Greetings, Future Tensers,
Welcome to March! A new month means a new Futurography, and today we’re launching into our series about the players in the new space race. (Mars sounds good right about now, no?) A lot has changed since the U.S.–Soviet rivalries of the Cold War—from India sending a probe to Mars on a smaller budget than the film Gravity, to Luxembourg betting big on asteroid mining, to Elon Musk’s SpaceX announcement that it will send two tourists on a 2018 trip around the moon—so Slate’s Jacob Brogan put together this quick introduction and cheat sheet to catch you up.
Though the shortest month is now behind us, we made sure to pack lots into our February Futurography series on cybersecurity self-defense. If you don’t know a VPN from 2FA, now would be a good time to learn how to make your smartphone more secure, how to understand what info mobile apps are collecting about you, and why you can’t rely on antivirus software anymore. Then, take our quiz and tell us your thoughts about the course.
Here are some other things we read between changing our Uber, Fitbit, 1Password, and OkCupid passwords:
Existential crisis: If Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Bill Gates are concerned about the possibility of artificial intelligence wiping out humanity, should we all be, too? In an excerpt from his new book To Be a Machine, Mark O’Connell introduces us to the people trying to save the human race from a threat that may or may not be real.
Game not over: Jacob Brogan writes about the video game archivists divided over how best to preserve a medium so deeply wrapped up in cultural memory and the experience of play. Bring on the sweaty arcade smells and malfunctioning Nintendo cartridges!
Hacked abroad: What happens when the FBI hacks devices in other countries without the foreign government’s consent? Scarlet Kim dives into the major foreign relations risks posed by the reach of the bureau’s cyber capabilities.
Violation verification: Rebecca Wexler writes on why it’s so difficult—and so crucial—to authenticate videos that appear to show human rights violations.
Digital domination: Once upon a time, the internet was going to set us free. But did the World Wide Web really bring power to the people, or just give governments and corporations another tool of control? We brought together journalists, advocates, and experts for a Future Tense event in Mexico City to discuss.
Events:
- Will competition or collaboration drive humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond? Join Future Tense in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 8 to talk about future of extraterrestrial exploration—and whether a startup company, or an upstart country, might pull ahead in the new space race. RSVP to attend in person or watch online here.
Yours through Heartbleed and Cloudbleed,
Kirsten Berg
for Future Tense
Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University
