# data[].attributes.body
https://www.utwente.nl/en/designlab/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
DesignLab is a platform at the University of Twente for multidisciplinary collaboration, innovation and creativity. We connect students, educational staff, researchers, businesses, and governments through our Science2Design4Society method.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tidligere på ugen faldt en mand pludselig om med hvad, der lignede et epileptisk anfald.

Selv om han var alene i rummet, da det skete, stimlede andre sammen omkring ham, bekymrede og undrende. Det kunne lade sig gøre, fordi manden samtidig befandt sig i VRChat, en virtuel verden der opleves gennem virtual reality (VR) briller.

Manden kom sig heldigvis og er nu ok ifølge netmediet The Daily Dot.

Denne video som er optaget af en bruger, dokumenterer hele den mærkelige hændelse.

Andre brugere ude af stand til at hjælpe

VRChat er et online univers, hvor brugerne kan bevæge sig rundt og have samtaler på samme måde, som man kunne i programmet Second Life, der havde sin storhedstid i anden halvdel af 00erne - men altså i VR.

Man kan bruge programmet siddende, stående eller med den "store pakke", hvor en stor del af det rum, man befinder sig i, trackes, og VRChat reagerer derfor i forhold til hele kroppen.

Læs også: Empatimaskinen sætter dig i en andens sko

Det havde brugeren, der fik det epileptiske anfald, og derfor er billederne, hvor hans virtuelle avatar pludselig falder om, også ekstra dramatiske.

De andre beboere i den virtuelle verden ilede til undsætning, men var magtesløse, da de ikke kendte mandens rigtige navn eller vidste, hvor han befandt sig i den fysiske verden.

En verden både lig og ulig vores

Den verden, man oplever i VRChat, minder på mange måder om vores fysiske verden. Man bevæger sig rundt og kan føre samtaler med andre, og det er brugerens rigtige stemme, man hører. Men den adskiller sig fra traditionelle spilverdener, for brugerne er i stand til at bidrage med deres egne avatarer, bygninger og andre objekter.

Derfor er meget få grænser for, hvad man kan opleve, og de mangeartede hjemmelavede avatarer, der er både fantasifulde og infantile, giver VRChat-verdenen sit eget unikke udseende. Lidt ligesom vores fysiske verden.

Og ligesom i vores fysiske verden, er der mange kameraer i VRChat. og derfor er det aparte og alvorlige optrin nu foreviget på YouTube.

Læs også: Kunst i den virtuelle virkelighed gør dig svimmel

Kan ske igen

I takt med at VR-teknologi udbredes, vil risikoen for, at denne type hændelse sker igen, også vokse.

Producenterne af VR-udstyr anbefaler, at man tager regelmæssige pauser, hvis man tidligere har haft et epileptisk anfald, for at undgå, at et anfald udløses af skærmens flimrende billeder, som vises helt tæt på brugerens øjne.

Episoden minder os om, at de virruelle og den analoge verden i virkeligheden er to sider af samme mønt, og at handlinger foretaget i cyberspace kan have meget ægte konsekvenser lige på den anden side af skærmen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mand får epileptisk anfald i virtual reality-verden

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tidligere på ugen faldt en mand pludselig om med hvad, der lignede et epileptisk anfald. Selv om han var alene i rummet, da det skete, stimlede andre sammen omkring ham, bekymrede og undrende. Det kunne lade sig gøre, fordi manden samtidig befandt sig i VRChat, en virtuel verden der opleves gennem virtual reality (VR) briller.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Minitel was a videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and was the world's most successful online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was invented in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes in Brittany, France.

The service was rolled out experimentally on 15 July 1980 in Saint-Malo, France, and from autumn 1980 in other areas, and introduced commercially throughout France in 1982 by the PTT ( Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones; divided since 1991 between France Télécom and La Poste). From its early days, users could make online purchases, make train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat in a similar way to what is now made possible by the World Wide Web.

In February 2009, France Télécom indicated the Minitel network still had 10 million monthly connections. France Télécom retired the service on 30 June 2012.

Officially TELETEL, the name Minitel is abbreviated from the French title of Médium interactif par numérisation d'information téléphonique (Interactive medium for digitized information by telephone).

