Our rapid immersion into online life has made us all ill. Through the generation, personalization, and dissemination of enchanting imagery, artificial technologies commodify the minds and hearts of the masses with nauseating precision and scale. Online networks, artificial intelligence (AI), social media, and digital news feeds fine-tune our beliefs and pursuits by establishing narratives that subdivide and polarize our communities and identities. Meanwhile those commanding these technologies conquer the final frontiers of our interior lives, social relations, earth, and cosmos. In the Attention Economy, our agency is restricted and our vitality is depleted for their narcissistic pursuits and pleasures. Generative AI empowers the forces that homogenize and eradicate life, not through some stupid "singularity" event, but through devaluing human creativity, labor, and social life. Using a fractured lens, we will examine how narratives and networks influence us on mental, social, and algorithmic levels. We will discuss how atomizing imagery -- ideals and pursuits that alienate, rather than invigorate the individual -- hijack people's agency to sustain the forces that destroy them. We will discover how empires build digital networks that optimize society and embolden narcissists to enforce social binaries that perpetuate the ceaseless expansion of consumption, exploitation, and hierarchy. Structural hierarchy in the world is reified through hierarchy in our beliefs and thinking. Only by seeing images as images and appreciating the similarity shared by opposing narratives can we facilitate transformative action and break away from the militaristic systems plaguing our lives.

What are the perilous spiritual implications of artificial intelligence, bioengineering, facial recognition, and other hi-tech applications we're accepting into our daily world with little concern? What does the Bible say about it all? Bible Gateway interviewed John C. Lennox (@ProfJohnLennox) about his book, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Zondervan, 2020). What is the title of this book intended to elicit in readers? Dr. John C. Lennox: It's intended to recall 1984, the dystopian novel by George Orwell who gave to the English language the idea of Big Brother.

Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi said he was unhurt and appealed for "calm and restraint" after a drone attack on his residence in Baghdad's Green Zone early Sunday as political tensions mount in the country. "I'm doing fine, praise be to God, and I call for calm and restraint on the part of everyone for the good of Iraq," Kadhemi wrote on Twitter, after what his office called a "failed assassination attempt". Two security sources earlier confirmed the attack in the heavily-guarded Green Zone, which also hosts the US embassy and is frequently targeted by rocket attacks. A large number of security forces were deployed in and around the Zone following the attack, according to a security source. The attack came amid soaring political tensions over the results of October 10 elections.

As Valentine's Day approaches and the aroma of love turns even devout singletons into frenzied love-seekers, many will invariably turn to dating apps for help. But caving in and venturing into the murky world of Hinge, Tinder and Bumble is a poisoned chalice, doomed to fail even if it works, a new study reveals. Academics have found people who have success in the fickle world of virtual swiping perceive themselves to be desirable as a result of their conquests. This sense of self-desirability, it has been proved, makes a person more likely to cheat when they eventually settle down into a serious relationship. Dr Cassandra Alexopoulos of the University of Massachusetts led the research and quizzed 395 participants on their dating app use.

Since Theresa May invoked Article 50, there has been a mystifying surge in video games set in Britain. They come in all shapes and sizes, from Nintendo's Pokémon Sword and Shield, which riffs on the architecture of Oxbridge and London, to PanicBarn's anti-Brexit polemic Not Tonight. Most began development long before the EU referendum, but they are useful explorations of national identity at a time when what Britain stands for is hotly contested. Gary Younge has described the Brexit debate as a clash between stories about Britain's past and our ideas of Britishness. How, then, might these video games help us think about what Britain is today? In the 9th-century, Britain was not one but several nations, a mass of warring Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Viking kingdoms.

Some players find the carnage of Monster Hunter: World distasteful. Mon 12 Feb 2018 08.48 EST Last modified on Mon 12 Feb 2018 08.51 EST I have an admission to make: I'm a vegetarian who enjoys big-game hunting. For the past several weeks I have been playing Monster Hunter: World, a PlayStation 4 video game in which you head out into the wilds and hunt down enormous dinosaur-like creatures, wearing armour fashioned from the bones, fur and scales of previous conquests. Monster Hunter: World is nothing like real-world hunting. For one thing, the monsters in question are hugely powerful and often eat me for dinner several times before I finally manage a victory, and for another I do most of my hunting with a lightning-infused axe that transforms into a sword.

The Google Pixel 2 is this week's biggest Android release by far, but if you're not up for new hardware, then turn your attention to the Play Store instead: There are plenty of fresh apps and games worth scoping out over the weekend. Game of Thrones: Conquest is an all-new game based on the hit HBO fantasy series, and it leads our latest Five to Try roundup. Also worth a look right now are the Google Pixel-esque Lawnchair Launcher, charming puzzle adventure Love You to Bits, heart-tracking app Cardiogram for Android Wear, and the silly touchscreen fun of Mmm Fingers 2. It might be a while before we get the eighth season of Game of Thrones, but you can kill time till then with the new Game of Thrones: Conquest game for Android. Based on the popular fantasy phenomenon, Conquest lets you become a lord in Westeros and build your own house, waging war as you interact with familiar characters from the series and capture more than 120 seats of power. In practice, it looks like a lot of busywork--tapping buttons to build things or execute actions, and then waiting for the timers to run down.

Imagine a world in peril. Kyros, the overlord, dominates everything in the known world--except for one tiny realm, that is. Known as the Tiers, this last bastion of goodness, of freedom, holds out in the face of impossible odds. Armies clash, and Kyros's overwhelming forces handily dispatching the desperate populace until all hope seems lost. In a normal video game, this would be the point where your untrained, unskilled, and unknown Joe Nobody enters the picture to save the day, to beat back the tides of darkness, confront Kyros, and eventually defeat him.