Here's What I Think About Technology: A Blog by Avi Ezor

There’s always that person who hears a song on iTunes/Spotify and says “This doesn’t sound as good as vinyl.” Maybe you’ve gone to the movies and heard someone lament the end of of movies being projected on film stock. (I’m totally that person, by the way). Does your friend still own a VCR, and a stack of classic horror films on VHS that could easily be watched on streaming? For mainstream media brands, or any entertainment company whose main interest is obtaining as much money as possible, these are not normally the kinds of demographics you’d want to aim for. Most people enjoy progress, and Netflix isn’t going to waste money converting their films to scratchy film prints when you can watch them on their HD service, right? Yet, I attended a screening of the Netflix Original Movie,  The Other Side of the Wind , that the company had provided on a 35mm film print. At New York Comic-Con, there was a vendor selling official VHS copies of the 2013 horror film,  V/H/S/2.  A...

Illustration of Netflix's current viewership model.  Is there too much television right now? Hell, is there too much visual electronic media in general right now? Don't get me wrong, I love watching movies, TV shows, and videos on the Internet, but the sheer amount of choices is starting to overwhelm me. This is in addition to the amount of times I go to the movies, plus the pile of DVDs I've been meaning to watch. I only have a limited amount of free time every week. I can't just sit down and watch 100 hours of TV shows everyone's talking about. Yet, that's apparently what Netflix thinks, because they put out two or three original shows, one or two original movies, and dozens of other titles every week. Actually, that just describes Fridays . Are any of those good? I don't know. I might as well go with what's popular, and therein lies the problem: in an ocean of choices, only a few can rise to the top, and thanks to binge-watching, those that do ...

Are you constantly self-conscious about what you do in public, always worried you'll be filmed doing something that will invite a Twitter mob to ruin your life? Well, guess what? Machines are now making those videos for you. "Deepfakes" , videos made by computers to show people doing and saying things they never have, could be a major threat to people, and the world, in an era of mainstreamed conspiracy theories and fake news. The process involves taking an existing video, and combining it with another. The technology used to create deepfakes uses artificial intelligence to gather information about the subject or subjects' body movements and/or facial expressions to create a theoretically realistic portrayal of what a combination of the two videos would look like. Essentially, if you were to search for images of a celebrity on Google, you would eventually get a picture of them at every possible angle. Eventually. Machines can do that a lot faster than humans. The ...

I don't know what this image means, but I wanted to use one with those big-headed white creatures from stock art . The next generation of Internet connections is here, but only in four cities (none of which I live in). Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento are all getting Verizon's new 5G internet service. That's right-- five whole G's of internet. Us New Yorkers still have to make due with four. In all seriousness, though, this is essentially the fifth generation of wireless data transmission (hence the term, “5G Internet”). Here's the short, easy version: this is wireless internet that's 100 times faster than 4G internet, and with more efficient connectivity (or, lower latency) between devices.  Now, here's the long, technical explanation: Essentially, it uses high-frequency radio waves--known as millimeter waves--to transfer large amounts of data at very high speeds. Since these waves cannot travel very far, numerous "small cell...

What if you could change the unchangeable? This is something that’s been on my mind ever since I first heard about Crispr , the technology that allows for cutting-and-pasting of genes using the enzyme Cas9, three years ago. Since then, the technology has greatly improved and the implications are now being discussed to the point where it’s been a topic on both NOVA and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Now, preparations are being made for humankind to be put under the genetic knife. Recently, Japan released guidelines for the genetic modifications of human embryos. That said, the guidelines state that you can’t actually make a human with an edited embryo (although they aren't legally binding), but the message is clear: human life can be hacked. I’m reminded of the end of  Tron: Legacy , where the hero escapes the video game world with a humanoid computer program. He takes her to see the sun rise, the one thing she’s always wanted. How sweet. No mention is made of the ...

This week, packages containing explosive devices were found outside the homes of philanthropist George Soros , the Clintons, and the Obamas, and others critical of Donald Trump, as well as outside the New York headquarters of CNN. Many considered these incidents evidence of the threat of right-wing hate speech, sentiments emboldened and often shared by President Trump, being turned into actions.  Others said that the left brought this on themselves for hostile rhetoric towards right-wingers and not supporting the President. Some even said that the bombs were a “false flag”, placed by the victims themselves to attract sympathy right before the midterms. This was all in the comments section of one YouTube video posted by CNN of the news of the bombing attempt on their office. Political discourse has become so deeply fragmented that it’s easy to become jaded, uncaring, and silent towards major issues. What’s the point of making your voice heard if it won’t matter in such a chaotic en...