In 1978, Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones, the French PTT organisation, began designing the Minitel network. By distributing terminals that could access a nationwide electronic directory of telephone and address information, it hoped to increase use of the country's 23 million phone lines, and reduce the costs of printing printed phone books and employing directory assistance personnel. Millions of terminals were given for free (officially loans, and property of the PTT) to telephone subscribers. The telephone company emphasized ease of use; one observer wrote that "the Minitel terminal requires slightly more training than a toaster to operate". By offering a popular service on simple, free equipment, Minitel achieved high market penetration and avoided the chicken and the egg problem that prevented widespread adoption of such a system in the United States. In exchange for the terminal, Minitel owners would only be given the yellow pages (classified commercial listings, with advertisements). The white pages were accessible for free on Minitel, and they could be searched much faster than flipping through a paper directory. According to the PTT, during the first eight years of nationwide operation 8 billion francs was spent on purchasing terminals, a profit of 3,5 billion francs was made after deduction of payments passed on to information providers such as newspapers, and an average of 500 million francs annually was saved by printing fewer phone books.

A trial with just 55 residential and business telephone customers using experimental terminals began in Saint-Malo on 15 July 1980, two days after 13 July presentation by Minitel to President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. This expanded to 2,500 customers in other regions in autumn 1980. Starting in May 1981, 4,000 experimental terminals with a different design were distributed in Ille-et-Vilaine, and commercial service using Minitel terminals began in 1982.

By early 1986 1.4 million terminals were connected to Minitel, with plans to distribute another million by the end of the year. To reduce opposition from newspapers worried about competition from an electronic network, they were allowed to establish the first consumer services on Minitel. Libération offered 24-hour online news, such as results from events at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles that occurred overnight in France. Providers advertised their own services in their own publications, which helped market the overall Minitel network. Others founded newspapers solely to create Minitel services.

By 1988 three million terminals were installed, with 100,000 new units installed monthly. The telephone directory received 23 million calls monthly, with 40,000 updates daily. About 6,000 other services were available, with 250 added monthly. France Télécom estimated that almost 9 million terminals-including web-enabled personal computers ( Windows, Mac OS, and Linux)-had access to the network at the end of 1999, and that it was used by 25 million people (of a total population of 60 million). Developed by 10,000 companies, in 1996, almost 26,000 different services were available.

The telephone company only provided the white pages, otherwise building infrastructure for others to provide services. Minitel allowed access to various categories:

The development of Minitel spawned the creation of many start-up companies in a manner similar to the later dot-com bubble of World Wide Web-related companies. Similarly, many of those small companies floundered because of an overcrowded market or bad business practices (lack of infrastructure for online retailers).

By 1985 games and electronic messaging were 42% of Minitel traffic, and messaging was 17% of traffic in 1988. Messageries roses ("pink messages", adult chat services hosted by operators pretending to be receptive women) were unexpectedly very popular, embarrassing government officials who preferred to discuss growing business usage of messaging. Widespread street advertising marketed services such as "3615 Sextel", "Jane", "kiss", "3615 penthouse", and "men". They and other pornographic sites were also criticized for their possible access by minors. The government chose not to enact coercive measures, however, stating that the regulation of the online activities of children was up to parents, not the government. The government did, however, levy a tax on pornographic online services.

Payment methods

Credit card for purchases

Telephone bill for surfing time: rates depend on the sites visited

Users first subscribed to individual services, but traffic grew quickly after the telephone company offered a "kiosk" model (named after newsagent's shops). Minitel and voice charges appeared combined on the monthly telephone bill, with no breakout of fees. Service providers received two-thirds of the $10 an hour that customers typically paid as of 1988. As the telephone company handled bill collection, and users who did not pay bills lost telephone service, the customer acquisition cost for service providers was low. The single bill encouraged impulse shopping, in which users intending to use one service found and used others while browsing. As users' identities and services were anonymous, Minitel use was high at work where companies paid for telephone service.

In 1985 France Télécom earned 620 million francs (approximately $70 million) from Minitel. 2,000 private companies earned 289 million francs (about $35 million) during the year; Libération earned 2.5 million francs (about $300,000) from the service in September. In the late 1990s, Minitel connections were stable at 100 million a month plus 150 million online directory inquiries, in spite of growing use of the World Wide Web.

In 1998, Minitel generated €832 million ($1,121 million) of revenue, of which €521 million was channelled by France Télécom to service providers.

Minitel sales in the late 1990s accounted for almost 15% of sales at La Redoute and 3 Suisses, France's biggest mail order companies. In 2005, the most popular Minitel application was Teleroute, the online real-time freight exchange, which accounted for nearly 8% of Minitel usage.

