Tech companies have been funneling billions of dollars into quantum computers for years. The hope is that theyll be a game changer for fields as diverse as finance, drug discovery, and logistics. Those expectations have been especially high in physics and chemistry, where the weird effects of quantum mechanics come into play. In theory, this is where quantum computers could have a huge advantage over conventional machines. But while the field struggles with the realities of tricky quantum hardware, another challenger is making headway in some of these most promising use cases. AI is now being applied to fundamental physics, chemistry, and materials science in a way that suggests quantum computings purported home turf might not be so safe after all. The scale and complexity of quantum systems that can be simulated using AI is advancing rapidly, says Giuseppe Carleo, a professor of computational physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Last month, he coauthored a paper published in Science showing that neural-network-based approaches are rapidly becoming the leading technique for modeling materials with strong quantum properties. Meta also recently unveiled an AI model trained on a massive new data set of materials that has jumped to the top of a leaderboard for machine-learning approaches to material discovery. Given the pace of recent advances, a growing number of researchers are now asking whether AI could solve a substantial chunk of the most interesting problems in chemistry and materials science before large-scale quantum computers become a reality. The existence of these new contenders in machine learning is a serious hit to the potential applications of quantum computers, says Carleo In my opinion, these companies will find out sooner or later that their investments are not justified. Exponential problems The promise of quantum computers lies in their potential to carry out certain calculations much faster than conventional computers. Realizing this promise will require much larger quantum processors than we have today. The biggest devices have just crossed the thousand-qubit mark, but achieving an undeniable advantage over classical computers will likely require tens of thousands, if not millions. Once that hardware is available, though, a handful of quantum algorithms, like the encryption-cracking Shors algorithm, have the potential to solve problems exponentially faster than classical algorithms can. But for many quantum algorithms with more obvious commercial applications, like searching databases, solving optimization problems, or powering AI, the speed advantage is more modest. And last year, a paper coauthored by Microsofts head of quantum computing, Matthias Troyer, showed that these theoretical advantages disappear if you account for the fact that quantum hardware operates orders of magnitude slower than modern computer chips. The difficulty of getting large amounts of classical data in and out of a quantum computer is also a major barrier. So Troyer and his colleagues concluded that quantum computers should instead focus on problems in chemistry and materials science that require simulation of systems where quantum effects dominate. A computer that operates along the same quantum principles as these systems should, in theory, have a natural advantage here. In fact, this has been a driving idea behind quantum computing ever since the renowned physicist Richard Feynman first proposed the idea. The rules of quantum mechanics govern many things with huge practical and commercial value, like proteins, drugs, and materials. Their properties are determined by the interactions of their constituent particles, in particular their electronsand simulating these interactions in a computer should make it possible to predict what kinds of characteristics a molecule will exhibit. This could prove invaluable for discovering things like new medicines or more efficient battery chemistries, for example. But the intuition-defying rules of quantum mechanicsin particular, the phenomenon of entanglement, which allows the quantum states of distant particles to become intrinsically linkedcan make these interactions incredibly complex. Precisely tracking them requires complicated math that gets exponentially tougher the more particles are involved. That can make simulating large quantum systems intractable on classical machines. This is where quantum computers could shine. Because they also operate on quantum principles, they are able to represent quantum states much more efficiently than is possible on classical machines. They could also take advantage of quantum effects to speed up their calculations. But not all quantum systems are the same. Their complexity is determined by the extent to which their particles interact, or correlate, with each other. In systems where these interactions are strong, tracking all these relationships can quickly explode the number of calculations required to model the system. But in most that are of practical interest to chemists and materials scientists, correlation is weak, says Carleo. That means their particles dont affect each others behavior significantly, which makes the systems far simpler to model. The upshot, says Carleo, is that quantum computers are unlikely to provide any advantage for most problems in chemistry and materials science. Classical tools that can accurately model weakly correlated systems already exist, the most prominent being density functional theory (DFT). The insight behind DFT is that all you need to understand a systems key properties is its electron density, a measure of how its electrons are distributed in space. This makes for much simpler computation but can still provide accurate results for weakly correlated systems. Simulating large systems using these approaches requires considerable computing power. But in recent years theres been an explosion of research using DFT to generate data on chemicals, biomolecules, and materialsdata that can be used to train neural networks. These AI models learn patterns in the data that allow them to predict what properties a particular chemical structure is likely to have, but they are orders of magnitude cheaper to run than conventional DFT calculations. This has dramatically expanded the size of systems that can be modeledto as many as 100,000 atoms at a timeand how long simulations can run, says Alexandre Tkatchenko, a physics professor at the University of Luxembourg. Its wonderful. You can really do most of chemistry, he says. Olexandr Isayev, a chemistry professor at Carnegie Mellon University, says these techniques are already being widely applied by companies in chemistry and life sciences. And for researchers, previously out of reach problems such as optimizing chemical reactions, developing new battery materials, and understanding protein binding are finally becoming tractable. As with most AI applications, the biggest bottleneck is data, says Isayev. Metas recently released materials data set was made up of DFT calculations on 118 million molecules. A model trained on this data achieved state-of-the-art performance, but creating the training material took vast computing resources, well beyond whats accessible to most research teams. That means fulfilling the full promise of this approach will require massive investment. Modeling a weakly correlated system using DFT is not an exponentially scaling problem, though. This suggests that with more data and computing resources, AI-based classical approaches could simulate even the largest of these systems, says Tkatchenko. Given that quantum computers powerful enough to compete are likely still decades away, he adds, AIs current trajectory suggests it could reach important milestones, such as precisely simulating how drugs bind to a protein, much sooner. Strong correlations When it comes to simulating strongly correlated quantum systemsones whose particles interact a lotmethods like DFT quickly run out of steam. While more exotic, these systems include materials with potentially transformative capabilities, like high-temperature superconductivity or ultra-precise sensing. But even here, AI is making significant strides. In 2017, EPFLs Carleo and Microsofts Troyer published a seminal paper in Science In this case, the rules of the game are provided by Schrdingers equation, which can precisely describe a systems quantum state, or wave function. The model plays against itself by arranging particles in a certain configuration and then measuring the systems energy level. The goal is to reach the lowest energy configuration (known as the ground state), which determines the systems properties. The model repeats this process until energy levels stop falling, indicating that the ground stateor something close to ithas been reached. The power of these models is their ability to compress information, says Carleo. The wave function is a very complicated mathematical object, he says. What has been shown by several papers now is that [the neural network] is able to capture the complexity of this object in a way that can be handled by a classical machine. Since the 2017 paper, the approach has been extended to a wide range of strongly correlated systems, says Carleo, and results have been impressive. The Science paper he published with colleagues last month put leading classical simulation techniques to the test on a variety of tricky quantum simulation problems, with the goal of creating a benchmark to judge advances in both classical and quantum approaches. Carleo says that neural-network-based techniques are now the best approach for simulating many of the most complex quantum systems they tested. Machine learning is really taking the lead in many of these problems, he says. These techniques are catching the eye of some big players in the tech industry. In August, researchers at DeepMind showed in a paper in Science that they could accurately model excited states in quantum systems, which could one day help predict the behavior of things like solar