e.g., RFK Jr.). In our time of personal branding and optimized selves, you don’t need inherited wealth or a title to do something similar. You can simply treat your child as a spin-off or brand extension—you and your little mini-me can dress up in matching outfits for Instagram or share adorable dances on TikTok. Glowing Mama does this with her very cute daughter—posting sweet videos of their living room dance parties. And she also posts distinctly less sweet videos. “Don’t you tell me that our healthy children are putting you at risk,” she rages into the camera while her daughter naps in the back seat of her car.

The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back
by Jacob Ward
Published 25 Jan 2022

Already, we’re beginning to see what algorithmic curation produces on, say, social media. As the journalist Kat Tenbarge wrote in an essay about the blandness of the influencers that rise to the top of TikTok, “Teens are plucked from obscurity by an algorithm to become overnight influencers. It’s a cycle that has already bred endless controversy, pervasive relevancy, and… invasive mediocrity.”2 While TikTok is a showcase of exceptional creativity from all over the world, its most famous performers often don’t stand out in any particular way—they’re beautiful, but they don’t shine as dancers or singers, and they’re usually mimicking moves invented by other creators, and moving their lips to songs written and performed by other singers.

…

Today, we’re much more likely to be able to develop a system that truly can predict which comics are going to make it. And by doing so, we’ll be flattening out what makes individuals special in a landscape of statistics, leaving behind writers too weird for Wattpad and the people from the wrong part of Sacramento, and rewarding bland, affable TikTok stars, artists who make art like other popular artists, and the dullest possible version of Jonathan Winters. By using AI to make choices for us, we will wind up reprogramming our brains and our society. Leaning on AI to choose and even make art, or music, or comedy will wind up shaping our taste in it, just as it will shape social policy, where we live, the jobs we get.

Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters
by Abigail Shrier
Published 28 Jun 2020

“Social media,” was Haidt’s immediate reply.¹¹ As Twenge wrote for The Atlantic, “It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.”¹² The iPhone was released in 2007. By 2018—a decade later—95 percent of teens had access to a smartphone and 45 percent reported being online “almost constantly.”¹³ Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube—all very popular with teens—host a wide array of visual tutorials and pictorial inspiration to self-harm: anorexia (“thinspiration” or “thinspo”), cutting, and suicide. Posting one’s experiences with any of these afflictions offers the chance to win hundreds—even thousands—of followers.¹⁴ Anorexia, cutting, and suicide have all spiked dramatically since the arrival of the smartphone.¹⁵ Teenage girlhood in America is practically synonymous with the worry that one’s body does not measure up.

…

But the questions and wonder and panic that attend adolescence do not ease up merely because they have no friend to ask. And so they take their questions somewhere else. For up to nine hours a day, today’s teens slip down a customized internet oubliette, alone. They browse glamorous pages that offer airbrushed takes on the lives of friends and celebrities and internet influencers. They tunnel into YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, and Tumblr, imbibing life advice from the denizens that await them. “If they’re questioning their sexuality, for example,” Ayad told me, “rather than giving it some time and seeing, okay, ‘Who do I develop a crush on? Do I want to hold this girl’s hand?’ ” members of Gen Z head for the internet.

…

She played it for my class, but everyone in the class made me feel bad. They were grossed out.” That was 2012; Emre was merely ahead of his time.² There are more than a dozen social media sites and online forums that facilitate the discovery of a trans identity. YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, and TikTok are all popular hubs for sharing and documenting a physical transformation, seething over transphobia, celebrating the superpowers conferred by testosterone, offering tips for procuring a prescription, and commiserating about how hard it is to be trans today. Trans influencers have a few classic mantras.

Being You: A New Science of Consciousness
by Anil Seth
Published 29 Aug 2021

‘deepfake’ technologies: To ‘deepfake’ is to generate a realistic but fake video, usually of a human face, using machine learning to combine a source and a target video. In a widely disseminated example from 2017, the deepfake method was used to create convincing videos of Barack Obama saying things that he did not say (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ54GDm1eL0). A series of TikTok videos deepfaking Tom Cruise, released in 2021, raises the bar substantially (https://www.theverge.com/22303756/tiktok-tom-cruise-impersonator-deepfake). vast uncontrolled global experiment: The AI researcher Stuart Russell eloquently describes the threats posed by current and near-future AI, as well as ways to redesign AI systems to avoid them, in his book Human Compatible (2019).

…

compelling auditory examples: Chris Darwin has some excellent examples of sine wave speech online at www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/Chris_Darwin/SWS. I use another example in my 2017 TED talk: www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality. There are also auditory equivalents of The Dress. One example is a sound which some people hear as ‘Yanny’ and others as ‘Laurel’ (Pressnitzer et al., 2018). In 2020 a TikTok video appeared in which an ambiguous tinny noise from a cheap toy can be heard either as ‘green needle’ or ‘brainstorm’, depending on which words you are reading (time.com/5873627/green-needle-brainstorm-explained). perceptual experience is built: See de Lange et al. (2018) for a review of experiments showing how expectations shape perception.

The New Snobbery
by David Skelton
Published 28 Jun 2021

Such caricatures might be as seemingly benign as noting that rugby players are much more polite to the referee than footballers (ignoring the fact that the oval-ball game has also involved eye-gouging, testicle-grabbing and fake-blood scandals), or it could be something more insidious. TikToks mocking working-class people in the UK have become an increasingly popular part of the Chinese app, with the ‘TikTok Chavs’ group having millions of views and over 300,000 followers. As Owen Jones has pointed out, cultural demonisation of the working class could be the kind of crude caricature of Vicky Pollard in Little Britain. That programme prompted the Sunday Telegraph to publish a remarkable opinion piece called ‘In Defence of Snobbery’, which lambasted the ‘non-respectable working classes: the dole scroungers, petty criminals, football hooligans and teenage pram pushers … there is a delicious relief to be had from laughing at them’.4 A right-wing columnist even wrote for The Times that Pollard represented ‘several of the great scourges of contemporary Britain … pasty-faced lard-gutted slappers who’ll drop their knickers in the blink of an eye’.5 The facts that teenage pregnancy has been in sharp decline since the mid-1990s and that teenage drinking has also dramatically fallen haven’t got in the way of this caricature taking hold.

Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation
by Kevin Roose
Published 9 Mar 2021

Like bicycles, computers could help us get places faster, and reduce the effort needed to move ideas and objects around the world. But these days, many of our devices (and the apps we install on them) are designed to function less like bicycles, and more like runaway trains. They lure us onboard, tempting us with the possibility of rewards—a new email, a Facebook like, a funny TikTok video. Then, once we’re in, they speed off to their chosen destination, whether it’s where we originally wanted to go or not. That these forces are largely invisible doesn’t make them any less real. The algorithms that power platforms like Facebook and YouTube are many times more powerful than the technology that sent humans to the moon, or even the technology that allowed us to decode the human genome.

…

But mostly, it was an amazing two days, filled with the kinds of small, subtle pleasures I hadn’t experienced in years. I woke up at dawn, brewed strong coffee, and went for long hikes. We read books, did the crossword puzzle, and fell asleep to the sound of a crackling fire. I felt like a nineteenth-century homesteader, if the homesteader periodically worried that he was missing some good TikToks. * * * — In the end, Catherine’s thirty-day phone detox plan did reduce my screen time. My average daily phone use plummeted from nearly six hours a day to just over an hour, and I picked up my phone only about twenty times a day, roughly 80 percent less than I had at the beginning. But it produced some other, harder-to-measure benefits, too.

Creative Intelligence: Harnessing the Power to Create, Connect, and Inspire
by Bruce Nussbaum
Published 5 Mar 2013

Charles Adler presentation in the author’s Parsons course Design at the Edge, spring 2012. 87 The first Kickstarter projects: Ibid. 87 Between its launch in 2009 and October 2012: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats, accessed October 4, 2012. 87 which had an operating budget: http://www.arts.gov/about/budget/ appropriationshistory.html, accessed October 19, 2012. 87 A campaign for new watches: “Transform Your iPod Nano into the World’s Coolest Multi-Touch Watches with TikTok + LunaTik by Scott Wilson and MINIMAL,” Kickstarter campaign site, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ 1104350651/tiktok-lunatik-multi-touch-watch-kits. 87 San Francisco–based studio raised: “Doublefine Adventure,” Kickstarter campaign page, accessed September 11, 2012, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doublefine/ double-fine-adventure?ref=live. 88 JOBS Act, new legislation: Mark Landler, “Obama Signs Bill to Promote Start-Up Investments,” New York Times, April 5, 2012, accessed September 11, 2012, hhtp://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/us/politics/obama-signs-bill-to-ease-investing-in-start-ups.html; Ryan Caldbeck, “How the JOBS Act Could Change Startup Investing Forever,” TechCrunch, March 16, 2012, accessed September 11, 2012, http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/16/ crowdfundingstartups/. 88 We all hold a number: I am deeply indebted to my wife, Leslie M.

…

If Kickstarter continues to grow at this rate, it will soon rival the National Endowment for the Arts, which had an operating budget of $146 million for 2012. But Kickstarter doesn’t finance just art and music. A campaign for new watches based on the iPod nano music player (you snap it into a special wrist band) raised nearly $1 million; the resulting products, TikTok and LunaTik, sold tens of thousands for their designer, Scott Wilson, at his company Minimal in Chicago. Printrbot, an inexpensive 3D printer, raised $830,827. A San Francisco–based studio raised more than $3 million to create Double Fine Adventure, an online game. Kickstarter changed what it means to be a creator and a capitalist, a maker and a patron.

The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI
by Ray Kurzweil
Published 25 Jun 2024

So they give the public free access and cover their marginal costs with ads. Even though such services are free to consumers, we can approximate people’s willingness to pay for them (also known as consumer surplus) by looking at their choices.[98] For example, if you could earn $20 by mowing a neighbor’s lawn but choose to spend that time on TikTok instead, we can say that TikTok is giving you at least $20 of value. As Tim Worstall estimated in Forbes in 2015, Facebook’s US-based revenue was about $8 billion, which would thus be its official contribution to GDP.[99] But if you value the amount of time people spend on Facebook even at minimum wage, the true benefit to consumers was around $230 billion.[100] As of 2020 (the most recent year for which data is available as this book goes to press), US social media–using adults spent an average of thirty-five minutes each day on Facebook.[101] With around 72 percent of America’s roughly 258 million adults using social media, this suggests $287 billion of economic value from Facebook that year, using Worstall’s methodology.[102] And a 2019 global survey found that American internet users spent an average of two hours and three minutes per day on all social media—which contributed around $36.1 billion in advertising revenue to GDP but implies a total benefit to users of over $1 trillion per year!

…

These include creating, buying, selling, and bartering physical and digital assets and services using websites and apps, and also creating apps, videos, and other forms of digital content on social media sites. Some people have developed successful careers creating content for YouTube, for example, or are paid to influence others on Instagram or TikTok.[125] Before the release of the iPhone in 2007, there was no app economy to speak of. In 2008 there were fewer than 100,000 iOS apps available; this had rocketed up to around 4.5 million by 2017.[126] On Android, the growth was just as dramatic. In December 2009, there were around 16,000 mobile apps available in the Google Play Store.[127] As of March 2023, there were 2.6 million.[128] That is a more than 160-fold increase in thirteen years.

…

See epochs thought-to-text technology, 70–71 3D printing, 144, 178, 183–89 of buildings, 170, 187–89 medical implants, 184, 185, 186 miniaturization, 169 of solar cells, 173 thumbs, opposable, 8, 37, 245 tidal power, 154, 173 tigers, 86 TikTok, 212–13, 218 Tinder, 232 Titan X, 166, 310–11 tokens, 46–47, 55 tool making, 37 top-down approach to nanotech, 249–50 totalitarianism, 162, 297n, 298n traffic accidents, 229 Training Compute (FLOPS) of Milestone Machine Learning Systems Over Time, 57, 57–58 Transcend (Kurzweil and Grossman), 191, 255, 348n transformers, 46–47, 99, 239 transgender people, 109 transistors, 3, 40, 164, 168, 245–46, 251 transparency in AI, 18, 163, 282, 399n transplanted organs, 186 transport technology speeds, 113 tripartite brain, 30 Troyanskaya, Olga, 242 truck drivers, 196–97, 229–30 Turing, Alan, 12, 60, 63, 67 Turing test, 8–9, 9, 12–13, 60, 71, 103, 287 panprotopsychist point of view, 81 passing, 63–69 Tversky, Amos, 120–21 typhoid fever, 177 U uncanny valley, 100–101, 102 unconscious competence, 32 underground economy, 217–18 uniformitarianism, 39 United Kingdom Asilomar Principles, 280 crime, 149 crime rates, 118 education and literacy, 127 GDP, 114 life expectancy, 134, 136 literacy, 124, 125 nuclear weapons, 269 poverty rate, 117 social safety net, 223 spread of democracy, 159, 160–61, 162 United Nations, 169–70, 274 Millennium Development Goals, 138 United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), 272 United Therapeutics, 186 UNIVAC 1103, 165, 300 universal basic income (UBI), 226 universal constructor, 247, 249 Universal Sentence Encoder, 45 university education, 206–7, 207 University of Cambridge, 78 University of Pittsburgh, 237 University of Southern California, 238 upskilling, 208, 209 V vaccines, 227, 237–38, 273 vacuum tubes, 40, 168 value alignment, 280, 283 vandalism, 150 vertical agriculture, 169, 171, 178, 179–83, 182 violence, 118–19, 148–54, 230 decline in, 118–19, 148–54 public perception of rising, 118, 118–20, 152 in US, 151 virtual meetings, 170–71 virtual reality (VR), 170–71, 285, 289 virtual-world driving, 195–96 virtuous circles, 152–53 viruses, 236, 271–73.

System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot
by Rob Reich , Mehran Sahami and Jeremy M. Weinstein
Published 6 Sep 2021

Though the theft of your identity may lead to a long, unpleasant call with a credit agency, the use of your personal data for behavioral ad targeting or algorithmic product recommendations imposes no immediate or visible cost on you. Sharing your daily activities or life history on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or TikTok yields all sorts of good feelings in the near term as you connect with family and friends. But the potential privacy harms to you are difficult to understand and thus rarely weigh heavily on the minds of those who post freely on social media. Even if you could perfectly forecast the consequences of your privacy decisions, the evidence suggests that people still struggle to formulate stable preferences and act on them.

…

Twitter’s choice to suspend Trump’s account was just the most prominent and consequential attempt to respond to a problem it had grappled with for years. It’s a problem that affects far more people than just prominent politicians or attention-seeking celebrities. Every single day the large social networks—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp (both owned by Facebook), YouTube (owned by Google), Snapchat, and TikTok—must decide what text, audio, images, and video are permissible to post and share with others. And sometimes those decisions defy expectations. In the fall of 2017, as the #MeToo movement was gaining traction, a female writer for Samantha Bee’s late-night talk show named Nicole Silverberg posted online a list of the different ways in which “men need to do better.”

…

Prior to the advent of the Web, people would often seek out information from trusted sources. We would decide what information we wanted and then make an effort to get—to “pull”—what we were seeking. With social networking and other content platforms, we’ve accepted a “push” model for getting information. When we go on Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok, it’s not often that we’re looking for something specific. Rather, we’re looking to be shown what’s “interesting”—what our friends are doing, reading, watching, or saying. Information is being “pushed” at us, and we have little say in or understanding of how that information is chosen for us as we scroll through an endless list of postings.

Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking
by Michael Bhaskar
Published 2 Nov 2021

Yet globalisation has homogenised the world. We wear the same clothes (jeans, suits and baseball caps), eat the same foods (pizza, noodles, beer, cola), work for and buy from the same companies (Apple, Walmart, VW, Nestlé) watch the same films (Disney), speak the same languages (English), worship the same idols (TikTok, Pokémon, the Beatles). Societal interchange has become so immediate and total that everything blurs into a single culture where only the far interstices are free of the bland blend. Exchange of ideas and cultures will inevitably start to diminish. We will, at a global level, experience a kind of cultural combinatorial exhaustion.

…

The bio-frontier is likely to continue moving at pace, with massive ramifications. Again, beyond these envisaged uses lies a universe we cannot yet see or even imagine. There are a near-infinite array of possible proteins. Scientists working on biotech can no more envisage all the applications than Turing and von Neumann could have foreseen TikTok, Wikipedia and phishing attacks. But we can be confident that tools like AI or synthetic biology will not remain walled off in an airtight canister labelled ‘technology’; rather they will have a major and unpredictable impact on things like markets, bureaucracies, ideologies and aesthetics. AI and biotech may seem the opposite ends of a spectrum, but some of the most dramatic tools could arrive at their intersection, another trans-disciplinary loop with profound impact for the human mind and frontier.

…

Outside the usual Western channels a colourful trade has transformed the cultural landscape. Precision-tooled Korean K-pop; Bollywood musicals and Nollywood films; Japanese anime; Brazilian and Mexican telenovelas; Turkish dizi, popular and exportable historical epics; competitive gaming competitions dominated by Ukrainian teens; Chinese social media smashes like TikTok or WeChat. Now that the West no longer dominates culture, the creative menu is exploding – readers around the world enjoy Haruki Murakami, Han Kang, Mario Vargas Llosa and Orhan Pamuk. Filmmakers like Bong Joon Ho, Alejandro González Iñárritu or Alfonso Cuarón, video game visionaries and auteurs like Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto, Nobel-winning life scientists like Shinya Yamanaka and Tu Youyou (China's first woman to win such an award, its first for physiology).

The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid
by Lawrence Wright
Published 7 Jun 2021

stepped on Page’s foot: Doug Stanglin, “Fact check: Devastating 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre wasn’t worst U.S. riot, isn’t ignored in books,” USA Today, June 17, 2020. “a hell of a night”: Michael C. Bender, “Trump Talks Juneteenth, John Bolton, Economy in WSJ Interview,” Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2020. TikTok pranksters: Taylor Lorenz, Kellen Browning, and Sheera Frenkel, “TikTok Teens and K-pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally,” New York Times, June 21, 2020. “We’ve tested now”: “Speech: Trump Holds a Political Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” Factbase, June 20, 2020. “Accounts of the Tulsa riot”: Lisa D. Cook, “Violence and Economic Activity: Evidence from African American Patents, 1870 to 1940,” Michigan State University, June 2012.

…

Trump had chosen as his venue the BOK Center, which had only 19,000 seats, and clearly that wouldn’t be enough. Spillover spaces were set aside at the nearby convention center and an outdoor stage was constructed. But when the president arrived, the BOK Center was glaringly empty. Only 6,200 people showed up; a group of TikTok pranksters had subverted the turnout by falsely requesting tickets. The outdoor stage was hastily taken down. Trump was enraged by the dismal turnout but delivered his usual blustery speech. “We’ve tested now twenty-five million people,” he said. “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases.

Chokepoint Capitalism
by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow
Published 26 Sep 2022

Today the platform hosts literally billions of videos, making it a natural first port of call for anyone looking for music videos, tutorials on making hollandaise, or the latest football highlights. This is a deep data moat: it would be hard for a competitor to build up a library to match it. Having said that, however, YouTube is not immune to competition. It does not have creators locked in anywhere near as tightly as Amazon and Apple, for instance. That’s evident in the popularity of TikTok, downloaded over three billion times in its first few years online. If YouTube goes too far in ripping off the individuals and businesses who supply its content, they can take it elsewhere. YouTube’s platform gives the most popular streamers the ability to communicate with tens of millions of subscribers—including passionately loyal fans willing to evangelize on their behalf.

…

As we described in chapter 16, it’s particularly easy to envisage one for ebooks, owned by and showcasing local authors and frequented by customers who want an alternative to Amazon—at least if we can strip away the DRM stranglehold that keeps publishers and readers locked in. We can imagine one for online video too, where popular YouTubers and Tik-Tokers jointly own their creativity via their own platform (though not in the EU, where that filtering law might require them to spend $100 million on additional start-up costs!). And it’s even possible to imagine scaling up co-op music platforms like Resonate to a much larger number of artists and listeners, especially if new entry into this market could be facilitated by something like the rethought compulsory license we sketched out earlier.

…

Google, 200 O’Reilly, 27 Oremus, Will, 236 organizing, 178–79, 248–49 Oron, Gadi, 67 orphan works, 189, 192–94 OverDrive, 241, 242 Pandora, 217 Pascal, Francine, 187 payola, 82 PCs (personal computers), 201 Pelly, Liz, 67, 80, 81, 241, 244 Penderecki, Kyzysztof, 66 Penguin, 35 Penguin Random House, 2, 34–35 The People’s Platform (Taylor), 14 Perry, Katy, 64 Peters, Marybeth, 185 Phoenix Computers, 201 Platform Capitalism (Srnicek), 230 Platform Cooperativism Consortium, 229 platforms, 14–15 playlists, music streaming, 78–84, 143–44 podcasting, 84–88 policy, corporate influence on, 94 Polone, Gavin, 107 Postmates, 166–67 poultry processing, 96 press publishers’ right, 233–34 Prince, 52, 62, 187 print-on-demand, 181 privacy, 137 private equity, 91–93, 249–50 producer cartels, 173 productivity gains, 253–54 Proposition 22, 249 Public Enemy, 62 public interest, 14 public ownership models, 242–44 Rabble, 240–41 radio broadcast industry: about, 89; local content, 90; ownership concentration, 90; private equity and leveraged buyouts, 91–93; regulation, 93–95; revenues, 90–91, 93 Random House, 32, 33, 34, 35 RapCaviar, 78 RealMedia, 26 reciprocity, 93 Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 55, 64, 185–86 recoupment, 53, 59, 69, 163, 169, 219, 221–22 regulation: antitrust, 146–51; costs, 137, 144; decline of systems of, 145–46; EU mandates, 257–58 regulatory capture, 92–93 remote work, 15 rentiers, 118–21 rent-seeking, 119 residual remuneration rights, 173–77, 214–16 Resonate, 237–38 Reuters Institute, 236 reversion rights, copyright, 183–95 right-wing radio culture, 94–95 Rimes, LeAnn, 55 Robinson, Joan, 10, 173 Robinson, Nathan, 233 Rodgers, Nile, 54, 164 Rolling Stone, 47 Rosen, Hilary, 185–86 Ross, Orna, 157 Rowdy (Joshua Rowsey), 241 royalties, streaming, 66, 68–69, 221–28 RSS, 86, 122 safe harbor laws, 125–27, 134 sampling, music, 61–63 Sanctuary, 57 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 163 Sargent, John, 30 Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act, 185 Saudi royal family, 102 Scheiner, Bruce, 122 Scholz, Trebor, 237 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 161–62, 212–13 Science Fiction Writers of America, 159 Screen Actors Guild, 16 self-publishing, 32–33, 215–16 Shatzkin, Mike, 35 Shazam, 73 Sheeran, Ed, 64 Sherman, Cary, 55 Shirky, Clay, 44–45 Shockley, William, 165–66 Shuster, Joe, 180 Siegel, Jerry, 180 Simon & Schuster, 34–35 Simson, John, 71, 93, 225–26 SiriusXM, 56 Slack, David, 108 Smashwords, 22 social media, and music industry, 56 Social Security Act, 150 Softbank, 102 songwriting, 69–70 Sony Music Entertainment: and artist mistreatment, 79, 221; and copyright, 188; dominating position of, 56; and recoupment, 59; and Spotify, 73, 75, 161; Spotify contract, 70–73 SoundCloud, 72–73 SoundExchange, 71 South Africa, 189 Spotify: about, 2, 11, 12, 18, 56; and Epidemic Sound, 81–82; and major labels, 73–75, 181; market share and profit, 83; Marquee initiative, 82; model, 67; and music licensing, 218; playlist culture, 79–84, 143–44; podcasting, 86–88; Sony contract, 70–73 Srinivasan, Dina, 43 Srnicek, Nick, 230 Stafford, Bill, 62 Statute of Anne (1710), 182–83 statutory licensing, 220–28 Stiehm, Meredith, 105 Stocksy, 229–30 Stoller, Matt, 34–35, 46 Stone, Brad, 21 streambait, 80 Stringer, Rob, 79 Stross, Charlie, 28 structural remedies, 148–49 StubHub, 101 Superman, 180 surveillance capitalism, 36 Swift, Taylor, 76, 169–70 switching costs, 7, 18, 26, 28, 31, 92, 119, 144, 249–50 synchronization rights, 219 tacit collusion, 31 talent agents and agencies, 104–9, 175–76 Taylor, Astra, 14, 229 Teachout, Zephyr, 149 Telecommunications Act (1996), 90 television media, back end financials, 109–11 Tencent Music Entertainment, 83, 84 Thicke, Robin, 63–64 third-party cookies, 231–32 This Is Spinal Tap (film), 188 Ticketmaster, 98, 100, 101 Tidal, 160, 239 TikTok, 136 Timberg, Scott, 47, 110–11 TLC, 55 Towse, Ruth, 16 Tracks, 240–41 transparency rights: Audible, 154–59; audit power, 164–65; data disclosure, 161–63; enforceability of regulatory transparency, 163–67; Kindle Unlimited, 159–60; music streaming, 160–61; Netflix, 160; normalization of, 164 Turner, David, 67, 68, 80, 164, 224 21st Century Fox, 2 Uber, 48–49, 102, 166–67, 171, 249 UK Competition and Markets Authority, 43, 45, 50 UK Musicians’ Union, 68 unions, 173–74, 248–49 United Talent Agency, 104, 106 universality, 198–99.

