They are increasingly leaning on artificial intelligence for workbut also for love and adventure.

Not so total recall Tweaking non-neural brain cells can cause memories to fade Neurons and a second cell type called an astrocyte collaborate to hold memories. Jacek Krywko Nov 23, 2024 7:00 am | 17 Astrocytes (labelled in black) sit within a field of neurons. Credit: Ed Reschke Astrocytes (labelled in black) sit within a field of neurons. Credit: Ed Reschke Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreIf we go back to the early 1900s, this is when the idea was first proposed that memories are physically stored in some location within the brain, says Michael R. Williamson, a researcher at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. For a long time, neuroscientists thought that the storage of memory in the brain was the job of engrams, ensembles of neurons that activate during a learning event. But it turned out this wasnt the whole picture.Williamsons research investigated the role astrocytes, non-neuron brain cells, play in the read-and-write operations that go on in our heads. Over the last 20 years the role of astrocytes has been understood better. Weve learned that they can activate neurons. The addition we have made to that is showing that there are subsets of astrocytes that are active and involved in storing specific memories, Williamson says in describing a new study his lab has published.One consequence of this finding: Astrocytes could be artificially manipulated to suppress or enhance a specific memory, leaving all other memories intact.Marking star cellsAstrocytes, otherwise known as star cells due to their shape, play various roles in the brain, and many are focused on the health and activity of their neighboring neurons. Williamsons team started by developing techniques that enabled them to mark chosen ensembles of astrocytes to see when they activate genes (including one named c-Fos) that help neurons reconfigure their connections and are deemed crucial for memory formation. This was based on the idea that the same pathway would be active in neurons and astrocytes.In simple terms, we use genetic tools that allow us to inject mice with a drug that artificially makes astrocytes express some other gene or protein of interest when they become active, says Wookbong Kwon, a biotechnologist at Baylor College and co-author of the study.Those proteins of interest were mainly fluorescent proteins that make cells fluoresce bright red. This way, the team could spot the astrocytes in mouse brains that became active during learning scenarios. Once the tagging system was in place, Williamson and his colleagues gave their mice a little scare.Its called fear conditioning, and its a really simple idea. You take a mouse, put it into a new box, one its never seen before. While the mouse explores this new box, we just apply a series of electrical shocks through the floor, Williamson explains. A mouse treated this way remembers this as an unpleasant experience and associates it with contextual cues like the boxs appearance, the smells and sounds present, and so on.The tagging system lit up all astrocytes that expressed the c-Fos gene in response to fear conditioning. Williamsons team inferred that this is where the memory is stored in the mouses brain. Knowing that, they could move on to the next question, which was if and how astrocytes and engram neurons interacted during this process.Modulating engram neuronsAstrocytes are really bushy, Williamson says. They have a complex morphology with lots and lots of micro or nanoscale processes that infiltrate the area surrounding them. A single astrocyte can contact roughly 100,000 synapses, and not all of them will be involved in learning events. So the team looked for correlations between astrocytes activated during memory formation and the neurons that were tagged at the same time.When we did that, we saw that engram neurons tended to be contacting the astrocytes that are active during the formation of the same memory, Williamson says. To see how astrocytes activity affects neurons, the team artificially stimulated the astrocytes by microinjecting them with a virus engineered to induce the expression of the c-Fos gene. It directly increased the activity of engram neurons but did not increase the activity of non-engram neurons in contact with the same astrocyte, Williamson explains.This way his team established that at least some astrocytes could preferentially communicate with engram neurons. The researchers also noticed that astrocytes involved in memorizing the fear conditioning event had elevated levels of a protein called NFIA, which is known to regulate memory circuits in the hippocampus.But probably the most striking discovery came when the researchers tested whether the astrocytes involved in memorizing an event also played a role in recalling it later.Selectively forgettingThe first test to see if astrocytes were involved in recall was to artificially activate them when the mice were in a box that they were not conditioned to fear. It turned out artificial activation of astrocytes that were active during the formation of a fear memory formed in one box caused the mice to freeze even when they were in a different one.So, the next question was, if you just killed or otherwise disabled an astrocyte ensemble active during a