Fair Observer

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics” is a phrase that survives not because people distrust numbers, but because they distrust the stories wrapped around them. Statistics rarely speak on their own; they gain persuasive power through narrative. Du...

On January 8, 2026, at the height of its 2025–2026 protests, Iran imposed an 88-day internet blackout across the country. Millions of people were cut off from global connectivity, online commerce and family communication. There was a near-total ...

My previous column ended when I proposed to submit for ChatGPT’s approval the very satisfying

“From the football pitch to politics to the economy, Germany has become Europe’s most powerful country,” The Economist wrote in 2013. 

Today, Germany has been shaken by a series of political and economic crises — from the Covid-1...

I recently engaged Claude in a wide-ranging conversation on how human and machine intelligence in its current state can interact productively and how that might evolve in the future. We agreed on the principle that what happens...