The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Mustafa Suleyman
Published 4 Sep 2023

GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT In another widely publicized incident Melissa Goldin, “Video of Biden Singing ‘Baby Shark’ Is a Deepfake,” Associated Press, Oct. 19, 2022, apnews.com/​article/​fact-check-biden-baby-shark-deepfake-412016518873; “Doctored Nancy Pelosi Video Highlights Threat of ‘Deepfake’ Tech,” CBS News, May 25, 2019, www.cbsnews.com/​news/​doctored-nancy-pelosi-video-highlights-threat-of-deepfake-tech-2019-05-25. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT If you want to watch TikTok @deeptomcruise, www.tiktok.com/​@deeptomcruise?lang=en. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT A bank in Hong Kong Thomas Brewster, “Fraudsters Cloned Company Director’s Voice in $35 Million Bank Heist, Police Find,” Forbes, Oct. 14, 2021, www.forbes.com/​sites/​thomasbrewster/​2021/​10/​14/​huge-bank-fraud-uses-deep-fake-voice-tech-to-steal-millions.

…

Everywhere you look, technology accelerates this dematerialization, reducing complexity for the end consumer by providing continuous consumption services rather than traditional buy-once products. Whether it’s services like Uber, DoorDash, and Airbnb, or open publishing platforms like Instagram and TikTok, the drift of mega-businesses is toward not participating in the market but being the market, not making the product but operating the service. The question now becomes, what else could be made into a service, collapsed into the existing suite of another mega-business? In a few decades, I predict most physical products will look like services.

The Smartphone Society
by Nicole Aschoff

The dissident journalist Liu Hu has been deemed “untrustworthy” and tarred with a social credit so low that he is banned from purchasing plane or train tickets, taking out a loan, or using social media.19 China also has one of the strictest internet censorship regimes in the world. In 2017, images of Winnie the Pooh were banned from social media after users compared Xi Jinping, the president of China, to the honey-loving bear. Apps like TikTok, a short-video app, will now be held responsible for content that violates any of the country’s one hundred types of “inappropriate” content.20 The People’s Republic doesn’t just administer the “great firewall of China”; recently a man who compared Xi to a “steamed bun” on a private chat app was sentenced to two years in prison.

…

See surveillance Square, 148 stalkerware apps, 25 Standing Rock, 103–4, 110 start-ups, 120–21 status-consciousness, 62 Sterling, Alton, 20 stewardship, 56–57 stimulation, digital, 66 stingrays, 96 Stoppelman, Jeremy, 43–44 Stop the Killing, 20 storytelling, 115–16, 120 subcontracting, multitier, 31 Substitute Phone, 8 Sullivan, Andrew, 132 Sunrise Movement, 103–4, 152, 179n22 “superstar firms,” 42–43 surveillance: big data and, 84; by government, 81, 137–38, 144, 148–49; by law enforcement, 96–97, 137–38, 176n28; by Uber, 127 surveillance capitalism, 8 sustainability, 151–52, 154–55 SVR (Silicon Valley Rising), 147 Syrian war, 90 Tahrir Square, 92 task app, mobile, 32 “tasker,” 30 TaskRabbit, 30 tax evasion by titans, 49–50 taxi drivers, 146, 178–79n5 Tea Party, 105 technological determinism, 12, 131–32, 140–41 “technology shabbats,” 133 technophilanthropy, 56–57 tech refuseniks, 67 tech start-ups, 120–21 Tech Workers Coalition, 148 teenagers, sexting by, 25–27, 35 telemedicine, 10 television, 11–12 temp workers, 31–32 Tencent, 4, 42 terrorists, 95 tether, smartphones as new, 3–7 texting, 5, 6 Thatcher, Margaret, 118 Thiel, Peter, 45, 81, 124 Thoreau, Henry David, 133 TikTok, 95 “time bind,” 30 time-tracking tools, 69 Tinder, 23–24, 25, 63 Tin Dog, 23 titans of cyberspace, 37–57; and antitrust investigations, 52–53; emerging criticisms of, 45–50; and fake news, 50–51; funding by, 55; lobbying by, 55–56; old titans vs., 37–38; and personalization, 53; philanthropy by, 56–57; power of, 39–40, 54–57; rise of, 38–45; and search algorithms, 51–52 Tometi, Opal, 101–2 tracking: government, 94–95; and privacy, 70–71, 81; of workers, 32–33 transcendentalists, 133 Transdr, 23 transhumanism, 123 translation, 10 Trump, Donald: election of, 13; and fake news, 50; inauguration of, 107; and North Dakota pipeline, 110; small donors to, 105; tweets by, 87–88, 92–93, 175n14 trust, 8 truth, 8 Twitch, 41 Twitter: addiction to, 69; content on, 60; microcelebrities on, 60; as news source, 50; as new titan, 42, 45; sharing on, 84; time spent on, 60; use by politicians of, 87–88, 92–93 230 Fifth, 62 Uber: app jobs at, 30–33, 153; data collection by, 84; and new capitalism, 119, 126–27; as new titan, 42; vs. taxi drivers, 146, 178–79n5 Uber-X, 33 Ukraine, 95 union(s), 147, 154 Union Pacific Railroad, 80 United Kingdom, 32–33 United We Dream, 104 unjust relationships, 137–38, 152–54 unpaid labor, 73–79, 84–85, 153 Upworthy, 53 urban poor, access to high-speed internet by, 29 USAID, 95 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 21, 148 Utah Data Center, 81 Utopia, 124–25, 132 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 39, 44, 54 venture capital firms, 121 Verily, 41 Verizon, 42, 71 Vestager, Margrethe, 52, 150 Vice Media, 106 videos, 5 Vietnam, 95 virality in politics, 81 virtual signaling, 109, 111 Vonnegut, Kurt, 129–30 voter outreach, 89 Wages for Housework, 85 walking lanes for phone users, 3 Walmart, 33 warehouse workers, 31–32, 33, 35, 46 Warren, Elizabeth, 45 Waymo, 41 Way of the Future, 123 wealth hierarchies, 28–29, 35 WeChat app, 4 Weinstein, Harvey, 108 Weyl, E.

Deadly Quiet City: True Stories From Wuhan
by Murong Xuecun
Published 7 Mar 2023

Medical fees must be paid in advance, and if payment for continuing treatment is not made, hospitals take extreme measures, like holding back medicines or initiating legal action. Liu Xiaoxiao panics for two days but cannot think of anything better than making a public appeal for assistance. He sets up a Douyin account (the Chinese version of TikTok) and posts a short video every day, mostly about food. On 28 March it is black rice porridge, on 29 March it is egg broth, on 30 March, soft noodles. In the videos, Liu Xiaoxiao wears a black face mask as he ladles spoonful after spoonful into Liu Shiyu’s mouth. There is background music as he explains his story.

…

A nurse tells him that the doctors are busy issuing death certificates. Then the nurse walks over to her colleagues, and, in the cold hospital corridor filled with the smell of disinfectant, the nurses, dressed up like aliens, sing and dance to the beat of happy music while filming a video for Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Gangcheng remembers that scene well. On one side of the corridor, doctors are signing death certificates; a little further on is a recently deceased person whose corpse has not yet cooled. On the other side, young nurses are singing and dancing. ‘Some people will not be able to understand. They may think that someone has just died, so how can they do that?

Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
by Alex von Tunzelmann
Published 7 Jul 2021

For Colston’s statue, there could be no justice more poetic. Videos and images went viral on social media. Many were exhilarated. ‘THEY WILL ALL FALL’, said American rapper Ice Cube on Twitter. ‘SPLOSHITY BYE YOU DEAD RACIST’, tweeted the account for Momentum Bristol, a left-wing youth movement. On TikTok, a user created a video of herself captioned ‘Edward Colston waking up in Bristol Harbour’, set to lyrics from the track ‘Rain’ by British rappers Aitch x AJ Tracey: ‘What’s going on, why am I wet?’ Another Twitter user mocked up a fake opinion piece purportedly written by Edward Colston’s statue: ‘Unhand me at once, impudent whelps!

…

Edward Colston’s statue reconsidered’, Open Democracy, 29 August 2016; Ellie Pipe, ‘New Plaque on Colston statue declares Bristol slavery capital’, Bristol 24/7, 17 August 2017; Martin Booth, ‘Colston statue given ball and chain’, Bristol 24/7, 6 May 2018; Tristan Cork, ‘100 human figures placed in front of Colston statue in city centre’, Bristol Live, 18 October 2018. 26Quoted in Tristan Cork, ‘Theft or vandalism of second Colston statue plaque “may be justified” – Tory councillor’, Bristol Live, 23 July 2018; for the golliwog story, see David Ward, ‘Golliwog stunt leaves Tory in a jam’, Guardian, 6 September 2001. 27For a longer discussion of this, see Roger Ball, ‘The Edward Colston “corrective” plaque: Sanitising an uncomfortable history’, published by the Bristol Radical History Group, n.d. [2019], https://www.brh.org.uk/site/articles/the-edward-colston-corrective-plaque/. 28Tristan Cork, ‘Second Colston statue plaque not axed and will happen but mayor steps in to order a re-write’, Bristol Live, 25 March 2019. 29Catherine Shoard, ‘John Boyega’s rousing Black Lives Matter speech wins praise and support’, Guardian, 4 June 2020. 30Twitter: @beardedjourno: ‘Historic scenes in Bristol as protesters kneel on the neck of the toppled statue of Edward Colston for eight minutes. blacklivesmatter’, 7 June 2020, 3:13 p.m. Photograph included in tweet. See also Luke O’Reilly, ‘Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol topple statue of slave trader Edward Colston’, Evening Standard, 7 June 2020. 31Twitter: @icecube, 7 June 2020, 5:09 p.m.; @MomentumBristol, 7 June 2020, 16:05 p. m.; TikTok: rhianna_jay, ‘bristol really ran up on edward colston’; Twitter; @DrFuck_, 8 June 2020, 9:22 a.m.. 32Twitter: @sajidjavid, 7 June 2020, 5:36 p.m.; 10 Downing Street statement quoted in ‘Edward Colston: Bristol slave trader statue was “an affront’”, BBC News, 8 June 2020; statement by the Society of Merchant Venturers, 12 June 2020, https://www.merchantventurers.com/news/statement-from-the-society-of-merchant-venturers/. 33Councillor Richard Eddy quoted in Tristan Cork, ‘Edward Colston was “a hero” for Bristol says outraged Tory councillor’, Bristol Live, 9 June 2020; Robinson quoted in Joel Golby, ‘A bat signal has gone out to Britain’s proud patriots: save our statues’, Guardian, 10 June 2020; Will Heaven, ‘Why Edward Colston’s statue should have stayed up’, The Spectator, 7 June 2020. 34David Olusoga, ‘The toppling of Colston’s statue is not an attack on history.

The Startup Wife
by Tahmima Anam
Published 2 Jun 2021

“Describing people as ‘chill’ as if it’s a compliment. Like ‘Yeah, I’m so into that guy, he’s so chill.’ How? How is being super-relaxed a quality one seeks in a partner? The only people I really need to be super–chilled out are pilots.” “Or air traffic controllers.” “Yeah, but in a focused and uptight way.” “I don’t understand TikTok,” Cyrus said. “I don’t understand Reels,” Jules said. “What is the point if everything keeps disappearing?” “Reels don’t disappear. Stories do. Keep up.” I said. “So I got a letter today from some people in Missouri,” Cyrus said. I gathered the game was over. Cyrus started reading the letter aloud: “‘My wife and I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and we both have this yearning to kneel beside our bed at night and say some kind of prayer.

…

Eight THE RAISE Cyrus won’t do any interviews. He won’t speak to the press, the networks, the bloggers, the influencers. He will only talk to the WAIs. Yes, that is what they are called. It’s pronounced “wise,” of course. We didn’t call them that, they decided to name themselves. They have uploaded photos and Medium posts and TikToks about their rituals, and some of those posts have gone moderately viral. They have printed T-shirts and hats. They have authored Instagram stories and videos and clickbait. The press is hungry. They want to know the story behind the story—how we built the platform, how the three of us met. Mostly they want to interview Cyrus, but Cyrus refuses, so Jules does it instead.

Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil
by Kenneth Cukier , Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Francis de Véricourt
Published 10 May 2021

One need not feel powerless before a great force but can stand alongside it, provided the conditions instill a sense of fearlessness. Pluralism, the objective, can only exist if there is confidence, not fear. But who possesses such confidence? 9 vigilance we must remain on guard not to cede our power In the spring of 2020, as America’s Covid-19 lockdown began in earnest, a series of short TikTok videos went viral on social media. The chaotic word salad sounded familiar, as did the raspy voice: “We hit the body with a tremendous—whether it’s ultraviolet, or just very powerful light.” But the words emanated from the youthful, dynamic Sarah Cooper, lip-synching the proposed Covid-19 remedy of Donald Trump.

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She Exposes Him,” New York Times, June 25, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/magazine/sarah-cooper-doesnt-mimic-trump-she-exposes-him.html. The authors thank Cooper for her help in producing this account. Cooper quote: Shirley Li, “Sarah Cooper Has Mastered the Trump Joke,” Atlantic, May 8, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/05/comedian-behind-viral-trump-pandemic-tiktok-sarah-cooper/611329. See also: Sarah Cooper and Sarah Cristobal, “Comedian Sarah Cooper on How Her Viral Trump Parodies Came to Be,” InStyle, July 10, 2020, https://www.instyle.com/news/sarah-cooper-essay-trump-impressions. Heytea’s success: Farhan Shah, “Heytea Founder Neo Nie on the Ingredients to the Brand’s Success,” Peak, July 23, 2020, https://www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg/interviews/heytea-founder-neo-nie-business-success/; Li Tao, “How Chinese Tea-Drink Brand Heytea Saves Millions in Marketing Costs Thanks to Its Millennial Customers,” South China Morning Post, August 28, 2018, https://www.scmp.com/tech/start-ups/article/2161529/how-chinese-tea-drink-brand-heytea-saves-millions-marketing-costs.

Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World
by James Ball
Published 19 Jul 2023

As late as January 2020, one senior UK television executive mentioned to me that their channel’s policy was still to make no mention of QAnon so as not to ‘boost’ it. I urged them, not entirely successfully, to reconsider. 42. This is a very short summary of what’s known as the ‘attention economy’: Asher Joy, ‘The Attention Economy: Where the Customer Becomes the Product’, https://journal.businesstoday.org, 18 February 2021. 43. Except arguably TikTok, but this wasn’t a major network until after this period. 44. Not coincidentally, they waited until he had lost a presidential election: Dylan Byers, ‘How Facebook and Twitter decided to take down Trump’s accounts’, www.nbcnews.com, 14 January 2021. 45. ‘Trump refuses to disavow QAnon conspiracy theory’, www.ft.com, 15 October 2020. 46.

…

The post (and many like it) was removed by Twitter eventually, but has been recreated as part of this excellent Washington Post story: Jessica Contrera, ‘A QAnon Con: A Wayfair sex trafficking lie pushed by QAnon hurt real kids’, www.washingtonpost.com, 16 December 2021. 19. Daniel Funke, ‘How the Wayfair child sex-trafficking conspiracy theory went viral’, www.politifact.com, 15 July 2020. 20. EJ Dickson, ‘A Wayfair Child-Trafficking Conspiracy Theory Is Flourishing on TikTok, Despite It Being Completely False’, www.rollingstone.com, 14 July 2020. 21. Funke, ‘How the Wayfair’. 22. This video is still available on Facebook, where Mumin (now an adult) still regularly posts: www.facebook.com/100011665152188/videos/1157816001283894. 23. Russell Goldman, ‘Half of All Autistic Kids Will Run Away, Tragedy Often Follows’, https://abcnews.go.com, 1 May 2013. 24.

I, Warbot: The Dawn of Artificially Intelligent Conflict
by Kenneth Payne
Published 16 Jun 2021

No one can know how much information there is, but we can be sure that it’s expanding rapidly. The internet is partly responsible. Think of the many thousands of pages of information that Facebook sends if you ask for everything it holds on you. Now add in all the WhatsApp chats you’ve ever had, and the Instagram stories. Then there’s TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Every story, every picture, every purchase. What about all the GPS signals your car navigation system clocks up as you drive? With 5G cellular networks arriving soon, the information deluge will increase again, as the ‘internet of things’ becomes a reality that even determined luddites cannot avoid.