specific memory formation, would it just delete this memory from the brain? To get that done, the team used their genetic tools to selectively delete the NFIA protein in astrocytes that were active when the mice received their electric shocks. We found that mice froze a lot less when we put them in the boxes they were conditioned to fear. They could not remember. But other memories were intact, Kwon claims.The memory was not completely deleted, though. The mice still froze in the boxes they were supposed to freeze in, but they did it for a much shorter time on average. It looked like their memory was maybe a bit foggy. They were not sure if they were in the right place, Williamson says.After figuring out how to suppress a memory, the team also figured out where the undo button was and brought it back to normal.When we deleted the NFIA protein in astrocytes, the memory was impaired, but the engram neurons were intact. So, the memory was still somewhere there. The mice just couldnt access it, Williamson claims. The team brought the memory back by artificially stimulating the engram neurons using the same technique they employed for activating chosen astrocytes. That caused the neurons involved in this memory trace to be activated for a few hours. This artificial activity allowed the mice to remember it again, Williamson says.The teams vision is that in the distant future this technique can be used in treatments targeting neurons that are overactive in disorders such as PTSD. We now have a new cellular target that we can evaluate and potentially develop treatments that target the astrocyte component associated with memory, Williamson claims. But theres lot more to learn before anything like that becomes possible. We dont yet know what signal is released by an astrocyte that acts on the neuron. Another thing is our study was focused on one brain region, which was the hippocampus, but we know that engrams exist throughout the brain in lots of different regions. The next step is to see if astrocytes play the same role in other brain regions that are also critical for memory, Williamson says.Nature, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08170-wJacek KrywkoAssociate WriterJacek KrywkoAssociate Writer Jacek Krywko is a freelance science and technology writer who covers space exploration, artificial intelligence research, computer science, and all sorts of engineering wizardry. 17 Comments

Amine Anoun, CTO, EvisortNovember 22, 20245 Min ReadJ.V.G. Ransika via Alamy StockArtificial intelligence is a critical tool for companies looking to keep pace in the current competitive business landscape. The potential of AI promises great things -- greater efficiency among the workforce, customized customer experiences, better informed decision making for C-suite executives -- but it also comes with great risk, being just as useful to bad actors as it is to those with good intentions.To combat nefarious use and promote transparency around the new technology, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently released ISO/IEC 42001. The new standard guides the ethical and responsible development and deployment of artificial intelligence management systems -- effectively giving organizations a vehicle to demonstrate that their approach to AI is ethical and secure.In a world where AI is rapidly reshaping industries, having a structured approach like the one outlined in ISO 42001 ensures that businesses are harnessing AI's power while maintaining ethical and transparent practices. Having recently gone through the certification process, heres what other companies considering taking this step should know:What Is ISO 42001 and Why Does It Matter?ISO 42001 is a groundbreaking international standard designed to establish a structured roadmap for the responsible development and usage of AI. This standard addresses critical challenges such as ethics, transparency, continual learning, and adaptation, ensuring that AI technologies are harnessed ethically and effectively.Related:The standard is also intentionally structured to align with other well-known management system standards, such as ISO 27001 and ISO 27701, to enhance existing security, privacy, and quality programs. For companies that touch AI, its of the utmost importance to be on top of the most rigorous AI frameworks and to implement strict guardrails to protect customers from malicious intent. It also gives organizations a foundation to comply with upcoming regulations, like the EU AI Act and related legislation in Colorado.The Journey to ISO 42001 ComplianceAchieving compliance with ISO 42001 required our organization to take a risk-based approach to the establishment, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of an AIMS. This approach involved several phases, including:Defining the context in which our AI systems operate.Identifying relevant external and internal stakeholders.Understanding the expectations and requirements of the framework.Related:Additionally, building out a comprehensive, ISO 42001-certified AIMS required us to standardize the fairness, accessibility, safety, and various impacts of our AI systems. The standard looks at an organization's policies related to AI, the internal organization of roles and responsibilities for working with AI, resources for AI systems such as data, impact analysis of AI systems on