cells, sensors, and lasers. Scientists at Microsoft Research have also developed an open-source software suite to help more researchers use neural networks for simulation. One of the main advantages of the approach is that it piggybacks on massive investments in AI software and hardware, says Filippo Vicentini, a professor of AI and condensed-matter physics at cole Polytechnique in France, who was also a coauthor on the Science benchmarking paper: Being able to leverage these kinds of technological advancements gives us a huge edge. There is a caveat: Because the ground states are effectively found through trial and error rather than explicit calculations, they are only approximations. But this is also why the approach could make progress on what has looked like an intractable problem, says Juan Carrasquilla, a researcher at ETH Zurich, and another coauthor on the Science benchmarking paper. If you want to precisely track all the interactions in a strongly correlated system, the number of calculations you need to do rises exponentially with the systems size. But if youre happy with an answer that is just good enough, theres plenty of scope for taking shortcuts. Perhaps theres no hope to capture it exactly, says Carrasquilla. But theres hope to capture enough information that we capture all the aspects that physicists care about. And if we do that, its basically indistinguishable from a true solution. And while strongly correlated systems are generally too hard to simulate classically, there are notable instances where this isnt the case. That includes some systems that are relevant for modeling high-temperature superconductors, according to a 2023 paper in Nature Communications. Because of the exponential complexity, you can always find problems for which you cant find a shortcut, says Frank Noe, research manager at Microsoft Research, who has led much of the companys work in this area. But I think the number of systems for which you cant find a good shortcut will just become much smaller. No magic bullets However, Stefanie Czischek, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Ottawa, says it can be hard to predict what problems neural networks can feasibly solve. For some complex systems they do incredibly well, but then on other seemingly simple ones, computational costs balloon unexpectedly. We dont really know their limitations, she says. No one really knows yet what are the conditions that make it hard to represent systems using these neural networks. Meanwhile, there have also been significant advances in other classical quantum simulation techniques, says Antoine Georges, director of the Center for Computational Quantum Physics at the Flatiron Institute in New York, who also contributed to the recent Science benchmarking paper. They are all successful in their own right, and they are also very complementary, he says. So I dont think these machine-learning methods are just going to completely put all the other methods out of business. Quantum computers will also have their niche, says Martin Roetteler, senior director of quantum solutions at IonQ, which is developing quantum computers built from trapped ions. While he agrees that classical approaches will likely be sufficient for simulating weakly correlated systems, hes confident that some large, strongly correlated systems will be beyond their reach. The exponential is going to bite you, he says. There are cases with strongly correlated systems that we cannot treat classically. Im strongly convinced that thats the case. In contrast, he says, a future fault-tolerant quantum computer with many more qubits than todays devices will be able to simulate such systems. This could help find new catalysts or improve understanding of metabolic processes in the bodyan area of interest to the pharmaceutical industry. Neural networks are likely to increase the scope of problems that can be solved, says Jay Gambetta, who leads IBMs quantum computing efforts, but hes unconvinced theyll solve the hardest challenges businesses are interested in. Thats why many different companies that essentially have chemistry as their requirement are still investigating quantumbecause they know exactly where these approximation methods break down, he says. Gambetta also rejects the idea that the technologies are rivals. He says the future of computing is likely to involve a hybrid of the two approaches, with quantum and classical subroutines working together to solve problems. I dont think theyre in competition. I think they actually add to each other, he says. But Scott Aaronson, who directs the Quantum Information Center at the University of Texas, says machine-learning approaches are directly competing against quantum computers in areas like quantum chemistry and condensed-matter physics. He predicts that a combination of machine learning and quantum simulations will outperform purely classical approaches in many cases, but that wont become clear until larger, more reliable quantum computers are available. From the very beginning, Ive treated quantum computing as first and foremost a scientific quest, with any industrial applications as icing on the cake, he says. So if quantum simulation turns out to beat classical machine learning only rarely, I wont be quite as crestfallen as some of my colleagues. One area where quantum computers look likely to have a clear advantage is in simulating how complex quantum systems evolve over time, says EPFLs Carleo. This could provide invaluable insights for scientists in fields like statistical mechanics and high-energy physics, but it seems unlikely to lead to practical uses in the near term. These are more niche applications that, in my opinion, do not justify the massive investments and the massive hype, Carleo adds. Nonetheless, the experts MIT Technology Review spoke to said a lack of commercial applications is not a reason to stop pursuing quantum computing, which could lead to fundamental scientific breakthroughs in the long run. Science is like a set of nested boxesyou solve one problem and you find five other problems, says Vicentini. The complexity of the things we study will increase over time, so we will always need more powerful tools.

Airbnb reported earnings after the market closed on Thursday.CEO Brian Chesky pointed to multiple growth areas for the company.He also teased a move beyond short-term rentals that Airbnb will make public in 2025. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Airbnb's third-quarter earnings report showed that the company keeps growing and that 2025 will be the year it breaks into a new business.The short-term rental platform grew revenue and bookings during the quarter that ended September 30, it said after the stock market closed on Thursday. Executives said they're lining up long-term growth with its co-host program and an expansion beyond accommodations.Here are the highlights from the earnings report:Airbnb's third-quarter revenue grew despite a slow startAirbnb's revenue for the quarter rose 10% to $3.73 billion. Analysts surveyed by Reuters expected revenue of $3.72 billion. Earnings per share of $2.13 missed analysts' estimates of $2.14.Nights and experiences booked jumped 8% to 122.8 million from the same period in 2023. Bookings were slow early in the quarter but picked up later, CEO Brian Chesky said on Thursday's earnings call.Shares of Airbnb were 4% lower at $141.55 in after-hours trading on Thursday.Airbnb wants to get more people to list properties using co-hostsIn October, Airbnb started offering its hosts co-hosts, or people who can help manage a property that's listed on Airbnb. The company launched its co-host network with about 10,000 people signed up for the role in 10 countries, Chesky said on the call.The goal, as Chesky said, is to make hosting on Airbnb less of a burden and attract more hosts and properties to the platform. While many people are interested in listing their properties on Airbnb, many don't want to spend the time managing the property, the CEO said."That's why we asked ourselves, what if we could match people with homes that don't have time with people that have extra time but don't have homes?" Chesky said."Not only would this unlock more supply, I think in the coming years, this can unlock millions of listings," Chesky added.Airbnb has plans for an AI chat assistant that will be able to cancel and rebook reservations for youAirbnb is rolling out an AI chat agent that can answer basic questions, Chesky said on Thursday's call. But the company sees opportunities for AI to do a lot more, he said.Chesky said that future versions of the chat agent will offer personalized options based on users' bookings. The result: An AI assistant that can see your upcoming reservation and cancel or rebook it for you.Eventually, the AI assistant could take care of most customer queries instead of traditional customer support agents, Chesky said. "We think, in the future, the vast majority of our chats are going to be intercepted and handled directly by the AI agent," Chesky said.Airbnb is planning to expand beyond short-term rentals next yearAirbnb said in its press release that it will break into a new business next year, though the company didn't offer many details on Thursday."We'll remain focused on accelerating growth while preparing for Airbnb's next chapter, which will take us beyond accommodations," the press release read. "You'll see more on this next year."On the call, Chesky said that Airbnb's expansion would start "with the nearest adjacencies around travel" before going "far beyond travel" over the next decade. He declined to say exactly what Airbnb's plans are.Chesky compared the expansion to Amazon growing beyond its bookselling business by adding CDs, DVDs, and other consumer products in the late 1990s."What I expect is, every year now for the coming years, we will launch one-to-two new businesses that will generate a billion dollars or more of revenue incrementally a year," he said.Axel Springer, Insider Inc.'s parent company, is an investor in Airbnb.