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A-10 Warthog abacuses Abbottabad, Pakistan Able Archer (1983) acoustic decoys acoustic torpedoes Adams, Douglas Aegis combat system Aerostatic Corps affective empathy Affecto Afghanistan agency aircraft see also dogfighting; drones aircraft carriers algorithms algorithm creation Alpha biases choreography deep fakes DeepMind, see DeepMind emotion recognition F-117 Nighthawk facial recognition genetic selection imagery analysis meta-learning natural language processing object recognition predictive policing alien hand syndrome Aliens (1986 film) Alpha AlphaGo Altered Carbon (television series) Amazon Amnesty International amygdala Andropov, Yuri Anduril Ghost anti-personnel mines ants Apple Aristotle armour arms races Army Research Lab Army Signal Corps Arnalds, Ólafur ARPA Art of War, The (Sun Tzu) art Artificial Intelligence agency and architecture autonomy and as ‘brittle’ connectionism definition of decision-making technology expert systems and feedback loops fuzzy logic innateness intelligence analysis meta-learning as ‘narrow’ needle-in-a-haystack problems neural networks reinforcement learning ‘strong AI’ symbolic logic and unsupervised learning ‘winters’ artificial neural networks Ashby, William Ross Asimov, Isaac Asperger syndrome Astute class boats Atari Breakout (1976) Montezuma’s Revenge (1984) Space Invaders (1978) Athens ATLAS robots augmented intelligence Austin Powers (1997 film) Australia authoritarianism autonomous vehicles see also drones autonomy B-21 Raider B-52 Stratofortress B2 Spirit Baby X BAE Systems Baghdad, Iraq Baidu balloons ban, campaigns for Banks, Iain Battle of Britain (1940) Battle of Fleurus (1794) Battle of Midway (1942) Battle of Sedan (1940) batwing design BBN Beautiful Mind, A (2001 film) beetles Bell Laboratories Bengio, Yoshua Berlin Crisis (1961) biases big data Bin Laden, Osama binary code biological weapons biotechnology bipolarity bits Black Lives Matter Black Mirror (television series) Blade Runner (1982 film) Blade Runner 2049 (2017 film) Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire blindness Blunt, Emily board games, see under games boats Boden, Margaret bodies Boeing MQ-25 Stingray Orca submarines Boolean logic Boston Dynamics Bostrom, Nick Boyd, John brain amygdala bodies and chunking dopamine emotion and genetic engineering and language and mind merge and morality and plasticity prediction and subroutines umwelts and Breakout (1976 game) breathing control brittleness brute force Buck Rogers (television series) Campaign against Killer Robots Carlsen, Magnus Carnegie Mellon University Casino Royale (2006 film) Castro, Fidel cat detector centaur combination Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) centre of gravity chaff Challenger Space Shuttle disaster (1986) Chauvet cave, France chemical weapons Chernobyl nuclear disaster (1986) chess centaur teams combinatorial explosion and creativity in Deep Blue game theory and MuZero as toy universe chicken (game) chimeras chimpanzees China aircraft carriers Baidu COVID-19 pandemic (2019–21) D-21 in genetic engineering in GJ-11 Sharp Sword nuclear weapons surveillance in Thucydides trap and US Navy drone seizure (2016) China Lake, California Chomsky, Noam choreography chunking Cicero civilians Clarke, Arthur Charles von Clausewitz, Carl on character on culmination on defence on genius on grammar of war on materiel on nature on poker on willpower on wrestling codebreaking cognitive empathy Cold War (1947–9) arms race Berlin Crisis (1961) Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) F-117 Nighthawk Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) joint action Korean War (1950–53) nuclear weapons research and SR-71 Blackbird U2 incident (1960) Vienna Summit (1961) Vietnam War (1955–75) VRYAN Cole, August combinatorial creativity combinatorial explosion combined arms common sense computers creativity cyber security games graphics processing unit (GPU) mice Moore’s Law symbolic logic viruses VRYAN confirmation bias connectionism consequentialism conservatism Convention on Conventional Weapons ConvNets copying Cormorant cortical interfaces cost-benefit analysis counterfactual regret minimization counterinsurgency doctrine courageous restraint COVID-19 pandemic (2019–21) creativity combinatorial exploratory genetic engineering and mental disorders and transformational criminal law CRISPR, crows Cruise, Thomas Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) culmination Culture novels (Banks) cyber security cybernetics cyborgs Cyc cystic fibrosis D-21 drones Damasio, Antonio dance DARPA autonomous vehicle research battlespace manager codebreaking research cortical interface research cyborg beetle Deep Green expert system programme funding game theory research LongShot programme Mayhem Ng’s helicopter Shakey understanding and reason research unmanned aerial combat research Dartmouth workshop (1956) Dassault data DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) dead hand system decision-making technology Deep Blue deep fakes Deep Green DeepMind AlphaGo Atari playing meta-learning research MuZero object recognition research Quake III competition (2019) deep networks defence industrial complex Defence Innovation Unit Defence Science and Technology Laboratory defence delayed gratification demons deontological approach depth charges Dionysus DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) dodos dogfighting Alpha domains dot-matrix tongue Dota II (2013 game) double effect drones Cormorant D-21 GJ-11 Sharp Sword Global Hawk Gorgon Stare kamikaze loitering munitions nEUROn operators Predator Reaper reconnaissance RQ-170 Sentinel S-70 Okhotnik surveillance swarms Taranis wingman role X-37 X-47b dual use technology Eagleman, David early warning systems Echelon economics Edge of Tomorrow (2014 film) Eisenhower, Dwight Ellsberg, Daniel embodied cognition emotion empathy encryption entropy environmental niches epilepsy epistemic community escalation ethics Asimov’s rules brain and consequentialism deep brain stimulation and deontological approach facial recognition and genetic engineering and golden rule honour hunter-gatherer bands and identity just war post-conflict reciprocity regulation surveillance and European Union (EU) Ex Machina (2014 film) expert systems exploratory creativity extra limbs Eye in the Sky (2015 film) F-105 Thunderchief F-117 Nighthawk F-16 Fighting Falcon F-22 Raptor F-35 Lightning F/A-18 Hornet Facebook facial recognition feedback loops fighting power fire and forget firmware 5G cellular networks flow fog of war Ford forever wars FOXP2 gene Frahm, Nils frame problem France Fukushima nuclear disaster (2011) Future of Life Institute fuzzy logic gait recognition game theory games Breakout (1976) chess, see chess chicken Dota II (2013) Go, see Go Montezuma’s Revenge (1984) poker Quake III (1999) Space Invaders (1978) StarCraft II (2010) toy universes zero sum games gannets ‘garbage in, garbage out’ Garland, Alexander Gates, William ‘Bill’ Gattaca (1997 film) Gavotti, Giulio Geertz, Clifford generalised intelligence measure Generative Adversarial Networks genetic engineering genetic selection algorithms genetically modified crops genius Germany Berlin Crisis (1961) Nuremburg Trials (1945–6) Russian hacking operation (2015) World War I (1914–18) World War II (1939–45) Ghost in the Shell (comic book) GJ-11 Sharp Sword Gladwell, Malcolm Global Hawk drone global positioning system (GPS) global workspace Go (game) AlphaGo Gödel, Kurt von Goethe, Johann golden rule golf Good Judgment Project Google BERT Brain codebreaking research DeepMind, see DeepMind Project Maven (2017–) Gordievsky, Oleg Gorgon Stare GPT series grammar of war Grand Challenge aerial combat autonomous vehicles codebreaking graphics processing unit (GPU) Greece, ancient grooming standard Groundhog Day (1993 film) groupthink guerilla warfare Gulf War First (1990–91) Second (2003–11) hacking hallucinogenic drugs handwriting recognition haptic vest hardware Harpy Hawke, Ethan Hawking, Stephen heat-seeking missiles Hebrew Testament helicopters Hellfire missiles Her (2013 film) Hero-30 loitering munitions Heron Systems Hinton, Geoffrey Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The (Adams) HIV (human immunodeficiency viruses) Hoffman, Frank ‘Holeshot’ (Cole) Hollywood homeostasis Homer homosexuality Hongdu GJ-11 Sharp Sword honour Hughes human in the loop human resources human-machine teaming art cyborgs emotion games King Midas problem prediction strategy hunter-gatherer bands Huntingdon’s disease Hurricane fighter aircraft hydraulics hypersonic engines I Robot (Asimov) IARPA IBM identity Iliad (Homer) image analysis image recognition cat detector imagination Improbotics nformation dominance information warfare innateness intelligence analysts International Atomic Energy Agency International Criminal Court international humanitarian law internet of things Internet IQ (intelligence quotient) Iran Aegis attack (1988) Iraq War (1980–88) nuclear weapons Stuxnet attack (2010) Iraq Gulf War I (1990–91) Gulf War II (2003–11) Iran War (1980–88) Iron Dome Israel Italo-Turkish War (1911–12) Jaguar Land Rover Japan jazz JDAM (joint directed attack munition) Jeopardy Jobs, Steven Johansson, Scarlett Johnson, Lyndon Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) de Jomini, Antoine jus ad bellum jus in bello jus post bellum just war Kalibr cruise missiles kamikaze drones Kasparov, Garry Kellogg Briand Pact (1928) Kennedy, John Fitzgerald KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) Khrushchev, Nikita kill chain King Midas problem Kissinger, Henry Kittyhawk Knight Rider (television series) know your enemy know yourself Korean War (1950–53) Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie Kubrick, Stanley Kumar, Vijay Kuwait language connectionism and genetic engineering and natural language processing pattern recognition and semantic webs translation universal grammar Law, Jude LeCun, Yann Lenat, Douglas Les, Jason Libratus lip reading Litvinenko, Alexander locked-in patients Lockheed dogfighting trials F-117 Nighthawk F-22 Raptor F-35 Lightning SR-71 Blackbird logic loitering munitions LongShot programme Lord of the Rings (2001–3 film trilogy) LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) Luftwaffe madman theory Main Battle Tanks malum in se Manhattan Project (1942–6) Marcus, Gary Maslow, Abraham Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Matrix, The (1999 film) Mayhem McCulloch, Warren McGregor, Wayne McNamara, Robert McNaughton, John Me109 fighter aircraft medical field memory Merkel, Angela Microsoft military industrial complex Mill, John Stuart Milrem mimicry mind merge mind-shifting minimax regret strategy Minority Report (2002 film) Minsky, Marvin Miramar air base, San Diego missiles Aegis combat system agency and anti-missile gunnery heat-seeking Hellfire missiles intercontinental Kalibr cruise missiles nuclear warheads Patriot missile interceptor Pershing II missiles Scud missiles Tomahawk cruise missiles V1 rockets V2 rockets mission command mixed strategy Montezuma’s Revenge (1984 game) Moore’s Law mosaic warfare Mueller inquiry (2017–19) music Musk, Elon Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) MuZero Nagel, Thomas Napoleon I, Emperor of the French Napoleonic France (1804–15) narrowness Nash equilibrium Nash, John National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) National Security Agency (NSA) National War College natural language processing natural selection Nature navigation computers Nazi Germany (1933–45) needle-in-a-haystack problems Netflix network enabled warfare von Neumann, John neural networks neurodiversity nEUROn drone neuroplasticity Ng, Andrew Nixon, Richard normal accident theory North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) North Korea nuclear weapons Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) dead hand system early warning systems F-105 Thunderchief and game theory and Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (1945) Manhattan Project (1942–6) missiles Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) second strike capability submarines and VRYAN and in WarGames (1983 film) Nuremburg Trials (1945–6) Obama, Barack object recognition Observe Orient Decide and Act (OODA) offence-defence balance Office for Naval Research Olympic Games On War (Clausewitz), see Clausewitz, Carl OpenAI optogenetics Orca submarines Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) pain Pakistan Palantir Palmer, Arnold Pandemonium Panoramic Research Papert, Seymour Parkinson’s disease Patriot missile interceptors pattern recognition Pearl Harbor attack (1941) Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) Pentagon autonomous vehicle research codebreaking research computer mouse development Deep Green Defence Innovation Unit Ellsberg leaks (1971) expert system programme funding ‘garbage in, garbage out’ story intelligence analysts Project Maven (2017–) Shakey unmanned aerial combat research Vietnam War (1955–75) perceptrons Perdix Pershing II missiles Petrov, Stanislav Phalanx system phrenology pilot’s associate Pitts, Walter platform neutrality Pluribus poker policing polygeneity Portsmouth, Hampshire Portuguese Man o’ War post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Predator drones prediction centaur teams ‘garbage in, garbage out’ story policing toy universes VRYAN Prescience principles of war prisoners Project Improbable Project Maven (2017–) prosthetic arms proximity fuses Prussia (1701–1918) psychology psychopathy punishment Putin, Vladimir Pyeongchang Olympics (2018) Qinetiq Quake III (1999 game) radar Rafael RAND Corporation rational actor model Rawls, John Re:member (Arnalds) Ready Player One (Cline) Reagan, Ronald Reaper drones reciprocal punishment reciprocity reconnaissance regulation ban, campaigns for defection self-regulation reinforcement learning remotely piloted air vehicles (RPAVs) revenge porn revolution in military affairs Rid, Thomas Robinson, William Heath Robocop (1987 film) Robotics Challenge robots Asimov’s rules ATLAS Boston Dynamics homeostatic Shakey symbolic logic and Rome Air Defense Center Rome, ancient Rosenblatt, Frank Royal Air Force (RAF) Royal Navy RQ-170 Sentinel Russell, Stuart Russian Federation German hacking operation (2015) Litvinenko murder (2006) S-70 Okhotnik Skripal poisoning (2018) Ukraine War (2014–) US election interference (2016) S-70 Okhotnik SAGE Said and Done’ (Frahm) satellite navigation satellites Saudi Arabia Schelling, Thomas schizophrenia Schwartz, Jack Sea Hunter security dilemma Sedol, Lee self-actualisation self-awareness self-driving cars Selfridge, Oliver semantic webs Shakey Shanahan, Murray Shannon, Claude Shogi Silicon Valley Simon, Herbert Single Integrated Operations Plan (SIOP) singularity Siri situational awareness situationalist intelligence Skripal, Sergei and Yulia Slaughterbots (2017 video) Slovic, Paul smartphones Smith, Willard social environments software Sophia Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The (Goethe) South China Sea Soviet Union (1922–91) aircraft Berlin Crisis (1961) Chernobyl nuclear disaster (1986) Cold War (1947–9), see Cold War collapse (1991) Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) early warning systems Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) Korean War (1950–53) nuclear weapons radar technology U2 incident (1960) Vienna Summit (1961) Vietnam War (1955–75) VRYAN World War II (1939–45) Space Invaders (1978 game) SpaceX Sparta Spike Firefly loitering munitions Spitfire fighter aircraft Spotify Stanford University Stanley Star Trek (television series) StarCraft II (2010 game) stealth strategic bombing strategic computing programme strategic culture Strategy Robot strategy Strava Stuxnet sub-units submarines acoustic decoys nuclear Orca South China Sea incident (2016) subroutines Sukhoi Sun Tzu superforecasting surveillance swarms symbolic logic synaesthesia synthetic operation environment Syria Taliban tanks Taranis drone technological determinism Tempest Terminator franchise Tesla Tetlock, Philip theory of mind Threshold Logic Unit Thucydides TikTok Tomahawk cruise missiles tongue Top Gun (1986 film) Top Gun: Maverick (2021 film) torpedoes toy universes trade-offs transformational creativity translation Trivers, Robert Trump, Donald tumours Turing, Alan Twitter 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 film) Type-X Robotic Combat Vehicle U2 incident (1960) Uber Uexküll, Jacob Ukraine ultraviolet light spectrum umwelts uncanny valley unidentified flying objects (UFOs) United Kingdom AI weapons policy armed force, size of Battle of Britain (1940) Bletchley Park codebreaking Blitz (1940–41) Cold War (1947–9) COVID-19 pandemic (2019–21) DeepMind, see DeepMind F-35 programme fighting power human rights legislation in Litvinenko murder (2006) nuclear weapons principles of war Project Improbable Qinetiq radar technology Royal Air Force Royal Navy Skripal poisoning (2018) swarm research wingman concept World War I (1914–18) United Nations United States Afghanistan War (2001–14) Air Force Army Research Lab Army Signal Corps Battle of Midway (1942) Berlin Crisis (1961) Bin Laden assassination (2011) Black Lives Matter protests (2020) centaur team research Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Challenger Space Shuttle disaster (1986) Cold War (1947–9), see Cold War COVID-19 pandemic (2019–21) Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) culture cyber security DARPA, see DARPA Defense Department drones early warning systems F-35 programme Gulf War I (1990–91) Gulf War II (2003–11) IARPA Iran Air shoot-down (1988) Korean War (1950–53) Manhattan Project (1942–6) Marines Mueller inquiry (2017–19) National Security Agency National War College Navy nuclear weapons Office for Naval Research Patriot missile interceptor Pearl Harbor attack (1941) Pentagon, see Pentagon Project Maven (2017–) Rome Air Defense Center Silicon Valley strategic computing programme U2 incident (1960) Vienna Summit (1961) Vietnam War (1955–75) universal grammar Universal Schelling Machine (USM) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), see drones unsupervised learning utilitarianism UVision V1 rockets V2 rockets Vacanti mouse Valkyries Van Gogh, Vincent Vietnam War (1955–75) Vigen, Tyler Vincennes, USS voice assistants VRYAN Wall-e (2008 film) WannaCry ransomware War College, see National War College WarGames (1983 film) warrior ethos Watson weapon systems WhatsApp Wiener, Norbert Wikipedia wingman role Wittgenstein, Ludwig World War I (1914–18) World War II (1939–45) Battle of Britain (1940) Battle of Midway (1942) Battle of Sedan (1940) Bletchley Park codebreaking Blitz (1940–41) Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (1945) Pearl Harbor attack (1941) radar technology V1 rockets V2 rockets VRYAN and Wrangham, Richard Wright brothers WS-43 loitering munitions Wuhan, China X-37 drone X-drone X-rays YouTube zero sum games

Laziness Does Not Exist
by Devon Price
Published 5 Jan 2021

Digital work tools have made it possible for many of us to work from home, but rather than making our lives easier, this has created the pressure to be constantly available to our employers. We get our news from phone apps and social media sites rather than printed papers, making it harder than ever to get away from upsetting images and distressing information. Even the online spaces that are supposed to bring us pleasure and entertainment, such as Instagram and TikTok, guilt us with advertisements for weight-loss products, intricate home-improvement projects, and complicated beauty regimens. Everywhere we turn, we’re told we’re not enough. And when we finally disconnect from this constant stream of shame and pressure, we often feel guilty for “disappearing” on our colleagues, family, and friends.

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See gig economy surrender (tattoo), 41, 42 Swift, Taylor, 30 Sylvia: Grace’s relationship with, 157–58, 159, 164 T Tamms Correction Center, 199–200 Taylor (coder): and achievements are not self-worth, 110–11, 112–13 technology and increase in workday/workweek, 76 and influence/prevalence of Laziness Lie, 26, 32–33 remote work and, 79–80 and why you feel lazy, 35 working less and, 76, 79–80 See also digital age/tools; gig economy; Internet; social media Thompson, Rickey, 29, 196 TikTok, 33 time how you spend your, 168–69 See also cyberloafing Tobia, Jacob, 186 Tobias, Andrew, 105–6 Tom (Riley’s husband): and relationships, 165–67, 171–72 Towler, Annette, 56, 73–74, 78, 82, 85–86, 94, 96, 103 transgender people, 109, 137, 168, 186 TV shows: and influence/prevalence of Laziness Lie, 28–29 Twitter, 113, 118, 125, 129, 136, 144, 145, 147, 153 U unemployed people, 13 Upswing Advocates, 62–63 V vacations, 64, 212 values clarification of, 169–71 definition of, 169 and origins of Laziness Lie, 23 ranking of, 170 and relationships, 169–71, 182 Van Bavel, Jay, 84 veterans: healing of, 68 visual arts: and why you feel lazy, 33–35 W warning signs/system ignoring of, 20–21 and influence/prevalence of Laziness Lie, 36 and rethinking laziness, 49–57 and tenets of Laziness Lie, 20–21 and working less, 75, 96 See also specific sign wasting time.

Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It's Everyone's Business
by Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro
Published 30 Aug 2021

Their pitch to potential clients is simple: pay us and we can make people do what you want, buy your products, sign up for your services, even vote for you in the next election. People at YouTube, Apple, Netflix, and Amazon decide how the site will make recommendations on what you should watch next. People at Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok decide how algorithms select the content that goes in their newsfeeds. They decide what news we see first online, what posts show up in our newsfeeds, what products pop up when we browse a website, and whom we match with on dating applications. As Twitter’s cofounder Jack Dorsey acknowledged when he testified in front of Congress in 2018, “Every time someone opens up our service, every time someone opens up our app, we are implicitly incentivizing them to do something or not to do something.”

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W., 20 Rykles, Miriam, 20, 21–22, 24, 172–73 safety basic human motivations, 42–43 digital technology and, 148, 162 power hierarchies and, 43, 197 valued resources and, 57, 58, 194 World Wide Web and, 148 Salancik, Gerald, R., 261n6, 261n13 Salesforce, 157 Sandel, Michael J., 103 Schor, Juliet, 181 Schrems, Max, 159 Scott, MacKenzie B., 114 Scott, Richard W., 233n46 self-esteem basic human motivations, 42 digital technology and, 148, 162 existential meaning, 44, 217n14 fragile and secure, 44, 218nn17–18 self-concept and, 44, 217n13 subjective assessment and, 44–45, 217–19nn15,19 technology resistance, 161 valued resources and, 57, 58, 194 World Wide Web and, 148 self-focus empathy as antidote, 30, 36, 38 empathy of powerful, 75, 97, 230n13 experience of power, 22–23 infernal trio, 97 interdependence awareness, 32, 38 meditation and, 33 power sharing and accountability, 39, 172–73 sense of agency, 97 sense of entitlement, 98 separation of powers, 182–83 September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 43, 216–17n11 Sevedan, Bagewat Nanda, 144 Shah, Palak, 177 Shakespeare, William, 25, 41 Shamash, 101 shareholder value maximization, 163, 175, 253n33 Sidanius, Jim, 231n26 Snyder, Timothy, 183 social foci, 89, 90 social movements, 108–15, 117–39 Arab Spring, 117–18 Black Lives Matter, 117, 139, 141, 147–48 framing, 133–34, 239n14 Fridays for Future, 56, 121–22, 124 French Yellow Vests, 117 Hong Kong Protests, 117 MeToo, 117, 137, 141, 147–48, 156 Occupy Wall Street, 118–19, 122, 128 political opportunity, 80–81, 132, 241n31 social relationships See networks sociétés à mission, 176 solidarity, 85, 86, 88, 124, 134, 183–88 Solon, 182 sources of power, xvi–xviii, 65–90 betweenness and network bridges, 79–81, 79, 153 formal and informal, 70–74, 71, 72, 84 gender differential, 102, 104–8, 167–73 network diversity, 84–89 network mapping, 77–78 power vs. authority, 66–68, 73 racial differential, 104–8, 167–73 rank and role, 69–70 shared experience and relationships, 89–90 See also power mapping Spirit of the Laws, The (Montesquieu), 182 status quo, 97–104, 108–19, 121–29, 133–37, 197 power-advantaged reproducing, 97–98 power-disadvantaged reproducing, 98–100 status quo bias, 74 steelworker’s story, 110–11, 236n71 Stephan, Maria J., 124 stereotypes, 104–8, 169 stereotype threat, 107 Stiglitz, Joseph E., 237n73, 238n79, 255n50 structural design, 20, 29, 38–39, 165, 192 surveillance, 43, 139, 151–52, 163, 190 drones, 154–55 nyob, 159 Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), 128–30, 176 Sweeney, Tim, 113 System Justification Theory (SJT), 98–100 systemic racism See racism Taylor, Breonna, 92 technology markets, 163 Teresa, Mother, 56 territorial behavior, 53 Thomson, John Arthur, 102 Thoreau, Henry David, 124 Thunberg, Greta, 56, 120 Tiananmen Square (Beijing), 57 TikTok, 153 Tilly, Charles, 238n1, 241n32 Timms, Henry, 141 tokenism, 169 Tolkien, J.R.R., ix–x triple bottom line, 176 Trithemius, Johannes, 142, 143 trust competence, 62–63, 195, 224n76 familiarity, 63 similarity, 63 warmth, 62–63, 224n76 Tufekci, Zeynep, 138 Twitter, 153, 184 Uber, 179 unions, 11–12, 111–15, 134, 157–58, 178, 236n71 See also Alphabet Workers Union unique control, 3 Up & Go, 179 Up With Women, 5–8 U.S.

Been There, Done That: A Rousing History of Sex
by Rachel Feltman
Published 14 May 2022

From the biological realities of our carnal acts to our generally acceptable methods of courtship, the world of sex is the furthest thing from static. Instead, sex is a shimmering spectrum of colorful moving targets. Before we dive in, here’s a quick disclaimer: I’m not going to literally attempt a speed run of all of history to get you from point A (the dawn of dicks) to point Z (the four hours it took the TikTok algorithm to diagnose me as a bisexual cis-woman who’s kinda “meh” about gender and married to a nice man with floppy hair). There’s just too much. I’m also not a historian, let alone one specializing in the history of sex or in queer studies; I’m more of a great-at-finding-fun-facts-for-cocktail-parties girl, but in a professional capacity.

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As a college professor of mine once bluntly put it in an attempt to fluster us spawnless youngsters, humans are biologically pointless until they have kids. And, you know, there’s something to stop and unpack there, because—ew, right? Not cool. We know that there’s more to being human than propagating our genes. We live and love and laugh and make TikTok videos and write poetry; we feel and make others feel; we take care of one another; we fuck up monumentally and make war and peace and create culinary abominations like the KFC Double Down. That’s what separates us from other animals, or at least most of them. And we’ve got plenty of people on the planet, so it’s perfectly reasonable for some of us to ditch that biological imperative entirely.

Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking
by Mehdi Hasan
Published 27 Feb 2023

ME: Yes, there is. UN resolution 487. Let me read it to you. The UN Security Council in 1981 “calls upon Israel urgently to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguards of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency].” Why haven’t you done that? The exchange went viral, with more than ten million views on TikTok alone. But I couldn’t have done it without my research team, especially that producer who had helped me role-play almost the entire exchange beforehand. For weeks and months after that interview, we still jokingly referred to her as Danny. (Okay, fine, maybe only I did.) Now, you may not have a team of producers to help you prepare for an argument or debate but … you can always phone a friend.

