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Phantom Vibrations of a Lost Smartphone
An anthropologist who studies human-computer interactions explores how and why losing one’s smartphone feels so unsettling.
Prior to traveling to Brazil, local friends warned him about techno-bandits who roam the streets of Rio, stealing pocket-sized cybernetic prosthetics from unsuspecting tourists to sell on the black market. These small computers have radically changed the ways people in many parts of the world communicate and transmit information; learn, teach, imagine, work, and play; trust, empathize, and express other emotions; produce, distribute, exchange, and ; move, navigate, and migrate; and even eat, sleep, copulate, and defecate, among other things. While not inherently negative, many tech companies abuse this capability, using sophisticated algorithms to subtly modify our behaviors and worldviews in ways that prioritize their corporate interests, often outside users’ conscious awareness.
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