individuals, groups, and society, the AI system life cycle, data management, information dissemination to interested parties (like external reporting), the use of AI systems, and third-party relationships.Undergoing this certification process took approximately six months and involved us working closely with our auditing partner. Upon completion of our assessment, we received certification of compliance with ISO 42001 standards to serve as an indicator of our prioritization of responsible and secure AI to all stakeholders. Moving forward, we must sustain the practices mandated by the framework and undergo future routine assessments to continuously ensure we maintain compliance.The Impact of ISO 42001 Compliance on Our AI StrategyCompliance with ISO 42001 is not just about meeting a set of standards; it fundamentally impacts how we utilize AI moving forward. With many companies building out their own AI capabilities, proving to customers and stakeholders that they can trust our systems is crucial -- and ultimately becomes a competitive differentiator.Related:ISO 42001 addresses these concerns through comprehensive requirements, providing a roadmap to satisfying security and safety concerns about our AI. Getting ISO 42001 certified has allowed us to do the following:Validate our AI management: ISO 42001 certification provides independent corroboration that we manage our AI systems ethically and responsibly.Enhance trust with stakeholders: The certification demonstrates our commitment to responsible AI practices and ethical, transparent, and accountable AI development and usage.Improve risk management: The certification helps us identify and mitigate risks associated with AI, ensuring potential ethical, security, and compliance issues are proactively addressed.Gain a competitive edge: As ISO 42001 was published recently, becoming one of the first globally to certify our AIMS gives us an edge in the market, signaling to clients, partners, and regulators that we are at the forefront of responsible AI use.The Importance of Working With an Accredited BodyAchieving ISO 42001 certification is a significant milestone, but its essential to work with an accredited body to ensure the certifications credibility. In our certification process, we prioritized working with Schellman, an ANAB-accredited auditing certification body, as our partner in this journey. Schellmans accreditation gave us assurance that they are properly equipped to verify our compliance with the ISO 42001 framework, adding an extra layer of validation to our certification while guiding us through the process.While compliance does not equate to absolute security, it positions an organization to mitigate risks effectively and demonstrate to customers that their security is a top priority. By adhering to the rigorous standards set out in ISO 42001, we are committed to responsible AI practices that not only meet but exceed stakeholder expectations, ensuring the safe and ethical use of AI technologies.About the AuthorAmine AnounCTO, EvisortAmine Anoun is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Evisort. Prior to Evisort, Anoun served as a data scientist at Uber. Anoun is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and CentaleSupelec. He was a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and was also recognized as one of the Top 100 MIT Alumni in Technology in 2021.See more from Amine AnounNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeReportsMore Reports

Comment and SocietyA recent scandal over food hygiene ratings shows how deception destroys trust within society. We need to fight back, says Jonathan R. Goodman 20 November 2024 Simone RotellaUntil a few weeks ago, I relied on restaurant hygiene ratings when deciding where to have dinner. The score given by the UKs Food Standards Agency ranges from 0 to 5, where 0 indicates urgent improvement is required. It is traditionally a good predictor if you are fastidious or if you just want to avoid nasty parasites like Giardia.Yet in October, the BBC revealed some businesses misrepresent their hygiene scores, posting a 5 when their ratings are as low as 0. The signal of hygiene I relied on wasnt always reliable.This was just one incident that had

Humidity makes Shanghais heat more unbearablelukyeee1976/Getty ImagesMy office felt like a steamer on Monday morning, wrote Chinese influencer Bi Dao in a social media post in August. He fetched a drink from a supposed cold-water dispenser it was 40.8C (105F). Bi, who lives in Hangzhou, a regional capital on Chinas east coast, decided to roam the city with a temperature gun, pointing it at things to find out exactly how hot they had got. The ground was 72.6C, the seat of a sharing bike was 56.5C, the handrail in the metro station was 45C, even the tree bark was 38.7C, he wrote. He ended his post by thanking Willis Carrier for inventing the air conditioner.Hangzhou is known for its beautiful lake, large pagoda and rolling green tea farms not for heat. But what Bi witnessed was only one of the 60 high-temperature days ones that topped 35C (95F) that grilled the city and its 12.5 million inhabitants this year. Hangzhou isnt alone. Many cities worldwide are feeling the heat. Things are getting so bad that growing numbers of people face temperatures that are beyond human endurance.Already, such conditions kill around half a million each year. That will inevitably rise as climate change increases the number and intensity of heatwaves around the globe. Cities are on the front line of this unfolding crisis. And Chinas vast, densely packed megacities are leading the way. As well as providing a glimpse of what we are in

