Virtual World Innovations | ForkLog

ForkLog 67 11.12.2024

The non-fungible bubble: how NFTs inoculated the industry against greed

In a comparatively short time, NFTs went from glittering innovation to a largely marginal investment tool. Mass-minted collections, rampant speculation and market manipulation did the rest: by 2024, analysts estimate that 96% of collections were “dead”. Lina Valitova examines what remained after the NFT bubble burst. Why did the bubble inflate? In March 2023, staff […]

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ForkLog 31 06.09.2024

The truth about Durovgate: a ForkLog primer in conspiracy

Julia Vavilova, who accompanied Pavel Durov on his trip, is said to have helped engineer the billionaire’s detention. She allegedly deliberately tagged her location during the journey so that French law enforcement could track him. Media also reported the woman’s supposed links to “Mossad,” which allegedly tasked her with handing Durov over to Western security […]

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ForkLog 22 14.08.2024

God or golem? Why AI inspires religious awe

Individuum has released a Russian translation of American writer Meghan O’Gieblyn’s book «Бог, человек, животное, машина. Поиски смысла в расколдованном мире». With the publisher’s permission, we present an excerpt explaining how a seemingly odd religious observation by Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics, has been clarified by the rise of modern artificial intelligence. Data: Individuum. […]

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ForkLog 48 03.07.2024

Proof‑of‑Event: NFT tickets and the future of Web3

NFT tickets have become a popular tool for running events, drawing Web3 users with rich features and perks from organisers. That, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. What this technology is really about—and the prospects it opens for business—is the subject of Vladimir Menaskop’s article. Background For more than a decade, a central […]

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ForkLog 8 26.04.2024

“Philosophy Always Precedes Science”: All Time Half guests on the appeal of the simulation hypothesis

The simulation hypothesis holds that we inhabit a virtual reality deliberately created by some external agency. The idea entered mass culture with the 1999 release of the first film in the Matrix franchise. Doubts about how “real” reality is go back to classical antiquity. Proponents typically invoke Plato and the famous Allegory of the Cave […]

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ForkLog 25 29.03.2024

Buckle up, humans: why driverless cars matter

The idea of a fully autonomous vehicle, driven without human involvement, lingered for decades in science fiction and engineers’ daydreams. Yet rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and computing in recent years have brought that future closer than ever. Today, leading carmakers and young start-ups are actively developing and testing driverless cars, while […]

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ForkLog 19 19.02.2024

Cyber om, cyber mani, cyber padme, cyber hum: where cyber-Buddhists look for an exit from samsara

Can you build a monastery in Minecraft and retreat into it with a VR headset? Who lives in neural networks: wrathful entities or the Buddha? And when, at long last, will the quantum Maitreya appear? Pondering these questions, ForkLog sought answers from Mikhail Matrekhin — a researcher of Eastern spiritual practices and author of the […]

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ForkLog 53 06.02.2024

Quantum computers: who will bask in the glow of the analogue–digital chandelier?

Quantum computers have long inspired both hope and anxiety. Optimists expect them to propel computing into a new era, tackling problems beyond the reach of today’s most powerful machines. Pessimists counter that, for ordinary users, all those qubits dangling in “chandeliers” will bring little besides new challenges for cryptography and data protection. For ForkLog readers, […]

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ForkLog 27 29.12.2023

The Marvelous New Phygital World. Is It Still a Marketing Ploy or the Ideology of the Future?

Philosopher Alexandra Tanushina on how the idea of a hybrid material-virtual world arose and when to expect its realisation.

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ForkLog 31 19.12.2023

From the Magnetic Drum to the Babylonian Fish: How Machine Translation Began

Science journalist Yana Khlyustova on how a pacifist polyglot saved the idea of machine translation from an untimely death.

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ForkLog 19 08.12.2023

Blockchain, DAOs and Game Theory: The Basis of Dan Larimer’s ‘True Democracy’

A review of More Equal Animals: The Subtle Art of True Democracy, by the creator of the EOS blockchain and the Bitshares exchange.

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ForkLog 28 28.11.2023

Interplanetary Consensus and Weather Mining: What IPFS Looks Like Today

IPFS's ten-year anniversary and which 'Next HTTP' projects to watch.

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