Hello, Future Tensers,
We at Future Tense try to be the citizen’s guide to the future. But post–election night, we’re a little lost about what will happen next, too.
Last week, former State Department official and whistleblower John Napier Tye wrote about the risks of giving a President Trump access to the National Security Agency’s expansive surveillance capabilities. Will tech companies, politicians, journalists, and ordinary Americans now start to think differently about data security?
Although Trump was by far the biggest election upset, we also noticed the quieter shake-up in a Silicon Valley district, where “tech candidate” Ro Khanna unseated eight-term Rep. Mike Honda. As Will Oremus wrote recently, though the 40-year-old Khanna is not a technologist, he “managed to style himself as a Silicon Valley candidate thanks to his youthful zeal, his close ties with the tech industry, and a platform that centers on ‘21st-century’ education and job creation.” Might he be a bellwether for future Silicon Valley politics?
Though the election may be on the brain, this month’s Futurography course also contemplates American values and control—specifically the power the United States holds over the internet. In case you missed it, here’s our handy introduction and cheat sheet, plus a (largely) jargon-free guide to ICANN, the oft-villainized internet governance organization that makes it possible for you to use the web. (It comes complete with Space Jam and Geocities references for some much-needed levity.)
Here are some other stories to focus your eyes on instead of staring off in shock:
- Clickbait profiteers: Will Oremus takes us into the bizarre and booming Balkan-based cottage industry that made bank on spreading pro-Trump propoganda—and how Facebook may have fueled their success.
- The Google: It’s hard to miss the “in the news box” above Google’s organic web results—but how does the search engine actually pick which stories and outlets to display? Daniel Trielli and Nicholas Diakopoulos of the University of Maryland’s Computational Journalism Lab explain.
- Augmented reality: Pokémon Go got tens of thousands of people to go outdoors and chase imaginary monsters. Could we use similar networked games to encourage altruistic behavior in the aftermath of disasters like hurricanes?
Events:
- As civilization faces the crises of the world we transformed—climate change, ocean acidification, mass extinction, resource shortages—does humankind stand a chance? Join Future Tense on Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. in Washington, D.C., as we talk with David Biello, author of The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age, about the people and strategies that should give us hope that we can cultivate a better future. RSVP to attend in person or stream online here.
- RESCHEDULED: Will the internet always be American? On Tuesday, Jan. 24, Future Tense will host a live event in Washington, D.C., to explore who controls the internet. You can RSVP to attend in person or watch online here.
Your fellow citizen,
Kirsten Berg
for Future Tense
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.