In December 1985 Minitel users made more than 22 million calls, up 400% in one year. In 1994 they made 1,913 million Minitel calls, used the system for 110 million hours, and spent 6.6 billion francs. In 2005, there were 351 million calls for 18.5 million hours of connection, generating €206 million of revenue, of which €145 million were redistributed to 2,000 service providers (these numbers were declining at around 30% per year). There were still six million terminals owned by France Télécom, which had been left with their users in order to avoid recycling problems. The main uses were banking and financial services, which benefit from Minitel's security features, and access to professional databases. France Télécom mentions, as an example of usage, that 12 million updates to personal "carte vitale" health-care cards were made through Minitel.

In 2007, revenue was well over $100 million.

In 2010, €30 million in revenues with 85% of those revenues going to service providers.

The most popular service of the Minitel was the "Annuaire Electronique"; in 1985 about half of the calls on the network were to it. In May of that year a white pages directory for all 24 million telephone subscribers nationwide became available. It was accessible through the phone number 11; on 18 October 1996 (new French numbering system adopted), the access to the phone directory changed to 3611. Companies could add up to 3 lines of complementary information and a "prehistoric" website. Ads to the Minitel phone directory were sold by ODA (Office d'Annonces), today Solocal / Pages Jaunes Groupe in Sèvres France. In 1991, the "Minitel Website" for the Paris Sony Stores contained already over 100 pages. Today the 3611 Minitel Directory is replaced by the online white or yellow pages.

On 11 February 2009, France Télécom and PagesJaunes announced that they were to cancel plans to end the Minitel service in March 2009. Its directory assistance service was still being accessed over a million times a month. This was before France Télécom retired the service on 30 June 2012, on account of operational cost and fewer customers due to lack of interest.

Minitel used computer terminals consisting of a text-only monochrome screen, a keyboard and a modem, packaged into a single tabletop unit. Minitel terminals could display rudimentary graphics using a set of predefined block graphics characters. Color units were later available for a fee, but remained seldom-used. Aftermarket printers were available.

Minitel used the existing Transpac network, but its popularity caused problems for the network's commercial users. After a severe disruption in June 1985, France Télécom separated business traffic from Télétel, dedicated to the Minitel service. When connecting, the Minitel's integrated modem generally dialed a short code number connecting to a PAVI ( Point d'Accès VIdéotexte, "videotext access point") from the subscriber's analog telephone line. The PAVI in turn connected digitally via Transpac to the destination servers of the appropriate company or administration.

In France the most common dial number was "3615", while "3617" was used by more expensive services. Minitel services names were often prefixed with this number to identify them as such. Billboard ads at the time often consisted of nothing more than an image, a company name, and a "3615" number; the fact that a Minitel service was being advertised was then clear by implication, similarly to the use of ".com" for later web services.

Minitel used a half-duplex asymmetric data transmission via its modem. It downlinked at 1200 bit/s (9 KB/min) and uplinked at 75 bit/s (0.6 KB/min). This allowed fast downloads, for the time. The system, which came to be known as "1275" was more correctly known as V.23. This system had been developed for general-purpose data communications, but was most commonly used for Minitel and equivalent services around the world.

Technically, Minitel refers to the terminals, while the network is known as Télétel.

Minitel terminals use the AZERTY keyboard most commonly used in France (as opposed to the QWERTY keyboard more common in the English-speaking world).

The extent to which Minitel enhanced or hindered the development of the Internet in France is widely debated. On the one hand, it included more than a thousand services, some of which predicted common applications on the modern Internet. For example, in 1986, French university students coordinated a national strike using Minitel, demonstrating an early use of digital communication devices for participatory technopolitical ends. Alternatively, the French government's attachment to the natively developed Minitel may have slowed the adoption of the Internet in France; in the 1990s there was a peak of nine million terminals and there were still 810,000 terminals in the country in 2012. In the short term, some resources at France Telecom (now Orange) were dedicated to the development of Minitel that might have otherwise been focused on Internet development. However, France Telecom's focus on Minitel had little or no long-term effect on adoption or development of internet- and web-based companies in France; France ranks roughly equal to the US and Germany in the current penetration of high-speed internet in households.

Belgium: Minitel was launched by Belgacom and delivered services led by Teleroute. Although it was used by businesses, it was rarely used by the public. The main reason was that the terminals were not offered for free as in France and that usage of the service was expensive (50 Euro cents a minute).

Brazil: Telebrás had a teletext service called "Videotexto" or "VTX" during the 1980s and 1990s with services provided by local telephone companies such as Telesp (now part of Telefônica Vivo). Services included chats, games, telephone list search, and electronic banking, among others. The Minitel protocol is still used by some cable TV companies to provide general information to their customers.

