Librarian Charisma

Ingenious Librarians

Monica Westin | Aeon | 5th June 2023

Librarians invented the modern search engine. In the 1970s, they created the first databases and queries. They even made it possible to piggyback on searches made by other users, a strategy Google is still using today. But the most radical aspect of this work was that it predicted their own obsolescence. "They saw that we would lose expert intermediaries and they designed for this cost" (2,785 words)

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The Secret History And Strange Future Of Charisma

Joe Zadeh | Noema | 24th May 2023

We all know when we are in the presence of charisma, but few can explain what it is. Science certainly struggles. It seems to be a kind of raw power, enhanced by our beliefs about it as an engine of historical change, which can be bent to the owner's will regardless of allegiance or ideology. Trump has it, many believe, while Gordon Brown decidedly does not. Now AI is being trained to imitate it (5,956 words)