Rudy Giuliani was in federal court in NY on Thursday for his $148M election-worker defamation case.Lawyers for defamed workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss say he has yet to surrender key possessions.His signed Joe DiMaggio jersey is in a Long Island storage facility he has no access to, he said. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio jersey?Ronkonkoma, New York, apparently.A framed Yankees uniform, worn and signed by Joltin' Joe himself, is no longer hanging on the living room wall of Rudy Giuliani's Manhattan apartment. On this, both sides of a contentious $148 million Georgia election-worker defamation case agree.On Thursday, some light was shed on what remains a point of dispute: why Giuliani has yet to surrender the DiMaggio jersey and other sports memorabilia, art, and furnishings to election workers Ruby Freeman and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss as ordered last month, along with the $5.7 million apartment itself.Speaking during a federal court hearing in Manhattan, Giuliani's attorney, Kenneth Caruso, told a judge that the jersey and other items removed from the apartment remain in a locked storage facility in the Long Island hamlet of Ronkonkoma.Giuliani, however, can no longer access the storage facility and can therefore not turn anything inside it over to Freeman and Moss, her daughter, the lawyer said.The plaintiffs can pick the items up at the facility, the lawyer added."The objects there are no longer in his possession," Caruso told US District Judge Lewis Liman. It's up to "the proprietors of the Ronkonkoma facility to turn it over," the lawyer added. Joe DiMaggio's jersey on the wall of Rudy Giuliani's apartment. Freeman v. Giuliani/Business Insider A lawyer for Freeman and Moss, meanwhile, told the judge that he has been unable to reach anyone at the storage facility, identified in court papers as "The America First Warehouse" in Ronkonkoma.A website for The America First Warehouse in Ronkonkoma advertises an identically named podcast and shares photos of past events hosted at the space with guests who include Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lib of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik, and Kellyanne Conway.The venue has also hosted at least eight events in Giuliani's honor, including a fundraiser for his legal defense fund.An employee reached by phone Thursday told Business Insider that the warehouse is a "patriotic venue," not a storage facility. A business located on the same lot, Corporate Transfer, is advertised as a storage facility.The owner of both The America First Warehouse and Corporate Transfer, Joseph Verderber, Jr., did not immediately return a request for comment from BI.Giuliani's spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment.Giuliani has yet to turn over any of the possessions he was ordered to last month to fulfill the $148 million defamation judgment, including a Mercedes once owned by Lauren Bacall, a "diamond ring," and several luxury watches, the plaintiff's attorney, Aaron Nathan, said.Giuliani must also turn over $2 million in legal fees he has previously said are owed to him by President-elect Donald Trump, money he said Thursday he still does not have.Instead of complying with the order to surrender property, Giuliani has been "evasive" or "silent," while also moving cash around, including by opening bank accounts and forming a limited liability company, Nathan said Thursday."He no longer has a possession right over it," Nathan said. "We've asked over and over again where this stuff is. He refuses to answer." Joe DiMaggio's jersey is no longer on the wall of Rudy Giuliani's apartment, lawyers in his $148M defamation case say. Freeman v. Giuliani/Business Insider The judge said that if Freeman and Shaye believe the items from the New York apartment including sports memorabilia he referred to as "a couple of pictures, a shirt" were improperly moved and that Giuliani is lying about not being able to access them, "then plaintiffs can move for contempt."The plaintiffs can move for a contempt finding if Giuliani fails to comply with any of his court orders, the judge said."My client is not in possession of the property," Giuliani's lawyer responded, to which the judge answered, "He's not going to be in contempt if he's made attempts and it's impossible to comply with the order."Asked after court what the holdup with the storage facility might be, Giuliani told Business Insider he didn't know."All they do is keep jerking us around," he said, smiling.Giuliani was ordered Thursday to provide the plaintiffs' lawyers with the keys and title to the Mercedes, which the former mayor had tried to keep by saying its value was under $4,000."His 54-year-old automobile is worth less than that," Caruso had argued again on Thursday.Giuliani was also ordered to continue working with the plaintiffs on getting access to the storage facility. He must also provide plaintiffs with current co-op shares for the Manhattan apartment.The judge had ordered Guiliani on October 22 to turn over many of his assets, including the apartment, the DiMaggio jersey, luxury wristwatches, and the Mercedes.Giuliani had attempted to declare bankruptcy, but a judge dismissed the case in July.A federal jury in 2023 awarded Freeman and her daughter, Moss, $148 million to repair their lives after Guiliani peddled false claims that they manipulated ballots in the 2020 election during Donald Trump's first attempt to return to the White House.Giuliani repeatedly said Freeman and her daughter pulled up "illegal" ballots stashed in a suitcase and passed around a USB drive that contributed to Biden winning in Georgia, a key state in his electoral victory.The women received death threats and were subjected to harassment after Giuliani made his claims on social media and his podcast.The Georgia state election board investigated the claims and cleared the women of wrongdoing.