Canada: Bell Canada experimented with a Minitel-like system known as Alex with terminals called AlexTel. The system was conceptually similar to Minitel, but used the Canadian NAPLPS protocols and North American Bell System RJ-11 standard telephone connectors. Originally launched experimentally in the Montreal area, Alex was then launched in most areas served by Bell Canada (primarily Ontario and Quebec) with offers of a free trial period and terminal. The principal information offering was the telephone directory. Although branded as a "bilingual" (English and French Canadian) service, the majority of other services offered were the experimental ones originally offered in Quebec and completely Francophone. Retention rates were reportedly close to zero. The service closed down shortly after exiting the experimental stage. Telidon was an earlier Canadian text and graphics service using the same technological underpinnings.

Finland: In 1986, PTL-Tele, then Sonera (now part of Telia Company) launched the on-line service called TeleSampo. TeleSampo included not only videotex services, but also many other Ascii-based Value Added Services (VAS). Roughly at the same time, HPY HTF (now Elisa) launched a videotex service called Infotel . TeleSampo service was switched off in 2004.

Germany: "Bildschirmtext" (BTX) that existed between 1983 and 2001 is almost as old as Minitel and technically very similar, but it was largely unsuccessful because consumers had to buy expensive decoders to use it. The German postal service held a monopoly on the decoders that prevented competition and lower prices. Few people bought the boxes, so there was little incentive for companies to post content, which in turn did nothing to further box sales. When the monopoly was loosened, it was too late because PC-based online services had started to appear.

Ireland: Minitel was introduced to Ireland by Eir (then called Telecom Éireann) in 1988. The system was based on the French model and Irish services were even accessible from France via the code "36 19 Irlande". A number of major Irish businesses came together to offer a range of online services, including directory information, shopping, banking, hotel reservations, airline reservations, news, weather and information services. The system was also the first platform in Ireland to offer users access to e-mail outside of a corporate setting. Despite being cutting edge for its time, the system failed to capture a large market and was ultimately withdrawn due to lack of commercial interest. The rise of the internet and other global online services in the early to mid-1990s played a major factor in the death of Irish Minitel. Minitel Ireland's terminals were technically identical to their French counterparts, except that they had a Qwerty keyboard and an RJ-11 telephone jack which is the standard telephone connector in Ireland. Terminals could be rented for 5.00 Irish pounds (6.35 euros) per month or purchased for 250.00 Irish pounds (317.43 euros) in 1992.

Italy: In 1985 the national telephone operator SIP - Società italiana per l'esercizio telefonico (now known as Telecom Italia) launched the Videotel service. The system use was charged on a per-page basis. Due to the excessive cost of the hardware and the expensive services, diffusion was very low, leading to the diffusion of a FidoNet-oriented movement. The service was shut down in 1994.

Netherlands: The then state-owned phone company PTT (now KPN) operated two platforms: Viditel and Videotex Nederland . The main difference was that Viditel used one big central host where Videotex NL used a central access system responsible for realizing the correct connection to the required host: owned and managed by others. Viditel was introduced on 7 August 1980, and required a Vidimodem as well as a compatible home computer (one such example was the Philips P2000T which had a built-in Teletext chip) or a television set which could support Teletext; the required equipment itself would cost anywhere between 3000 and 5000 Dutch guilders overall. Viditel was shut down in September 1989 due to high operating costs and was succeeded by the cheaper and more widely used Videotex Nederland. The Videotex NL services offered access via several premium rate numbers and the information/service provider could choose the costs for accessing his service. Depending on the number used, the tariff could vary from 0-1 guilders (0.00-0.45 euro) per minute. Some private networks such as Travelnet (for travel-agencies) and RDWNet for automotive industry, used the same platform as Videotex NL but used dedicated dial-in phone numbers, dedicated access-hardware and also used authentication. Although the protocol used in France for Minitel was slightly different than the international standard you could use the 'international' terminal (or PC's with the correct terminal-emulation software) to access the French services. It was possible to connect to most French Minitel services via the Dutch Videotex NL network, but the price per minute was considerably higher: most French Minitel services were reachable via the dial-in number 06-7900 which had a tariff of 1 guilder/minute (approx. €0,45/minute). Videotex Nederland was eventually shut down in 1997, and the parent company behind Videotex Nederland was subsequently renamed as Planet Media Group.