…

See also argument; practice; preparation; voice cue cards or notes and distance from audience and memorizing too fast volunteering to make Spock, Commander spontaneity humor and zingers and spreading tactic stage presence Stallone, Sylvester Starkey, David Star Trek series State Department steelmanning Stengel, Richard Stephanopoulos, George Stewart, Jon Stirling Bridge, Battle of Stokes, Patrick storytelling conclusion and emotion and finding opening and power of sharing personal Storytelling Animal, The (Gottschall) strawman argument Study in Scarlet, A (Conan Doyle) stuttering Sudarshan Kriya Yoga Sunday Morning Live (TV show) surprise Svātmārāma, Swami Swan, Jonathan synchoresis Syria Szent-Györgyi, Albert Talk Like TED (Gallo) Tapper, Jake TED Talks Ten Commandments, The (movie) tension, humor and terrorism ThinkExist website 30 Rock (TV show) Thompson, Bruce Thucydides Tibet TikTok Time timing cue cards and memorizing speech and practicing and zingers and tone, audience and. See also voice topping and tailing Treasure, Julian Trevarthen, Simon Trewhitt, Henry tricolon Trott, Richard Trump, Donald Trump, Donald, Jr. truth assault on naming clear using humor to tell Truth Decay Turkey Twain, Mark Twitter Ugly Betty (TV show) Uighur Muslims UK Independence Party (UKIP) UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Select Committee Ukraine Russian invasion of United Kingdom (UK) elections of 2010 United Nations Human Rights Council Security Council United States southern border U.S.

Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life
by Alan B. Krueger
Published 3 Jun 2019

Successful artists and businesses will continue to take advantage of complementary activities, such as live performances and selling merchandise, find ways to price-discriminate without offending fans in order to maximize revenue, and avoid incurring unnecessary costs. Music will always affect listeners’ moods, and scientists may find new and better ways of treating patients with musical therapy. A journalist in China recently asked me, “What does your book have to say about the latest hit app, TikTok?” To be honest, I had never heard of TikTok, a fast-growing social media platform for creating and sharing short videos, with five hundred million users. But I explained that a lesson of this book is that consumers demand quick and convenient service, which is why streaming platforms such as Apple, Amazon, and Spotify have been able to attract users from sites offering free pirated music, and that music is a social activity that spreads through networks.

IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives
by Chris Stedman
Published 19 Oct 2020

And I could share it in real time, instead of safely from a distance, after the fact, in service of a lesson. *** Now in my thirties, on the other side of those difficult few years, I’m still Pretty Online. Gaps remain, to be sure; I don’t fully understand what’s up with WhatsApp, and the only TikTok I acknowledge is Kesha’s. (Actually, I take that back. Somehow, over the course of writing this book, we all decided some TikToks are pretty funny.) But I continue to tweet most days, and the pink circle alerting users that there’s content on my Instagram story—where temporary photos and videos are stored for twenty-four hours, so basically it’s Snapchat but embedded in your Instagram—is generally active, pointing the way to videos of Tuna stretching and screenshots of what I’m listening to on Spotify.

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity
by Devon Price
Published 4 Apr 2022

However, meeting an Autistic adult and having a positive interaction with them often opens up neurotypical people’s minds, and makes them more receptive to learning about Autism. One avenue for practicing self-disclosure without risking IRL rejection is on social media. On social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Autistic teens and adults have gone viral with videos of themselves reacting to new music with their “masks” off. One such video depicting a nineteen-year-old Autistic woman stimming while wearing headphones became hyperpopular in July 2020; it’s been viewed by more than 10 million people and shared far and wide.[4] Comments on the video are almost entirely supportive and curious, and the video’s creator, Jay, has followed up with numerous other short clips educating her followers about Autism acceptance.

…

BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2 Sasson, N. J., & Morrison, K. E. (2019). First impressions of adults with autism improve with diagnostic disclosure and increased autism knowledge of peers. Autism, 23(1), 50–59. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 3 https://www.distractify.com/​p/jay-will-float-too-tiktok#:~:text=Source%3A%20TikTok-,Jay%20Will%20Float%20Too’s%20Latest%20TikTok,Lesser%2DKnown%20Aspect%20of%20Autism&text=On%20July%2028%2C%20a%20TikTok,grappling%20with%20the%20sheer%20cuteness. BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4 https://nicole.substack.com/​p/a-little-bit-autistic-a-little-bit.

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet
by Klaus Schwab
Published 7 Jan 2021

There, tech start-ups and innovators are incubating products for China's increasingly tech-savvy and wealthy consumers and businesses. Shenzhen again is a leader in this field, but other locations, including Beijing's Zhongguancun neighborhood in the Haidian district (where ByteDance, the creator of TikTok, was launched), Shanghai's Zhangjiang hi-tech zone, and others are also contenders. The Price of Progress If you cross the Sham Chen River today, you enter a concrete jungle, the sprawling metropolis that is Shenzhen. But on a hot day in summer, you will hardly see more people in the street than you might have in the sleepy fishing village that preceded it.

…

Currently in Singapore, the prevailing notion is that the programs may be uncommon, but they are also worth the cost. One of the features of the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, the reasoning goes, is that it's hard to predict the labor market of the future. Who thought some of the most successful twentysomething professionals today would be YouTubers playing videogames or influencers making 10 second TikTok movies? When looking at the Singaporean model, there is another important feature to note. It's been achieved by a triad of stakeholders: government, companies, and unions. Since 1965, this trifecta has had a heavy hand in all labor market and industrial policy decision-making. And it did so without major disruptions in economic activity.

News and How to Use It: What to Believe in a Fake News World
by Alan Rusbridger
Published 26 Nov 2020

Journalists had done the hard graft, learned the trade, practised their craft – and then along came a seventeen-year-old filming in her bedroom who called herself an ‘influencer’, with a vast audience and revenues to match. Who did they think they were? Most reporters would never have heard of Arshdeep Soni, a twenty-four-year old TikTok (and Instagram and YouTube) star with a cool seven million followers, who was ‘working with’ Burger King and a select number of record labels. Or the Harfin family from Edinburgh, with their two million followers, who discreetly drop clients’ names into their videos. Or Jeffree Star (née Jeffrey Lynn Steininger Jr), who has built a beauty empire through YouTube, attracting more than 16 million subscribers and earning an estimated $18 million in 2018.

…

Zoomers are the least likely demographic to read a newspaper cover to cover, and are much more likely to find their news on social media or news apps, where the most-viewed content appears first. Mainstream media are starting to cotton on: the BBC’s Religion Correspondent Sophia Smith Galer – self-dubbed ‘the TikTok whisperer’ – uploads frequent content to the video app and also created a ‘Learn the facts about Covid-19’ click-through banner which appeared at the bottom of any related content. Fake news also hits Gen Z particularly hard, but perhaps not as hard as it hits millennials, who are much more likely to use fake news hothouses such as Facebook.

Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works for Progress, People and Planet
by Klaus Schwab and Peter Vanham
Published 27 Jan 2021

There, tech start-ups and innovators are incubating products for China's increasingly tech-savvy and wealthy consumers and businesses. Shenzhen again is a leader in this field, but other locations, including Beijing's Zhongguancun neighborhood in the Haidian district (where ByteDance, the creator of TikTok, was launched), Shanghai's Zhangjiang hi-tech zone, and others are also contenders. The Price of Progress If you cross the Sham Chen River today, you enter a concrete jungle, the sprawling metropolis that is Shenzhen. But on a hot day in summer, you will hardly see more people in the street than you might have in the sleepy fishing village that preceded it.

…

Currently in Singapore, the prevailing notion is that the programs may be uncommon, but they are also worth the cost. One of the features of the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, the reasoning goes, is that it's hard to predict the labor market of the future. Who thought some of the most successful twentysomething professionals today would be YouTubers playing videogames or influencers making 10 second TikTok movies? When looking at the Singaporean model, there is another important feature to note. It's been achieved by a triad of stakeholders: government, companies, and unions. Since 1965, this trifecta has had a heavy hand in all labor market and industrial policy decision-making. And it did so without major disruptions in economic activity.

Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral
by Ben Smith
Published 2 May 2023

The problem was that many of those were good-news stories about Arianna’s friends, or reflections of one of Kenny’s political angles. Editors kept a running list of them to keep on the front page and passed it from hand to hand at shift change, the only way to bypass the new algorithmic pressure. Versions of Breanna’s charts are now everywhere. Virtually every media company, from TikTok to The New York Times, uses a similar system. But these were dark arts back then. Serious journalists sneered nervously at the idea that you’d allow your news judgment to be replaced by crude clicks—that is, by the fast-shifting attention of your audience. When visitors came through the office, Kenny or Jonah would tell Breanna to turn her screen to the wall.

…

G., 225, 227–30 Sulzberger, Arthur O., Jr., 66, 219, 222–26, 229 Sulzberger, Arthur O., Sr., 221–22, 225 Super Bowl (2004), 38 Swamp Dogg, 217 Swisher, Kara, 298 Syed, Nabiha, 251 T Talese, Gay, 222 Talley, André Leon, 89 Tapper, Jake, 250, 252, 253 Tasty, 265, 273 Tate, Ryan, 142 Tea Party, 134, 152, 156, 187 TechCrunch, 86, 147 Tejava, 7 The Terror (French Revolution), 262 text messaging, 253–54, 262 Thiel, Peter, 85–86, 141, 234, 263 Thinking and Drinking, 98–101 Thomas, Owen, 85–86, 234 Thompson, Mark, 219, 227–28 Thomson, Katherine (“KT”), 79–82, 83, 104, 108, 117, 148 Thomson, Robert, 272 Thrillist, 69 TikTok, 105 Time, 2, 6, 85 Times Select, 224 Time Warner, 149, 269 Tkacik, Moe, 91–92, 94–97, 98–101 Today, 3–4, 8, 67 Tonight Show, 50 Treadstone, Timothy (Baked Alaska), 265, 275, 290–97, 298 Trend Page, 123 trolling, 24, 50, 242, 262, 294 Trotter, J.

Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)
by Rachel Slade
Published 9 Jan 2024

The rest were out sick or tending to ill family members. Ben and Whitney needed to train and hire more people. Ever-resourceful Evan read somewhere that if you were looking for potential employees, these days you had to meet them where they were, which was, at that moment, in the smartphone-verse, scrolling through TikTok and dating apps. The great thing about the latter was that it was geo-specific, which gave Evan the ability to target potential job-seekers within a twenty-mile radius of the factory. He set up a Tinder account and posted a “sexy” job ad, along with photos of the factory captioned with cheeky, come-hither copy encouraging job-seekers to swipe right.

…

Ben and Whitney had a good story to tell. More people needed to hear it. They were hopeful that a branding alliance with a high-profile organization like a professional players union would elevate American Roots. They suspected they were only one influencer away from breaking through, just one viral TikTok or Instagram post away from becoming a household name. With the right endorsement coupled with the right story, Americans might finally care about where their sweatshirts were made, and flock to the American Roots website. There were other major operators thinking about using their resources to strengthen domestic apparel manufacturing.

The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order
by Rush Doshi
Published 24 Jun 2021

Finally, senior Chinese propaganda officials have written that platforms were the “lifeblood” of information flows, and that “whoever owns the platforms will seize the initiative in propagating views and in dominating public opinion.”55 Just as the United States would have concerns over Russian ownership of Facebook, so too must it be equally concerned about China’s ownership of major platforms like TikTok because they offer enormous opportunities for manipulation of information flows and domestic politics. Accordingly, encouraging restrictions on autocracy-owned social media apps like TikTok—including forced divestiture or de facto bans— are inexpensive and necessary to blunt Chinese efforts in the information space. Building American Order Blunting Chinese order building at low cost may work in many domains, but it is not sustainable without efforts to simultaneously reinvest in the foundations of American order.

…

See also specific places terrorism, 124–25, 187–88 Thailand, 95–96, 202–3, 204–5, 236 Thatcher, Margaret, 268–69 think tanks, 42–43, 281–82 Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), 290 threat perception, 53–58 “three evils,” 127–28, 129–30 Tiananmen Square Massacre and arms embargo, 95–96 and China’s military modernization, 69–70, 71, 72, 73, 91, 95–96 and China’s use of regional institutions, 104–5 and Chinese nationalism, 27 and Deng’s “Tao Guang Yang Hui,” 59–60 impact on China’s trade strategies, 134–35, 137, 138, 139–41, 142, 147–48 impact on post-Cold War strategy, 48–50, 51–52, 55–56, 59–60 and military building strategies, 194–95 and multipolarity discourse, 162 and overview of China’s grand strategy, 4 and political blunting strategies, 102, 112, 118 and US asymmetric strategies, 308–9 Tibet, 307–8, 312–13 TikTok, 322–23 torpedo technology, 47, 84, 85, 86, 198–99 “Towards an Asia Pacific Economic Community” (report), 101–2 Track II dialogues, 108–9, 123–24 trade relations and China’s grand strategy, 147–56 and China’s use of APEC, 151–52 and China’s use of regional institutions, 117–18 and China’s use of WTO, 152–56 and economic blunting strategies, 141–44, 151–56 explaining China’s behaviors, 136 He Xin on, 134 impact of “the trifecta,” 137–41 and implementation of China’s blunting strategy, 66 and normalization of relations with US, 134–36, 144–56 and US asymmetric strategies, 309–10 See also economic strategies trade war with China, 43–44, 155–56, 263 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), 273–74, 328–29 Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1 “trifecta.”

No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram
by Sarah Frier
Published 13 Apr 2020

The group in charge of Instagram’s direct messaging was transferred to report to the Facebook Messenger team. In late 2019, Zuckerberg made a cameo appearance at an Instagram-branded conference and took a selfie with the crowd. Internally at Facebook, he was talking about using Instagram to take on TikTok, the Chinese app that had replaced Snapchat as the top threat to Facebook’s dominance. The frequency of advertising on Instagram had increased. There were more notifications too, and more personalized recommendations about who to follow. Being part of the Facebook “family” meant making compromises to bolster the bottom line—and to account for the growth rate slowing down on the main social network.

…

G., 34, 36 Silicon Valley, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 15, 38, 44, 52, 56, 74, 172, 231, 284 apps race in, 10 buzzwords in, 18 and FB’s acquisition of IG, 59, 61 mobile revolution in, 27 salaries in, 71 startup success rate in, 29 talent wars in, 88 Simo, Fidji, 176, 254–55 Simple Life, The (reality TV show), 136 simplicity, Systrom and Krieger’s philosophy based on, 18, 20, 21–22, 24, 119, 255 Skinny Confidential, 237 Smalls, Joan, 156 Snapchat, 122, 123, 124, 157, 171, 187, 198, 199–200, 217, 218, 223, 248, 277 celebrities’ use of, 192, 204 cool factor of, 116 ephemeral content on, 112–13, 114, 117, 216 founder of, see Spiegel, Evan growth rate of, 216 IPO of, 227 reverse chronological order of posts on, 117 teens’ use of, 183 as threat to IG, 123, 178, 181, 184, 192–93, 201, 223, 227 Zuckerberg’s attempts to buy, 114–15, 116, 117, 122, 125, 183, 191, 200–201 Snapchat Stories, 117, 122, 123, 191, 214 ephemeral content of, 185 IG’s copying of, see Instagram Stories Systrom and, 188, 190, 192, 202–3, 217 teens’ use of, 183 Snap Inc., 227 Snoop Dogg, 4, 71, 98, 138 early IG account of, 35–36 Socialcam, 109 social media as amplifier of issues, 278 as both reflection and modifier of user behavior, 233, 234–35 bullying on, 40, 41, 135, 161, 163, 218–19, 248 FB’s dominance of, 88, 121, 124, 151, 209 user passivity on, 234 see also news media social media companies, xvii, 109–10, 203, 232 see also specific companies Social Network, The (film), 15, 67, 107 social networks, 88 follower-based vs. friend-based, 20, 80 interest-based, 20, 21, 210 virality and, see virality Sony, 167 South by Southwest technology conference, 55 #sp, 236 Spacey, Kevin, 152 Spain, IG in, 226 spam, 80, 226, 260 Spectra photo filter, 23 Spiegel, Evan, 112–14, 115–16, 123, 179, 191, 194, 195, 199–200 Zuckerberg and, 116–17, 200, 201–2 see also Snapchat; Snapchat Stories Spotify, 45 Square, 15, 46, 65 Squires, Jim, 120 Stanford Mayfield Fellows Program, 5, 12, 46 Stanford University, 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 24, 47, 173 Starbucks, IG account of, 35 startups, xx, 14 see also specific startups State of the Union address (2012), 47 status updates, 1, 12, 15 Stein, Robby, 194, 201 storytelling, xviii @strawburry17, 171 Streep, Meryl, 152 Stretch, Colin, 225 Stuart Weitzman, xix Styles, Harry, 130, 133 suicide, suicidal content, 40, 41, 42, 270, 277–78 Sun, Fei Fei, 156 Sutro photo filter, 23 Swain, David, 154 Swank, Hilary, 192 Sweeney, Shayne, 32, 37, 53, 71, 75–76, 79 Swift, Taylor, 47, 131, 204, 217, 218–19, 231 Syracuse University, 232 Systrom, Diane, 3 Systrom, Doug, 3–4 Systrom, Kate, 3, 192 Systrom, Kevin, xxii, 31, 69–70, 94–95, 123–25, 146, 153, 159–60, 180, 193, 225, 245, 260, 261, 277 at Academy Awards, 191–92, 204 analytics and, 226–27 art history and Renaissance as interests of, 3, 106 celebrities’ relationships with, 46, 133–34 childhood of, 3–4 Clinton and, 207–8 competitiveness of, 107–8 Cox and, 257, 267–68, 272 cycling by, 185, 186, 205–6 deejaying by, 4, 10 disillusioned with FB’s grow-at-all-costs culture, xvii Dorsey and, 6–7, 15–16, 19, 60, 84 early mobile websites built by, 9–10; see also Burbn early prediction of IG success by, 29 in effort to preserve IG’s brand, 159–60, 176, 177–78, 184–85, 209, 217–20 in Florence, 3, 4–5, 19, 21 and FTC investigation of IG sale to FB, 75, 76 at Google, 8–9, 23, 37, 58, 62, 194 IG founded by, see Instagram IG posts by, 31 IG sold to Facebook by Krieger and, see Facebook, Instagram acquired by IGTV and, 257, 264, 265–66, 267 in increasing conflict with FB, 214, 249, 252–53, 262–63, 268–69 Krieger’s relationship with, 11–12, 13, 16–17, 22–23, 33, 107, 254 Kutcher’s friendship with, 46, 133 leadership philosophy of, 18 at Middlesex boarding school, 134 Monday leadership meetings of, 107 at Nextstop, 9–10, 11 at Odeo, 5–6, 7, 12 1 million followers of, 187 perjury allegations against, 86, 98–99 photography passion of, 2, 4–5 Pope Francis’s meeting with, 195–96 Porch and, 130–31, 132–33, 135, 147–48, 166, 195, 245 post-IG, 277 as pressured by Zuckerberg to build IG’s business model, 163–65, 167 problem solving by, 18, 32 as public face of IG, 33 re-sharing disallowed by, 140 in resignation from IG, xxii, 272–75 similar background of Zuckerberg and, 106–7 simplicity valued by, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27, 45, 54, 102, 119, 160, 180, 189, 191, 199, 205 Snapchat and, 188, 190, 192, 202–3, 217 at Stanford University, 7, 8, 24 Stories opposed by, 190, 191 study abroad of, 3–5 on Tim Ferriss Show, 87 #trashcangate and, 181–82 well-being initiative of, 249 Zuckerberg’s 2005 meeting with, 1–3 Zuckerberg’s relationship with, 7, 38, 95, 104–5, 107–8, 163–64, 216–17, 251, 252–53, 256, 262, 264, 266–68, 269–70 tagging friends, 7, 90 tagging photos, 95 TaskRabbit, 17 tastemaking, tastemakers, xviii, xxi, 144, 237 see also influencers Tatum, Channing, 149–50 Tatum, Everly, 149 #taylorswiftisasnake, 218 #tbt, 155 TechCrunch, 34, 35, 36 technology industry, 28 teens, 243 on FB, 117, 184 finsta accounts of, 182–83, 184 on IG, 118, 170 IG’s analytic tools used by, 275–76 IG Stories and, 203 as key to the future of IG, 154, 171, 184 and pressure to post the best, 114, 170, 172, 188–90, 248 Snapchat and, 115 technology use by, 114 unspoken social rules among, 182, 184 Zuckerberg’s resolve to better understand, 116 Teigen, Chrissy, 243 Telegram, 246 terrorism, terrorists, 249, 261 Tesla, 22 That ‘70s Show, 44 TheFacebook.com, 1, 7 growth of, 2 see also Facebook @thefatjewish, xx @theskinnyconfidential, 237 Thiel, Peter, 191, 193 #thinspiration, 41 This American Life (NPR show), 188 Threadsy, 17 Thrive Capital, 66, 70 Throwback Thursday, 155 TikTok, 277 Timberlake, Justin, 203, 204 Time, 38–39 Tim Ferris Show, 87 Tinder, 19 TMZ, 136 Toffey, Dan, 52, 53, 73, 141, 143 Totti Candy Factory, 242 Toy Story (film), 180 Transocean Ltd., 113 #trashcangate, 181–82, 204 travel, IG’s influence on, 169, 241, 242 Trigger, Kaitlyn, 79 trolls, internet, 41, 219, 251 Trump, Donald, 207, 208, 210, 211, 224, 258 FB leveraged by, 212–13 Trump, Ivanka, 70 Trump International Hotel, 70 Tumblr, 19, 103, 170 Tuna (dog), 141–42, 153 Tuna Melts My Heart (Dasher), 142 24 Hour Photo, 117 Twitter, xviii, xxi, 9, 17, 19, 31, 39, 130, 137, 151, 160, 170, 192, 225, 232, 239, 248 Academy Awards and, 151, 204 in attempt to buy IG, 25, 46, 48–49, 55–56, 86, 109 Benchmark Capital investment in, 36 chronological order of posts on, 19, 117 content policing and, 43 Dorsey at, 14, 25–26, 46–47 early investors in, 23 fake news on, 225 as follower-based network, 20 founders’ discord at, 14 free speech ethos at, 37, 156–57 growth rate of, 216 IG blocked from access to, 84, 99 IG photo sharing to, 37 IPO of, 98, 148, 149, 150–51 Niche acquired by, 165 Obama’s account on, 126 140–character limit of, 110, 128 Periscope acquired by, 64 retweet button of, 20, 44, 152, 157, 234 status updates at, 15 #tweetups and, 34 as unwilling to edit content, 220 user anonymity on, 41 verification on, 132 Vine acquired by, 64, 109, 157 Williams at, 14, 46 Zuckerberg’s attempted purchase of, 57 Twttr, 7 Tycho (Scott Hansen), 34 Tyga, 238 U2, 126 Uber, 36, 45, 222 UberCab, 23 Underwood, Teddy, 120–21 “unicorns,” 61 Van Damme, Tim, 51–54, 73 Vanity Fair, 158, 192 #vanlife, 229 venture capitalists, 2–3, 11, 15, 24, 36–37, 55, 56, 109, 116, 191 Vergara, Sofia, 236 Verge, 216 verification, 231–32, 279 as status symbol, 132–33 Verrilli, Jessica, 46 VidCon, 219 Viddy, 109 Vine, 64, 109–10, 111–12, 122, 124, 157, 165, 171, 265 violence, violent content, 40, 41–42, 97, 223, 249, 261 virality: of fake news, 225 on FB, 162, 209, 211, 215, 251, 260 re-sharing and, 20, 43–44, 140, 152, 210 risky behavior and, 240, 243–45 sharing and, 140, 152 social networking and, 44 on Twitter, 151, 239 Vogue, 118, 195, 231 IG-related cover of, 156, 157 VPN (virtual private network), 122 Wall Street, 74, 102, 150, 151, 164, 266, 267 Wall Street Journal, 102, 118, 122 Warner Bros.

