Against the Digital Mob
However negative the effects of artificial intelligence on users may be, they are nowhere near as serious as the effects of social media. That is true, of course, of today’s…
Testing Social Experiments
Olga Vlachynská, a Czech psychologist, is sweeping across social media. Mainstream outlets, including public broadcasters, have long since taken notice. She promotes an alternative way of life grounded in unlimited…
Efficiency Illusion
Senseless bureaucracy is often said to belong to the public sector. The private sector, we are told, is driven by efficiency, and such grotesquely mismanaged bureaucracy appears there only rarely,…
The New Untouchables
A few days ago, it happened that a woman of about fifty—an astonishingly empathetic and highly effective phone representative—was proclaimed the corporate equivalent of the old socialist work champions. She…
Aging and Desire
It has been nearly ten years since a study first drew attention by showing that infidelity was more common among people in their sixties than among the young. The finding…
Decline and Promise
On Saturday I took part in a long discussion with Professor Hořejší, the longtime director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics. In a small group, we discussed a range of…