Culture Feature

Is the Boston Dynamics Dance Video Proof That Robots Have Soul(s)?

The elaborate four-robot dance to The Contours "Do You Love Me," showed off some impressive moves.

Do You Love Me?

Legendary dancer and choreographer Martha Graham famously said that "dance is the hidden language of the soul."

If that's true, what does it say that the robots of Boston Dynamics just proved that they can dance better than most humans?

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Culture Feature

15 Years Since Its First Video: How YouTube Has Changed (for the Worse)

The platform has shifted dramatically from its humble, open origins

Meet At The Zoo - Jawed

via YouTube.com

On April 23rd, 2005, YouTube Co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the very first video to the fledgling platform.

An 18-second clip of the young entrepreneur entitled "Me at the Zoo," the video is short, simple, unfocused, and innocent—like most of YouTube's content in its early days. As mundane as it is, its value as an artifact of online culture has garnered it over 90 million views to date.

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'They would have let Hitler buy ads': Sacha Baron Cohen's scathing attack on Facebook

In the 1930s radio had been around for a few decades, but it was only just becoming commonplace, and it was still an exciting new technology that was rapidly connecting the world and contributing to social and political change. In the US, radio was defining President Roosevelt's man-of-the-people image, with his inviting and personable fireside chats. In Europe, however, radio's effect was amplifying a much more virulent form of populism.

Fascism was finding its voice. The blended pride and humiliation of national ego, and the simultaneously mocking and fearful portrayal of the weak and terrifying other, were tapping into impulses that were deeply human and capable of immeasurable cruelty. But by the 1950s, the world had adapted to its new interconnectedness, and it seemed certain that we had left true fascism behind for good. It wasn't until recently, with a new technology to connect us more than ever, that the cycle returned and society began finding its way back to those ancient and ruinous tribal divisions around the world.

This is the what comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, best known for his portrayal of Borat in the film of the same name, and for his cutting political series Who Is America?, was speaking to on Thursday night. He was giving a speech at the Anti Defamation League's International Leadership summit, when he said that "all this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history."

borat joke


The incredible communicative power of the Internet has the potential to unite us with the kind of populism that brought us the New Deal—or indeed the Green New Deal—or to divide us with a new era of fascism and hate. If CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Jack Dorsey are unable or unwilling to face the tremendous responsibility this power places on their shoulders, we must either wrench this power from them through any regulatory means at our disposal, or face devastation that may well exceed the ravages of World War II.

Culture News

"Macaulay Culkin" is Macaulay Culkin's New Middle Name

After polling fans on his website bunnyears, the actor announced "Macaulay Culkin" beat out "Publicity Stunt" as his new legal middle name.

Macaulay Culkin at the "Changeland" Los Angeles Premiere

Photo by Kathy Hutchins (Shutterstock)

"Macauley Culkin" is Macauley Culkin's soon-to-be middle name.

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