Technology & Innovation — November 9, 2010

In Defense of Facebook

Responding to Zadie Smith’s recent criticism of Facebook, Jonah Lehrer says online networks are evidence of our humanity—our drive to be social with one another.

bigthinkeditor

While I’m sympathetic to many of [Zadie] Smith’s critiques of Facebook—the site is easy to eviscerate—I think she’s making a similar mistake, and is obsessing over the incidental details of the technology (the upholstery of the carriage, so to speak) while ignoring what really matters, which is that underlying need to connect with other people. Technology has an impact. Facebook is a fascinating and perplexing phenomenon. But I have enough faith in our relationships to know that they won’t be obliterated by a few ads on a website. When Facebook is over, when we’ve moved on to a new social technology with a new way of monetizing our connections in exchange for free storage space, what will remain is what always remains: human nature.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

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