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman hopes a second Trump term can usher in an era of AI innovation.In a recent op-ed for The Financial Times, he shared several concerns he has for the administration.Hoffman warned that Elon Musk shouldn't use his relationship with Donald Trump to boost xAI.LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said Elon Musk has a "serious conflict of interest" when it comes to guiding a second Trump administration on AI policies in the US.In an op-ed published Friday with The Financial Times, Hoffman said the advisory role Musk has taken up with Donald Trump could pose a conflict of interest if the xAI founder is guiding the president-elect on laws around artificial intelligence."With direct ownership in the fledgling AI start-up xAI, Elon Musk, who is advising Trump in many domains, has a serious conflict of interest in terms of setting federal AI policies for all US companies," Hoffman wrote. "Using his position to favor xAI in any way, such as awarding it government contracts, encouraging federal agencies to unfairly target AI companies, or imposing new regulations that limit exports will come at the expense of US technological, economic and cultural security and competitiveness."Musk did not respond to a request for comment. Hours after the FT published the op-ed, Musk responded to an X post unrelated to Hoffman's column, criticizing people who post on LinkedIn."I instantly lose respect for anyone who posts on LinkedIn," he said. "Unbearably cringe."Hoffman, who is also the cofounder of Inflection AI, shared his hopes and concerns for Trump's second term in the FT op-ed.Hoffman credited the Biden Administration for leaving behind a "strong Democrat-engineered economy" and said he was hopeful that Trump could build on it, ushering in more business investments and technological innovations around artificial intelligence.But he also warned that a Trump White House could stifle innovation by being unwilling to work with US global allies to develop technology such as AI."While Trump campaigned on the promise of making America more unilateral and insular, I continue to believe a pluralistic, multilateral approach is what creates innovation and prosperity in an increasingly networked world," Hoffman said. "That extends to AI. In contrast, I expect the administration will adopt a mercantilist AI policy that will bar long-standing global allies from accessing US models, infrastructure, and technology."A spokesperson for Trump's transition team did not respond to a request for comment.Hoffman and Musk have a bitter rivalry that dates back to thePayPaldays in 2000, when Musk's online banking company at the time,X.com,merged with Confinity, a security software company, to become PayPal.The two CEOs have recently been more public about their rivalry, particularly over political disputes. Musk, who has gradually shifted to the Republican Party over the years, has been a vociferous supporter of Trump. Hoffman supported Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign.After Trump's victory on November 5, Musk has already been spending a lot of time in Trump's orbit and has been tasked to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency focused on reducing the size of the federal government.Hoffman did not respond to a request for comment.

Seven & i Holdings, owner of 7-Eleven stores, is at the center of a three-way bidding war.The company's management, its founders, and a Canadian convenience store company all want control.Depending on who ultimately prevails, the Japan-based company could go private.Japan-based Seven & i Holdings, owner of the iconic global chain of 7-Eleven convenience stores, is at the center of an intensifying bidding war, multiple outlets reported.The company's management, its founding family, and a Canadian company Alimentation Couche-Tard, owner of Circle K convenience stores are all interested in control of the chain, with bids upward of $58 billion.Business Insider previously reportedAlimentation Couche-Tard made its first bid this summer, proposing a purchase to expand its nearly 17,000-store catalog of global convenience storeswith 7-Eleven's approximately 85,000 locations if the sale was approved. The initial offer of $39 billion was rejected for being a dramatically lower valuation than the company would consider for a buyout but the Quebec-based company raised its bid to $47 billion in October, The Wall Street Journal reported.If the deal were to go through, itLast month, in an opposing proposal to the company's board, Seven & i's CEO, Ryuichi Isaka, said the company has "potential for significant growth globally," announcing his aim to increase revenue to about $200 billion by 2030 with a restructuring plan including spinning off its noncore businesses, The Journal reported.This month, Junro Ito, an executive at Seven & i Holdings and the heir to the7-Eleven chain, proposed a management buyout that would take the company private with a $58 billion bid, according to Bloomberg.Ito had been courting investors