As Democrats struggle to come to terms with the results of this weeks election, some young women are looking abroad for inspiration. Across social media, women are exploring an idea called 4B, a protest movement in South Korea that calls for women to boycott men. Now I am, how you say this, a ho, but I really want to get behind this 4B movement, begins one TikToker, going on to say that she approves of women withholding sex from men. After this election where women were pretty much told to their faces that no one gives a shit about them, dont forget, ladies, we do have power. And you know the kind of power Im talking about. Giving up our bodies to men is a choice. We dont have to do this.The TikTok tag #4bmovement currently has thousands of posts with millions of views, and Google search interest in the term spiked after the election. Some of the social media posters are clearly joking out of a combination of rage, stress, and sadness, but others are more serious. Once you can get out of your mind that you will not be missing out by engaging in this behavior, you will be better off, says one earnest TikToker. I encourage you to reclaim your power and have really honest conversations with yourself about whether being in a romantic relationship with men at this point in time is worth it.For a certain cohort of young American women, the decisive victory of Donald Trump appears to represent a breaking point. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the reelection of the man who destroyed it, and the virulent glee of a number of his male supporters at both, some are toying with the idea of simply opting out of dealing with men altogether. Trump was elected in part by a generation of men steeped in hyper-macho rhetoric about putting women in their place from figures like Andrew Tate. To the women distressed with the ascendance of these toxic bros, a Lysistrata solution seems not only justified but also potentially effective.The birth of 4BThe 4B campaign developed primarily among feminist Korean Twitter users in 2017 and 2018 in conjunction with South Koreas Me Too movement. It stems in part from the earlier and more popular tal-corset or Escape the Corset movement, which called for participants to cut their hair short or shave their heads, give up makeup, and abandon overtly feminine clothes.Named after the Korean prefix bi, or no, adherents are asked to follow four prohibitions: no heterosexual marriage, no heterosexual dating, no heterosexual sex, and no childbearing under any circumstances. While its hard to know how many South Korean women participate in 4B, the group self-reports a membership of 4,000 followers. Its niche, but its made itself heard in Korea and around the world. Both 4B and Escape the Corset are born of a society with strict gender norms and stringent beauty standards, and developed as a response to what participants see as the dehumanization of women in their culture. One inflection point came in 2015, the year of the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus) epidemic, when a misogynistic smear campaign accused two Korean women of visiting MERS-plagued Hong Kong and refusing to test themselves before returning home. The whole MERS epidemic, the theory went, was the fault of two thoughtless, selfish, and flighty women. The internet lit up with violently sexist hate speech but the story was untrue. Groups of women, outraged by the misogyny, started gathering on a MERS forum to talk about how they were done with men. In time, those online communities began to spill out into dedicated feminist websites, real-world rallies, and, eventually, the Escape the Corset movement. The beauty expectations of South Korea are famously strict; the country is home to the most plastic surgeons per capita of any other country in the world by far. As women joining the Escape the Corset movement began opting out of the beauty industry, they had a measurable effect on South Koreas economy, with women in their 20s buying significantly fewer cosmetics, hair products, and other beauty products in 2018 than they did in 2016, and plastic surgery expenditures going down by $58.3 billion in the same time period. New fronts kept opening up in Koreas gender wars over the next several years. In 2016, a 34-year-old man brutally stabbed to death a random woman in her 20s in Seouls busy Gangnam neighborhood, saying, I did it because women have always ignored me.If womens sole social value was to be breeding animals and sexual objects, declared practitioners of 4B, then they would simply decline either to breed or to self-objectify.The same year, the South Korean government unveiled a new initiative targeted at improving the countrys birth rate with a birth map, rendered in shades of pink to rank towns and cities by the number of women of childbearing age. They counted fertile women like they counted the number of livestock, wrote one feminist blogger at the time. More protests erupted in 2018 after a woman was imprisoned when she photographed a nude male model in her art class after he declined to cover his genitals during a class break, sharing the pictures on the internet to shame him. In South Korea, molka, or digital sex crimes involving nonconsensual images of women, had become a flourishing industry, supplied by men armed with pinhole cameras waiting to videotape unsuspecting women in bathrooms, subway stations, or motel rooms. Despite a vocal protest movement pushing for stricter laws, only 9 percent of molka perpetrators, mostly men, receive jail time. In 2018, however, the woman in the art class was arrested, tried, and sentenced to 10 months in prison.For feminist activists, the incident epitomized the double standards under which South Korean law enforcement operated. Men who committed crimes against women were ignored or given a slap on the wrist, while women who committed those same crimes against men got the book thrown at them.For all of these problems the sex crimes committed with impunity, the dehumanizing government initiatives, the law enforcement that only punished women a solution became, eventually, 4B. If womens sole social value was to be breeding animals and sexual objects, declared practitioners of 4B, then they would simply decline either to breed or to self-objectify. They would opt out. They wouldnt just forswear makeup. They would forswear marriage and sex and children. They would devote their lives to building their autonomy. 4B in the US?The tenets of 4B are extremely different from the kinds of feminism that tend to flourish in the US, where popular culture places a premium on choice and empowerment. Mainstream feminist campaigns here usually celebrate womens ability to make their own decisions and do whatever makes them feel best as individuals. The point of 4B and Escape the Corset, however, is not to make women feel more fulfilled or more at home in their bodies. It is also not to put pressure on men as individuals to reform their ways. The point of 4B is to send a message about the structure of society to say that its not acceptable that you are valued only for your fertility and sexual appeal and to ensure your independence. In an academic paper about the movement, author Hyejung Park translates a 2019 video from the South Korean activist group SOLOdarity: It is true that tal-corset [Escape the Corset] comes with some inconveniences, the activists allow. When your hair is short, you might have to get a haircut more frequently, and you might need to buy a whole new wardrobe for tal-corset. Nevertheless, we practice tal-corset because it is not about being more comfortable. It is about not being a doll, a second-class citizen.It supposes a world that so emphatically decenters men and their desires for women that men themselves disappear from a womans life.The idea of refusing to wear skirts for the sake of your politics, even if you like them, is an attitude that has been out of favor in American feminism since the end of the second wave in the 1970s. Still, there is a discipline and a radicalism to this form of activism that you can easily understand feeling attractive for Americas angry young women in this moment. It supposes a world that so emphatically decenters men and their desires for women that men themselves disappear from a womans life. After the US elected a symbol of masculine aggression and violence to our highest office for the second time, a person can see the appeal.The idea of such severe and uncompromising protest also makes sense considering the reams of smirking rape jokes that the mere discussion of 4B online has provoked. Many American 4B TikToks have comments from men under them crowing, Your body, my choice, a refrain that young fans of far-right influencer Nick Fuentes have reportedly taken to parroting in schools. [W]omen threatening sex strikes like LMAO as if you have a say, went a post from one X account with 122,000 followers. Related:Is the Gen Z bro media diet to blame?Its worth remembering, though, that the divide between left and right in this country does not neatly map across gender divides. While we wont know until later how the numbers break down, early exit polls say that 45 percent of all women and 53 percent of white women voted for Trump. Trump surrounds himself with enabling women, and the likes of Marjorie Tyler Greene gleefully shriek misogyny across the floors of Congress. A possible lesson of the Womens March era that feminist reaction to the first Trump term is this: Uniting in a large group as a pure expression of rage is not always sustainable. The Womens March collapsed because of vicious infighting, which is traditionally what happens to large leftist groups in the US. Perhaps its time for American feminism to get specific and disciplined about what its action points are. 4B is specific and it is disciplined, which is part of what makes it difficult to translate out of its cultural context and into America. It is very clear on its goals, which are to take personal autonomy through the force of ones own denial, rather than to ask for it at the polls or in interpersonal relationships.A line of inquiry American feminists might take from 4B is this: What are you going to work toward? And what are you going to do to get there?Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we believe in helping everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help to shape it. Our mission is to create clear, accessible journalism to empower understanding and action.If you share our vision, please consider supporting our work by becoming a Vox Member. Your support ensures Vox a stable, independent source of funding to underpin our journalism. If you are not ready to become a Member, even small contributions are meaningful in supporting a sustainable model for journalism.Thank you for being part of our community.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

