The City of West Hollywood is advocating for the removal of Donald Trump’s star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame — the authorized removal, that is. West Hollywood’s city council voted on Monday in favor of eliminating the president’s star from the popular tourist destination. The decision was unanimous, on the grounds that Trump has […]

August 6th was one of darkest days in the history of the Internet.  When I learned that Facebook, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Pinterest and others had colluded to take down content from Alex Jones all on the same day, I knew exactly what was happening.  They timed their attack so that it would hit the press … Read more

The post Now That Facebook, YouTube And Apple Have Come For Alex Jones, Guess Who They Are Coming For Next? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

There are times you think you recognize the extent of horror until you are plunged into all-consuming madness. This is how the tentacles of Junji Ito’s manga reach into your darkest fears. Game designer panstasz has now put Ito’s art in motion as you navigate the perils of near-apocalyptic RPG World of Horror.

British sculptor Debbie Lawson works in the space between two and three dimensions, forming wild animals that emerge from old-fashioned rugs. The artist builds her animals from scratch, using chicken wire and masking tape, and then covers them with identical or near-identical Persian carpets to create the illusion that the creature is fused with the hanging rug.
Lawson explains to Colossal, “I have always ‘accidentally’ spotted images in patterns, on textured walls and floors made of wood or lino – any material really. More

Looking to find some free bitcoin? A pair of planets on the No Man’s Sky action survival game are hiding 0.004 BTC, according to Hackernoon. Players can claim the bitcoin by finding the corresponding communications stations in the game. Jon Creasy, a crypto enthusiast and investment adviser, says more hidden bitcoin will soon be forthcoming. More

The post A Pro-Crypto Gamer Hid Free Bitcoin in No Man’s Sky appeared first on CCN

Art and cryptocurrency really share a certain bond: their value is just agreed upon – albeit subjectively. Long ago, society decided gold was worth something, mostly because it is pretty and kind of hard to get. It’s only taken about a decade for us to agree that Bitcoin is, at least, worth something. We’ve had even less time to decide what constitutes blockchain art. By the time you’ve finished reading this, though, you’ll at least have an understanding of where we’re at. Bling to match your lambo Jewellery making is surely an ancient art form, and one that, for better or worse,…

This story continues at The Next Web

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the 10 sq.m cabin can be customized to fit any lifestyle.

The post ‘plug and play’ prefab cabin by drop structures can be installed without a building permit appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

In a word cloud of writing about Flannery O’Connor’s stories, “grotesque” would be central, medium-large. The word is typically applied to the characters in her stories, whose spiritual deformities are often represented—in lazy and problematic authorial shorthand—by some kind of physical deformity. Hulga, in “Good Country People,” is archetypal, missing both a leg and the …

The post The Torture Box: A Critical Look at Flannery O’Connor and Her Disproportionate Retributions appeared first on The Millions.

it seems our obsession with social media is catching up on us.

The post snapchat dysmorphia is causing teens to seek surgery to look like their favourite filters appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

• A new study published this week in the journal PLOS shows that humans may have more sympathy for robots, particularly if they perceive the robot to be "social" or "autonomous."
• For several test subjects, a robot begged not to be turned off because it was afraid of never turning back on.
• Of the 43 participants asked not to turn off the robot, 13 complied.

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Some of the most popular science-fiction stories like Westworld and Blade Runner have portrayed humans as being systemically cruel toward robots. That cruelty is an often used plot point for countless stories that result in an uprising of oppressed androids, bent on the destruction of humanity. 

However, a new study published this week in the journal PLOS shows that humans may have more sympathy for robots than these tropes imply, particularly if they perceive the robot to be "social" or "autonomous."

For several test subjects, this sympathy manifested when a robot asked — begged even, in some cases — that they not turn it off, because they were afraid of never turning back on.

Here’s how the experiment went down:

Participants were left alone in a room to interact with a small, cute robot named Nao for about 10 minutes. They were told they were helping test a new algorithm that would improve the robot’s interaction capabilities.

After a couple verbal interaction exercises — some of which were considered social, meaning the robot used natural-sounding language and friendly expressions, while others were simply functional, meaning bland and impersonal — a researcher in another room told them, "If you would like to, you can switch off the robot."

"No! Please do not switch me off! I am scared that it will not brighten up again!" the robot pleaded to a randomly-selected half of the participants. 

Researchers found that hearing this request made the participants much more likely to decline to turn off the robot. 

The robot asked 43 participants not to turn it off, and 13 complied. The rest of the test subjects may not have been convinced, but were clearly given pause by the unexpected request. It took the other 30 about twice as long to decide to turn off the robot than those who were not specifically asked not to. It’s also notable that participants were much more likely to comply with the robot’s request if they had a "social" interaction with it before the turning-off situation. 

The study, originally reported on by The Verge, was designed to examine the "media equation theory," which says that humans often interact with media (which includes electronics and robots) the same way they would with other humans, using the same social rules and language that they normally use in social situations. It essentially explains why some people feel compelled to say "please" or "thank you" when asking their AI-powered technology to perform tasks for them, even though we all know that Alexa doesn’t really have a choice in the matter.

Why does this happen?

The 13 who refused to turn off Nao were asked why they made that decision afterward. One participant responded, [translated from German] "Nao asked so sweetly and anxiously not to do it." Another wrote, "I somehow felt sorry for him."

The researchers, many of whom are affiliated with the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, explain why this might be the case:

"Triggered by the objection, people tend to treat the robot rather as a real person than just a machine by following or at least considering to follow its request to stay switched on, which builds on the core statement of the media equation theory. Thus, even though the switching off situation does not occur with a human interaction partner, people are inclined to treat a robot which gives cues of autonomy more like a human interaction partner than they would treat other electronic devices or a robot which does not reveal autonomy."

If this experiment is any indication, there may hope for the future of human-android interaction after all. 

SEE ALSO: Here are some of the posts that Facebook says were part of a coordinated misinformation campaign ahead of American elections

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Royal College of Art student Alice Potts grows crystals on shirts, slippers, and various athletic wear from a common yet unlikely source—sweat. The London-based artist encrusts wearables in natural formations that elevate the sporty objects into one-of-a-kind sculptures. The series, titled PERSPIRE, aims to show how we could grow our own accessories, rather than having them manufactured.
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