Greetings, Future Tensers,
If you’ve learned one thing while following our work, it’s probably that algorithms are never neutral. To the contrary, they routinely reflect—often unintentionally—the inclinations of their creators, as the newly redesigned Google Maps clearly demonstrates. Nevertheless, Facebook is making a show of depoliticizing its controversial trending news feed, a choice that Will Oremus suggests may be pure theater. But as theatrics go, it’s probably better than the GOP’s attempt to appropriate “this is fine” dog. This once fun meme has arguably run its course, but I spoke to its creator to understand where it came from—and how it met its fate.
Need a break from politics? Read up on the digital donkey translator—a piece that is not, to be clear, part of some cumbersome metaphor about partisan iconography. To the contrary, it’s about a “technology” that we’d like to believe in, even if we know it almost certainly doesn’t work as advertised. Significantly, it’s also Lily Hay Newman’s final contribution to Future Tense. Though Lily will continue to produce her weekly podcast about Mr. Robot with Fred Kaplan, she’s leaving Slate to work the cybersecurity beat for Wired.
We’ll all miss Lily hugely, but fortunately we have a huge trove of her past work to look back on. She’s taught us how to use animated Gifs, argued that baths are better than showers (strong disagree!), reported on bomb robots, and so much more. Her writing is funny, precise, carefully reported, and always worth reading.
Thinking about tomorrow,
Jacob Brogan
for Future Tense