Singapore: Singapore Teleview was first trialled by the Telecom Authority of Singapore (now Singtel) beginning in 1987, and was formally launched in 1991. The Teleview system, while similar in concept to the Minitel and Prestel, was unique in that it was able to display photographic images instead of graphical images used by Minitel and Prestel. Teleview was eventually rendered obsolete by SLIP/PPP-based modem Internet connections in the late-1990s.

South Africa: Videotex was introduced by Telkom in 1986 and named Beltel. The Minitel was introduced later to popularise the service.

Spain: Videotex was introduced by Telefónica in 1990 and named Ibertex. The Ibertex was based on the French model but used the German Bildschirmtext CEPT-1 profile.

Sweden: Swedish state-owned telephone company Televerket (now Telia Company) introduced a similar service, called Teleguide , in 1991. Teleguide was shut down in 1993 due to a contract dispute between Televerket and the vendors IBM and Esselte.

United Kingdom: The Prestel system was similar in concept to Minitel, using dedicated terminals or software on personal computers to access the network.

United States: In 1991, France Télécom launched a Minitel service called "101 Online" in San Francisco; this venture was not successful. In the early 1990s US West (subsequently Qwest and now CenturyLink) launched a Minitel service in the Minneapolis and Omaha markets called "CommunityLink". This joint venture of US West and France Télécom provided Minitel content to IBM PC, Commodore 64 and Apple II owners using a Minitel-emulating software application over a dialup modem. Many of the individual services were the same as or similar to those offered by France Télécom to the French market; in fact, some chat services linked up with France Télécom's network in France. The service was fairly short-lived as competing offerings from providers like AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe provided more services targeted at American users for a lower price. Many of US West's Minitel offerings were charged à la carte or hourly while competitors offered monthly all-inclusive pricing.

1. ^ Puech, Michel (20 June 2010). "Le monde du Minitel se paye Le Monde" [The world of Minitel pays for 'Le Monde' (A wordplay: the newspaper 'Le Monde' translates as 'The World'.)]. Mediapart (in French).

2. ^ "Minitel: The rise and fall of the France-wide web", Hugh Schofield, BBC News Magazine (Paris), 27 June 2012.

3. ^ "Le Minitel disparaîtra en juin 2012" [Minitel will disappear in June 2012]. Le Figaro (in French). Agence France Presse. 21 July 2011. English translation)

4. ^ Lichfield, John (9 June 2012). "How France Fell Out of Love with Minitel". The Independent.

5. ^ Stoner, Mark (March 1988). "French Connections with Minitel: The Future Has Arrived in France". Online. Vol. 12 no. 2.

6. ^ Epstein, Nadine (9 March 1986). "Et Voila! Le Minitel". The New York Times.

7. ^ "On the Farms of France, the Death of a Pixelated Workhorse", Scott Sayare, New York Times, 27 June 2012

8. ^ Brubach, Holly (12 March 1995). "STYEL; Fashion Foreplay". The New York Times Magazine. p. 6006081.

9. ^ Ager, Dennis (1998). "electronic revolution". In Hughes, Alex; Reader, Keith (eds.). Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture. London: Routledege. pp. 180-182.

10. ^ Green, Carla (21 January 2015). "The French Connection" (Podcast). Reply All. Gimlet Media.

11. ^ "Bilan Minitel 2005" (PDF) (Press release) (in French). France Telecom. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 September 2006.

12. ^ "Farmers mourn death of French proto-internet", Agence France-Presse (AFP), ABC News (Australia), 29 June 2012

13. ^ "Imprimantes Rouleau Thermique" (in French). Acel Genesys. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. (English translation)

14. ^ Kahn, Richard; Kellner, Douglas (2008). "Technopolitics, Blogs, and Emergent Media Ecologies". In Hawk, Byron; Rieder, David; Oviedo, Ollie (eds.). Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 22-37 [24]. ISBN 9780816649778.

15. ^ REDES DE SERVICIOS TELEMATICOS: En Ibertex se reciben páginas de información bajo la norma CEPT-1, el estándar más avanzado que existe en videotex, que permite gráficos pero no sonido.

