Chesley Bonestell, “The Exploration of Mars” (1953), oil on board, 143/8 x 28 inches, gift of William Estler, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Reproduced courtesy of Bonestell LLC.

War of the Words

November 2, 2017

11/1/17 – The increasing span of social media is raising dramatically the ability of adversaries of the United States to spread “weaponized narratives” aimed at undermining public faith in the nation’s culture and institutions, a scholar who studies the ethical and social dimensions of emerging technologies recently observed in Issues. Now comes new data on just how big this has become, with Facebook telling Congress that Russia-linked divisive posts about the 2016 presidential election may have reached 126 million people and Twitter saying that Russia-generated tweets reached 288 million people.