The morning after Donald Trump won the presidential election this week, I stumbled out of bed and searched my bookshelf for a slim volume I hadnt looked at in years: Mans Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Frankl knew a thing or two about living through a time of rising authoritarianism. A Viennese Jew born in the early 20th century, he was a budding psychiatrist and philosopher when he was sent to the Nazi concentration camps just months after he got married. His wife and other family members died in the camps but he survived. We are not, thank goodness, facing a situation even remotely as grave as Frankls. But Trump has given us every reason to fear that he plans to hollow out American democracy and aspires to authoritarian rule. A big part of what makes that scary is the sense that our agency will be severely constrained that, for example, even more of us will become unfree to make decisions about our own bodies. And that can lead to despair.This is exactly where Frankl can help us: He argued that human beings always have agency, even when were facing a horrible reality that its too late to undo. When we are no longer able to change a situation, he wrote, we are challenged to change ourselves.We do that, Frankl said, by choosing how we make meaning out of the situation. His own experience in the camps helped him crystalize his philosophy and the branch of psychotherapy he pioneered: logotherapy (which literally translates to meaning-therapy). He practiced it in the camps, ministering to fellow inmates hungry for a way to make meaning of their suffering. After the Holocaust was over, he advocated for it to be used with all sorts of people, since the human search for meaning is universal. This was where Frankl broke with his intellectual forebear, Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis who believed that people are driven by the pleasure principle an instinct to seek immediate gratification. It is one of the basic tenets of logotherapy that mans main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life, Frankl wrote in Mans Search for Meaning. Frankl was inspired by proto-existentialist philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche, who fought against nihilism, or despair at the meaninglessness of life, and replaced it with a firm conviction: Life may not come with any built-in meaning but that just means we have to create meaning ourselves. Frankls core idea that life is potentially meaningful under any condition, because human beings always retain the freedom to express our values in how we respond to lifes tragedy can offer a philosophical tonic for the many people feeling despair right now. If youre one of them, read on.Frankls advice is to ask yourself, What does life expect of me?In times of despair, many of us feel like all our actions are futile, so theres no point in even trying. We ask ourselves: Whats the meaning of it all, anyway? In his book Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything, Frankl turns the question upside down:At this point it would be helpful [to perform] a conceptual turn through 180 degrees, after which the question can no longer be What can I expect from life? but can now only be What does life expect of me? What task in life is waiting for me?The question of the meaning of life is not asked in the right way, if asked in the way it is generally asked: it is not we who are permitted to ask about the meaning of life it is life that asks the questions, directs questions at us We are the ones who must answer, must give answers to the constant, hourly question of life. In other words, were accustomed to thinking that life owes us answers, but Frankl says its just the opposite: Life itself is constantly asking us a question how will you face up to this situation? And this one? And this one? and its our responsibility to answer. The answers we must give are different in every moment, because every moment demands something new of us: When a new president takes power, for instance, we each have to consider afresh how best to use our particular talents and resources to meet the demands of the new political reality:The question life asks us, and in answering which we can realize the meaning of the present moment, does not only change from hour to hour but also changes from person to person: the question is entirely different in each moment for every individual.We can, therefore, see how the question as to the meaning of life is posed too simply, unless it is posed with complete specificity, in the concreteness of the here and now. To ask about the meaning of life in this way seems just as naive to us as the question of a reporter interviewing a world chess champion and asking, And now, Master, please tell me: which chess move do you think is the best? Is there a move, a particular move, that could be good, or even the best, beyond a very specific, concrete game situation, a specific configuration of the pieces?That means that the task of making meaning out of life is never complete its something we have to show up for over and over again. And Frankl argued that we do that by looking not inward, but outward at the world. Under normal conditions, we might make meaning by creating or doing something that feels valuable, like writing a novel. Or we might revel in experiencing the beauty of nature or love for another human being. But when the elements of a good and stable life are being taken away, there is still a way to make meaning: We can come face to face with suffering and express our values in how we respond to it. That is a capacity that nobody can take away from us. How to live out Frankls tragic optimism by recommitting to your valuesAt the end of Mans Search for Meaning, Frankl stakes out a position he calls tragic optimism.The philosopher did not believe that human nature is all good or all bad. In fact, he saw both naive optimism and pure pessimism as forms of nihilism: Both views imagine the human being as having a nature that is perfectly settled in advance, so both views rob the human being of agency. Instead, Frankl preferred to see people as beings who are constantly choosing, who have the freedom to make their own meaning even amid the most tragic circumstances.Frankl himself embodied that in the camps, where he knew the odds of surviving were very slim. And he recounts a moment that I find incredibly moving:It did not even seem possible, let alone probable, that the manuscript of my first book, which I had hidden in my coat when I arrived at Auschwitz, would ever be rescued. Thus, I had to undergo and to overcome the loss of my mental child. And now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a mental child of my own! So I found myself confronted with the question whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning. Not yet did I notice that an answer to this question with which I was wrestling so passionately was already in store for me, and that soon thereafter this answer would be given to me. This was the case when I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had already been sent to the gas chamber immediately after his arrival at the Auschwitz railway station. Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in a pocket of the newly acquired coat one single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, containing the most important Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael. How should I have interpreted such a coincidence other than as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?Frankl interpreted the page as a sign that the man had entered those gas chambers upright that hed chosen to stick to his faith even as he faced death, and that, in fact, hed become a walking embodiment of his faith, with no more need for a page describing it. He found many ways to live his thoughts in the camps. Frankl describes, for instance, how he chose to respond with dignity to a Nazi officer who beat him as he did hard labor in the freezing cold. And how he chose to treat typhus patients in one of the camps. I decided to volunteer, he wrote, because if I had to die there might at least be some sense in my death. I thought that it would doubtless be more to the purpose to try and help my comrades as a doctor.What were facing in the US today is not comparable to what Frankl faced during World War II. But his philosophy and the way he personally embodied it offers us a helpful reminder: Now is the time to live our thoughts. To ask ourselves what our values are and then get to work enacting them.There are lots of things to be concerned about as America enters a second term under Trump. What will happen to pregnant people? What will happen to low-income people? What will happen to undocumented people?As you consider what worries you, think about the very real actions you can take now to live your thoughts. For example, if youre concerned about undocumented people, you can consider donating to an effective nonprofit like the International Refugee Assistance Project or sponsoring a refugee family to resettle in your community. Will your actions change everything? Probably not. But they may change some things for some individuals. And even if they do not as Frankl reminds us, sometimes its beyond your control to change a painful situation you will know that you are living out your responsibility to the world and helping build a foundation for the future you want to see.With this mental standpoint nothing can scare us anymore, no future, no apparent lack of a future, Frankl writes. Because now the present is everything as it holds the eternally new question of life for us.Or, to put it another way: Life does not owe you answers, but you still owe answers to life.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we believe in helping everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help to shape it. Our mission is to create clear, accessible journalism to empower understanding and action.If you share our vision, please consider supporting our work by becoming a Vox Member. Your support ensures Vox a stable, independent source of funding to underpin our journalism. If you are not ready to become a Member, even small contributions are meaningful in supporting a sustainable model for journalism.Thank you for being part of our community.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Death Stranding, originally launched in 2019, has finally come to Xbox consoles five years after its initial debut as a Director's Cut version from Hideo Kojima.