16. ^ 101 Online: American Minitel Network and Lessons from Its Failure

The official website (in French)

Minitel.org - Memories of Minitel and X.25 networks (in French)

Computer Chronicles: High Tech France, video circa 1990

The French Minitel: Is There Digital Life Outside of the "US ASCII" Internet? A Challenge or Convergence?, D-Lib Magazine, December 1995

Wired News: Minitel - The Old New Thing, April 2001

CNN Tech: Minitel - the Beta Internet Breaks Out, April 2001

BBC News: France's Minitel: 20 years young, 14 May 2003

Forbes.com: The French Minitel Goes Online, 14 July 2003

New York Times: On the Farms of France, the Death of a Pixelated Workhorse, 27 June 2012

The Atlantic: Minitel, the Open Network Before the Internet. A state-run French computer service from the 1980s offers a cautionary tale about too much reliance on today's private internet providers., 16 June 2017

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Minitel was a videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and was the world's most successful online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was invented in Cesson-Sévigné, near Rennes in Brittany, France.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Phone phreaks demonstrated that the mundane telephone could become a gateway to virtual adventures which spanned the globe, anticipating the culture of hacking today.
"Let's say a shopping center," says the hacker I'm talking to online. He's British, but is using an alias, 'Belial', and I don't know his real name. "The elevators or lifts inside have emergency telephones and these telephones are attached to the PBX [a small telephone network for a building or business]. The speaker inside the lift has an extension like a phone would and you can dial the phone inside the lifts.

"You can monitor what's going on inside, so you can hear the lift saying 'you are on the third floor'. And you can hear people walking in and out, and you can speak to them and prank them. You can say, 'Due to technical issues, we're going to have to cut the cable on this lift, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you,' and stuff like that."

He chuckles a bit at this. And I confess that I do too. Belial experimented with phone phreaking in the 1990s as an Internet-curious teenager. He tells me that finding access to things like telephones in elevators was at the time a matter of using computers to "scan" sets of hundreds of numbers for what he terms "gems" -- call destinations (such as people's hotel rooms) which were worth exploring with a little creativity.

This is the point at which "phone phreaking" (hacking the telephone system) and the modern sense of computer hacking intersect. This, essentially, is phreaking's twilight. But where did the practice of accessing internal numbers, or making long-distance calls for free, or setting up phreak "conferences" that could endure from dusk till dawn actually begin? And what is left of it all today?

To answer the first question I spoke to Phil Lapsley, author of a brilliantly researched new book entitled, Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell.

Early in our interview I ask Lapsley what his personal favorite stories about phone phreaking are. Without much hesitation, he says, "the early days." "The early days," in this context, refers to phone phreaks of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many of them were students at top universities like Harvard. Others were gifted engineers.

A few still were blind kids with perfect pitch like Joe Engressia who, through whistling into their telephone at precise frequencies, found ways to unlock a vibrant world of interaction and exploration within which natural sight became irrelevant.

"These people kind of crystallise what I love about this subject," explains Lapsley, "Which is simply the combination of innocence and curiosity. These were not people who were out to make free phone calls, you know, for the sake of making free phone calls. They were just like, 'Wow, what happens if. What happens if I dial this number? What happens if I play this tone?' They were simply curious."

Related Story

Few capture this sense of wistful curiosity better than 'Captain Crunch'. Like Joe Engressia, Captain Crunch was interviewed in depth for a lengthy 1971 investigation into the world of phone phreaking published by Esquire magazine. This piece later became famous as the document with which Steve Wozniak introduced his friend and future business partner Steve Jobs to phone phreaking before they experimented with the phenomenon themselves.

In the Esquire article, Captain Crunch narrates excitedly to his interviewer Ron Rosenbaum the process by which he connected a single long-distance call via switching stations across Asia, Europe, South Africa, South America and the East coast until he reached a specific telephone in California.

Captain Crunch had in fact wrapped his call the entire way around the globe, for the ringing phone he had been patched through to was one right beside him -- his own second line. Crunch picked up the other receiver and listened to his own voice. "Needless to say I had to shout to hear myself," he told Rosenbaum, "But the echo was far out. Fantastic. Delayed. It was delayed twenty seconds, but I could hear myself talk to myself."

Lapsley and I discuss the idea that it was activity like this which brought us the modern paradigm of a hackable worldwide network. That is, a place full of strange, wonderful and sometimes dangerous things within which people were free to communicate and explore as they saw fit.

"It becomes a playground," Lapsley says, describing phone phreaks' determination to access remote or unusual telephone switchboards. "It becomes a question of... how far can you go. 'How close can you get to the north pole?' That's a game some kids used to play. 'Let's pick a spot to see how close we can get to it.' It becomes in some ways like virtual tourism and there's an infinite chain of puzzles. ... You can keep playing this game over and over again."

