Suite101.com Plato’s Cave, one of human civilization’s most enduring narratives, is extremely relevant to understanding our celebrity-obsessed culture. A firm grasp of the meaning of illusion is crucial for our mental survival. Yet is our modern version all about illusion? Plato‘s Cave: Version 2.0 In Empire of illusion: the End of Literary and the Triumph [...]

Nicholas Carr | Wall Street Journal.com In a 1963 Supreme Court opinion, Chief Justice Earl Warren observed that “the fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a great danger to the privacy of the individual.” The advances have only accelerated since then, along with the dangers. Today, as companies strive to personalize the [...]

Glenn Greenwald | Salon.com As we enter our ninth year of the War in Afghanistan with an escalated force, and continue to occupy Iraq indefinitely, and feed an endlessly growing Surveillance State, reports are emerging of the Deficit Commission hard at work planning how to cut Social Security, Medicare, and now even to freeze military [...]

Clay Dillow | Pop Sci.com Japanese company NEC wowed technophiles and horrified privacy advocates earlier this year with electronic billboards that use facial recognition technology to identify the age and gender of passers-by, tailoring the ads they display to fit the demographic. Now IBM researchers in the UK are taking that notion even further, taking advantage of [...]