this summer to buy stock in the chain before Alimentation Couche-Tard's offer to purchase the company outright was on the table. Bloomberg reported he told prospective investors in August that the company "would like to spread our retail business and strengths in food not only within Japan but also around the world."However, it appears Alimentation Couche-Tard's proposal rattled Tokyo's business elite into reconsidering whether the company should be public at all, perEach of the proposals is being considered by a special committee made up of Seven & i Holdings' board members in order to maximize value for its shareholders, per Bloomberg.Seven & i Holdings' stock has responded well to all the interest, increasing nearly 15% from $14.36 per share to $16.49 over the last 30 days and more than 25% this year.The 7-Eleven chain was founded in 1927 in Dallas, per The Journal. It was originally called the Southland Ice Company but was rebranded in 1946 to be called 7-Eleven based on its hours of operation.The convenience store partnered with Ito-Yokado, a Japanese supermarket chain founded by Masatoshi Ito Junro Ito's father in 1973 to build franchised locations in Japan. Ito-Yokado acquired a majority stake in the company in the early 1990s and completed its acquisition in November 2005. Ito-Yokado then reorganized, becoming Seven & i Holdings, that year.Representatives for Alimentation Couche-Tard and 7-Eleven did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

There arent too many people openly calling themselves effective altruists these days. You can mostly give thanks to convicted felon Sam Bankman-Fried for having single-handedly made sure far more people hear effective altruism and think cryptocurrency scams rather than donating lots of money to good causes. But there is still a great deal of work being done in line with the effective altruism (EA) worldview and associated principles: combating lead poisoning, work against factory farming thats based on efficiently finding the best pressure points to improve animal welfare, work on taking down the diseases that are still major killers in poor countries, work on reforming US kidney policy, work on making sure developing advanced AI goes well. A lot of people I talk to think this development the downplaying of EA, if not EA causes is all for the best. Did it ever really make sense to have all those things under one umbrella? Even if there is a benefit to all of these people learning from each other, collaborating closely, moving between roles, and sharing lots of ideas behind the scenes, does it make sense to advertise the umbrella rather than advertise the achievements? (Disclosure: In August 2022, Bankman-Frieds philanthropic family foundation, Building a Stronger Future, awarded Voxs Future Perfect a grant for a 2023 reporting project. That project was canceled.)But a few things fall by the wayside if you stop talking about effective altruism in favor of just talking about the specific issues that the movement tended to zero in on. One of those things? The innovation called earning to give.Earning to give is the controversial effective altruist idea that one good way to make the world a better place is to take a job where you make a lot of money and donate much of that money to important, underfunded work. (To be clear, not any high-paying job would be okay, but industries like tech and finance are generally considered fine.) Its a sharp contrast with the more typical take that if you want to do good with your career, you should steer clear of the temptations of high-salary corporate jobs in favor of working directly at a nonprofit. Earning to give is an idea worth salvagingThere are obviously some problems with the naive formulation of earning to give, which would amount to Just go work at the highest-paying job you can get and donate the money.Some jobs definitely do enough direct harm that, by working in them, you cant possibly accomplish good just by donating your salary. From early on, effective altruists argued not about whether theres a line there obviously is but where to draw it. Marketing addictive cigarettes? Probably not acceptable. Working on advanced AI systems? Well, depends on whether you think those will do social harm on net. Related:Against doomerism(And hopefully it goes without saying that founding a cryptocurrency startup for the avowed reason of earning a lot of money to donate to charity is at absolute best only a good idea if you are very careful not to let your attached hedge fund trade away your customers money. Just so were absolutely clear.)A problem here, of course, is that people making a lot of money generally find it easy to lie to themselves about the social harm their high-paying professions may be generating. And in many cases, the way to do good in the world is to do it directly, not pay for someone else to do it especially if youre a person with rare and in-demand skills.Over the years, many of the people I know who have done earning to give ended up switching to directly working on important problems. That makes sense. If youre a skilled tech or finance person, the kind who can earn a really high salary, theres probably a lot of crucial work that would benefit from your skills, not just your checkbook. But I have always found something valuable and important in the case for earning to give. It