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
by Sebastian Mallaby
Published 1 Feb 2022

Wang Xing, for his part, progressed from billionaire to deca-billionaire, and his company became Sequoia Capital’s most lucrative investment ever, surpassing even Google.[77] By 2019, admittedly, Meituan-Dianping had been eclipsed. But Sequoia’s new gold medalist was another Chinese venture, ByteDance, operator of a wildly popular short-form video app named TikTok. In the summer of 2016, Gary Rieschel packed his suitcases in Shanghai. He had known when to arrive, and now he knew when it was time to leave. An American outsider could no longer add much to China’s venture industry. Chapter Eleven Accel, Facebook, and the Decline of Kleiner Perkins In the early years of the twenty-first century, in the shadow of the tech bust, an entrepreneur named Kevin Efrusy joined Accel.

…

After all, venture capital is all about disrupting entrenched corporate power: it is the enemy of monopoly. The challenge to Amazon comes from younger VC-backed firms: upstart consumer brands such as Glossier that collect payments with the help of other upstarts such as Stripe. Similarly, the challenge to Facebook comes from the next generation of social-media platforms: the Sequoia-backed TikTok or the a16z protégé Clubhouse. Nor does the fact that Facebook has swallowed two prominent past challengers, Instagram and WhatsApp, undermine this point. For one thing, competition authorities, responding to the increasing skepticism of Big Tech, may block Facebook’s acquisition of future challengers.

…

See Facebook Theranos, 339–42 Thiel, Peter, 198–215 Facebook and, 198, 199, 207, 208–9 Founders Fund, 208–15, 291, 296, 358, 403, 444n, 445n Musk and, 205–6, 211, 214–15 opposition to VC mentoring, 209–11, 290 PayPal, 198, 201–4, 206–9, 211, 214, 444n power law and, 8, 9, 209, 210–11, 221, 277 Stripe investment, 378, 455n 3Com, 100–107, 114, 138, 390 Tickle, 252 Tiger Global, 278–88, 337 Baidu, 452n Ctrip, 285–86, 448n DST, 276–77, 287, 452n Facebook, 273–78, 288, 452n hedge fund/venture hybrid model, 283–86, 299–300, 326, 378 Private Investment Partners fund, 284–86 SenseTime, 393 Sina, Sohu, and NetEase, 279–82 Tiger Management, 278, 281, 337 TikTok, 248, 388 Tilbury, Charlotte, 332 Time (magazine), 12, 20, 150, 339 Tokopedia, 324 Torvalds, Linus, 20 Toshiba, 94 Toys “R” Us, 64 TPG Capital, 358, 360 Traitorous Eight, 17–18, 21, 25, 28, 31–39, 53, 67, 423n Treybig, Jimmy, 69–72, 86, 102 T.

The Science of Hate: How Prejudice Becomes Hate and What We Can Do to Stop It
by Matthew Williams
Published 23 Mar 2021

The bad press related to the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism on their platforms was a motivating factor, as was the global coverage of attacks on high-profile black and female users. But they represent only a fraction of companies operating in this space, and many of the alternative sites, like TikTok, Reddit, Gab, Voat, Telegram and Discord, are yet to engage. Figure 18 shows the numbers from the fifth evaluation of the scheme (4 November to 13 December 2019). Almost all participating companies reviewed the majority of notifications sent to them within twenty-four hours, and 71 per cent of these posts were removed, which showed a slight decline on the year before.§§ In 2016, when monitoring first began, only 40 per cent of participating companies reviewed the majority of notifications sent to them within twenty-four hours, and 28 per cent of these posts were removed.

…

W., 1n suffering, 1, 2 suicide attacks, 1, 2, 3, 4n, 5, 6 superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), 1, 2 superordinate goal, 1 superordinate ingroup, 1, 2 suppression mechanism, 1, 2, 3 surveys, 1, 2 survival, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Sutcliffe, Peter, 1 Sweden, 1 symbolic threats, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 synagogues, 1 Syria, 1, 2, 3, 4 systemic bias, 1 Tajfel, Henri, 1 Tarrant, Brenton, 1, 2, 3 Tay (chatbot), 1, 2, 3 Taylor, Breonna, 1 Tbilisi, 1 tech giants, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 technology, 1, 2, 3 Telegram, 1, 2 television, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 terror, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 terrorism: events that remind us of our mortality, 1; far-right hate, 1, 2; feeling hate together, 1; Google searches, 1; group threat, 1, 2, 3; hate counts, 1, 2; Kansas shooting, 1; online hate speech, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; predicting hate crime, 1; profiling the hater, 1; religion versus hate, 1; steps to stop hate, 1, 2; subcultures of hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n, 6; trauma and containment, 1, 2; trigger events, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; YouTube algorithms, 1 The Terrorist’s Handbook, 1 Terror Management Theory (TMT), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Tétouan, 1 Texas, 1, 2, 3, 4 Thaipoosam Cavadee (Hindu festival), 1 Thatcher, Margaret, 1, 2 theory of mind, 1, 2 Thomas, Daniel, 1 ‘thoughtcrime’, 1 threats: author’s brain and hate, 1, 2, 3, 4; beyond threat, 1; brain and hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; context and threat, 1; cultural machine, group threat and stereotypes, 1; defence mechanisms, 1; disengaging the amygdala autopilot, 1; evolution of group threat detection, 1; feeling hate together, 1; fusiform face area, 1; group threat and hate, 1; hacking the brain to hate, 1; hate and feeling pain, 1; human biology and threat, 1; locating hate in the brain, 1; neutralising the perception of threat, 1; online hate speech, 1, 2, 3, 4; parts that edge us towards hate, 1; parts that process prejudice, 1; predicting hate crime, 1; prepared versus learned amygdala responses, 1; processing of ‘gut-deep’ hate, 1; recognising facial expressions, 1; religion versus hate, 1; society, competition and threat, 1; steps to stop hate, 1, 2, 3; subcultures of hate, 1, 2, 3; threat in their own words, 1; tipping point, 1; unlearning prejudiced threat detection, 1 thrill-seeking offenders, 1 TikTok, 1 Till Death Us Do Part, 1 tipping point: author’s experience effects, 1; identity fusion and hateful murder, 1; overview, 1, 2; predicting the next hate crime, 1; seven steps to stop hate, 1; tipping point from prejudice to hate, 1 TMT, see Terror Management Theory Tokyo, 1n tolerance: filter bubbles and bias, 1; group threat, 1, 2; religion versus hate, 1, 2; steps to stop hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; white flight, 1 torcidas organizadas (football hooligans), 1 trackers, 1 transgender people, 1, 2n, 3, 4 translation, 1 trauma: the ‘average’ hate criminal, 1; group threat, 1; hate as container of unresolved trauma, 1; hate speech harm, 1; overview, 1; predicting hate crime, 1; prepared versus learned amygdala responses, 1; subcultures of hate, 1, 2, 3; tipping point, 1, 2; understanding the ‘exceptional’ hate offender, 1, 2, 3 tribes, 1, 2n, 3, 4, 5, 6 trigger events, 1; events and hate online, 1; events and hate on the streets, 1; events that challenge our values, 1; events that remind us of our mortality, 1; micro-events and hate, 1; online hate speech, 1, 2, 3, 4; our psychology and trigger events, 1; overview, 1; predicting hate crime, 1; religion versus hate, 1; trauma and containment, 1; uncovering the triggers of hate, 1 trolls, 1, 2n Trump, Donald: Cambridge Analytica, 1; Charlottesville rally, 1; ‘Chinese virus’, 1, 2; far-right hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; hate counts, 1, 2, 3; Kansas shooting, 1, 2, 3; and Mexicans, 1, 2, 3; and Muslims, 1, 2, 3, 4n, 5, 6n; police and race, 1; trigger event of election, 1; Twitter, 1, 2, 3, 4; YouTube algorithms, 1 trust, 1, 2, 3 Tsorionov, Dmitry ‘Enteo’, 1, 2 Tunisia attacks, 1 Turks, 1, 2 The Turner Diaries, 1 twins, 1 Twitter: far-right hate, 1, 2, 3, 4; filter bubbles and bias, 1; how much online hate speech, 1, 2; Japan care home attack, 1; online hate speech and social media companies, 1; online hate speech and the law, 1, 2; rise of the bots and trolls, 1, 2; Salah effect, 1; trigger events, 1, 2; Trump, 1, 2, 3, 4; why online hate speech hurts, 1 Uematsu, Satoshi, 1, 2, 3 UKIP, see United Kingdom Independence Party ultra groups, 1 ultrasound, 1n uncertainty, 1, 2, 3, 4 unconscious bias, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 unemployment, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 United Kingdom (UK): Copeland nail bombing, 1; COVID-19 pandemic, 1; cultural machine, 1, 2; Duggan shooting and riots, 1; extreme filter bubbles, 1; football fans, 1; group threat, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; hate counts, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; hate speech harm, 1; how much online hate speech, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; online hate speech prevention, 1, 2, 3; online news, 1; protections from hate, 1; Sophie Lancaster, 1; trauma and containment, 1, 2; trigger events, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), 1, 2n, 3, 4 United Nations, 1, 2 United States (US): Charlottesville rally, 1, 2, 3n, 4; cultural machine, 1, 2, 3; far-right hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; Google searches, 1; group threat, 1, 2, 3, 4; hate counts, 1, 2, 3; housing projects, 1; Jim Crow era, 1; Kansas shooting, 1; Muslims ban, 1, 2n; office workers, 1; online hate speech, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; online news, 1; police and hate, 1; pyramid of hate, 1; steps to stop hate, 1; subcultures of hate, 1, 2; trauma and Franklin, 1; trigger events, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Unite the Right, 1, 2 University of Toronto’s Behavioural Research Lab, 1, 2 University of Virginia, 1 uptake of post, 1 ‘us’ and ‘them’: brain and hate, 1, 2, 3, 4; group threat, 1, 2, 3, 4; HateLab Brexit study, 1; religion versus hate, 1; subcultures of hate, 1; tipping point, 1; what it means to hate, 1, 2, 3 vaccination, 1 values, 1, 2, 3, 4 Van Bavel, Jay, 1n, 2 vandalism, 1 Vaughn, James Clayton, Jr, see Franklin, Joseph Paul ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), 1, 2 victimisation, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 victims, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 video content, 1, 2 Vidgen, Bertram, 1, 2 Vietnam War, 1 violence: brain and hate, 1, 2, 3, 4; far-right hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; group threat, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; online hate speech, 1; police bias, 1; steps to stop hate, 1; subcultures of hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; trauma and containment, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; what it means to hate, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 VKontakte, 1 vmPFC, see ventromedial prefrontal cortex Voat, 1, 2 Vorherrschaft Division, 1 Vote Leave campaign, 1 voting, 1, 2 vulnerability, 1, 2, 3, 4 Wallace, Hunter, 1 Wall Street Journal, 1 Walmart shooting, 1 war, 1n, 2, 3 War of Independence, 1 warrior psychology, 1 washing, 1 Washington Post, 1 Waterfield, Peter, 1, 2 Watson, Paul Joseph, 1, 2, 3 webpage content, 1 Weibo, 1 WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic), 1 Weizenbaum, Joseph, 1 Westminster attack, 1, 2, 3 West Yorkshire, 1, 2, 3 white flight, 1, 2 Whitehouse, Harvey, 1 white matter, 1, 2 white nationalism, 1, 2 white people: far-right hate, 1, 2; Google searches, 1; steps to stop hate, 1, 2, 3, 4; subcultures of hate, 1, 2; trauma and containment, 1, 2; trigger events, 1, 2, 3, 4 white supremacists: far-right hate and Charlottesville, 1, 2, 3, 4; Google searches, 1; predicting hate crime, 1; subcultures of hate, 1, 2; trauma and Franklin, 1, 2; trigger events, 1, 2 Whitman, Charles, 1 Will & Grace, 1, 2 Wilson, Timothy, 1 witnesses, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 women, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Woolwich terror attack, 1, 2 working class, 1, 2 World Health Organisation, 1 World Trade Center (WTC), 1, 2, 3 xenophobia, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Xiaoice (chatbot), 1 Xu, Professor, 1 Yaxley-Lennon, Stephen (Tommy Robinson), 1, 2, 3, 4 Yiannopoulos, Milo, 1, 2 Yorkshire, 1, 2, 3, 4 young people, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 YouTube: algorithms, 1; far-right hate and Charlottesville, 1, 2, 3; filter bubbles, 1; online hate speech, 1, 2, 3, 4; Russia, 1 Zuckerberg, Mark 1 Vigil for Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was murdered by Adam Purinton on 22 February 2017.

Emotional Ignorance: Lost and Found in the Science of Emotion
by Dean Burnett
Published 10 Jan 2023

But, despite all these reasonable points, it still felt wrong, to share my father’s funeral, on Facebook! Even writing that sentence is weirdly jarring. I use Facebook to publicise my work, post jokes or memes, and share pictures of my notorious cat. Using it to broadcast my father’s funeral service? That was unsettling. Why, though? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and more are omnipresent parts of the modern world. I’m a member of several such sites, as is a significant chunk of humankind.1 Nonetheless, sharing something so profoundly emotional as my father’s funeral service via social media felt like a step too far. However, I’m aware that not everyone feels the same.

…

How’s a bunch of code on a hard drive or server meant to do better? There’s also another factor at work. Modern technology may be advanced enough to represent or mimic emotions, but we humans often experience negative emotional reactions when it does that. While we can be seriously moved by a heartfelt Facebook post or Twitter thread, a powerful Instagram or TikTok video, here we recognise that the emotion being shared originated from another human, so our brains instinctively fill in any gaps resulting from the medium. But if emotional information stems from an artificial source, i.e. is produced rather than just distributed by technological means, we often feel discomfort and dislike, regardless of what it’s trying to convey.

Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
by Kashmir Hill
Published 19 Sep 2023

Among the many products being manufactured, assembled, and shipped out of the country were the component parts of computers, smartphones, e-readers, and gaming systems. China was viewed by many as the workhorse of the world economy—the hands, not the brains—but Mozur saw something different as he chronicled the rise of China’s own, now-mammoth companies and apps, such as Xiaomi, WeChat, and TikTok. Being at the center of the global technology industry catapulted China into the future ahead of everyone else. Mozur began seeing cameras installed everywhere. In Shanghai, he had to descend an escalator to get to his local grocery store, and there was a camera at the bottom aimed directly at his face “like a bazooka.

…

See also eugenics stingrays, 155 stock photo sites, 192 “stop the steal,” 228 Strategic Computing Initiative, 42 “Success Stories” marketing document, 137 Super Bowl (2001), 60–62, 63, 65 Super Sad True Love Story (Shteyngart), 34 supercomputers, 75–76 SuperVision, 146–147 Supreme Court Abrams and, 207 Citizens United and, 306n206 on First Amendment, 306n206 involuntary sterilizations and, 26 location privacy and, 203 NAACP and, 39 Pentagon Papers and, 207 Sutskever, Ilya, 295n146 Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, 292n137 Swedish Police Authority, 136 Swisher, Kara, 102 symbolic AI, 37 Syndrome, 119 T Taigman, Yaniv, 146–148 TechCrunch, 101 technical sweetness, 48, 148 Telegram, 222 Temple of Heaven, 224 TensorFlow, 208 Tesla, 73 Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act, 83 Therrien, Daniel, 193 Thiel, Peter attempts to contact, 160 background of, xi Clearview AI and, 111 at DeploraBall, 55 Gawker and, 14–15 Kirenaga Partners and, xiv lawsuits against PayPal and, 210–211 at Republican Convention, 15–16, 29 Scalzo and, 119–120 Smartcheckr and, 79–81, 89 Ton-That and, 13, 14 Trump administration and, 53 This Person Does Not Exist, 163, 195 Thorn, 115 TikTok, 224 Tinder, xvii, 34 toilet paper dispensers, 224 Tomas, Alexander, 309n222 Tompkins Square Park, 30 Tong, William, 139 Ton-That, Hoan Abrams and, 209–211 AR glasses and, 249–250 attempts to contact, 160 attorneys general and, 138–139 avoidance of past by, 247 background of, 3–4 Besson and, 128, 129 Bezos and, 116 bias and, 239 on blocking author’s face, 163 Borthwick and, 113 Capitol insurrection and, 229 databases used by, 242 dlib and, 195 Dumanski and, 160–161 early plans of, 31–35 Facebook apps by, 5–6 FindFace and, 220 Gawker and, 15 growth of database and, 246–247 hit rate and, 133 international backlash and, 193, 194 investors and, 116 Johnson and, 12–13, 27, 33, 94–96, 247–249 Kutcher and, 115 lawsuits and, 209–211, 213 Leone and, 113–114 Liu and, 75–76, 77 Lynch and, 91, 92, 93 meeting with, 161–164 Montana and, 114 in New York, 9 NIST testing and, 240 NYPD and, 128, 129, 130, 131–132 opposition and, 138 Orbán and, 56 photos of, 8–9 politics of, 9–10 pseudonym use by, 134 at Republican Convention, 3, 10–11, 12, 13–14, 15–16 in San Francisco, 4–5 Scalzo and, 111, 112, 113, 118, 188–189 Schwartz and, 29–30 scraping and, 78–79, 81 self-assessment of, 250–251 Smartcheckr and, 52, 53, 58, 72–73, 74–75, 77–81, 89, 94 Thiel and, 79–80 Trump and, 50, 51–52 ViddyHo and, 7–8 Ton-That, Quynh-Du, 4 TopShot, 9 Toronto Police, 136 Touchfelt, 4 Traitwell, 248 Transportation Security Agency (TSA), 28 “Tremolo” (Ton-That), 8 True Depth camera, 109 true faces, 17 Trump, Donald Cambridge Analytica scandal and, 92 as candidate, 3, 8, 16, 29 Capitol insurrection and, 228, 229 casinos owned by, 62 Congressional hearings and, 155–156 DeploraBall and, 53–54 election night and, 50–52 Johnson and, 95 Luckey and, 57 Lynch and, 88 Mackey and, 93–94 Orbán and, 56 Thiel and, xi Ton-That’s support of, 3, 10, 13, 16, 116 Trump, Melania, 14 Trump Hair, 9 TruthFinder, 58 TSA (Transportation Security Agency), 28 Tsvetkov, Egor, 221 Turk, Matthew Autonomous Land Vehicle (“Alvin”) and, 42 Facebook and, 152 at MIT Media Lab, 43–44, 45–47, 48–49, 60 timing of work of, 66 Turow, Joseph, 280n78 Tuskegee Institute, 279n74 23andMe, 248 Twitter Cernovich and, 12 Clearview AI and, xvii, 165 FTC and, 123 Johnson and, 11, 95 machine learning and, 72 Mackey and, 93–94 Smartcheckr and, 53 Ton-That and, 5, 9 ViddyHo and, 7 Yiannopoulos and, 14 2chan, 221–222 U Uber, 5, 189, 210 Ukraine, Russia’s invasion of, 237 Ultra Music Festival, 231, 232, 233–234 undercover officers, dangers to, xvii Urban, Scott, 241 U.S.

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--And How to Think Deeply Again
by Johann Hari
Published 25 Jan 2022

For many of us, the pandemic didn’t create new factors that ruined our attention—it supercharged the factors that had already been corroding our attention for years. I saw this when I talked with my godson Adam, whom I had taken to Memphis. His attention, which had been deteriorating for some time, was now shattered. He was on his phone almost every waking hour, seeing the world mainly through TikTok, a new app that made Snapchat look like a Henry James novel. Naomi told me that the way we felt when we were spending all day in lockdown on Zoom and Facebook was awful but “also kind of a gift,” because it showed us the road we were headed down with such clarity. More screens. More stress. More collapse of the middle class.

…

See also ethical issues future trends, 271–73 habits and, 148–49 human downgrading and, 132, 141–42 magic comparison, 106–8 Persuasive Technology Lab and, 108–11, 144 profile tracking, 111, 125–28 societal dangers, 135–40 strategy for changing, 143–55. See also change strategies user interfaces and, 119–22 television, 75–76, 83 “ten-minute rule,” 146 texting, while driving, 41–42 Thoreau, Henry David, 23 Thorkildsen, Inga Marte, 177 TikTok, 272 time-box, 146 Time magazine, 53 time-travel (mental), 97 Timimi, Sami, 221–24, 227, 229, 232 Tonnesvang, Jan, 252–53 Toyota, 190 tracking. See technology design trans fats, 199–200 trauma, 173–79.

Dry Humping: A Guide to Dating, Relating, and Hooking Up Without the Booze
by Tawny Lara
Published 19 Sep 2023

Then demonstrate with your hand before guiding their hand over yours until you both feel comfortable letting them take over. ❤ When you want to try something new but have no idea where to start: “I’d love to mix things up—is there anything new you’d like to try?” ❤ When you want to try something that you saw or read about elsewhere: “A sex educator I follow on TikTok recommended this position. I’d love to try this with you! May I show you?” ❤ When they touch you somewhere you don’t want to be touched: “I actually don’t like to be touched there, but I love when you touch me here.” Then slowly move their hand. ❤ When you want to incorporate some toys: “I got us a present.

Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything―Even Things That Seem Impossible Today
by Jane McGonigal
Published 22 Mar 2022

Can you hear the difference? I will howl until the whole world howls. Howl with me. Other people started posting their own howling videos. In some of them, the person filming would pan the camera, and you could see they weren’t alone. Small groups were gathered, howling together. Howling became the number one trend on TikTok. Signs began appearing in public spaces. Some read, “Gather here to howl.” Others read, “Howling is not allowed. Please do not disturb our neighborhood.” Some restaurants and stores put up notices welcoming howlers. Others kicked them out. The noon howl sounded a certain way. It was sorrowful, mournful, heartbroken, angry, and wild.

…

It can take the form of an online discussion forum, with hundreds or even thousands of people all imagining the same future scenario, contributing myriad different personal stories and possibilities and building on each other’s ideas. Or it can take place “in the wild,” as we say at the Institute for the Future. Participants can post their thoughts and stories about how the scenario might affect their lives and communities wherever they normally share online—Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Medium, Twitch, anywhere!—and include a scenario hashtag, for example, #AlphaGalCrisis. This creates a distributed story, bits of future scattered across the internet in a way that evokes William Gibson’s observation quoted earlier: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed.”

