I will never get rich through the internet! There, I’ve said it. In an age where everyone seems to be monetizing their presence, building personal brands, and curating their lives into marketable content, this statement feels almost heretical. But it’s the truth—my truth. And truth, as I’ve come to learn, is rarely profitable in the economy of attention. You see, I have this inconvenient habit of…
Two recent cases here in Brazil have revealed just how illusory our digital personas can become—both in terms of pure appearance and professional qualifications. They are stark, real-life examples of the chasm that can form between who we are online and who we are in the world. First, there was the aesthetic influencer Natalia Becker. On Instagram, she was a vision of perfection—flawless skin,…
In the polarized world of Brazilian social media, a digital influencer known as "esquerdogata" had amassed over a million followers. Her chosen nickname is a key part of this story. It’s a Portuguese portmanteau: "esquerda" (left) + "gata" (a slang term for an attractive woman). The persona was clear: a beautiful, stylish woman aligned with progressive, left-wing ideals. However, a single…
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World envisioned the perfect dictatorship: one where citizens would "love their servitude," trapped not by barbed wire and brute force, but by unlimited pleasure, free sex, and the perfect drug, Soma. Today, we need not look to dystopian fiction to witness this prophecy fulfilled—we need only open our smartphones. What Huxley foresaw and what B.F. Skinner later…
Try this experiment: open Pinterest and search for "beautiful black woman." Then search for "beautiful white woman." What you'll discover is more than just a algorithmic quirk—it's a digital Rorschach test revealing the hidden prejudices embedded in our technology. The first search returns a handful of results, often exoticized or stereotyped, while the second generates endless pages of diverse,…
In the Middle Ages, knowing Latin meant you held the keys to knowledge, power, and societal influence. Today, that key isn't a dead language - it's JavaScript, Python, and C++. And we're recreating the same feudal system, just with better WiFi. Just half a century ago, computer programming existed as an arcane discipline confined largely to university laboratories and research institutions. It was…
This blog is not about programming, although I intend to talk a lot about it. This blog is about our contemporary society. It just so happens that computer programming is an incredibly important theme in contemporary society. We live immersed in the internet, in cell phone applications, and even our paper money is gradually being replaced by encrypted records in computers. Many of us are even…