The future of the Internet is a neurofuture

Future Internet innovations is not in a mobile or social experience that’s just smaller but something more intimate, and more expressive – one which embraces a sensor-rich Smartphone including touchable screen and high-density display. The future will be wrapped in an envelope of sensation – vision, touch, taste, smell and sound – where companies will compete with each other to rush out new innovations that flood our pleasure centres with dopamine. Narrowing the gap between our physical and digital worlds – making our digital worlds as visual, tactile and emotional as the real world – such as the world’s first cyber-hug – is just around the corner. Today’s new Android and iPhone mobile app “sense and soul” that takes the orderly, linear and rational layout of Google+ and transforms it into something beautifully nonlinear, unstructured and stimulating might be an important step in this direction.

Assignments

1. What does the term ‘neuroscience’ mean? Use the figure below.

Fig. 4.10 Contemporary Neuroscience Definition

2. Is Internet wired into the human brain? How?

3. Name two most important features within the human brain.

4. Look at the picture in the text. What do the red lines mean?

5. What is the tiny jolt that triggers the pleasure centres of our brains?

6. Explain the role of vision.

7. Do you often post pictures, comments and other stuff on your social page?

8. Why do you do this?

9. Have you noticed that your social sites use your preferences for selecting ads for you?

10. Summarize the text.

Censorship

Text 1

Censorship, Violence & Press Freedom

From http://www.article19.org[33]

Violence, bans and seizure of content are just some of the methods used to directly censor and suppress people and their ideas.

Censorship in all its forms is often unjustifiable and is used simply to stop truths or ideas emerge which draw attention to powerful people or governments, or undermine ideology. This is inexcusable.

When the exercise of the right to free expression clashes with the rights of others or threatens the safety of the nation, legislators face a difficult exercise of drawing lines; is a restriction necessary and how far should it go?

As James Madison, who framed the US Constitution’s protection of freedom of expression, wrote, it is often prudent to permit some abuse of freedom of expression in order to ensure that legitimate use of the right is not discouraged:

Some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of everything, and in no instance is this more true than in that of the press. It ... is better to leave a few of its noxious branches to their luxuriant growth than, by pruning them away, to injure the vigour of those yielding the proper fruits.

One of the main arguments advanced against licensing of journalists and publications was its indiscriminate nature: denial of a licence is tantamount to a ban on all future articles, without regard to their content.

But what about a statement, whether written or audiovisual, which has already been completed but not yet made public? Should the authorities only impose sanctions after publication, where justified, or should they, in appropriate circumstances, be able to prevent its release?

Prior censorship poses special dangers to freedom of expression. If the authorities are able to suppress publications which nobody has seen, it becomes impossible for others to verify whether the suppression was indeed justified; it is a question of time before such an unchecked power is abused to prevent criticism of government. One partial solution is to make the authorities’ decision subject to court appeal. But this creates a different problem; control by the authorities of the timing of the flow of information is a considerable power. Challenging a decision to censor information will be an expensive and slow process, which many may not even use. Furthermore, news is a perishable commodity, so that success in court after lengthy proceedings will often prove a pyrrhic victory.

Because of the risk of abuse compared to sanctions after the fact, the American Convention on Human Rights prohibits prior censorship altogether, except to protect children. Article 13(2) of the ACHR states:

The exercise of the right provided for in the foregoing paragraph shall not be subject to prior censorship

Nevertheless, some courts have been reluctant to rule prior restraints out categorically, mainly because the damage done by a publication may not in all cases be reparable through subsequent sanctions. This dilemma was posed starkly in one American case, after a magazine, The Progressive, had attempted to publish an article explaining in some detail how to construct a hydrogen bomb. The author and publisher argued that they were merely synthesising publicly available documents, with the purpose of raising awareness of the threat of nuclear weapons. The District Judge held:

A mistake in ruling against The Progressive [will] curtail defendants’ [right to freedom of expression] in a drastic and substantial fashion. [But a] mistake in ruling against the United States could pave the way for thermonuclear annihilation for us all. In that event, our right to life is extinguished and the right to publish becomes moot.

The case did not reach the US Supreme Court. In other disputes, however, the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated the following position: “Any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity.”

International bodies have echoed this point of view. In a report on the Republic of Korea, the UN Special Reporter on Freedom of Opinion and Expression stated that “any system of prior restraint on freedom of expression carries with it a heavy presumption of invalidity under international human rights law.” The ECtHR ruled that “the dangers inherent in prior restraints are such that they call for the most careful scrutiny”.

This last case involved the ad hoc application of prior restraint to a specific harmful expression – the authorities had gotten wind of the upcoming publication, and had applied to a court to prevent it. Systems of prior restraint whereby publications must be submitted to censors for clearance before being distributed can never be justified for the media, and have for some time now been unknown among democracies.

The position in international law can be summarized as follows: Although the right to freedom of expression does not require an absolute ban on prior censorship, this should be a highly exceptional measure, taken only when a publication threatens grave harm, such as loss of life or serious harm to health, safety or the environment. An article deemed defamatory, blasphemous, obscene or overly critical of the government would rarely if ever meet this threshold. Moreover, a system whereby media content must be officially cleared before it can be released would be unacceptable; its harm to freedom of expression would plainly far outweigh the benefit to its goals.

Assignments

1. Is censorship necessary and how far should it go?

2. Why is it often prudent to permit some abuse of freedom of expression in order to ensure that legitimate use of the right is not discouraged?

3. What was one of the main arguments advanced against licensing of journalists and publications?

4. Should the authorities only impose sanctions after publication, where justified, or should they, in appropriate circumstances, be able to prevent its release?

5. Why does the American Convention on Human Rights prohibit prior censorship altogether?

6. What does prior censorship pose?

7. Does the right to freedom of expression require an absolute ban on prior censorship?

8. What are the methods used to directly censor and suppress people and their ideas?

9. Describe the main criteria of censorship.

10. Summarize the text.

Text 2