The Lonely Century: How Isolation Imperils Our Future
by Noreena Hertz
Published 13 May 2020

11 Add to these festivals like Vienna’s Donauinselfest, Brazil’s Rock in Rio or Rabat’s Mawazine, each of which in 2019 attracted more than 700,000 visitors, and it’s clear just how strong the appetite for shared live experiences has become.12 Even as life was being designed to be ever more contactless and technology was enabling us to substitute ‘real’ relationships for those with YouTubers, TikTokers and Alexas, and even as we were being urged to ‘join the conversation’ via Twitter, or ‘share a moment’ on Snapchat and migrate more and more of our conversations online, in those millions of festival-goers we saw evidence of something else. A burgeoning counter-movement of people for whom virtual interactions weren’t enough, and who, in response to their growing feelings of disconnection and atomisation, were actively breaking out of their own digital bubbles and seeking out community in analogue, face-to-face forms.

…

See ‘Rising Levels of Hate Speech & Online Toxicity During This Time of Crisis,’ Light, 2020, https://l1ght.com/Toxicity_during_coronavirus_Report-L1ght.pdf; see too Elise Thomas, ‘As the Coronavirus Spreads, Conspiracy Theories Are Going Viral Too’, Foreign Policy, 14 April 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/14/as-the-coronavirus-spreads-conspiracy-theories-are-going-viral-too/; Queenie Wong, ‘Coronavirus sparks a different kind of problem for social networks’, CNet, 25 March 2020, https://www.cnet.com/news/on-twitter-facebook-and-tiktok-racism-breaks-out-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/?ftag=CAD-03-10aaj8j. 42 For the interplay of race and loneliness, see, for instance, British Red Cross, ‘Barriers to Belonging: An exploration of loneliness among people from Black, Asia and Minority Ethnic Backgrounds’ (British Red Cross, 2019), 12, original report available for download at https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/we-speak-up-for-change/barriers-to-belonging#Key%20findings; ‘Loneliness and the Workplace: 2020 U.S.

The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future
by Julia Hobsbawm
Published 11 Apr 2022

The next phase is likely to be more focused on enabling better real-time but remote collaboration.24 Josh Greene, who used to be in the senior leadership team at WeWork before creating Groove,25 his own start-up, makes the point about how technology away from an office needs to mimic the old norms of when people sat side by side: People don’t feel part of anything in their work or not enough, and hybrid working increases this alienation. We’re focusing on building a more informal, more evolved kind of interface for people to connect with each other as during real-time online use. I like to say it’s like Slack for the TikTok generation. People’s expectations are now mobile, their expectations are immersive, their expectations are customisable, which factors in feedback, ideas, a jam over twenty minutes of coffee or its digital equivalent. People want profound, small, short interactions and new social platforms which mimic those interactions and networks as consciously designed as possible.

Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future
by Ed Conway
Published 15 Jun 2023

That generation of Chinese students came home and, rather than establishing a hardware industry, they used what they had learned in the US to set up internet services firms. Rather than building the new titans of the Material World, this generation of Chinese entrepreneurs built retail giant Alibaba, TenCent (which owns WeChat) and ByteDance (which owns TikTok). In steel production, cement, manufacturing, distribution and even social media, China has managed to catch up and even overtake the rest. But not, crucially, in semiconductors, for while it has begun to dominate in less complex, lower value silicon chip manufacture, Chinese fabs still trail those leading-edge designs, however much money and effort they expend.

…

B. 400 , 421 straws, plastic 359 , 360 Street House, North Yorkshire: Anglo-Saxon cemetery 126 sulphates 168 sulphides, seafloor 295 , 299 sulphur 164 , 181 , 220 , 223 , 228 , 321 , 329 , 364 Sumitomo Metal Mining 407–8 supply chains 9 , 11–12 , 17 , 437–40 Surfside, Florida 81 Swan, Joseph 263 Swansea, Wales: copper refineries 260–61 , 262 , 263 Sweden armour-plated steel 229 Kiruna iron mine 247 , 271 Kopparberg 259 shortage of concrete 84 swords 199–200 , 225 sylvite 179 , 180 , 181 Syracuse, New York 132 , 148 , 157 tailings 270 , 272 , 293 , 300 Tainan, Taiwan 107–8 Taiwan 34 , 59 , 65 , 107 , 115 , 116 , 119 , 120 , 148 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 13 , 93 , 108–10 , 112 , 114–15 , 116 , 119 , 120 , 128 , 212 Tata Chemicals (company) 155 , 357 , 358 TDK (company) 402 Teal, Gordon 102n tectonic plates 42–3 , 178 , 291 Tees, River 188 , 189 Teesside 10 , 155 , 187 , 188 , 189 , 328 , 358 tektites 31 telescopes 36 , 48 , 49 Ten Cents War see Saltpetre War Tenabo, Mount, Nevada 2 , 3 , 13 TenCent (company) 115 Tennessee: electricity 251 , 255 Tesla, Nikola/Tesla (company) 58 , 264 , 399 , 403 , 407 , 421 , 427 Gigafactory Nevada 399–400 , 403–4 , 405 , 406–7 , 408 , 422 Texas fracking 322–4 Gigafactory 399 oil and gas 321 , 322 , 330 , 335 Permian Basin 324–5 , 365 wind power 431 Texas Instruments 108 , 115 , 118 Theophilus Presbyter 200n thermoplastics 356 ThyssenKrupp steel plants 207 Tianjin, China 78–9 Goldin Finance 117 (‘Walking Stick’) 79 , 80 Tierney, John 325–6 TikTok 115 tin 21 , 219 , 259 , 277–8 , 416 and bronze 258–9 Titanic , sinking of the 228–9 Titusville, Pennsylvania: oil 312 Tokyo 65 , 234 Tokyo Electron (company) 119 tomatoes, growing 345–8 , 349–50 Tore, Corrado 390 Townshend Arms, Cheshire 149 toys, plastic 354 trains braking systems 41–2 see also rails, train transformers 225 , 254 , 288 , 429 , 436 transistors 89 , 90 , 91 , 93 , 99–100 , 109 and n , 112 , 429 tritium 376 Trump, Donald 204 , 205 , 411 Trumpf (company) 93 , 113 Tskitishvili, Enver 195 , 210 , 211 , 212 , 213 TSMC see Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company tundishes 226 tungsten 53 , 277 , 278 Tupperware 354 turbines 257 , 435–6 see also wind turbines Turkey 47 , 95 , 217 , 225 , 258 boron 20 chromium 225 Neolithic ruins 75 sand 32 Tutankhamen’s treasures dagger 217 glass beetle 217 necklace 27–8 , 30 , 217 TWINSCAN NXE:3600D 112–13 Tyne Bridge 125 U Thant 276 Udden-Wentworth scale 32–3 , 95 Ukraine Azov Regiment 211 , 212 cements 83 coal industry 208 German invasion (1941) 196 iron and steel industry 206 , 208–9 , 247 ; see also Mariupol neon production 209 Russian invasion (2022) 19 , 20 , 161 , 180 , 195 , 210 , 225 , 292 , 319 , 350 , 365 , 438 Umicore (company) 418–19 , 421 , 422–3 , 434 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 297 Union Minière du Haut-Katanga 416–18 United Nations Environment Programme 70 United States of America axes 224 and China 104 , 115 , 205 , 207 , 411 Civil War 135 copper mining 261 , 268 , 284 , 303 and deep-sea mining 298 electricity 251–2 , 255 , 256 , 262 , 263 , 264 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 3 Federal Highway Administration 80–81 Food and Drug Administration 354 Geological Survey 286 fracking 322–5 , 365 invasion of Okinawa (1945) 213 iron and steel industry 207 , 208 , 224 , 237 , 244–5 oil industry 312–13 , 320–21 , 330 , 335 , 339–42 and Project SLOOP 303 salt mines/salt trade 132 , 144–5 , 148 , 155–6 , 157 and Saudi Arabia 320–21 stockpiled minerals 410–12 Strategic Petroleum Reserve 161 War of Independence 135 see also Texas ; Utah uranium 53 , 243 , 257 , 415 , 416 , 434 US Steel 208 , 237 , 246 Utah copper mine 268 Great Salt Lake 372 Vale (company) 247 , 261 Valium 152 Valley Grown Nurseries, Lea Valley 347–8 vanadium 53 , 225 , 227 vancomycin 152 Veeco (company) 119 Venezuela: oil 321 , 329 , 330 Venice 40–41 Murano glassmakers 35 , 40 salt trade 132–4 video cameras 383 , 401 Vietnam 68 vinyl 355 Vitruvius 340 VLCCs (very large crude carriers) 361–2 Volkswagen (company) 407 Volta, Alessandro 377–8 Wacker (company) 13 , 97–8 , 205 Wald, George 276 Wales copper refineries 260–61 iron and steel industry see Port Talbot silicon-chip manufacturers 212 Walkley, Brant 83 Walraven, Veronique 46 War of the Pacific see Saltpetre War Warmingham, Cheshire 143 , 145–6 , 149–51 water softeners 146 Watson-Watt, Sir Robert 353 Watt, James: steam engines 221 Weaver, Neil 101 , 103–4 Weaver, River 155 , 357 Webb, Brad 240 WeChat (company) 115 Wesseling oil refinery, Cologne 327 , 330 , 332–3 , 334–5 , 337 , 338 , 342–3 , 344 , 431–2 , 434 Westinghouse, George 262 , 263 , 264 , 288 Whaleback, Mount, Australia 234 , 237 whales, sperm 311 , 312 Whan-O (company) 353 wheat 275 , 348 , 441 Whitby, North Yorkshire 1887, 188 , 189 Woodsmith polyhalite mine 187–8 Whittingham, Stan 380 , 381 , 383 Wickham, Henry 51n Wieliczka salt mine, Krakow, Poland 144 Wilkinson, John 221 Wimbledon tennis courts 187 wind turbines 15 , 257 , 273 , 319 , 373 , 427 , 432 , 435 , 436 offshore 288 , 427 , 433 , 435 recycling blades 420 window tax 54–5 Winnington, Cheshire: ICI lab 357–8 Winsford mine, Cheshire 158–9 , 160–61 , 181 wood 218 , 222 , 429 shortages 218 and n , 219 Woodward, Harry Page 235 World Economic Forum (2015) 229 World War, First 46–52 , 56 , 152 , 170 , 173 , 174 , 180 , 336 , 440 World War, Second 57 , 134–5 , 195–6 , 211 , 225 , 229 , 299 , 333 , 336–9 , 352–3 , 410 , 439 Wotsits 146 Wright, Frank Lloyd 80 Wright, Theodore: Wright’s law 427–8 , 429 , 437 , 442 Xi Jinping 119 Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China 104 Yangtze River 69–70 Yemen 320 , 363 Yoshino, Akira 382 , 383 Zambia: cobalt 294 Zechstein Sea 177 , 178–9 , 180 , 181 , 182 Zeiss, Carl 48 , 52 , 56 , 93 , 113 , 114 , 381 Zeng, Robin 409 zinc 17 , 219 , 377 , 415 sub-sea 295 THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING Find us online and join the conversation Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/penguinukbooks Like us on Facebook facebook.com/penguinbooks Share the love on Instagram instagram.com/penguinukbooks Watch our authors on YouTube youtube.com/penguinbooks Pin Penguin books to your Pinterest pinterest.com/penguinukbooks Listen to audiobook clips at soundcloud.com/penguin-books Find out more about the author and discover your next read at penguin.co.uk EBURY UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia New Zealand | India | South Africa Ebury is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com .

Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China's Countryside
by Xiaowei Wang
Published 12 Oct 2020

A good seller builds an energetic rapport with the viewer, just like Kristie with her Krazy Kultured pearls. The popularity of livestream is deeply tied to your income bracket. Few elite urbanites, whose lives are dictated by the rhythms of white-collar work, consistently watch livestream, although most will use the Douyin (TikTok) app to watch short, recorded videos. Kuaishou’s meteoric rise as one of the most popular apps in China is due precisely to its stronghold in rural areas. A large-scale study on Kuai by the anthropologist Chris Tan shows that Kuaishou’s users are typically under twenty-five, without a college degree, living in rural or low-tier cities.

Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness
by Tim S. Grover and Shari Wenk
Published 17 May 2021

An employee is complaining to everyone that he deserves a raise and promotion, but his sales are the lowest on the team? WTF will point that out. Someone is upset because she didn’t get a pat on the back for doing something she was supposed to do? WTF is there to remind her: You’re supposed to do that, it’s your job. The boss spends most of his workday making TikTok videos? WTF will be stopping by. Be your own WTF Department. Hold yourself accountable. If you’re not winning, if you’re going to bed every night and waking up the next day hoping things will be better, if you’re spending more time creating a false image of yourself as a winner than investing in ways to stop being a loser, it’s time to drink up the truth.

Things That Matter: Overcoming Distraction to Pursue a More Meaningful Life
by Joshua Becker
Published 19 Apr 2022

It’s so easy for the applause to replace the goals as your objective. Or maybe it’s just praise seeking in general that’s causing you problems. One of the reasons people don’t get around to pursuing the things and people that matter is that they’re spending too much time trying to impress the boss or fuming over how little noticed they are or making TikTok dance videos they hope will go viral. If you care about pursuing and accomplishing your life goals above all lesser occupations, you need to deal with the distractibility of applause. And the answer for too much applause is…more applause. Just not for you. I’ll be getting to what I mean by that soon.

Working Hard, Hardly Working
by Grace Beverley

It’s people talking about us all the time, so that we formulate opinions of what it’s like to be part of this generation and this working world without even knowing what we think ourselves. We are being inspected from all angles, binoculars out, waiting for the whole of Gen Z’s age bracket to join the workforce, to see what we’re really like, whether we can really work or whether all we know are TikTok dances. We’re allowing ourselves to be told who we are and what we want, and letting that speak for us before we even know what we want to speak about ourselves. But we have every right to reject this rhetoric, to clarify how we work in this world of interconnectivity and distraction, to redefine what purpose and productivity and everything in between means to us.

Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future
by Ben Tarnoff
Published 13 Jun 2022

Gandy Jr., The Panoptic Sort: A Political Economy of Personal Information (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021 [1993]). 93, In short, in the early … The other important development at Google in this period was the launch of AdSense in 2003, which extended the AdWords model into the wider web by enabling site owners to sell space to advertisers and split the money with Google. See Levy, In the Plex, 103–8. 93, The innovations of 2002 … “Black boxes inside …”: Shoshana Wodinsky, “It Doesn’t Matter Who Owns TikTok,” Gizmodo, August 7, 2020. For more on ad auctions, see Shengwu Li, interview by Logic, “The Art of Eyeball Harvesting: Shengwu Li on Online Advertising,” Logic, January 1, 2019. Google plans to upend the existing web advertising ecosystem by eliminating support for third-party tracking cookies from its popular Chrome browser and introducing a new ad-targeting technique, which is expected to be implemented in 2023; see Shoshana Wodinsky, “Google’s Quest to Kill the Cookie Is Creating a Privacy Shitshow,” Gizmodo, June 11, 2021.

Walled Culture: How Big Content Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Keep Creators Poor
by Glyn Moody
Published 26 Sep 2022

These are the modern so-called ‘influencers’, who typically earn a cut of advertising that is placed alongside their material. Influencers who gain a large following on social media might also garner lucrative sponsorship deals. However, earning an income in this way places creators at the mercy of the major platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Creators have no control over the percentage of advertising revenue that they receive, and are subject to arbitrary decisions about what can and cannot be posted. Accounts can be shut down without apparent cause, and with few rights to challenge such decisions, as Giblin has pointed out: “Creators shouldn’t have to choose between Big Content and Big Tech.

Still Broke: Walmart's Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism
by Rick Wartzman
Published 15 Nov 2022

Under his direction, the company would, in time, winnow its foreign presence; buy the e-commerce site Jet.com for more than $3 billion—and then shut it down; otherwise rev up its online business by introducing new services and expanding its stable of third-party sellers; unveil a subscription program, akin to Amazon Prime, called Walmart+; build local fulfillment centers—compact warehouses powered by robotics and artificial intelligence—right in its stores; dive into digital advertising; cultivate customers on TikTok, the viral video app; venture into the metaverse and the worlds of cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens; deliver products by drone and driverless truck; put groceries right into people’s fridges while they weren’t home; open health clinics and offer medical insurance; launch a financial technology startup; buy the menswear company Bonobos; buy and sell the women’s apparel company ModCloth; beef up its fashion brands by hiring a creative director, Brandon Maxwell, who, as Vogue observed, was in a coterie of designers who typically took on engagements in Paris or Milan, not Bentonville; and much, much more.

Makers
by Chris Anderson
Published 1 Oct 2012

Other examples include Scott Wilson, a former creative director at Nike. With his connections, he didn’t need crowdfunding for his idea for a special strap that could turn an iPod Nano into a wristwatch. But he chose that route anyway because he wanted the direct feedback and simplicity of the Kickstarter process. His TikTok+LunaTik proposal raised nearly a million dollars. Sixty days after his Kickstarter fund-raising period closed in December 2010, Wilson shipped more than twenty thousand of the watch cases. What Wilson avoided by going this route was the prosaic path of corporate product development: layers and layers of approval processes, which tend to favor the conventionally tried and true over real innovation.

The Rise of Carry: The Dangerous Consequences of Volatility Suppression and the New Financial Order of Decaying Growth and Recurring Crisis
by Tim Lee , Jamie Lee and Kevin Coldiron
Published 13 Dec 2019

For many of today’s most interesting companies, their cumulative advantage—not their technology or superior products (let alone oil reserves or car factories)—is their greatest asset, and even more tellingly, their cumulative advantage is often explicitly invoked as being at the heart of their bull case. Outside the business world, franchises and sequels seem to be spreading unstoppably across all entertainment markets; recent years have seen the invention of the “Instagram influencer” and the rise of new forms of celebrity on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and more. And today the youngest self-made billionaire 188 THE RISE OF CARRY in history built her empire off the back of a reality TV show that was primarily popularized by a leaked sex tape. The central thesis of this book is that cumulative advantage effects in financial markets are more pronounced today than at any other point in the postwar period: the carry regime.

12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next
by Jeanette Winterson
Published 15 Mar 2021

We don’t want our kids working in sweatshops, but we seem unconcerned about exploitation via their phones. That includes addictive gaming and porn habits, as well as the suicidal misery of ‘likes’. Data collection that starts early in life amounts to a conquest of that life. And, as we have seen in the stand-off between China and Hong Kong, forced data removal from popular sharing sites like TikTok can be used to persecute or prosecute young people, to monitor their behaviour, and no doubt to influence their political ‘choices’ later. In China’s case the data-snatch is clearly political. That’s not the point though. China is doing in an obvious way what is being done quietly and covertly in the ‘free’ Western world every day.

The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation
by Cathy O'Neil
Published 15 Mar 2022

Are there other examples you can think of that weren’t discussed in the book? 4. Who is most affected by the Shame Machine? Are there ways in which you see yourself affected by it? Are there ways you see yourself as part of it? 5. Discuss the relationship between the Shame Machine and social media. Do you feel platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok have made the Shame Machine more powerful? 6. Discuss the impact—intentional or not—of influencers on the Shame Machine. Do you follow any? Do you see them as healthy or unhealthy? 7. Developing awareness of the dignity violations we commit daily represents the first step toward dismantling shame machines.

Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software
by Nadia Eghbal
Published 3 Aug 2020

Cassidy Williams is a software engineer who teaches React development. She also writes a weekly newsletter, live-codes on Twitch, has a Patreon with its own private channel hosted on chat app Discord, offers classes on the online learning platforms Udemy and Skillshare, and posts viral fifteen-second videos on the social video app TikTok, as well as to her nearly 90,000 followers on Twitter. There is no other social platform more prominently associated with developers than GitHub. And yet, Williams’s GitHub profile reveals hardly anything about her, except that she must be popular for something, given that she has a few thousand followers.

Fed Up!: Success, Excess and Crisis Through the Eyes of a Hedge Fund Macro Trader
by Colin Lancaster
Published 3 May 2021

It’s no wonder that they gulp down every OxyContin pill they can get their hands on. “Now I get why everyone is on Instagram,” the Rabbi says. “Why?” Jerry asks. “You can make things seem better than they really are,” he says. He goes on. “The new American dream: Get a million followers and make it big. Five minutes of TikTok fame. My mom wanted me to be a doctor or an accountant. That was her dream. She still doesn’t know what I do. She thinks I’m a stockbroker.” “Your bedside manner would have sucked,” I say. “Yeah, and there’s no way I could get a million followers. I’m not photogenic enough. I’d be screwed if I were growing up today

Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond
by Tamara Kneese
Published 14 Aug 2023

Twitter, like many other tech companies, saw the UFADAA and its revised version as a simple solution to a complex problem. According to Yip, the “uniform law” is not the savior that many tech companies believe it to be. Legally, tech companies cannot make a contract with someone who is under eighteen, so the law does not apply to minors, who encompass a large percentage of users on Snapchat, Twitch, and TikTok as well as YouTube and Instagram. Yip notes that the law and tech platforms should look at both the original intentions and use of each platform. Shutterfly, Flickr, and Snapchat are not about long-term storage, so why would these platforms have to pass on the accounts to someone else? With its “broad, sweeping language,” UFADAA is not nuanced enough to cover all of the moving parts of a digital estate or to account for incapacitation.

How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement
by Fredrik Deboer
Published 4 Sep 2023

The case was represented, by people across the political spectrum, as a bellwether. What signaled a new era was not merely that Depp won his case and was awarded a decision in the millions of dollars but rather that there was a large pro-Depp movement online, particularly among young women on the social media video app TikTok. The pro-Depp sentiment went viral, and the age and gender makeup of those who championed it cut directly against assumptions about who would most likely support #MeToo. There was a time when it would have been unthinkable for hashtags in support of accused abusers to trend on Twitter, but pro-Depp topics trended on a daily basis during the trial.

Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World
by Mo Gawdat
Published 29 Sep 2021

Where is the utopia that tech was supposed to bring to our civilization when we are on the brink of a dystopia of climate change and the mass extinction of all that we know to be beautiful and precious? And yet, although every promise has been missed, we still believe in the next shiny app from Instagram or TikTok or Clubhouse. Now it will all be fixed with AI, they say. What will be fixed? Life has always been fixed. It’s only what we did to it that needs to be removed. Nothing needs to be enhanced with more additions. Removal of all the excess is all we really need. Every tech, in moderation, has made our lives better.

The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America's Institutions Against Dissent
by Ben Shapiro
Published 26 Jul 2021

That time came in 2020, by which time Groves was a senior, headed to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to be part of the cheer team. During the Black Lives Matter protests, Groves made the critical error of supporting BLM; she posted to Instagram urging comrades to “protest, donate, sign a petition, rally, do something.” And so Galligan struck. He posted the old video to Snapchat, TikTok, and Twitter. Groves was booted from the University of Tennessee cheer team, then withdrew from UT altogether thanks to the social media frenzy. An admissions officer said that the university had received “hundreds of emails and phone calls from outraged alumni, students and the public.” The Times reported this story, not as a horrific attempt by a vicious grandstander to destroy a girl’s life, but as a referendum on the “power of social media to hold people of all ages accountable.”

