Tan smart | Future | The Press

The sunny days are perfect for relaxing, but there’s no need to put your brain on vacation. Here are four suggestions from our columnists for entertaining and thinking in the sun, one theme at a time. This week, the future.

The area of ​​interest

Winner of the Oscars for Best International Film and Best Sound in 2024, The area of ​​interest is certainly one of the most significant films of the decade, and one that I cannot forget. How can yet another film about World War II be so relevant, and even seem like a warning for the future? By showing the “ordinary” daily life of a Nazi family living right next to the Auschwitz extermination camp, Jonathan Glazer highlights the willful blindness, when one only thinks of one’s own interests, that allows all the horrors to occur.

Chantal Guy, The Press

The area of ​​interestby Jonathan Glazer, starring Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller and Ralph Herforth. Available for rental and purchase (e.g. AppleTV, Prime)

They live the century: from hashtags tox revolutions

Climate crisis, wars, violence, repression, decline in women’s rights… The future seems very bleak when you only look at the headlines. It is much less so when you read the hopeful thoughts of the thirty courageous personalities with whom journalist Mélanie Loisel spoke in They live the century: from hashtags to revolutions. Some, like Shirin Ebadi or Christiane Taubira, are already very well-known. Others, like the young environmental activist of Pakistani origin Zainab Waheed, deserve to be better known. Whether they are experts, activists, humanitarians, witnesses or survivors, their strong words are inspiring. All that remains is to hear them.

Rima Elkouri, The Press

They live the century: from hashtags to revolutionsMélanie Loisel, Aube editions, 438 pages

Counter-atlas of artificial intelligence

Want to learn more about artificial intelligence and don’t know where to start? You won’t be disappointed if you get your hands on this essay by Kate Crawford. Be careful, though: this Australian researcher doesn’t beat around the bush. She keeps a cool head and asks “thorny questions.” Namely, among other things, “whose interests are served” by AI and “who risks the greatest harm.” She explains how AI systems are “an expression of power, which results from broader economic and political forces.” Theoretical? Not only. She also goes into the field (in Nevada, where there are lithium mines, for example), in particular to show us the environmental damage linked to AI developments. A valuable work.

Alexandre Sirois, The Press

Counter-atlas of artificial intelligenceKate Crawford, Zulma essays, 377 pages

Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology, and Lost Futures

Can we be nostalgic for the future? This strange question runs through the work of the late English essayist Mark Fisher. A cultural theorist, he goes back and forth between the art of his time and the great ideas in which they are inscribed. In Capitalist Realismhe deplored our political deadlock, where it seems impossible to imagine any other system than capitalism. This collection of short but dense texts deepens this idea by observing how it colors popular culture. He sees the recurrence of nostalgia in music as the consequence of a political failure. He also offers a luminous analysis of more cutting-edge currents, such as “hauntological” ambient music, a formula inspired by Derrida. A little niche, but original and stimulating.

Paul Journet, The Press

Ghosts of my life: writings on depression, hauntology and lost futures, of Mark Fisher, Entremonde, 190 pages