Positive thinking

Giuseppe Loporchio Today's technology seems to have revolutionized the way we do things. Many believe that it has improved our lives. If we think of the progress in the studies of artificial intelligence, we can see that huge steps forward have been made. In our modern days, everything or almost everything is done using the Internet. We buy train, airplane or music concert tickets, holidays, food, clothing, electronics, etc. We do everything over the Internet, and in most cases, there is no need for sophisticated knowledge.  What are the implications of this technological progress? The events related to Cambridge Analytica, the British analytics data firm which is believed to have been using tools capable of gathering information of unsuspecting users to influence their minds, are a revelation. Technology can be used to our advantage. But what are the limitations of these benefits? The limits begin where the knowledge of these technologies can change nations electoral trend...

Simon McCarthy-Jones, Trinity College Dublin They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom! This often parodied quote from Mel Gibson’s William Wallace in the film Braveheart is something of a contradiction, and yet its sentiment is easy to understand. Nothing gets our hackles up more than being told that we have no choice over something. The powerful urge we get to regain a lost or threatened freedom, even at great cost, is formally called “ reactance ”. I call it the “Braveheart effect”. This effect is likely to kick in if we are told we must do something or that we can’t do something. It can be triggered by being told our personality or gender means we will necessarily act in a certain way. Anything that makes us feel our freedom is threatened awakens powerful forces. Anger wells up. We mentally rail against whatever or whoever threatens our freedom. What we have been pushed into tastes bitter. What...