This Book Could Fix Your Life: The Science of Self Help
by New Scientist and Helen Thomson
Published 7 Jan 2021

When you think about the jolts of dopamine that we’re getting from our digital devices, it’s really not surprising that we are liable to walk out into the road and into a passing car because our nose is in our phone. But aside from the danger of not paying attention to the road, or wasting time watching videos of cats and TikTok dances, is this habit really damaging? Is my daughter really going to get square eyes? One problem with satisfactorily answering these questions is that ‘screen time’ covers a multitude of purposes. We might be using it to bank, to create photo albums, to chat with colleagues. We use screens for work and play, to record physical activity, to monitor sleep.

Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power
by Rose Hackman
Published 27 Mar 2023

It does this by managing to con us—once more—into believing that women fueling these multibillion-dollar industries aren’t workers at all. Because who is driving these types of industries but women like Ari: women putting themselves in the public eye, for other people’s pleasure, consumption, and viewership, either on physical stages or on virtual ones like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Instead of understanding the role they are playing in an economy, we continue to be sidetracked into absurd conversations that viciously police the perceived exchange of money for sex, money for femininity. We are led to believe that these conversations are about the deservedness of a few women at the top, the celebrities who have made it, in part through their bodies: the reality TV stars, the influencers, the singers, the actresses.

Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong About the Future of Transportation
by Paris Marx
Published 4 Jul 2022

Light, “Developing the Virtual Landscape,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 14:2, 1996, p. 127. 31 Ibid., pp. 127–9. 32 Benjamin Peters, “A Network Is Not a Network,” in Your Computer Is on Fire, MIT Press, 2020, p. 87. 33 Ibid., p. 85. 34 Evgeny Morozov, To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism, PublicAffairs, 2013, p. 6. 35 Ibid., p. 5. 36 Jarrett Walker, “The Dangers of Elite Projection,” Human Transit (blog), July 31, 2017, Humantransit.org. 37 Adrian Daub, What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley, FSG Originals, 2020, p. 36. 38 Luis F. Alvarez León and Jovanna Rosen, “Technology as Ideology in Urban Governance,” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 110:2, 2020, p. 500. 39 “Instagram Boss Adam Mosseri on Teenagers, Tik-Tok and Paying Creators,” Recode Media, September 16, 2021. 3. Greenwashing the Electric Vehicle 1 David A. Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, Rutgers University Press, 2000, p. 30. 2 Ibid., p. 63. 3 Kirsch, The Electric Vehicle and the Burden of History, p. 6. 4 Annie Kelly, “Apple and Google Named in US Lawsuit over Congolese Child Cobalt Mining Deaths,” Guardian, December 16, 2019, Theguardian.com. 5 Elsa Dominish, Sven Teske, and Nick Florin, Responsible Minerals Sourcing for Renewable Energy, report prepared for Earthworks by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, 2019, Earthworks.org. 6 Siddharth Kara, “I Saw the Unbearable Grief Inflicted on Families by Cobalt Mining.

Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History
by Ben Mezrich
Published 6 Nov 2023

The desk was empty, save for an open laptop and his now-shattered burner. The laptop’s screen flickered with activity, and if one looked closely, one might have noticed a cascade of open windows, each blinking out a signature page of a different social media platform. From a royal flush of more well-known, international behemoths like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and Twitter, to a rainbow of less heralded, less international companies, like Taringa, Xing, VKontakte, and Douban. Rising up from his chair, Fyodr turned away from his desk and started toward the pair of double doors beyond the couch. As he went, he passed the only window: a pair of winterized panes, so thick they were nearly opaque.

Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World
by Joshua Paul Dale
Published 15 Dec 2023

After she attracted millions of followers, Kizuna AI was featured in promotional campaigns by the Japan National Tourist Organization in 2018.34 Kizuna AI was created by a team of professionals who remain anonymous in order to aid the suspension of disbelief and make the character seem more ‘real’.35 They use Hollywood-quality motion-capture equipment and the voiceover talents of a professional actress. However, since her debut Kizuna AI has been joined by thousands of other VTubers, both amateur and professional, who livestream content on platforms like YouTube, Twitch and TikTok. Many create a 2D virtual avatar by using special software that captures their facial movements from a smartphone or webcam. Video-game controllers can add pre-programmed movements to their avatar with the touch of a button. An avatar’s long hair might sway back and forth to match the operator’s movements.

The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey Into China's Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future
by Geoffrey Cain
Published 28 Jun 2021

Hong Kong was effectively turned into an authoritarian state under Chinese rule.26 Armed with a new arsenal of military technologies, China sped up a project of ongoing territorial expansion backed by its national vision. In June 2020, skirmishes between Chinese and Indian military forces in the Himalayas resulted in sixty deaths. India, fearful of Chinese spying and cyber-infiltration, joined the United States in proposing bans on the Chinese-made apps TikTok and WeChat. In October 2020, China broadcast a video showing a simulated invasion of Taiwan, and sent fighter jets threateningly close to its airspace. China had long sought to “reclaim” Taiwan, ever since anti-communist forces were given control of the island in October 1945 and the Chinese Communist Party took power in mainland China in 1949.27 Throughout 2020, China undermined international law by claiming large swathes of the South China Sea, where it harassed American, Indian, Vietnamese, and other countries’ naval vessels.28 As China continued to strengthen its vast censorship apparatus, it imprisoned a tycoon and two professors who criticized Xi Jinping’s leadership and China’s response to Covid-19.29 In November, retaliating against Australia, China imposed tariffs of up to 212 percent on Australian wine, cutting off the industry’s biggest export market.

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
by Michael Lewis
Published 2 Oct 2023

People behind Sam were scurrying back and forth with all the hustle and bustle of people in the middle of their workday. Whatever Sam actually said on that first call, Ramnik heard mainly a sound he’d nearly forgotten. It was the sound of passion. He took a job with FTX, at an 80 percent pay cut to what he’d been making at Facebook (and at a 95 percent discount to what TikTok was offering). Between Alameda and FTX, he was Sam’s fiftieth hire. His title was Head of Product, which was weird, as Ramnik didn’t know anything about the product. On the Zoom call, Sam had said that he actually had no idea what Ramnik might do for FTX but that they’d figure out something. Once Ramnik moved to Hong Kong, his absence of a purpose became a problem.

How to Stand Up to a Dictator
by Maria Ressa
Published 19 Oct 2022

For Ramona Diaz, Leah Marino, and the Frontline team led by Raney Aronson, who documented all we were living through. Thank you for helping us shine the light. A Thousand Cuts is part of more than 800 hours they spent with us. For my friends in the technology companies, Google, Facebook (now Meta), Twitter, and Tiktok, among them Richard Gingras, Kate Beddoe, Madhav Chinnappa, Irene Jay Liu, Kathleen Reen, Nathaniel Gleicher, Brittan Heller, and the many who have tried to help. For my friends at the UN and UNESCO, who always come through, including former special rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye and his successor, Irene Khan.

App Kid: How a Child of Immigrants Grabbed a Piece of the American Dream
by Michael Sayman
Published 20 Sep 2021

Which is why I’m optimistic that in the coming years, as coding becomes a more commonplace skill, the Anyone Can Generation will begin building us all a fairer and more equitable Internet. And I’m sure they’ll do it in some pretty creative ways. Think about it. These are kids who feel confident expressing themselves to the world as kids never have before—putting themselves out there in vlogs, TikTok routines, Instagram Live stories, and a million other ways. I love the fact that Disney and ABC and CNN now have to compete with eighteen-year-old LGBT YouTubers who grew up taking selfies. I love the fact that Latino teenagers—even while under daily assault by our government and its policies—can come home from school and create safe spaces to share their talents and stories.

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
by Jia Tolentino
Published 5 Aug 2019

But Zuckerberg, in picking up on the fact that we would sell our identities in exchange for simply being visible, was riding a wave that had been growing for a long time. The Real World started airing when Zuckerberg was eight, Survivor and The Bachelor while he was in high school. Friendster was founded his freshman year of college. Soon after Facebook came YouTube in 2005, Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010, Snapchat in 2011. Now children are going viral on TikTok; gamers make millions streaming their lives on Twitch. The two most prominent families in politics and culture—the Trumps and the Kardashians—have risen to the top of the food chain because of their keen understanding of how little substance is required to package the self as an endlessly monetizable asset.

Vaxxers: The Inside Story of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine and the Race Against the Virus
by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green
Published 7 Jul 2021

Scientists do not always agree with each other, but we argue our case based on data, and the papers we publish are peer-reviewed and made publicly available. We are prepared to back up our claims with evidence, and to change our minds if the evidence changes. If you are thinking of buying a new pair of leggings, the latest teen millionaire on TikTok or a former actor selling smelly candles may be an excellent source of advice. If you are concerned about your health, you need to hear from someone who can back up what they are telling you with solid data. More positively, the pandemic has also driven an interest in and respect for science and scientists that I hope will endure.

MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, and How to Survive Them
by Nouriel Roubini
Published 17 Oct 2022

That’s where most value resides these days. If trade in goods pushes policy toward balkanization, what price will we pay for trade restraints on intangibles? When we go beyond the realm of goods, the urge to deglobalize makes everything curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Wonderland might say. Case in point: technology. We worry about TikTok collecting data about our teenagers and how the Chinese will use it or whether Grindr, a gay dating app owned by a Chinese media company, opens a door to blackmailing users. That makes partial sense. But now the Chinese complain that every Chinese driver with a Tesla is unwittingly giving information on where she goes and what he does.

The Price of Life: In Search of What We're Worth and Who Decides
by Jenny Kleeman
Published 13 Mar 2024

‘We believe by taking this responsible approach, we will help patients benefit from this transformative medical innovation and generate significant cost savings,’ he said. This silver bullet that promised to solve all Edward’s problems wasn’t yet approved by NICE, and cost six times the price of their family home. Megan opened new social media accounts, setting herself up as @SMA_mumma on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, connecting with families of kids with SMA and gaining thousands of followers from around the world. She created a JustGiving page to crowdsource funds to take Edward to the US for private treatment. She gave interviews to her local paper, trying to drum up support and donations. She raised tens of thousands of pounds within a couple of months.

A Shot to Save the World: The Inside Story of the Life-Or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine
by Gregory Zuckerman
Published 25 Oct 2021

Most were unnecessary and unexpected blunders from a group that should have known better—to many, Hill and his colleagues seemed like a talented Premier League team undone by inexplicable and ugly own goals. Some members of the media were rather tart in their critiques. “Like a baby boomer dancing on TikTok it’s impossible to look at AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine efforts without a feeling of disbelief bordering on disgust,” Adam Feuerstein of STAT said. “One missed step after another, almost all self-inflicted.” By the summer of 2021, Oxford and AstraZeneca hadn’t even asked U.S. authorities to allow their Covid-19 shots in America.

The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
by Orly Lobel
Published 17 Oct 2022

For example, the New York Times recently reported how overseas content moderators tasked with tagging photos for an AI system that would automatically remove explicit material had classified all images of same-sex couples as “indecent.”12 Legal scholar Ari Waldman has documented many similar examples—YouTube’s AI flagging gay or queer images and not their heterosexual equivalent, Instagram flagging topless images of plus-size Black women with their arms covering their breasts but not of similarly posing thin white women, TikTok banning hashtags like #gay, #transgender, and #Iamagay/lesbian in some jurisdictions.13 AI scholar and activist Kate Crawford notes, “Every classification system in machine learning contains a worldview. Every single one.”14 We need to be mindful of the impact of these biases as systems are built.

Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions
by Temple Grandin, Ph.d.
Published 11 Oct 2022

The world didn’t come to me through syntax and grammar. It came through images. But unlike what Descartes or Chomsky might have expected, even without language my thoughts are rich and vivid. The world comes to me in a series of associated visual images, like scrolling through Google Images or watching the short videos on Instagram or TikTok. It’s true that I now have language, but I still think primarily in pictures. People often confuse visual thinking with vision. We will see throughout this book that visual thinking is not about how we see but about how the brain processes information; how we think and we perceive. Because the world I was born into did not yet distinguish between different ways of thinking, it was disconcerting to discover that other people didn’t think the same way I did.

Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World
by Henry Grabar
Published 8 May 2023

But the flip side of this was that any busybody with a copy of The High Cost of Free Parking could get up and make a pitch to help save an old mill from the wrecking ball or make the case for counting curb spaces toward the parking requirement for a new group of houses. Tony Jordan was one such gadfly. He was the most single-minded parking reformer I ever saw, bursting with energy. He sent me messages about parking at all hours and channeled his enthusiasm into a TikTok account, @nofreeparking, where he used costumes, music, and special effects to spread the good word. And Tony wasn’t a planner, an architect, or an engineer. He was just a guy who read a blog post about Shoup and asked his wife to order The High Cost of Free Parking on Interlibrary Loan to their apartment in Portland, Oregon.

Billionaires' Row: Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World's Most Exclusive Skyscrapers
by Katherine Clarke
Published 13 Jun 2023

The developers had already accepted an offer on the unit when they got a second offer from Gavin Wood, one of the founders of Ethereum, the blockchain-based computer network. (The unit went to the first, unidentified buyer.) Tim Gong, an executive whose firm owned a major stake in the parent company of social media giant TikTok, bought two units at the building for $34 million. At Central Park Tower, new buyers included Nicole Mendelsohn, the vice president of the global business group at Meta, Facebook’s parent company, which was then in the midst of doubling down on the digital realm known as the metaverse. The rise of the crypto billionaire upset the normal process for how brokers did their due diligence on buyers, forcing them to rely on screenshots of Coinbase accounts and gossip on the social networking site Reddit rather than on traditional bank statements or W2s.

Shutdown: How COVID Shook the World's Economy
by Adam Tooze
Published 15 Nov 2021

When Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed in the Himalayas in June, in the worst border violence since 1975, it did not end well for the Indians. Dozens were killed and China ended up in control of 600 square miles of extra territory in the disputed Ladakh region.74 The ensuing patriotic protests led to a boycott of Chinese cell phones and apps like TikTok. But India could not afford a Cold War. For all India’s recent growth, Beijing’s defense budget was almost four times that of India and its economy six times bigger. China’s economic and financial weight was simply too great, and it was making itself felt in India’s immediate vicinity. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were all clients of China’s One Belt One Road program.

Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno
by Nancy Jo Sales
Published 17 May 2021

I took pictures of myself naked in my room with a camera on a tripod, lolling around on my bed. It’s amazing to think of how these photos came back from the lab without a hitch—it was a different time, as they say. If there had been an Internet back then, my boobs would have been all over it. I would have been doing all kinds of dances on TikTok. Looking back, I can see that none of this actually had anything to do with sex—it was sexualization, a most powerful form of social conditioning which grooms girls to turn themselves into sex objects, and can make them anxious and depressed, among other things, studies say. For here I was, a proud little feminist, now furiously pedaling my bike to Walgreens to buy more lip gloss instead of to Waldenbooks to buy more books.

Narcotopia
by Patrick Winn
Published 30 Jan 2024

Though the BBC’s description of Wa State as “one of the most secretive places on earth” still holds truth, it’s less accurate than ever before, thanks to social media. Two China-based phone applications are popular in Wa State: WeChat, a superapp on which users share photos and videos, and Douyin, the Chinese-language version of TikTok. These apps offer glimpses into Wa people’s lives. Some online videos live up to Wa State’s ultragritty rep. I’ve watched competitive slap fights in Panghsang nightclubs. A mob tying a thief to a basketball goal with rope and whacking him with flip-flops. Even a public execution: three Chinese nationals, accused of murdering a Wa gold shop owner, led up a muddy hill and shot.5 But cheerful scenes outnumber these grim posts.

Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization
by Harold James
Published 15 Jan 2023

China’s private tech “BAT” firms—Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent—received about 67 percent of digital ad revenues in 2018, up from 61 percent in 2015, and accounted for about half of venture-capital investment in China.77 By the time of the pandemic, it was widely assumed that the power of the tech titans was on the retreat, broken by a trade war between China and the United States that threatened the central connection of ideas from California to Hangzhou and Shanghai. ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, who had developed TikTok, explained that he was retreating in 2021: “I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to better drive real long-term breakthroughs, which cannot simply rely on steady, but incremental, progress.”78 The pandemic allowed a full-scale war of the state against the entrepreneur. The campaign of governments to assert themselves looked especially plausible when other iconic SoftBank engagements in Europe plunged into difficulties as the stress of the pandemic revealed long-standing financial irregularities and fraud.

Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections
by Mollie Hemingway
Published 11 Oct 2021

Barron was not the only one who asserted that the video of Fulton County poll workers did not merit serious consideration. Another group purporting to debunk the video was an outfit called Lead Stories, which relies on funding from Silicon Valley tech giants Google and Facebook, in addition to ByteDance, a Chinese-operated company headquartered in Beijing that operates the social media platform TikTok.27 Lead Stories relied on the same line as the Washington Post, saying, “There was never an announcement made to the media and other observers about the counting being over for the night and them needing to leave, according to [Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state], who was provided information by the media liaison, who was present.”

Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
by Elizabeth Williamson
Published 8 Mar 2022

The media that weekend was awash in coverage, some pondering the ways in which the 9/11 “truther” movement provided a tool kit for the wave of political conspiracists who followed. Kevin Roose, the Times’ technology columnist, did a deep dive on the 2005 homemade video project Loose Change, which eventually reached 100 million people.[8] The video’s “DNA is all over the internet—from TikTok videos about child sex trafficking to Facebook threads about Covid-19 miracle cures,” Roose wrote, all of it urging skeptics, as the Loose Change filmmakers did, to dig in and research the event themselves. That call to action was echoed by Alex Jones, who helped produce a subsequent, slicker version of Loose Change.

Your Computer Is on Fire
by Thomas S. Mullaney , Benjamin Peters , Mar Hicks and Kavita Philip
Published 9 Mar 2021

Simon Kemp, We Are Social Singapore, and Hootsuite, “Digital in 2017: A Global Overview,” LinkedIn (January 24, 2017), https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/digital-2017-global-overview-simon-kemp. 48. Olivia Solon, “‘It’s Digital Colonialism’: How Facebook’s Free Internet Service Has Failed Its Users,” Guardian (July 27, 2017), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/facebook-free-basics-developing-markets. 49. Simon Kemp, “Q2 Digital Statshot 2019: Tiktok Peaks, Snapchat Grows, and We Can’t Stop Talking,” We Are Social (blog) (April 25, 2019), https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/04/the-state-of-digital-in-april-2019-all-the-numbers-you-need-to-know. 16 Typing Is Dead Thomas S. Mullaney In 1985, economist Paul David published the groundbreaking essay “Clio and the Economics of QWERTY,” in which he coined the term “path dependency”—by now one of the most influential economic theories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Politics on the Edge: The Instant #1 Sunday Times Bestseller From the Host of Hit Podcast the Rest Is Politics
by Rory Stewart
Published 13 Sep 2023