Aside from offering a more powerful console, the PS5 Pro also packs a sneaky theme for PlayStation fans to uncover - something Sony hadn't previously discussed.

Best new mobile games on iOS and Android November 2024 round-upGameCentralPublished Nov 8, 2024, 1:05amAge Of Empires Mobile not this months best game (Microsoft)GameCentral reviews this months most interesting new mobile games, including deck-building game Bloons Card Storm and the superb Poly Bridge 3.The sun may have gone away, but the mobile games release schedule rolls on, with this months releases including a total sea change for Bloons in Card Storm, Wizardry Variants Daphnes old school dungeoneering, and Poly Bridge 3 possibly the finest bridge-building game devised by humanity.Bloons Card Storm an uncertain start for the spin-off (Ninja Kiwi)Bloons Card StormiOS & Android, Free (Ninja Kiwi)As changes of direction go, this is a pretty big one. Bloons Card Storm spins Ninja Kiwis bestselling tower defence franchise into a turn-based card collecting game with multiplayer at its core. Its a brave move.Bloons has always relied on strategy, but now youll need to think about both attack and defence, launching balloons that damage your opponent, while laying down monkey-based turrets to disarm theirs.Progress is sedate, and at launch it does have some balancing issues. Its biggest problem though, is that if your opponents losing and quits, during what can be quite protracted matches, you get a smaller reward than if youd simply lost, which feels unfair. Still, with Ninja Kiwis customary polish and attention to detail theres a great deal of promise if it can retain a decent player-base.Score: 6/10Poly Bridge 3iOS & Android, 2.99 (Dry Cactus)Theres a surprisingly high number of quality bridge building franchises, the most established being the imaginatively titled Bridge Constructor, but even amongst so many standout competitors, Poly Bridge 3 is noticeably better.As ever, youre required to help vehicles traverse a set of gaps, with increasing complexity and extra goals; planes flying through the level, tall ships sailing underneath your bridge, and other more involved intricacies as you gain experience. Youve got to manage all that with limited materials and do it as cheaply as possible.The interface is frankly gorgeous, and almost uncanny in its ability to know just where you wanted to drag each piece, its neat, chunky sound effects letting you know when things click into place, with a jaunty musical accompaniment to your civil engineering.In a delightful twist, each level also has a global leaderboard, showing how creatively other players managed to do the job, letting you view and learn from their structures. Its a beautifully made game, and the mobile port is pretty close to perfect.Score: 9/10Zombiepunk: Fight & Survive note the ad at the bottom (24 HIT Riga SIA)Zombiepunk: Fight & SurviveiOS & Android, free remove ads 10 (24 HIT Riga SIA)Smash up pieces of scenery to collect materials used to upgrade your melee weapon, gun, and defensive turrets, then blast wave after wave of zombies while waiting for crafting projects and upgrades to complete.You can watch ads to skip 15 minute chunks of waiting times (which are soon over an hour each), but youre forced to watch an ad every couple of minutes anyway, and if that wasnt enough advertising, there are permanent banners at the bottom of the screen. Its also pretty buggy, the sound regularly disappearing although rarely during the ads.The problem is that despite its glitches and inherent mindlessness its actually oddly compelling, even if the price to remove its overwhelming tsunami of advertising is far too much.Scor: 4/10Age Of Empires MobileiOS & Android, Free (Level Infinite)Epic historical real-time strategy Age Of Empires is the latest longstanding franchise to get the mobile treatment by which we mean ignoring everything that made it good in the first place.Rather than an increasingly deep construction and military strategy game, what you get is a linear path telling you what to build and when, with waiting times that get progressively longer so youll pay to skip them. Battles are basic, relying almost entirely on the level of your units and gacha-acquired heroes rather than tactical cleverness.Eventually you unlock a Vampire Survivors-alike mini-game thats actually moderately entertaining, but the rest is a uniformly bland cash grab that is absolutely not worth your time.Score: 3/10Wizardry Variants DaphneiOS & Android, Free (Drecom)Like past outings in the Wizardry series, Variants Daphne is about as classic as dungeon crawlers get. Played from a first person perspective, you swipe upwards to advance along its narrow corridors one map square at a time. Older gamers will recognise it as being similar to Atari ST classic Dungeon Master but the Wizardy franchise is far older, going back more than four decades.Explore, open doors, read strange inscriptions, find treasures and initially impassable objects, and battle countless monsters in inspiringly pacy turn-based battles.Levelling is initially swift but slows considerably, to encourage in-app purchases. You can do without them but be prepared for an absolutely monumental grind. If you dont mind splashing quite a bit of cash, this is a cracking old school adventure expertly refined for touchscreen.Score: 7/10Clash Royale (updated)iOS & Android, free (Supercell)Clash Royale was originally released in 2016 and has had a mixed reception over the years, resulting in quite an angry community on social media and with good reason.Developers have to pay their mortgages, but every update has seemed designed purely to milk more money from players. New characters were overpowered, offering a temporary advantage to anyone willing to pay, while the arrival of an additional card level, and powerful cash-only evolutions, seemed to come from the same spirit of profit over fun.Royales latest update has now had a month to bed-in, and its a welcome change. The two-tier battle pass has been slimmed down to one the free version now considerably more generous and the shards needed to buy evolutions are easier to come by. A fix for the games creaking clan wars system is presumably in the works, but this already feels like a big step in the right direction.Score: 8/10Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.MORE : 90s Disney Princess confirms shes been in Metal Gear Solid all alongMORE : Fortnite OG to return next month with all old school seasons claim rumoursMORE : Black Myth: Wukong fans should check out this overlooked Xbox 360 gemSign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they're seen on the site.Privacy Policy This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

What does Rockstar do after GTA 6? (Rockstar Games)The Friday letters page is not convinced there wont be a GTA 6 delay after all, as one reader hypes themselves up for a Resident Evil 9 reveal.To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.ukPost-GTA 6 worldI cant help but agree with the reader who said they miss the days when Rockstar made smaller games in-between the bigger ones. I dont know what Rockstar has got planned for after GTA 6, but I think we can bet its not going to be a smaller, more experimental game. But then again, maybe it will be?GTA 6 is going to make so much money Rockstar literally wont know what to do with it. None of them will ever have to work again and at that point why not do something weird and unexpected? Its basically either that or just immediately start work on Red Dead Redemption 3 (or a boring remake). I cant imagine that prospect, of another five years of work, minimum, on a similar kind of game is going to seem all that appealing.But what do I know about making games? I have to say I feel like I understand it less the more the years go by. Spending six or seven years, or even more, making the same game, not even knowing if itll turn out well sounds like it will turn you crazy. Im sure GTA 6 will be worth the wait but its clearly not your average game. It must be nerve-wracking.Purple RangerTrust no oneIm not sure I particularly trust execs, especially ones at scuzzy publishers like Take-Two, when they say anything about a games release date. I know theyre not supposed to lie when its a financial thing, but they can say anything they want at this stage and if it does get delayed they can just say something changed.Im not saying GTA 6 will be delayed, just that this doesnt really count as new information. The only thing thats really going to count is whats said in the trailers. Surely the next one must be this year and that will reveal the release date. If that doesnt happen then Ill definitely not believe anything Take-Two says.CranstonZombie addictionI know I shouldnt hype myself up for something that theres no evidence for but Im really pulling for a Resident