Cryptocurrency Helps the Poor? Don’t Bank on It

Despite marketing spin, Facebook’s Libra, like any cryptocurrency, would have done nothing to address poverty.

By Asress Gikay | December 23, 2019 | Economics, Government | Banking, Bitcoin, Bitpesa, Cryptocurrency, Currency, Facebook, Finance, International Development, Investment, Libra, Poverty, Unbanked

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The World Wired Web

Despite marketing imagery to the contrary, the “cloud” remains very much grounded in physical infrastructure, including unfathomable miles of wires.

By David A. J. Reynolds | July 24, 2019 | Environment, Media | Amazon, Bandwidth, Britain, China, Choke Points, Coaxial Cable, Communication, Content Providers, Data, Entertainment, Facebook, Fiber-Optic Cable, France, Google, Infrastructure, Internet, Internet Traffic, ISPs, Long-Distance, Railroads, Servers, Telecoms, Telegraph, Telephone, The Cloud, Undersea Cables, US, Wires

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Podcast #27: Robert Lustig on Biochemistry and Health

Author and endocrinologist Robert Lustig explains the neurochemical difference between happiness and pleasure and how it’s been exploited to make so many of us fat, addicted, and depressed. Then, he reminds us how to reclaim our health.

By Mo Lotman | February 27, 2019 | Cognition, Environment, Family, Food, Health, Medicine, Neurology, Podcasts, Well-Being | Academia, Addiction, Adolescence, Alcohol, Amino Acids, Aristotle, ATP, Availability, Behavior, Biochemistry, Caffiene, Calories, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Cavities, Cell Death, Child Development, Chronic Metabolic Disease, Chronic Renal Disease, Clinicians, Cocaine, Computers, Connection, Connectivity, Contentment, Contribute, Coping, Cortisol, Dementia, Dentistry, Depression, Diabetes, Diet, Dieticians, Doctors, Dopamine, Drugs, Dyslipidemia, Endocrinology, Enjoyment, Environment, Exercise, Exposure, Facebook, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Flow, Food, Food System, Fructose, Giving, Glucose, Happiness, Health Care, Heroin, Hypertension, Hypothalamus, Information, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Marketing, Metabolic Syndrome, Metabolism, Mindfulness, Mirror Neurons, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Money, Multitasking, music, Myelin, Neurons, Neurotransmitters, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity, OCD, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Opioids, Peer Pressure, Personal Responsibility, Philanthropy, Pleasure, Polycystic Ovarian Disease, Prefrontal Cortex, Processed Food, Profit, Propaganda, Quantification, Refining, Regulation, Religion, Reward, Sales, Seizures, Seratonin, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Social Security, Stimulation, Substance Abuse, Substances, Sugar, Suicide, Taking, Taylorism, Technology, Tolerance, Tryptophane, Utilitarianism

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Podcast #24: Michael Zimmerman Gets Philosophical on Tech

In a wide-ranging conversation, philosopher Michael Zimmerman contextualizes our technological journey within the history of Western thought.

By Mo Lotman | January 9, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Employment, Environment, Ethics, Knowledge, Philosophy, Podcasts, Religion, Society | Acts of Enclosure, Addiction, Agriculture, Ancient World, Anger, Aristotle, Arnold Toynbee, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Authenticity, Axial Age, Behavior, Bible, Bolsheviks, Boundaries, Buddhism, Capitlism, Carolyn Merchant, Christianity, Civilization, Control, Craving, Creativity, CRISPR, David Loy, Death, Decadence, Deep Ecology, Delusion, Desire, Distraction, Earth, Ease, Embodiment, Engineering, Environment, Eternity, Exploitation, Exponential Growth, Facebook, Fake News, Fate, Finitude, Fire, Francis Bacon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gnosticism, Golden Rule, Google, Greed, Hatred, Hegel, Heiddeger, Hubris, Human Nature, Humanness, Immaturity, Immortality, Industrial Revolution, Infantilization, Isaiah, Islam, Jaron Lanier, Karl Jaspers, Karl Marx, Knowledge, Lab-Grown Meat, Life, Loss, Martin Rees, Marxism, Master-Slave Dialectic, Meaning, Meat-Eating, Mediation, Medieval World, Metallurgy, Mind, Mining, Modernity, Money Economy, Morality, Mortality, Native Americans, Nature, Nazis, News, Nihilism, Obesity, Pain, Pascal, Peter Thiel, Philosophy, Plato, Playing God, Power, Production, Progress, Propoganda, Protestant Reformation, Ray Kurzweil, Reincarnation, relationships, Religion, René Descartes, Resentment, Resources, Respect, Sailing, Security, Self-Mastery, Silicon Valley, Smartphones, Socialism, Soviets, Spirituality, Splintering, Steve Jobs, Suffering, The Overman, The Singularity, Trade, Traditional Societies, Transhumanism, Twitter, Utopia, Wealth, Wildfires, Will to Power, Wisdom, Wonder