Arnison & Sons, 103 Nairobi, Kenya, 199, 225, 231, 261 nanotechnology, 116 Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), 86, 293 Nasiriyah, Iraq, 190 National Anthem, 87 National Citizen Service, 379 National Farmers Union, 177 National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs, 119 National Geographic, 416 National Health Service (NHS), 26, 67, 97, 135, 164, 288, 344 national parks, 153, 157, 160, 167–8, 189 National Security Council, 82, 93, 117, 198, 201, 237–9, 334–5, 369 Strategy for Africa, 237–9 Williamson leaks (2019), 326 Nazi Germany (1933–45), 280, 314 Nelson, Horatio, 1st Viscount, 86, 187, 191, 245 Nepal, 9, 195, 199 New York Times, 24 New Yorker, 48–9 New Zealand, 109 Newsnight, 314, 414 Newton Reigny, Cumbria, 104 Niger, 239 Nigeria, 199, 223, 224, 226, 229 1922 Committee, 383 no-deal Brexit, 279–80, 313, 314, 318, 319 Johnson and, 347, 354–5, 370, 372, 373, 380, 385, 403, 410, 415 leadership election (2019) and, 372, 378, 380, 385, 394, 388–9, 400, 403, 408, 410 leadership speculation (2019) and, 347, 349–52, 354, 356, 369, 370 Norman, Jesse, 54 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 88, 89 North Korea, 227 North Waziristan, 14 Northern Fells, Cumbria, 101 Northern Ireland, 3, 357 backstop proposal, 277, 312, 355, 392, 409 border, 277, 278, 279, 318, 322, 354–5, 356, 380, 382, 409, 412 Good Friday Agreement (1998), 182, 383 Irish Sea border prospects, 323, 344, 356, 372, 381, 392 peace in, 278, 279, 312, 354, 356, 383 sheep farming in, 382, 412 Northern White rhino, 334 Norway, 221 Nottinghamshire, England, 119, 382 Nottingham prison, 281, 287 Nour’s Cash & Carry, Brixton, 253 Nuer people, 221, 222 Number 10 Delivery Unit, 121 O’Brien, James, 395 oak trees, 175–6, 177 Obama, Barack, 14, 16, 32, 81, 84, 131, 145, 146, 186, 221 Öberg, Nils, 282 Occupy Wall Street, 370 Ochil Hills, 29 Offender Manager in Custody (OMIC), 280 Old Admiralty, London, 187, 329 Olympic Games, 344 One Nation, 80–81, 124, 141, 185, 276 general election (2017), 207–9, 343 leadership election (2019), 344, 346–57, 363, 368, 374, 385–6, 389, 400, 402, 404, 415 prorogation of Parliament (2019), 392 open primaries, 39 opium, 378–9 Orissa, India, 38 Orton, Cumbria, 44, 101 Osborne, George, 25, 55, 67–8, 115, 141, 248 air pollution, views on, 163–4 austerity policies, 67–8, 122, 249 broadband and, 110 Cameron, relationship with, 68, 115 cooking skills, 109 general election (2010), 66 general election (2015), 145 House of Lords Reform Bill (2012), 127–8, 141 international development policies, 193 May’s accession (2016), 185 ministerial appointments, 91 Paine, Anthony, 258, 261 pairing whips, 119 Paisley, Ian, 323 Pakistan, 9, 14, 84, 227 Palace of Westminster, London, 50–51, 130–31 Palestine, 205 Panshir Valley, Afghanistan, 14 Parker, Ian, 48 Parkinson’s disease, 100 Parliament, 50–71, 203–4, 317 Afghanistan debate (2010), 84–7 backbenchers, 27–8, 74–6, 124, 141, 203 calendar, 73 committees, 71, 77 debates, 52, 55, 58–65 galleries, 73 legislation, 52–3, 58–61, 118 prayer in, 263 prayer cards in, 76–7 Prime Minister’s Questions, 56–8, 129, 131, 204 rebellion, 61, 75, 118, 149 scandals, 140 ‘slipping’, 118–21 speeches, 61–5 tea rooms, 54, 55, 65, 74, 80, 119, 140 veteran MPs, 74–6 votes, 62–5, 74, 118–21 whips, 53, 59–61, 74, 117–21 Parliament Square, London, 20, 51, 283, 390 parliamentary expenses scandal (2009), 18–19, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 51, 52 Pashtuns, 14 Patel, Priti, 25, 51, 149, 189–90, 218, 286, 329–30 budgets, views on, 189, 190 leadership election (2019), 348 Pattinson, Steve, 278–81 Penrith, Cumbria, 29–30, 38–43, 45, 72, 97, 98, 103, 109, 111, 416 Penrith and the Border, 29–31, 36, 37–49, 59, 62, 71–3, 97–114, 123, 129, 203, 367 auction marts in, 97 banks in, 97 Big Society in, 98–103, 147 Brexit in, 180, 278–9 broadband in, 99–100, 101, 109–11, 119–21, 124 common land in, 97, 101 community ownership in, 97, 101 Conservative leadership election (2019), 384–5 Eden river, 29, 37, 43, 73, 106 emails, 107–8 farming in, see farming floods (2015), 170–76 general election (2015), 147–8 general election (2017), 204 general election (2019), 416 gypsy community, 106–7 hospitals in, 97, 98, 102 hydropower in, 101 magistrates’ courts, 97–8 ministers, visits from, 108–9 mountain rescue in, 59–61, 97, 103 peat works, 98 police stations, 97, 98 pubs in, 97 schools in, 97, 98 Scottish Sun interview (2010), 112–14, 404 snowploughs in, 97, 101, 203 surgeries, 103–6, 135, 203, 325, 367 volunteer fire engines, 97, 98 Penruddock, Cumbria, 367 Pentonville prison, London, 262 Pericles, 214, 227 Peru, 16 Peston, Robert, 395, 404 Peterborough, Northamptonshire, 394 Petraeus, David, 23 Pinocchio tweet (2019), 374 piracy, 187 Pitt, William, 24 plastic bags, 165, 167, 177 Plato, 386 ‘Political Cabinet’, 69 polling, 69 pollution, 160–65, 180 Pooley Bridge, Cumbria, 171 Popalzai, 14, 86 populism, x, 3, 138–9, 180, 317, 324, 393, 396 Portcullis House, London, 25, 54, 266, 325, 383 poverty, 9, 50, 112, 115, 330, 331, 394 prayer cards, 76–7 Prentis, Victoria, 267, 369 Prime Minister’s Questions, 56–8, 129, 131, 204 ‘primitives’ affair (2010), 112–14, 404 Prison Officer of the Year Awards, 273 prison officers, 249, 258–9, 263, 271, 274, 275, 281, 283, 286–7, 301–8 assaults on, 256, 261, 265, 275, 283, 290–94 cell inspections, 275, 280, 282, 287, 292 drugs and, 263, 304 pepper spray, use of, 283–4 sleeping on duty, 301 Standards Coaching Team, 293, 302 strikes, 252, 265, 283–4, 287 training, 274, 280–82, 287, 293, 302 Prison Officers’ Association, 263, 283, 290 prisons, 69, 122–3, 192, 246–75, 280–94, 295, 301–8, 325, 342, 377 assaults in, 256, 261, 265, 275, 283, 290–94, 301–2 austerity and, 249, 270, 274–5 body-scanners in, 263, 282, 287, 288–9, 305 budgets, 269–70, 287–8 cell inspections, 275, 280, 282, 287, 292 checklists, 282, 287, 303 cockroach infestations, 257, 301 drones and, 259, 262, 265, 287 drugs in, 254, 256, 259, 262–4, 268, 270, 275, 282, 287, 290, 302, 305 education in, 270, 299, 303–4 inspections, 254, 256–7, 259, 266–70, 283, 301 litter in, 258–9, 261–2, 273, 287, 290 management, 269–70, 301–8 officers, see prison officers overcrowding, 252, 253–4, 290, 297–8, 299–301 pepper spray in, 283–4 privatisation of, 269–70, 296–7 rat infestations, 259, 301 reoffending and, 262, 270–71, 282, 295–6, 297 riots, 246, 248 sentences, 253, 270–71, 283, 295, 297–8, 299–301 sex offenders in, 252, 256, 293 solitary confinement, 253, 255 strikes, 252, 265, 283–4, 287 suicides in, 253, 258, 261, 280, 287, 299 Ten Prisons Project, 285–94, 370 window breakages in, 256, 257, 262, 265, 269, 287, 290, 291, 304 Probation Service, 249, 250, 251, 295–9 Promoting Risk Intervention by Situational Management (PRISM), 280 prorogation of Parliament (2019), 389–90, 397, 399, 415 public service, 15, 18, 26, 413 seven standards of public life, 52 Pugin Room, House of Commons, 265, 268, 368, 375 purdah, 205 Pushtu language, 12, 14 Putin, Vladimir, 64 Qatar, 231 quangos, 57, 81, 100 Raab, Dominic, 247, 315 leadership election (2019), 371, 374, 385, 396, 398–400, 404, 409 leadership speculation (2019), 343, 351–2, 355, 367, 370 racism, 130, 319, 381 railways, 109, 111, 362, 377–8 Raine family, 45 Rakhine, Myanmar, 196, 197 Reagan, Ronald, 115, 276, 370 red boxes, 152 ‘Red Tape Challenge’, 159 Redwood, John, 68, 318, 348 Rees-Mogg, Jacob, 35–6, 131, 203, 314, 315, 321, 348, 380 Regulus, 214 Remembrance Day, 415 reshuffles, 130, 187, 240, 249, 272 rewilding, x, 45, 175 Rich, Richard, 391 Richard III, King of England, 41, 42 Richards, David, 82 Richardson family, 45, 48 Rifkind, Malcolm, 91 Rinder, Robert, 369 Robinson, Nicholas, 314 robotics, 116, 362, 396 Rogerson, Daniel, 154–5 Rohingya genocide (2016–), 196, 197 Roman Empire, 3, 129, 136 Rosebery, Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl, 217 Royal Air Force (RAF), 134 Royal Engineers, 221 Royal Highland Show, 183 Royal Marines, 170 Royal Navy, 187–8 Royal, Marie-Ségolène, 162 Rudd, Amber, 149, 350, 352–3, 357, 363, 373, 386 Russian Federation, 3, 64, 116, 117, 134, 135, 139, 327, 345 Africa, relations with, 231 Brexit and, 316, 320 Crimea annexation (2014), 135, 138, 139 Johnson and, 219 Rwanda, 80, 223, 231, 338, 340 Safer Custody, 280 Sahel region, 9, 239, 240 al-Sahhaf, Muhammad Saeed (‘Comical Ali’), 318, 347 Sainsbury’s, 41–2 Salisbury, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess, 219 Sangin, Helmand, 57 Sathnam Sanghera, 319 Saudi Arabia, 105, 227 Scandinavia, 21 Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 99–100 Scotland, 9, 18, 26, 29, 31–3, 37, 101, 136–9, 197, 357, 362 Brexit and, 357, 394 devolution, 54 general election (2015), 148 independence referendum (2014), 136–9, 178, 186, 314 local elections (2009), 31–3 ‘middleland’ culture, 137 taxation and, 396 Scott, Walter, 44 Scottish National Party (SNP), 148 Scottish Sun, 112–14 second jobs, 74 Secret Intelligence Service, 17–18, 201, 335 select committees, 77–8, 81, 86 Defence Select Committee, 64, 77, 85, 86, 151, 269, 327, 345 Foreign Affairs Select Committee, 77, 86, 87–90 Justice Select Committee, 266–8 selection, 29–43 selfie-gate (2019), 376–7 Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 89 Serbia, 16 seven standards of public life, 52 sex offenders, 252, 256, 293, 298–9 Shakespeare, William, 70 Shapps, Grant, 146, 147, 209, 276 Sharma, Alok, 51 sheep farming, 38, 39, 40, 44, 45, 46, 124, 182, 189, 382, 412 Sierra Leone, 231, 288 Singapore, 2, 10, 276, 380 Sitka spruce, 176–7 Sittingbourne and Sheppey, 52 Six O’Clock News, 374 Skidmore, Christopher, 54 Sky News, 313, 390, 406 ‘small group’, 201 Smith family, 45 Smith, Jacqui, 19 Snow, Jon, 376 Soames, Nicholas, 119, 120, 208, 288, 322, 369, 386, 393 social care, 206–7, 360, 361, 378, 379, 396 social media, 140, 157 Brexit and, 314, 319, 357 Cameron and, 116, 117 Conservative leadership election (2019), 364, 374, 376–7, 379, 382, 383, 392, 404 Ebola and, 340 Scottish independence referendum (2014), 138 US presidential election (2012), 145 Solway Firth, 43 Somalia, 187, 223, 224, 231 Soros, George, 27 Soubry, Anna, 149, 348 South Africa, 225 South Sudan, 220–23, 231, 279 Soviet Union (1922–91), 116, 245 Soviet–Afghan War (1979–89), 84 Spartans, 321 Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park, 380 special advisers, 70, 80, 121 Special Air Service (SAS), 90 Spectator, 215, 364, 377, 396–7, 404 speeches, 61–5 Spence, Basil, 245 Spencer, Mark, 119 spin, 70 Spurr, Michael, 251–2, 265, 266–8, 273–5, 282–5, 288, 290 St Michael’s, Lancashire, 171 Standards Coaching Team, 293, 302 Starmer, Keir, 321, 322 state-building, 10, 131, 133 Stewart, Brian, 10, 17–18, 26, 136, 374, 394–5 death (2015), 169–70 Defence Committee, views on, 135 Parliament, views on, 65, 97, 137 selection speech (2009) and, 40, 42 Stewart, Ivo, 415, 417 Stewart, Robert, 55 Stewart, Sasha, 139, 140, 170, 173, 186, 393, 415, 417 Stewart, Shoshana, 62, 139, 140, 173, 283 Gove’s analogy incident (2019), 348 leadership election (2019), 358–63, 364, 368, 379, 404 Remembrance Day, 415 Truss, views on, 169 Turquoise Mountain Foundation, 12, 88, 129, 406 Stuart, Rick, 305 Sturgeon, Nicola, 137 Suez Crisis (1956), 37 Suharto, 9, 197 Sun, 69, 112–14, 119, 122, 179, 377 Sunak, Rishi, 180, 300 Sunday Express, 19 Sunday Mirror, 113 Sunday Times, 120 surgeries, 103–6, 135, 203, 325, 367 Sussex University, 181 Sustainable Development Goals, 331 Swaledale sheep, 39, 124 Swaziland, 224 Sweden, 116, 262, 282 Swinson, Joanne, 389 Sykes–Picot Agreement (1916), 92 Syria, 117, 130, 139, 186, 317, 335 Defence Select Committee and, 134, 135 DfID in, 200–202, 217 intervention debate (2013), 131–2 refugees, 333, 364 Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, 174 Taiwan, 3, 396 ‘Take Back Control’ slogan, 371 Tale of Genji, The (Murasaki Shikibu), 417 Taliban, 11, 12, 15, 16, 23, 81, 82, 85, 89, 198, 217 Tanzania, 220, 223, 231 Taoism, 403 Tapsell, Peter, 56 taxation corporation tax, 123, 396 council tax, 300–301 honours and, 361 income tax, 396 inheritance tax, 345 leadership election and, 361, 362, 380, 381, 385, 392, 396, 413 plastic-bag tax, 165, 177 property tax, 206 value-added tax (VAT), 59, 125, 396 Taylor, Scott, 57 Ten Minute Rule Bill, 329 ‘Ten Prisons Project’, 285–94, 370 terrorism, 3, 84, 273 Thatcher, Margaret, 27, 33, 65, 69, 75, 116, 127 Thick of It, The, 333 think tanks, 9, 21, 276 300 (2006 film), 321 three-line whips, 59–61, 74, 321 Threlkeld, Cumbria, 44 Tibet, 213 Times, The, 48, 61, 138, 354, 364, 379, 387, 398, 401, 402, 404, 414 Today programme, 373 Tony’s Law, 325, 329 tractors, 107, 112 trade deals traffic wardens, 361 transport, 164 Traquair, Borders, 29 Treasury, 27, 70, 186, 248, 311 Brexit and, 319 broadband and, 100 Conservative leadership election (2019), 396 DfID and, 188, 192, 328, 330, 331 Foreign Office and, 236 Ministry of Justice and, 250, 251, 286 mountain rescue and, 59 pollution and, 161, 164 tree planting, 177–8, 361, 395 Trichet, Jean-Claude, 180 Trident, 81 Tripoli, Libya, 139 Trump, Donald, 50, 117 Truss, Elizabeth, 25, 67, 149, 152, 155–9, 160, 167–70, 286, 356 Environment Secretary (2014–16), 152, 155–9, 160, 167–70, 356 EU membership referendum (2016), 179 floods (2015), 174 Justice Secretary (2014–16), 250, 251, 262 leadership election (2019), 348 May’s accession (2016), 185, 186 national parks and, 157, 160, 167–8 twenty-five-year plan (2015), 168–9 Withdrawal Agreement negotiations (2018–19), 311 Tshisekedi, Félix, 341 Tsvangirai, Morgan, 235 tuberculosis, 337 Tufton Street, 276 Turkey, 201, 271, 341, 366–7 Turkington, George, 238 Turner Prize, 99 Turquoise Mountain Foundation, 11–13, 21, 22, 25, 34, 88, 129, 153, 364 DEFRA work, comparison with, 166–7 constituency work, comparison with, 111, 123 Liddle at, 333 Shoshana at, 12, 88, 129, 406 TV licences, 300 Twitter, 114, 116, 138, 145, 150, 314, 319, 340 Conservative leadership election (2019), 357, 374, 376–7, 382 Uganda, 218, 220, 223, 231, 336, 340 UKIP, 147, 390 Ukraine, 3, 135, 138, 139 Ulan Bator, Mongolia, 253 Ullswater, Cumbria, 109, 367 United Arab Emirates, 10, 231 United Nations (UN), 9, 20, 26, 82, 116, 118, 220, 239, 327 Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 199 DRC peacekeeping, 341 Libya and, 227 South Sudan and, 221, 222, 223 Sustainable Development Goals, 331 WHO, 337, 338 Zambia and, 225–6 United States, 1, 3, 26, 115 Afghanistan War (2001–21), 13–15, 81, 86, 89 Defense Secretaries, 91 defence spending, 345 drug policies, 378 Eisenhower administration (1953–61), 276 election techniques, 365–6 House of Representatives, 125 Iraq War (2003–11), 9 Marine Corps, 327 National Security Council, 334, 335 presidential election (2012), 145, 146 presidential election (2016), 50, 117 primaries in, 40 Reagan administration (1981–9), 115, 276 Revolutionary War (1775–83), 24, 73 Senate, 125 South Sudan, relations with, 220 Syrian War (2011–), 131, 134, 201 Vietnam War (1955–75), 14, 15, 85 Volkswagen emissions scandal (2015), 161 USAID, 221, 338 Uzbek people, 14 vaccines, 336 Vainker, Ed, 303 value-added tax (VAT), 59, 125 Van Rompuy, Herman, 180 Vargas Llosa, Mario, 16 Venezuela, 205, 399 veterans, 74–6 Vietnam War (1955–75), 14, 15, 85 Viggers, Peter, 19 Vikings, 44 Violence Reduction tool, 280 Violet-Grace’s Law, 325, 329 Virgin, 111, 377–8 Virunga volcanoes, DRC, 338 Volkswagen, 161, 164 volunteer fire engines, 97, 98 wabi-sabi, 417 walking leadership campaign, 375–9, 382, 388, 393, 394 in South Asia, 9, 19, 77, 87, 404 in Penrith, 29–30, 43–9 in Scottish Marches, 137 Wallace, Robert Ben, 91, 349 Wallace and Gromit, 152 Wallinger, Mark, 99 Wandsworth, London, 38 Warburton family, 45, 48 Warrington, Cheshire, 377–8, 393, 394 water, 165 Wear family, 45 Weber, Max, 198 Welch, Billy, 106–7 Wellcome Trust, 337 Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke, 183, 269 West Papua, 197 Westminster Hall, London, 69–71 Wetheral, Cumbria, 44 whipping system, 53, 59–61, 74, 117–21, 322 pairing whips, 119 ‘slipping’ and, 118–21 three-line whips, 59–61, 74, 321 Whitty, Christopher, 336, 337 Wigan, Manchester, 394 Wigton, Cumbria, 97, 98 Wild Boar Fell, Cumbria, 43 wildlife, 153, 160, 177 Willetts, David, 124 Williamson, Gavin, 218, 276, 311, 326, 346, 386 Winchester College, Hampshire, 300 wind turbines, 107 Windsor Castle, Berkshire, 332 Witney, Oxfordshire, 145 Woking, Surrey, 394 Wollaston, Sarah, 53–4, 55 Wordsworth, William, 44 World Bank, 188, 197, 250, 330 World Economic Forum, 115, 391 World Health Organization (WHO), 337, 338 World Trade Organization (WTO), 115, 116, 355, 412 Wormwood Scrubs, London, 280, 290, 302–3 wu wei, 403 Xi Jinping, 50 Yemen, x, 344 York, North Yorkshire, 174 Yorkshire floods (2015), 173 Yorkshire prisons, 291–4, 302 Hull, 291, 305–8 YouGov, 389, 414 Young Entrepreneur of the Year, 264 YouTube, 377 Zahawi, Nadhim, 51, 140, 148 Zambia, 192, 223–4, 229 Zardari, Asif Ali, 84 al-Zarqawi, Abu Musab, 214 Zimbabwe, 166, 223, 231, 234–7 Zsohar, Zsuzsanna, 16 Read Boldly. Think Differently. Continue the conversation: Twitter: @vintagebooks Instagram: @vintagebooks TikTok: @vintageukbooks Facebook: @vintagebooks Sign up for the Vintage Newsletter to hear more about Vintage books. www.vintage-books.co.uk World-class writing. Beautiful design. Ideas that matter. VINTAGE UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia New Zealand | India | South Africa Vintage is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul
by Isabel Kershner
Published 16 May 2023

The IDF invited television cameras into an induction base to document the enlistment of Noa Kirel, a teen model and pop star with a million followers on Instagram, prompting one Israeli columnist to describe the photo op as “another symptom of a confused army that is experiencing a serious identity crisis.” Like her teen pop star boyfriend Jonathan Mergui, Kirel had enlisted in the IDF’s new VIP “talent” track. In order to attract and cater to the YouTube and TikTok generation of young celebrities, it offered a select number of perks like the ability to shower in private and ninety days’ special annual leave to pursue their civilian careers, double the number of furlough days granted to other gifted artists. In its early days, the IDF had helped shape modern Israeli culture with its entertainment troupes whose members went on to become popular stars.

There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century
by Fiona Hill
Published 4 Oct 2021

They had to relive my experience of trying to download my email on top of the compost heap in Mam’s garden. In one extreme example, a Russian student in a remote town in Siberia was forced, even in frigid temperatures, to climb up to the top of a birch tree in a field to get a strong enough signal to take his college courses. He posted a short video appeal on the social media platforms TikTok and Instagram to attract the attention of local authorities and appeal for better internet coverage. In the U.S., plenty of children and students, along with their parents, were sitting in cars in the parking lot of their school or local library, trying to work on their phones in icy cold weather or baking heat.

The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth
by Michael Spitzer
Published 31 Mar 2021

Now, AIVA’s and Huawei’s efforts are perfectly fine slices of sub-John Williams Americana, a genre called ‘Symphonic Hollywood’: smooth, tasty and inoffensive as apple pie. But they are essentially derivative, conservative pap. There is nothing wrong with mediocre or middlebrow music. Not all the people like first-rate music all of the time. An AI music start-up called Jukedeck (now acquired by TikTok) churns out a potentially infinite stream of licence-free music, where the user selects style, mood, duration, speed, even where they want the climax to fall, and the AI does the rest.45 The quality of the music is no more than adequate, but it is absolutely fine as content for videos. There is both a direct and a more insidious consequence of such endeavours.

The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions
by Greta Thunberg
Published 14 Feb 2023

It must be told in books and articles, in movies and songs, at breakfast tables, lunch meetings and family gatherings, in lifts, at bus stops and in rural shops. In schools, boardrooms and marketplaces. At airports, in gyms and in bars. In the fields, in the warehouses and on the factory floors. At union meetings, political workshops and football games. In kindergartens and in old people’s homes. In hospitals and car-repair shops. On Instagram, TikTok and the evening news. On dusty country roads and in the streets and alleys of our towns and cities. Everywhere, all the time. It has been estimated that we humans who are alive today make up 7 per cent of all Homo sapiens that have ever lived. We are all related, in time and space. Together, we stretch back through time and forward into our common future.

The Survival of the City: Human Flourishing in an Age of Isolation
by Edward Glaeser and David Cutler
Published 14 Sep 2021

The demand for an in-person social life explains the recovery of restaurant-going after Florida eased its lockdowns in May. That demand also explains that anger that many college students felt when their life on campus was replaced by online lectures watched from their childhood bedrooms. The problem wasn’t so much the low quality of online classes—not every teacher became a TikTok superstar, but many put enormous effort into it—but rather the isolation from other students. Living at home provides nowhere near the social experience of living on campus. If more of the middle-aged move out of cities and more of the young move in, the urban composition of cities will shift.

When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach
by Ashlee Vance
Published 8 May 2023

It’s the force of unyielding progress that has resulted in the modern world as we know it. This same push had never quite made it to space. The computers and related technology in low Earth orbit were always well behind the times. Space was still dialing into AOL on a modem, while Earth was consuming TikToks on smartphones. Planet altered the equation. Put simply, it brought Moore’s Law to space. The Doves were the first step toward aligning the pace of innovation between the earth and space and putting our terrestrial and orbital economies onto the same clock. The only real gating factor preventing the space economy from taking full advantage of this new reality and exploding at internet speed has been a lack of rockets to put up all the new satellites.

This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race
by Nicole Perlroth
Published 9 Feb 2021

Without Azam Ahmed, I would never have uncovered the depths to which Mexico abused NSO’s surveillance technology. Mark Mazzetti, Adam Goldman, Ronen Bergman and I wrote a comprehensive account of Dark Matter and NSO Group for the Times. And later Mark, Ronen and I reported that a widely downloaded mobile app, called ToTok—a play on the popular Chinese app TikTok—was actually a cleverly disguised Emirati surveillance tool. Matt Rosenberg and I partnered on the more recent Russian attack on Burisma, the Ukrainian company at the heart of President Trump’s impeachment. And David, Matt and I continue to cover cybersecurity threats to the 2020 election together.

On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything
by Nate Silver
Published 12 Aug 2024

*15 Just speaking personally, I think Warhol was a genius. *16 In Zero to One, Thiel advocates for building businesses that have the potential to become monopolies. And in some types of business, a de facto monopoly can emerge by a company being a focal point. People use social media services like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok not necessarily because of the intrinsic features of these platforms but because lots of their friends do. (Girard would find the influencer culture on Instagram to be an incredible validation of his ideas.) The network effects this creates can be hard to dislodge. This is one reason why predictions that Elon Musk would cause a mass exodus from Twitter haven’t come true so far—though if it does happen, it will probably happen quickly, with the entire herd moving at once