Evil 9 reveal at The Game Awards. Since Ive never really been a Silent Hill fan I havent really liked any of this years horror games and it seems ages since Village. Even Resident Evil 4 seems a long time ago for some reason, even though I know its not.I guess that probably means Im a Resi addict but it really is one of my favourite franchises, even if its not 100% reliable. Im hoping for the return of third person and some more familiar faces. My preference would be for Jill to be the lead, as she hasnt had a go for ages and her remake was easily the worst one.Im happy to be convinced about the idea of open world, if thats the direction theyre going, but Id like to see something a bit more sci-fi, to balance out the more fantasy-based Village. But more Resi of any kind is always good by me.PinkyEmail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.ukYou dont belong in this worldSilent Hill 2 might have worked out but Im not sure I really understand where Konami is going with its Metal Gear Solid remakes. I really cant see them tackling all the games in chronological order, because after Snake Eater theyve got two portable games and then theyre straight into Metal Gear Solid 5. Metal Gear Solid 1 would be eighth on the list.Maybe theyre just going to skip around the timeline at random or maybe Snake Eaters going to be the only remake but that doesnt seem very likely.I just dont see any point in Metal Gear without Hideo Kojima. Im not even convinced they can or should make a new Silent Hill. To my mind Konamis number one priority should be a new Castlevania. Theres been so many crossovers and the Netflix show and everything a new game is a decade overdue at this point.JacksonThe world always needs more Castlevania (Konami)Time freezeI really cant defend the criticism against recent Bethesda games I certainly didnt enjoy Starfield but man, Skyrim is a great game. Just an absolute, 100% cast iron classic. Normally in these situations, where later games arent as good, its because people have moved on and no longer work at the developer, but I dont think thats really true for Bethesda.Unless theres some unsung hero Ive not heard of Todd Howard is still there and so are a lot of the other people he was working with at the time. I checked Wikipedia and all three of Skyrims designers worked on Skyrm, so what went wrong?I think its a case of the game essentially being too successful. Theyve all started to believe their own hype just a bit too much and so theyre still stuck in 2011, while the rest of the world has moved on. I just hope the mixed response to Starfield helps wake them up a bit.St1ngerTaking one for the teamFrom what I gather the PS5 Pro has turned out to be a pretty cool piece of kit. I think the initial perception of negligible improvement stemmed from the choice of games in the presentation and the issue of trying to show increases in resolution and framerate to people watching heavily compressed YouTube videos.The boosts to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and others all look pretty worthwhile. Maybe not 700 worthwhile, but some people will be willing to pay that and more power to them. Literally.To be honest Im most interested in what the AI-upscaling technology might mean for PlayStation 6 (and tangentially Switch 2). Were past the point where we can affordably brute force improvements in resolution and frame rate by adding extra silicon that cant happen, unless we are prepared to pay an even bigger premium.But if a game can be rendered at a lower internal resolution and reliably upscaled to higher resolutions using PSSR or DLSS (which Switch 2 is rumoured to have) we can hopefully get nicer looking games with good frame rates without breaking the bank. So, thank you PS5 Pro adopters for your service, get that PSSR nicely trained up for me and Ill see you on Version 6.0.MagnumstacheBusiness reasonsTo reflect a bit on Onibee letter, I think Nintendo has only told us about Switch successors backwards compatibility for one reason. As we recently learned software sales have slowed more than anticipated and thats due to not having a Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom this year, mixed with some expectancy of the announcement of a new console.I think Nintendo believe if they reassure everybody the recent and upcoming releases can be used well after the Switch era then players are less likely to hesitate if that is a concern for them.Bad EditBeginners roleIve been thinking about buying Dragon Age: The Veilguard, as I like the look of the world and environment, as well as the exploration and combat. The trouble is Ive not really clicked with any role-playing games before. Mainly, I find the menu systems, such as the inventory confusing and combat somewhat overcomplicated with spells, potions, etc.The Witcher was one game in particular that I found frustrating as the world was intriguing and some of the characters and story were excellent, as well as choices you made having a genuine impact. But I found that the myriad of items that could be found baffling and never explained, especially when you required x item to beat certain enemies and I never knew where said item was to be found.However, I dont really know if The Witcher is a role-playing game, my understanding is a role-playing game is game whereby you can alter your characters stats and armour or weapons and can make dialogue decisions, but by that logic most games are role-playing games to some extent. As you can see, Im slightly clueless. Can you or the readers recommend any more traditional type role-playing games that might be a bit more on the simple side, to ease me in gently?matc7884GC: A role-playing game is something that has stats which determine, to some degree, the success of your characters actions, rather than solely relying on your arcade skills as a player. Well go into more detail on this question in this weekends newsletter.Inbox also-ransIll say one thing for The Getaway, it wasnt a very good game but those graphics really stand up surprisingly well. For a minute I thought it was a PlayStation 3 game. As I remember though the frame rate was pretty shonky. Wasnt the developer recently shut down though?DennisGC: Yes, London Studio were closed earlier in the year.I just finished Life Is Strange: Double Exposure and wow that was not good. The first couple of chapters were okay but the ending is terrible. And Im sorry, but that character did not in any way look, talk, or act like Max. Did they suddenly rename her from another character at the last minute?AmberWarningEmail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.ukThe small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Readers Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.You can also leave your comments below and dont forget to follow us on Twitter.MORE : Games Inbox: Is the PS5 Pro worth getting?MORE : Games Inbox: Should Rockstar Games remake Red Dead Revolver?MORE : Games Inbox: Why I think Nintendo Switch is the best console everSign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they're seen on the site.Privacy Policy This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

With all of Heretics promotional material referencing blueberry pie and Hugh Grant being creepy, we bet you didnt think about Jodie Foster. But for Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the co-writers and directors of the film, thats exactly who they were thinking about. Scott and I have talked a lot about [Robert] Zemeckis Contact and Stanley Kramers Inherit the Wind as templates for a conversation about religion, Woods told io9. Theres a lot of religious horror. I put it in quotes because theres a lot of Catholic horror that uses Catholicism as justification for some kind of supernatural threat in a movie. Theres a lot of those movies, but very rare is the movie like Contact or Inherit the Wind that are adult conversations about religion in a kind of popcorn movie context. That was the inspiration behind Heretic, which features Grant as a creepy man who traps two Mormon missionaries (played by Yellowjackets Sophie Thatcherand Fabelmans Chloe East} in his house and asks them to play a game. He wants to use the two woman who have chosen religion for their lifes work to explore what that means, and, well, things get super sinister.Heretic is out this week and in the lead-up to release, io9 spoke with Beck and Woods about those Contact (a Zemeckis film based on a Carl Sagan book) inspirations, what it takes to make a movie about religion, and how they feel about the future of A Quiet Place, which they helped create. Then, after release, check back where well reveal the second half of our interview discussing the films ending, spoilery revelations, and specific pop culture references. Beck and Woods with co-star Chloe East. Image: A24 This interview was edited