At this point Lapsley makes a salient observation. He notes that, with the rise of personal computing, it was generally thought that the "killer app" of computers would be software which would deliver some intelligence or insight to help us solve some problem or other.

"These people kind of crystallise what I love about this subject," explains Lapsley, "Which is simply the combination of innocence and curiosity. These were not people who were out to make free phone calls, you know, for the sake of making free phone calls."

"What turned out to be the killer app was people, right?" argues Lapsley. "It turned out to be people connected together via computers. Email becomes the killer app, or Twitter for example, and all these things are what people get excited about because what people really care about, it turns out, is other people."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Phone phreaks demonstrated that the mundane telephone could become a gateway to virtual adventures which spanned the globe, anticipating the culture of hacking today. "Let's say a shopping center," says the hacker I'm talking to online. He's British, but is using an alias, 'Belial', and I don't know his real name.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
During the 1970's, the phone phreaks or phone hackers appeared: they learned ways to hack the telephonic system and make phone calls for free. John Draper built a 'blue box' that could do this and the Esquire magazine published an article on how to build them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The UC Davis Technocultural Studies department focuses on "transdisciplinary approaches to artistic, cultural and scholarly production in contemporary media and digital arts, community media, and mutual concerns of the arts with the scientific and technological disciplines.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Internetbrugere har fundet en troværdig måde at lave falsk porno, men teknologien åbner også for en ny bølge af propaganda og falske nyheder.

På internettet findes der videoklip med filmstjerner som Scarlett Johansson, Megan Fox og Emma Watson, der dyrker sex eller bader nøgne.

Men filmene er ikke ægte.

Det åbner potentielt for, at man kan få hvem som helst til at sige hvad som helst
Anders Kofod-Petersen, vicedirektør i Alexandra Instituttet og professor i kunstig intelligens

De er skabt ved, at kendte kvinders ansigter er blevet animeret ind på pornoskuespilleres kroppe.

Bag videoerne står internetbrugere, der har udviklet værktøjer til at lave såkaldt ' faceswap-porno', og de er blevet så gode til det, at flere af videoerne virker meget troværdige. Det skriver teknologimediet Motherboard.

- Alle er nødt til at forstå, hvor nemt det er at forfalske billeder og videoer til en grad, hvor vi om nogle få måneder fra nu ikke vil være i stand til at identificere forfalskningerne, siger Alex Champandard, der er ekspert i kunstig intelligens, til Motherboard.

Billedet herunder er fra en af videoerne, hvor modellen og skuespilleren Gal Gadot fra 'Wonder Woman' er redigeret ind i en pornofilm:

Teknologien er ikke ukendt og har tidligere været benyttet i store Hollywood-produktioner. For eksempel gjorde den det muligt at vække den afdøde skuespiller Paul Walker til live i filmen 'Fast & Furious 7' og at indspille scener med en ung udgave af Carrie Fisher i 'Star Wars: Rogue One'.

Men når teknologien ikke længere er forbeholdt filmbranchens dygtigste folk og store Hollywood-budgetter, åbner det op for nogle bekymrende scenarier.

Et spørgsmål om tid

Fænomenet greb om sig sidste år, efter en bruger på debatforummet Reddit opfandt en algoritme, der gjorde det nemmere at lave troværdigt 'kendisporno' ved hjælp af maskinlæringsteknologi.

Siden har andre arbejdet videre på teknologien, og en anden Reddit-bruger har lavet et gratis program, som skal være muligt at benytte selv for folk, der ikke er computergenier.

Ikke alle de falske pornovideoer med Hollywood-stjernerne er lige overbevisende, og flere er slørede og mærkelige i ansigterne. Men nettet flyder lige nu med falsk kendisporno, og vi bør indstille os på, at der kan komme en bredere bølge af falske videoer i omløb, i takt med at teknologien bliver bedre og nemmere at bruge.

Det vurderer Anders Kofod-Petersen, der er vicedirektør i Alexandra Instituttet i Aarhus og professor i kunstig intelligens ved Norges Teknisk-Naturvidenskabelige Universitet i Trondheim, der er førende inden for kunstig intelligens og maskinlæring.

- Det åbner potentielt for, at man kan få hvem som helst til at sige hvad som helst. Der vil altid komme nogen, der sætter elementerne sammen til programmer, som alle kan hente ned og bruge. Det er bare et spørgsmål om tid, siger han til TV 2.

Svært at afkode for hr. og fru Jensen

De seneste år har adskillige unge oplevet at blive udsat for hævnporno eller deling af private billeder og videoer. Men med de teknologiske fremskridt kan man altså ikke udelukke, at ondsindede personer i fremtiden kan producere deres egen hævnporno.