goes like this: Theres a lot of important work that needs funding, and an individual familys donations my wife and I give around $50,000 a year can make a huge difference in getting some of that important work done. Billionaire foundations will never cover all of it, and its better for organizations to be funded by motivated individuals than by billionaire foundations anyway. It distorts their priorities less, its much less politically awkward, and committed individuals can take bets that foundations cant or wont.I also like earning to give for its unabashed friendliness to capitalism, which is a rare quality on the do-gooder left. I believe that the last century has made the world much, much better for the vast majority of people, and while targeted scientific innovation is a huge part of the story, another huge part of the story is the astounding success of market economies. Why did the world get better? Mostly through people doing valuable stuff, often for selfish and pecuniary reasons. The Vox guide to givingThe holiday season is giving season. This year, Vox is exploring every element of charitable giving from making the case for donating 10 percent of your income, to recommending specific charities for specific causes, to explaining what you can do to make a difference beyond donations. You can find all of our giving guide stories here.Not every big-dollar job is ethical, and Id strongly encourage thought about what specifically you do and whether it makes the world a better place. But I generally think participating in the economy is a basically good and admirable thing to do, even though many progressives think of it as a morally negative one.And I want there to be a vision for fixing our world that proceeds from the premise that abundance is good, that wealth is good, that growing the pie is good, that trade-offs are real, and that we will have to create new things and generate new wealth in order to make those trade-offs more bearable. These convictions have always seemed to me like a firmer foundation for fixing the world than their ideological competitors. Capitalism is good, actuallyJust as I like earning to give for these reasons, a lot of people have always disliked earning to give for precisely the same reasons. Earning to give says that you can do a lot of moral good through active participation in our capitalist system, through trying to make a lot of money and then purchasing the things you want (research, bednets, wealth redistribution, you name it) with the money you earned. It is a capitalist ideology. It makes a lot of sense to me that people who think of capitalism as a dirty word arent enthusiastic about the idea of harnessing it in the name of altruism and that lack of enthusiasm is shared by many of my fellow travelers in the effort to make the world a better place. But if you think capitalism is a net good, like I do, I think you should be enthusiastic about the possibility of earning to give. You can see it as one among many ways to do good, but also a particular strategy that the world could use a lot more of. And if, like my family, youre wealthy and have high-income jobs, Id strongly encourage you to consider making large annual donations. I wont claim its easy. It makes budgeting more difficult, and delays home renovations that wed like to get done. But the money that a high-income American family can spare without giving up any essentials is enough money to accomplish an enormous amount in the world. We are the beneficiaries of the wealthiest society in human history. We live in material abundance our ancestors couldnt have imagined. We can afford to set some of that aside and use it to get things done for the world.A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here!Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Timothe Chalamet, Paul Mescal, Zendaya the celebrity look-alike contests sweeping the US and the UK seem to be more than just a weekend fad. Despite sporadic attendance and skeptical media coverage, the events keep happening, sometimes with repeat contests for various celebrities in different cities. Disappointed by the lack of Jack Schlossberg look-alikes in New York? Not to worry, the ultimate Schlossberg doppelgnger might get their chance to shine in Washington, DC, this weekend.Why now, you might ask? What weird burble in the zeitgeist has somehow manifested in lines of identical Chalamets? Is it that we cant get enough of Hollywood it boys? Is it that, as a society, were tiring of lives lived primarily online? Is it that were all thirsty for more fun, low-stake events that are free and open to the public?I turned to a Zayn Malik look-alike contest attendee for answers. I was probably just going to stay home, but I was like, no, some divine spirit is calling me to this look-alike contest, Natalie Miller, a social producer from Bushwick, told me. Miller and a friend attended the contest last Sunday in Maria Hernandez Park. The winner, 29-year-old Shiv Patel, seemed prepared for glory; he told Brooklyn Mag the win adds to my lore. Naturally, Miller got a photo.Its almost a real celebrity moment.However tongue-in-cheek the events and the participants might be, the glee theyre producing is real. Everyone was just having such a good time, and it was 30 minutes, but it was just the best part of everyones day, Miller said.Its been a minute since the public took to the streets for fun reasons. While flash mobs of the early 2010s quickly got deemed cringe, viral dance memes of the mid-10s often resulted in injuries, and the past few years of Pokmon Go may have inadvertently aided our dystopian nightmare, these look-alike contests seem, so far, to be wholly banal. (Well, notwithstanding that one guy who got arrested.)