Sapiens elevated an Israeli historian, trained in Medieval and Modern Military History, to the status of guru and oracular figure of the 21st century. The 2011 book is a regular presence on lists of the best books of the century, best-seller with a firm place, two decades later, in the highlights of bookstores in multiple countries – Portugal included.
The historian is called Yuval Noah Harari and there’s a new book, Nexus. Starting from the concepts that underlie his vision of History and that we find in Sapiens (like “fictions”), Harari looks at the new world of artificial intelligence (AI).
This technology is taking its first steps and its effects are already widely visible. “For example: in the way social networks have undermined democracies around the world. In part, this is due to decisions made by algorithms that discovered things independently”, he says in an interview with Ípsilon in London. “It created great political and social chaos, it was done by an extremely primitive AI, nothing comparable to the capabilities we will see in five or ten years.”
With AI threatening to enter areas such as granting loans, getting a job and politics itself, it is democracy that is at stake, he considers. “If every decision about our lives is made based on these algorithmic categories that we don’t understand, that certainly means the end of democracy, because there is no accountability and no transparency.”
After the triumph at this year’s Cannes film festival, Grand Tour arrives in Portuguese cinemas. It is the work of Miguel Gomes, but also of a team capable of turning around the setbacks of the pandemic and reduced funding. Luís Miguel Oliveira spoke with Miguel Gomes, Maureen Fazendeiro, Mariana Ricardo and Telmo Churro. They form Gomes’ “central committee”, screenwriters who specialize in “catching butterflies” and resolving crises. Vasco Câmara signs the review of the film.
The largest exhibition in Europe dedicated to the work of William Kleinafter his death in 2022, arrives at MAAT, in Lisbon. A journey into the worlds of the artist who was a photographer, painter, filmmaker and designer.
Curated by the Portuguese Filipa Oliveira, the traveling biennial Manifest landed in Barcelona and 11 surrounding cities. Among the 92 participants, there are four Portuguese. Isabel Salema went to Barcelona and gives us the portrait.
“At a certain point, alcohol stopped working, and I turned to literature. I haven’t had a single drop of alcohol in 11 years. It’s not a bad way, is it?”, says the Bosnian writer, living in France , Velibor Colic. Survival gave him the lucidity to write a book that threatens to become a reference in the literature on exile.
Place of individual and community salvation, where we lose ourselves and find ourselves, In Wavesthe second solo album by Jamie xxis a compliment to club. “My favorite dance music is stuff I can listen to on headphones,” says the producer and member of The xx to Ípsilon.
Also in this Epsilon:
– Music: talk to the Beautify Junkyards on Nova; criticism of Endlessness of Nala Sinephro e Le Clique: Rockstar Life (X) of Jhayco;
– Books: reviews of Paiola beautiful debut by the poet Ana Isabel Moutaand to Complete Stories of Katherine Mansfield.
And not only. Happy reading!
Ípsilon no Spotify: our choices; Readings: our book website; Cinecartaz: everything about cinema
