P. W. Singer

The technology and description of the future were the best parts of the book. The plot was the worst part. The scene where the robot ran through the hospital and saved the baby followed by the soothing song was cool. I think due to my watching similar scenes in movies and TV rather than the writing however. The lack of footnotes when financial hardships were described was disappointing. The link between the seven biblical plagues and the terrorists' actions was not well done.
140 members; 3.68 average rating; 4/29/2024… (altro)

“LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media” collects much of what we know about the manipulation of the 2016 US election and 2016 UK Brexit vote and extrapolates that to envisage a world where politics is ultimately a funhouse of reflective mirrors or puppet show, the puppeteers well hidden in the fabric of the Internet.

We now know what deep fakes and realtime audio-video manipulation can do to the voting public and even warring opponents in realtime conflicts.

The book did not get into 3D, VR, or AR construction, although it could have.

But it did make me realize that not only are we on the cusp of radical changes to how we perceive life and society. We are likely on the cusk of an incredibly different art form.

New “authors” could create memoirs or biographies, for example, that construct avatars are the real thing and walk us through 3-D landscapes and give us the ability to interact with characters in the drama.

We’d certainly need advanced literacy to gauge the truth and beauty in such artworks much as we have modern literary criticism.… (altro)