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Your Portal to Privacy Invasion

In the wake of ongoing privacy breaches, releasing Facebook’s newest offering, a videophone with an auto-tracking camera, takes a lot of chutzpah.

By Michael Bugeja | November 1, 2018 | Media, Privacy | Alexa, Amazon, Data Breach, Facebook, Hacking, Interpersonal Divide, Michael Bugeja, Portal, Privacy, surveillance

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What Facebook Knows

We’ve long known Facebook is selling our data to advertisers in a vague sense; now we can see what they’re hoarding and who’s buying.

By Art Keller | August 21, 2018 | Advertising, Economics, Ethics, Media, Privacy | Advertisers, Advertising, Alec Sears, Brad Bauer, Browser Fingerprint, Browser Sniffing, Cambridge Analytica, Compass, Credit Agencies, Dan Nainan, Data, Data Brokers, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Facebook, Jessica Scherlag, Logan Abbott, Pete Zaborsky, Privacy Badger, Social Media, Spear-Phishing, surveillance

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He Started #DeleteFacebook… Nine Years Ago

Nine years ago, three artists created a controversial site to make a statement about Facebook’s practices. The company sued and accused them of scraping data. Oh, the irony.

By Art Keller | April 11, 2018 | Culture, Ethics, Law, Media, Privacy | Advertising, Apps, Art, Bits of Freedom, Cambridge Analytica, Chris Wylie, Congress, Danja Vasiliev, Dark Patterns, Data Scraping, Data-Mining, Deleting Accounts, Developers, Digital Art, Edward Snowden, EFF, Facebook, Fraud, Gordan Savicic, Manipulation, Mark Zuckerberg, Moddr, Privacy, Privacy Zuckering, Social Commentary, Social Media, Tobias Leingruber, Twitter, Walter Langelaar, Web Suicide Machine

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A Message From the Publisher

It’s our 2nd birthday! Publisher Mo Lotman shares a few thoughts about where we’ve come and where The Technoskeptic is going.

By Mo Lotman | February 28, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Community, Economics, Ethics, Government, Media, Philosophy, Privacy, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Amazon, Anxiety, Apple, Attention, Business, Center for Humane Technology, Community, Depression, Disconnection, Economics, Ethics, Facebook, Farhad Manjoo, Google, Microsoft, Opioids, Reality, Roger McNamee, smart phones, Specialization, Suicide, Tristan Harris

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Podcast #15: David Greenfield on Internet Addiction

Psychiatrist, professor, and author David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, was one of the first medical professionals to recognize and study the addictive qualities of the Internet. He explains what we know, what it means, and what can be done.

By Mo Lotman | January 17, 2018 | Cognition, Family, Health, Neurology, Podcasts, Psychology, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Alienation, Behavior, Boot Camps, Boredom, China, Community, Creativity, Detox, Distracted Driving, Dopamine, DSM, Facebook, Food, Gambling, Gaming, Health Care, Heroin, Humanity, Impulse Control, Inequality, Internet, Medicine, Public Space, Self-Medication, Sex, smart phones, Social Disconnection, Social Media, Teens, Unhappiness, Variable Ratio Reinforcement Schedule, Variable Reward, Video Games

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Podcast #14: Cathy O’Neil on the problem of algorithms

Mathematician Cathy O’Neil shares her insider’s look at how algorithms are gaming our world, with terrible consequences for those who can least afford them.

By Mo Lotman | December 13, 2017 | Artificial Intelligence, Economics, Education, Government, Media, Podcasts, Politics, Prediction, Society | Algorithms, Banking, Big Data, Black Box, College Rankings, COMPAS, Credit, Criminal Justice, Data Brokers, DE Shaw, Education, Facebook, Inequality, Internet, Julia Angwin, LSI-R, Math, Micro-Targeting, Optimization, Politics, Polling, Predatory Advertising, Racism, Recidivism, Risk, Scoring Systems, Teachers, Testing, Unfairness, US News & World Report, Value-Added Model, Websites

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