When a Photograph Stopped Being Proof
For a hundred and fifty years, a photo counted as proof. Now the problem is not fake images: it is…
The Book Nobody Has Ever Been Able to Read
Two hundred pages of tiny writing, with drawings of plants that do not exist. Mathematicians and wartime codebreakers have tried.…
The Long Argument About Using Your Real Name
“If everyone wrote under their own name, people would behave better.” It has been tested, on a large scale, many…
Why Grown Men Have Almost No Friends
Ask a forty-year-old man how many real friends he has. First he laughs. Then he starts counting, and the count…
People Get Paid to Do Nothing Online
A guy sleeps eight hours in front of a camera and wakes up richer. The strange part is not the…
How a Civilisation Actually Comes to an End
Within a few decades, huge cities are abandoned, writing disappears and trade stops. There is no single invader. There is…
Where Your Old T-Shirt Really Goes
You put the bag in the clothes bank and go home happy. Someone will need it, you think. But the…
The Internet Forgets Faster Than Anyone Expected
We were taught that everything online stays there for ever. That is true for the photo you want to delete…
The Voice on the Phone Was Not Your Mother
Your daughter calls, crying, and needs money right now. It’s her voice. It isn’t her. And the defence isn’t technology:…
Why You Sleep Badly (It Is in Your Hand)
“Five minutes,” you say. It is never five minutes. And at seven in the morning, your brain sends you the…