The ELIZA Effect: Why We’re Still Falling for Chatbots 60 Years Later
Examining why we continue to be enchanted by chatbots like ELIZA, attributing them with emotional capacities they don’t possess, despite knowing their mechanical nature.
Digital Culture
Learning From Our Mistakes: What Early Computing Teaches Us About AI Risk
From deadly radiation therapy machines to wrongful prosecutions, computing history reveals repeating patterns of failure. The AI industry is making the same mistakes: vendor lock-in, inadequate testing, and opacity in decision-making. AI safety lessons from the past could prevent tomorrows disasters.
The Ringtone Realness: When Our Phones Had Voices
Relive the golden era of ringtone culture, where our mobile phones declared our identities aloud. Rediscover the social impact and the technical innovations that transformed personal expression through the sounds of our phones.
The Right to Be Forgotten… By a Machine
Talia Wainwright examines the complex reality of AI, data privacy, and the limitations of the Right to Be Forgotten in the age of machine learning.
What If: The European Digital Superpower
What if Europe, not Silicon Valley, had built the digital world? Step into an alternate timeline where Cambridge, not California, becomes the heart of tech innovation. From privacy-first laws to BBC Micros in every classroom, Rachel Whitmore explores how a European digital superpower could shape our everyday lives, online communities, and sense of belonging. Join us for a nostalgic, playful look at the world that might have been, and what we can still learn from it.
Early Digital Identity: My Life as Rainydaze75
Explore the nostalgia and intrinsic privacy of early digital identities in the 90s, focusing on the personal transformation experienced through anonymous online presence and the pure freedom it provided to individuals.
Invisible Hands: Automation History and the Secret Life of British Tech
Explore the nuanced beginning of automation in Britain, from clunky dot-matrix printers to the integral BBC Micro impacting educational and clerical work, highlighting both progress and pitfalls.
Privilege, Perfection, and the Pixelated Self: My 90s Digital Coming of Age
Reflect on a unique narrative of growing up amid high expectations and early technology, illustrating the complexities of a privileged childhood in Surrey, marked by stringent use of technology for performance over pleasure.
From Mixtapes to Modems: My Digital Coming of Age in 90s Britain
Relive the transformative digital experiences of a Northern teenager that paved her path to finding her unique voice and space on the early internet. This narrative explores the era’s music, first computers, and the early chatrooms that became a sanctuary for many.
From BBS to the Fediverse: The Long Search for Online Community Freedom
Explore the evolution of online communities, from the early days of modem connections and BBS systems to the sophisticated, yet controlled environments of modern social media platforms, emphasizing the importance of maintaining online community freedom in the digital age.