courses
Tackle that seemingly endless selection of course offerings; a roundup of helpful resources and sound advice for selecting the best courses and acing them.
How Powerful Can AI Be? Understanding the Limits and Possibilities of Machine Intelligence
Shant Khayalian — Balian’s Deep Tech The Question of Power We live in a time of extraordinary change. Machines are writing our emails, designing proteins, driving cars, creating art, and even passing legal and medical exams. In just a few years, artificial intelligence has gone from an obscure branch of computer science to a central force shaping the world around us.
By Chant Khialian30 days ago in Education
Are wormholes stable or self-destructing?
What Is a Wormhole? A Quick Scientific Overview In Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity arises from the curvature of spacetime. Wormholes are solutions to Einstein’s equations that connect two distant regions of spacetime through a tunnel-like geometry.
By shahkar jalal30 days ago in Education
Propaganda 2.1 Model, Manufacture of Dissent and Monetisation of Outrage
Abstract This article introduces the Propaganda 2.1 model as a theoretical extension of the author’s earlier Propaganda 2.0 framework, arguing that contemporary online media ecosystems are no longer governed primarily by political, ideological or cultural objectives but by a dominant economic policy of platform capitalism. In this regime, revenue optimisation trumps belief formation, identity construction and persuasive coherence, transforming propaganda from a project of ideological influence into an infrastructure for affect extraction. The model identifies three core mechanisms structuring this new phase. First, rage-baiting or the monetisation of outrage becomes the central commodity form of public discourse, replacing persuasion with the algorithmic optimisation of irritation, humiliation and moral injury. Second, the proliferation of AI ‘slop’ produces a regime of semantic banalisation in which meaning is not distorted but dissolved through excess, flooding the public sphere with syntactically fluent yet cognitively weightless content that exhausts attention rather than informing it. Third, parasociality functions as simulated intimacy, substituting civic belonging and social reciprocity with managed emotional attachment to influencers, automated agents and personalised feeds. Together these mechanisms describe a propaganda system that no longer requires belief, truth or ideological consistency. Outrage replaces conviction, automation replaces meaning, and artificial intimacy replaces sociality, marking the transition from the manufacture of dissent to the liquidation of public opinion itself. Does a media system that no longer seeks to persuade but to provoke still qualify as propaganda, or has it become a different technology of power altogether? If outrage is now more profitable than truth, what remains of public opinion as a democratic force? Can meaning survive in a communicative environment flooded by automated, semantically empty content? And when artificial intimacy replaces social relations, is the public sphere still a space for politics, or only a marketplace for emotions?
By Peter Ayolovabout a month ago in Education
What Is Transcription Practice & Why It Matters for Accuracy
If you’re just getting started in transcription—or even if you’ve been at it for a while—you’ve probably heard the phrase transcription practice. But what does it actually mean? And why is it so important for doing accurate transcription work?
By Mahesh Kumarabout a month ago in Education
Why Do Wormholes Require Exotic Matter? Exploring the Physics Behind Spacetime Tunnels
What Is a Wormhole? A Brief Overview In general relativity, gravity is not a force but a consequence of curved spacetime. Massive objects distort spacetime, guiding the motion of matter and light.
By shahkar jalalabout a month ago in Education
Could Wormholes Exist Naturally in the Universe? Exploring Physics, Possibilities, and Evidence
What Is a Wormhole, Scientifically Speaking? In physics, a wormhole is a solution to Einstein’s equations of general relativity that connects two separate regions of spacetime through a curved tunnel-like structure.
By shahkar jalalabout a month ago in Education
Are Wormholes Mathematically Allowed by Physics? Exploring the Equations Behind Cosmic Shortcuts
What Is a Wormhole? A wormhole is a hypothetical structure that connects two separate regions of spacetime through a tunnel-like geometry. Instead of traveling the long way through space, a wormhole could provide a shortcut by bending spacetime itself.
By shahkar jalalabout a month ago in Education
