Google – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Google’s Empire: The Science Fiction of Power

“For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to make a film about libraries,” explains Ben Lewis, the director of Google and the World Brain (2013). About libraries, he says, “they are my favourite places to be. Serene, beautiful repositories of the best thoughts that men and women have ever had”. Political economy, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Egypt and the Clinton Doctrine

“The United States will continue to be a friend and partner to Egypt. We stand ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary and asked for to pursue a credible transition to a democracy.” —Barack Obama, speech on Friday, 11 February 2011, on the resignation of Hosni Mubarak Finally, Mubarak is out. But the U.S. is […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Punishing Publication, Banishing Ideas: YouTube Censors Your World for the CIA

This post, while actually written on 20 April 2011, is backdated to the time that the video in question below was uploaded to YouTube. The video, “Humam al-Balawi: Slayer of CIA Terrorists in Afghanistan,” was an unacceptable challenge to some, starting with the very title. Let’s put this in some perspective first. The video was […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Visualizing Online Collaboration, Live

I encountered an interesting application that crosses Google Maps with Wikipedia, and shows you, almost in real time, the geographic origins of the edits being performed in Wikipedia. This can become almost addicting, especially if one starts to look for patterns. I looked for only 10 minutes, possibly less, and noticed that the greatest number […]