for length and clarity.Germain Lussier, io9: When I saw your movie at Fantastic Fest, I was so excited afterwards when you guys mentioned Contact as an inspiration. The idea of religion vs. science in that movie really blew me away as a kid and it crossed my mind watching this so Id love to hear more about what that movie meant to you guys and its inspiration on Heretic. Scott Beck: Yeah, well, first and foremost, Zemeckis is the master of making movies that bring you to the movie theater, but theyre also rich in terms of what their characters are. And I think that back and forth between Jodie Fosters character and Matthew McConaugheys character was really thought-provoking at the time. Not to go too deep into it. But at that point, yeah, I was a teenager, I was going to church every single Sunday. And I feel like that movie was one of the few movies that opened me up in certain ways of stepping outside of what I had been raised to know and thinking of relationships with faith or with atheism in a three-dimensional way.And then seeing the other side of the spectrum in that movie of Jake Buseys character, kind of this fundamentalist point of view. Then all of a sudden, like discovering Oh, I have a friend who has a family member that was in the Jonestown Massacre. And how insane is it that somebody who can seem at first so balanced, following the belief system of this charismatic leader, and all of a sudden theyre committing suicide? Theres a degree at which religion intersected into Contact in such a bombastic way, personally. io9: What about it directly related to this movie? Did you specifically think Oh lets make our own Contact? or were you writing and it became Oh, this reminds us of Contact?Bryan Woods: It was a conscious decision. Over the years, Scott and I have talked a lot about Zemeckis Contact and Stanley Kramers Inherit the Wind as templates for a conversation about religion. Theres a lot of religious horror. I put it in quotes because theres a lot of Catholic horror that uses Catholicism as justification for some kind of supernatural threat in a movie. There are a lot of those movies, but very rare is the movie like Contact or Inherit the Wind that are adult conversations about religion in a kind of popcorn movie context. And so for years, since Scott and I first saw those films, weve been asking ourselves, Can we? Wow, one day it would be a dream come true if we could make a movie that is a conversation about religion, all of our feelings, all of our fears, all the things we think are beautiful and terrifying about religion all in one movie. Can we do that? And, to be honest, it seemed like an impossible thing. It seemed like well never [do it for a number of reasons.] What is our stance on religion? Well never know enough about the history of religion. It was just this dream bucket list thing that seemed impossible to do. Then, over the years, you get to a place in life.I recently lost my father unexpectedly to esophageal cancer, which is [also] like Scott losing a father because were basically all family at this point. We were just at a low point in our personal lives, feeling very vulnerable and dark. And we were just like, Now is the fucking time to write this exploration of religion. Now is the time to talk about the terror of not knowing what happens when you die, and exploring that in the context of a scary movie. io9: Im really sorry about your dad, Bryan. I lost my dad a few months ago too, so I get it.Both: Oh no, Im sorry. Im so sorry. io9: Thank you. Thank you. But to that point, its one thing to say that, right? Were gonna write this movie about religion. Actually doing it seems like a whole other thing. Just a massive, overwhelming, and impossible amount of research. So how did you approach gathering information and different points of view for the film? Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East in Heretic. Image: A24 Beck: Yeah, I mean, the interest of all things: religious or cult or otherwise, that feeds into it. Lawrence Wright writing this incredible piece about Scientology, Going Clear. Reading Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkinss work from an atheist perspective. Looking back at the holy books and diving into The Book of Mormon. Trying to understand everything from, truly, an empathetic perspective to make sure that a complex conversation about religion can be seen from many different sides.Our whole fear with the movieand it skirts this but, I think, subtly addresses itis this fear of people with certainty. Where they are firmly rooted in what they think and believe and theyre unwavering. To us, thats not really the way that we personally live our lives. We are constantly evolving, reacting to new experiences or relationships and whatnot. And I think a lot of the movie injects those personal journeys that weve had, and the spectrum of friendships that weve made that represent so many different belief systems. The movie situates itself on these three characters with Hugh Grants character, Mr. Reed, and Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes. These are all characters that are representing this triangle of different points of their relationship with the great unknown. And I think firmly in the middle is where we come down in the discourse of the film. io9: I agree with that. But Im curious how that impacts the process. Do you guys have debates amongst yourselves when youre writing something like this as you conjure up each side? Because, yes, you are in the middle but you still have to write both sides. Beck: Yeah, thats something I cant say weve quite reflected on because I feel like Bryan and I have known each other since we were 11 years old. And so, by virtue of that, so much of our outlook on life is in step with each other. So the debates we have are not necessarily debates because were of differing opinions. I think were sponges. I think we try to look at the outside world and try to understand why people come to conclusion. Which sometimes can mean like Donald Trump. How does Donald Trump become Donald Trump? Because youre not born into spewing absurdities on television. Theres something that makes you that. So we just love to investigate the world at large, I think, together. The debates we have are more creative debates. I feel like if Bryan comes in swinging about a film that he absolutely adores and I dont, were happy to get into it.Woods: Thats whats nice about having a partner, right? Were open-minded. So we do spar about certain things. And its like, I feel this way. Scott feels that way. We talk it out. Or maybe he changes my mind, maybe I changed his mind. Maybe now were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. And that ability to listen is the most important thing you can have as a writer. You have to listen to the world. You have to hear how people talk. You have to have empathy for everybody and put yourself in everybodys shoes. These are just the kind of the toolkits in our art form. So it felt natural for a piece like this. Let the games begin in Heretic. Image: A24. io9: Switching topics slightly, you guys wrote A Quiet Place. How does it feel to see it still going strong, and how involved, if at all, are you guys with where it goes in the future? Beck: First and foremost, we never in a million years thought it would have the longevity that it did and thats simply because we designed and created A Quiet Place from very humble means. We thought, Nobodys gonna want to make this weird silent horror movie. Were just gonna shoot it ourselves in our home state of Iowa. But last week, we went to the Universal Studios maze that they had of A Quiet Place and were walking through seeing these Universal actors portraying the characters straight from the page, and its unexpected and were still living in that surreal reality that its had a life. But in terms of where it goes from here, I mean, its kind of like sending your kid off to college. Our focus is not in the Quiet Place universe right now. For us. Its movies like Heretic where we just love the original idea and when we approach a script page not knowing what this is were gonna create. Thats the exciting lifeblood of filmmaking that we go after: the unknown. And whether the movie we create fails or succeeds, its the pursuit of doing something unique thats exciting to us. But we loved what Michael Sarnoski did with Day One. We thought that was a really exciting entry into it. So if they keep churning them out, our hope is that it just continues to innovate what the idea of A Quiet Place movie is.Woods: We would really love to see an international movie in A Quiet Place universe. One thats not necessarily English language-based. That would be really cool. Heretic opens on Friday. Check back next week for more from Beck and Woods. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.