[T]he timothee chalamet lookalike competition just shows that the people yearn for weird town events like we live in gilmore girls, as one viral post put it.Indeed, theres plenty of precedent for precisely this type of quirky celebration. This moment harks back to an era well before the internet, when people were arguably considerably more bored and desperate for entertainment or, as Jeremy O. Harris put it, Great Depression era coded. In other words, we might be seeking refuge from our current reality in wholesome, mindless community spectator events. Historian and folklorist Matthew Algeo noted to Vox that such crazes historically spring up amid times of intense technological and social change changes that necessarily create public anxiety and a longing for community and simple entertainment.We think of the Great Depression as an economic event, but it was also a psychological event, Algeo said. Were going through a psychological event right now. Theres a hunger for diversion.Algeo is the author of Pedestrianism, about the massively popular walking contests of the 1870s and 80s, in which crowds would fill huge stadiums, including Madison Square Garden, to watch other people walk around in circles for hours. People are looking for new and interesting forms of entertainment, Algeo said, something that everybody can relate to. As for what the spectators get out of it, Algeo admitted that, as interesting entertainment goes, walking competitions and look-alike contests are a little like watching paint dry. He suggested one reason people turn out for the events is that they get a perverse joy in watching other people putting themselves out there in public. While ironic glee could certainly be one factor, Miller suggests a purer motivation.It honestly felt like a One Direction meet and greet, Miller, a longtime Directioner, told me. I was so nervous going up to [Patel]. Its just so fun to experience that joy again.One might assume that the primary appeal of these look-alike contests would be to the fandoms of those specific celebrities, but that isnt the case; Miller said she was pleasantly surprised at the way most people in attendance at the Zayn contest seemed to be locals rather than fans. It felt like a local community gathering and it was just so joyous, Miller said of the crowd. Algeo told me the local community appeal is understandable.It reminds me of how famous walker Edward Payson Weston would go to these small towns and do these challenges where he would walk 100 miles in 24 hours in somebodys barn, Algeo said. Everybody had to come out and see it because it was live entertainment, and that really brought communities together. This is kind of the same thing. It gives people a reason to get out of their houses and share an experience with other people, in real time and in real life. He also compared the current craze to flagpole-sitting of the 20s and 30s, when the public would go gawk at other humans sitting, where else, atop flagpoles.It sounds silly, but I think the fact that its silly might make it all the more appealing to people, Algeo said. Especially in this day and age, with everything so intense and polarized and fractured. Its hard to summon a lot of negative emotions about a celebrity look-alike contest. Thinking back to the Depression, it probably doesnt hurt that in the current age of inflation, these events are free.Theres also perhaps a little bit of stunt myth-making afoot. The flagpole-sitting craze began because a theater hired a Hollywood stuntman named Shipwreck Kelly to sit atop a flagpole to promote a new film. From there, the trend went viral. Likewise, the look-alike contests might have been born out of self-promotion as much as wholesome community fun. The organizer of the first look-alike contest, the Timothe Chalamet competition famously attended by Timothe Chalamet himself, is Anthony Po, a New York-based YouTuber with nearly 2 million followers tuning in to his stunt videos, which range from sneaking into cults to manufacturing paranormal sightings. He swiftly moved on from the look-alike contest uproar to planning his next big event: a boxing match between his alter-ego, Cheeseball Man, and a mysterious newcomer named Cornhead Killer. Still, it would seem that, so far, Cornhead Killer has nothing on Sunday in the park with Zayns. Its objectively so funny to see a bunch of people standing in a straight line that all look really similar, Miller assured me. Millers giddy joy in congregating with her fellow Directioners and fellow Bushwick community members would seem to support Algeos hypothesis that, in the end, people just like to watch other people do things. No matter what theyre doing, theres probably any human activity you could get a crowd for.Youve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

Got yourself a PS5 Pro or planning to pick one up? Here are the games that truly sing on Sony's latest hardware thanks to Pro-specific patches - which have you tried?