Memory Loss

So a Norwegian novelist posted Nick Ut’s 1972 photograph of a naked Vietnamese 9-year-old fleeing a napalm attack, and Facebook took it down.

Neither the algorithm that flagged the photograph as inappropriate nor the moderator who reviewed that decision understood what the photograph meant when it was first published, says Jessica:

When you see an image that is not a contemporary image, it’s not implicit that you can contextualize its power, its origin, how it actually mattered at the time it was taken… It’s probably fair to that many people looking at it do not understand why it was so powerful.

Over time, iconic images lose their specificity, which is how the destruction of the Twin Towers becomes a mattress commercial.

Also mentioned:

the First International Beauty Contest Judged by Artificial Intelligence

The Guardian, A beauty contest was judged by AI and the robots didn’t like dark skin

The Moth Radio Hour, Data Hacking for a Date

Susan Engel, Context Is Everything: The Nature of Memory

Video: 9/11 mattress sale

Gothamist: Florida Walmart Criticized For 9/11 Sales Display Made Out Of Coca Cola Boxes; British Teens Win Halloween Contest As Burning Twin Towers

Video: iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in 107 seconds

Steven Izenour, America’s Square

NYU physicist Maryam Modjaz

Pablo Ferro, Doctor Strangelove trailer