På samme måde kan den bruges til at sætte eksempelvis politikere i kompromitterende situationer eller til at understøtte propaganda og falske nyheder.

- Teknologien har stadig svært ved at rekonstruere mimik og mere komplicerede bevægelser. Men noget mere trivielt som en stillesiddende nyhedsoplæser på TV 2 eller statsministerens nytårstale varer det formentligt ikke længe, før man kan forfalske, siger Anders Kofod-Petersen.

- Så vil vi kunne bygge en video, hvor Lars Løkke Rasmussen siger noget kontroversielt, og for hr. og fru Jensen er det tæt på umuligt at afgøre, om det er ægte, eller noget vi har bygget.

Forskere lavede falsk Obama

Sidste år lykkedes det forskere på University of Washington i USA at udvikle en falsk Barack Obama, hvor de brugte kunstig intelligens til at lave en model af præsidentens mund, så de kunne få ham til at sige hvad som helst.

Den britiske tv-kanal BBC spurgte dengang en af forskerne, professor Ira Kemelmacher-Schlizerman, om man skulle være bange for, at teknologien kunne blive misbrugt. Hertil svarede hun:

- Vi udvikler teknologi, og al teknologi kan bruges på en negativ måde, så vi bør alle arbejde for at sikre, at det ikke sker. Og en af mulighederne er, at når først du ved, hvordan du laver noget, så ved du også, hvordan du kan omvende processen, så man kan lave måder at identificere redigerede videoer fra sande videoer.

Ekspert: Hold fokus på kilden - ikke indholdet

Nogle af de falske pornovideoer har allerede fundet vej til pornohjemmesider, hvor de promoveres som den ægte vare.

Det er en af de store problemer ved falske nyheder, billeder eller videoer. De spredes hurtigt og bredt, og det bliver svært at opspore kilden, forklarer lektor Anja Bechmann fra Aarhus Universitet. Hun er en af to danske forskere, der sidste år blev udpeget til en arbejdsgruppe, der skal rådgive EU-kommissionen om, hvordan den kan modvirke falske nyheder og spredning af disinformation på nettet.

- Billeder opfattes som tættere på virkeligheden end det skrevne ord, så de får stor opmærksomhed, og derfor kan billedmanipulation være meget effektivt og fungere som propaganda, siger Anja Bechmann til TV 2.

- Derfor synes jeg, vi skal have mere fokus på kilderne end på selve indholdet. Det er ikke enten eller, men at holde fokus på kilden er mere effektivt.

I tilfældene, hvor teknologien bruges til eksempelvis falske pornovideoer, er der dog tale om ulovligheder i form af identitetstyveri og æreskrænkelse, understreger hun.

- Problemstillingen med at finde afsenderne er, at lovgivningen ikke er særligt effektiv, så det er svært at retsforfølge ud over danske grænser og afsløre kilden. Præcis som det er tilfældet i flere sager om hævnporno, siger Anja Bechmann.

Ikke allemandseje - endnu

Teknologien kræver i dag, at man har adgang til et stort billed- eller videoarkiv med den person, man ønsker at redigere ind i en falsk video. Derfor er det i første omgang nok primært kendte og politikere, der er i fare for at blive misbrugt.

Derudover kræver teknologien stadig et vist it-kendskab, så der er endnu et stykke vej, før alle 11-årige med en bærbar computer kan lave troværdige falske videoer.

- Men vi kommer til at se store fremskridt i løbet af i år og de kommende år. Tiden er løbet fra, at den slags kun kunne laves af en superekspert i et mørkt rum, lyder det fra Anders Kofod-Petersen.

Reddit-brugeren, der står bag det gratis program, fortæller dog til Motherboard, at han håber at forfine programmet yderligere i den kommende tid, så brugerne endnu nemmere og med færre klik kan indsætte ansigter og laves deres egne falske videoer.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Falsk porno kan være første skridt mod ny type af falske nyheder og propaganda

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Internetbrugere har fundet en troværdig måde at lave falsk porno, men teknologien åbner også for en ny bølge af propaganda og falske nyheder. På internettet findes der videoklip med filmstjerner som Scarlett Johansson, Megan Fox og Emma Watson, der dyrker sex eller bader nøgne. Men filmene er ikke ægte.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LinkedIn Editors on LinkedIn: "In the age of automation,...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the age of automation, here are some jobs that could come into existence. #Jobs2040