First posted September 29, 2015 The appearance of the law must be upheld / specially when its being broken. Gangs of New York (2002) Before the Law by Franz Kafka Translated by Ian Johnston (NB: This parable first appeared in 1915, and became a part of Kafka’s book The Trial) Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this… Read More Before the Law. A parable by Franz Kafka
Police targeting pro-democracy activists abroad have questioned their family and put out bounties, but there is a broader, more chilling, objective behind the operation Helen Davidson in Taipei In recent weeks, Hong Kong national security police have embarked on a tactic more commonly associated with their counterparts in mainland China. In early July, Hong Kong police announced arrest… Read More ‘Gangster tactic’: the true aim behind Hong Kong’s pursuit of overseas dissidents
I value George Orwell’s writing for his devotion to truthfulness and his recognition of all the ways that truths get corrupted. This is why, even if his private mores are of his time, his public writing still gives us tools to think about ours. By Rebecca Solnit The feminist writer Moira Donegan recently mocked contemporary social… Read More George Orwell in an age of moralists
If, as a teacher, you become overly cautious before you utter a word, if you worry that a student is recording your lecture, or the administration is continually monitoring your every move, how can you teach Marx, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Tagore, Iqbal, Manto and Premchand freely, spontaneously and creatively? Avijit Pathak The primary reason I could… Read More After Pune teacher’s arrest: Fear and surveillance in the classroom
The Oppenheimer director, Christopher Nolan, has highlighted the difficulties of applying nuclear weapons-style regulation to artificial intelligence, as he warned that the United Nations had become a “very diminished” force. Nolan told the Guardian J Robert Oppenheimer’s call for international control of nuclear weapons had “sort of come true”, but there had nonetheless been extensive proliferation of… Read More Christopher Nolan: strong parallels between Oppenheimer and scientists worried about AI
Jeff Sparrow the relationship between capital and technology has never been simple. The profit motive traditionally stifles as many mousetraps as it nurtures them, even when the economy offered something like a level playing field…. the dominance of ruthless monopolies in almost every industry means that innovations rarely get used to their full capability… not… Read More Enshittification, or social media today
as India is fast moving towards some sort of electoral autocracy, we are witnessing a new kind of crisis emanating from the virus of ‘anti-intellectualism’. Don’t think critically. Don’t question the establishment. Accept the dominant discourse of development, nationalism and religion. Is it, therefore, surprising that even the slightest trace of dissent is criminalised? Avijit… Read More The spirit of the university under threat
Jacintha Buddicom and George Orwell were childhood soul mates who lost touch until he was dying. A new postscript to her genteel memoir sheds a disturbing light on their friendship, finds Kathryn Hughes Kathryn Hughes Eric & Us by Jacintha Buddicom From the late 1960s my family spent every weekend and most of the summer… Read More Such were the joys
Streamed live on 5 Jul 2023 #artificialintelligence#chatgpt#darksideofaiDive into the world of artificial intelligence and discover the good, the bad, and the ugly. Explore the disturbing trend of deepfakes, where AI is used to manipulate vide-os & pictures, blurring the line between fact and fiction. What is deepfake technology and how is it evolving, how can… Read More The Dark Side of AI: Manipulating Reality / Ensuring Re-sponsible Use Of AI
My Jewish husband and I are being used as cannon fodder in BJP’s attempts to distract from Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Manipur. But there’s another reason I am being targeted. Sunita Viswanath On 28 June, I woke up to the news that my name was plastered across the Indian press. Many media outlets including Hindustan Times, Zee… Read More Not George Soros agent, I am a practising Hindu woman against Hindu nationalism
After the truth-shower 