By Jeremy Abram — JeremyAbram.net Machine-learning systems don’t just forecast what we’ll click or buy; they increasingly infer who we are, what we’ll become, and what opportunities we should (or shouldn’t) receive. When predictions jump from behavioral (“will you churn?”) to ontological (“what kind of person are you?”), the stakes shift from convenience to power—reshaping…
Author: Jeremy AbramCopyright: © Jeremy Abram — JeremyAbram.netReading time: ~12–15 minutesPublish date: November 3, 2025 Preface: Creativity in the Age of Infinite Capacity We stand at a historical hinge — not the automation of labor, but the automation of imagination. For centuries, creative work was constrained by time, medium, and muscle. Painters painted. Filmmakers filmed.…
What happens when machines sound compassionate? Does it matter if they actually feel nothing at all?Synthetic empathy sits at the intersection of affective computing, social psychology, design, and ethics. It’s the capability of an AI system to perceive a person’s emotional state and respond in a way that appears caring—sometimes helpfully, sometimes manipulatively, and often…
By Jeremy Abram I never agreed to live inside a machine that knows what I want before I do. None of us did.Yet here we are — scrolling, tapping, streaming, consuming — believing we’re making choices while invisible systems gently steer our attention like a hand on the small of the back. This is not…
1950s–1970s: Mainframes, Terminals, and the Birth of “Sitting Work” Late 1970s–1980s: Arcades and Home Consoles 1990s: The Internet Era and PC Gaming 2000s: Smartphones, Laptops, and Always-On Connectivity 2010s: Social Media, Free-to-Play Games, and Esports 2020s: Remote Everything, VR/AR, and AI-Mediated Play Mechanisms: How Devices and Games Shape Body and Brain Posture & Musculoskeletal Load…
What 5G actually is (in one page) Definition. 5G is the fifth generation of mobile networks defined by 3GPP and the ITU under the IMT-2020 umbrella. It introduces a new radio interface (5G NR) and a cloud-native core that unlock three headline use cases: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine-type…
1) What “AI training” typically means on social platforms When policies say your information is used to “train,” “improve,” or “develop” AI, they usually mean: Policies vary by region and product. The same company may have different language for: main social apps vs. AI assistants vs. commerce features vs. creator tools. 2) Platform by platform:…
According to TOS & Privacy Policies… Topic Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok Pandora License you grant when you upload You keep ownership but grant Meta a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform/display, translate, and create derivatives—to operate and improve the service (ends when you delete unless…
The short version How platforms define these permissions iOS & iPadOS Android What apps can actually do with that access Granting access doesn’t automatically mean a silent upload—but it does allow the app to read the content you’ve allowed and then decide what to do with it under its privacy policy: Where the disclosures live—and…
On phones, “contacts” refers to your device’s address book (names, phone numbers, emails, notes, birthdays, etc.). Granting access lets an app read some or all of those fields; some apps may also request the ability to create/update contacts. Even though platforms gate access with prompts, what happens after you grant permission is governed by the…