The online virtual reality experience that almost every tech giant today wishes to commercially exploit may not catch onIn the 1992 sci-fi dystopia Snow Crash, the author Neal Stephenson imagined a bleak 21st century where the collapse of the global economy had seen governments fall and their power replaced by a few giant businesses. The book is notable for prescience, anticipating the adoption of what was then seen as outlandish technologies like the wireless internet, cryptocurrencies and smartphones, as well as the rise of the gig economy. But it is the book’s prophetic vision of “the metaverse” that has revived interest in the work.That is because Stephenson described the online virtual reality experience that almost every tech giant today wishes to commercially exploit. Last October, Microsoft announced that users of its Teams online meetings app would be able to turn themselves into avatars – the term Stephenson popularised in Snow Crash – to encourage users into virtual interaction. Days later Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, rebranded his company as Meta, with a focus on the potential for virtual worlds. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-02-07 19:11:48 UTC ]
Speculative writers flesh out our passing thoughts into complete, functioning societies and explore how they might unfold. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2019-04-18 09:22:03 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg also said he is weighing up paying publishers for use of their journalismFacebook could start employing editors to select “high-quality news” to show to users, in the social network’s latest attempt to lose its reputation as a source for disinformation.Mark Zuckerberg said he is... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg has revealed he may add a dedicated tab for "high-quality news" to Facebook, perhaps by the end of the year. The section would reportedly be free for users, though Facebook might pay publishers whose work is featured. Zuckerberg moote... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2019-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Inc.’s top executive in charge of all products, Chris Cox, the longtime confidant of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, is leaving the company. It’s the highest-level departure at the social media giant amid nearly two years of sustained crises. Cox’s unexpected departure, which he... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-03-14 22:45:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Inc.’s top executive in charge of all products, Chris Cox, the longtime confidant of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, is leaving the company. It’s the highest-level departure at the social media giant amid nearly two years of sustained crises. Cox’s unexpected departure, which he... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-03-14 22:45:00 UTC ]
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Watkins Media’s science fiction and fantasy imprint Angry Robot has hired a new commissioning editor, Eleanor Teasdale, who joins from literary agency Greene and Heaton. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The finalists for the 2018 Nebula Awards, considered some of the most prestigious in science fiction and fantasy, were announced on Wednesday, with novelists Tomi Adeyemi and Justina Ireland, filmmaker Boots Riley and musician Janelle Monáe among the nominees. Adeyemi and Ireland were nominated... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As tech companies face mounting pressure to address their role in the California housing crisis, a band of corporations, philanthropies and foundations — including Facebook as well as the personal philanthropic company of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg — are seeking to raise $540 million to... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-01-25 00:05:00 UTC ]
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As tech companies face mounting pressure to address their role in the California housing crisis, a band of corporations, philanthropies and foundations — including Facebook as well as the personal philanthropic company of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg — are seeking to raise $540 million to... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun
[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-01-25 00:05:00 UTC ]
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An interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey published by Rolling Stone on Wednesday took a darkly comic turn when he was asked about his most memorable interaction with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2019-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The inside story of our award-winning investigation into the political consulting firm and its use of Facebook profiles• Read our other top stories from 2018Visiting the Observer’s newsroom on the Monday after we published our revelations about the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-12-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Moves to oust the company’s leadership team of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg suddenly look a lot more serious as its legal position becomes more perilous So far, the public and political reaction in the US to Facebook’s grave misdeeds has been surprisingly muted. That’s about to change.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sequel to the Canadian author’s bestselling feminist dystopia will be published around the world in September 2019Margaret Atwood has announced a sequel to her bestselling feminist dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, titled The Testaments. It will be published in September 2019.“Dear Readers,”... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new book festival for fans of fantasy, science fiction and horror is launching in Edinburgh next summer featuring authors including Scottish sci-fi writer Ken MacLeod and The Bone Season's Samantha Shannon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Publishing’s science fiction and fantasy imprint 47North has signed the recent winner of the Arthur C Clarke Award, Anne Charnock, for a further novel, set in the “disturbing near-future”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week: inside the golden age of science fiction, plus the epic drama of our atmosphere. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-10-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new book looks at four men who are largely responsible for the genre of science fiction as we know it today. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2018-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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FutureBook is partnering with social reading app The Pigeonhole to run a short story competition exploring the future of the book. The winning author is to be hosted at the FutureBook Conference, 30th November. Judges will be Molly Flatt, author and associate editor of FutureBook; Anna Jean... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, published a roughly 3,300-word blog post cataloging the steps the company has taken to prevent a repeat of the 2016 manipulation. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2018-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Just days after his op-ed in The Washington Post, Mark Zuckerberg has published another lengthy note titled 'Preparing for Elections,' this time via Facebook. In it the Facebook CEO describes his platform's removal of fake accounts ahead of electio... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2018-09-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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