Author: Ростислав Ширяев

Brains’ Race

What neural networks can already do

Reading time 11 minutes

According to research conducted four years ago by MarketsandMarkets, by 2024, the size of the neural networks market was expected to grow to nearly $300 million. In early 2023, media outlets had already published news that Microsoft would invest $10 billion in a chatbot developer based on artificial intelligence – OpenAI. The number of various neural network services is steadily growing, and there is an increasing discussion in the media space about what professions they can replace. In this article we will tell about the most interesting applied abilities of artificial intelligence.

Translators

Neural networks have long been used in automatic translation services such as Google Translate, Yandex Translator and Microsoft Translator. However, the real breakthrough in this field was made by a small German company DeepL with its eponymous translator.

Neural networks can be built based on different architectures, each of which is better suited for a particular task. Finding the right combination of algorithms is the key to making the AI work more accurately. Most translators have been using recurrent neural networks until recently, but they have started to be replaced by a new machine learning model, Transformer, which Google is actively using.

DeepL does not disclose its translation technology, although early campaigns reported the use of convolutional neural networks, which are designed to recognize visual images rather than text. The official site also says it is using some of the mechanisms of the previously mentioned Transformer architecture. The developers’ own tests and comparisons made by ordinary users show that DeepL does translate much more accurately because it is able to capture context:

Сравнение взято с сайта gadgets-news.ru, жирным выделен неверный перевод, а курсивом – неточный.
The comparison is taken from gadgets-news.ru, with the incorrect translation in bold and the inaccurate translation in italics.

It is worth noting that the translator from Google has been significantly improved after the introduction of the Transformer architecture, but DeepL translates virtually error-free.

Among the neural network services, there are some that can translate and dub video, removing the speaker’s voice and leaving the original noises. For example, Neurodub AI can recognize speech in 70 languages:

The working window on the Neurodub site. The video was taken from the author's personal archive. The corrected error and the pop-up warning-line are circled in red.
The working window on the Neurodub site. The video was taken from the author’s personal archive. The corrected error and the pop-up warning-line are circled in red.

Sometimes the neural network makes mistakes, but they can be corrected manually. In the picture above you can see that the AI did not recognize the name of the university correctly and heard “neck” instead of “HSE”. After editing the text in the side menu, you need to click “Apply changes” and the video will be re-voiced correctly. Unfortunately, the service is paid (1 minute – 1 dollar), but you can try the first 15 minutes in test mode.

Photos, pictures, logos

In March 2023, the developers of Midjourney, a popular neural network for generating images, shut down free access due to abuse with deepfakes1. Social media users spread pictures of arrested Donald Trump and Pope Francis in a fancy down jacket.

A fake photo of Pope Francis generated by Midjourney.
A fake photo of Pope Francis generated by Midjourney.
The fake about Donald Trump's arrest. The photo was circulated on social media.
The fake about Donald Trump’s arrest. The photo was circulated on social media.

In addition to Midjourney, there are many other services for generating images, such as Stable Diffusion, Craiyon, and Starryai. These neural networks create images based on keywords, so-called «prompts»2. If they are not used correctly, the AI may misunderstand the user’s request and generate something hard to recognize.

Neural networks are also capable of creating logos. The principle of these services is much simpler than the previous ones: just enter the name of your brand, choose some colors and icons you like and you’re done. Here are a few examples generated by Brandmark.io and Looka:

The logos are generated based on the name of the author of the article, the theme "University" and a few pastel colors.
The logos are generated based on the name of the author of the article, the theme “University” and a few pastel colors.

And the neural networks at Colorize.cc and MyHeritage.com can improve the quality of a photo or even color an old black and white one:

Photo from the personal archive of the author of the article.
Photo from the personal archive of the author of the article.
Photo from the Colorize website.
Photo from the Colorize website.

Write a text

ChatGPT is probably the most famous chatbot that can write even a diploma. It is based on the GPT-3.5 language model and is used to generate texts that look like their author is a human.

Writing texts with neural networks has its own peculiarities: they cannot simply repeat existing phrases. AI generates new texts based on statistical parameters and patterns found in the data sets on which it has been trained. As a result, texts generated by neural networks can be original, but contain errors and inaccuracies. By the way, this paragraph is almost entirely written with ChatGPT: I only had to correct some grammar and speech errors.

The mechanics of interaction with the chatbot is based on requests and responses. It is desirable to have different topics in different chats.
The mechanics of interaction with the chatbot is based on requests and responses. It is desirable to have different topics in different chats.

Some neural networks, such as Rytr, do not work like chatbots, but use a clear user-defined terms of reference. You need to select “tone of speech”, language, “content format” and enter keywords on the site. After specifying the settings, the artificial intelligence will generate a sample text, which it will offer to complete for yourself.

Artificial Intelligence detectors

Due to the emergence of services that can write the text for a person, there was also a need to check the work for anti-plagiarism. The problem is that using ordinary software it is impossible to determine, for example, if a student wrote an essay by himself or herself or if he or she used AI. Moreover, The New York Times pointed out that even writers and teachers cannot distinguish ChatGPT writing samples from student papers, so schools in New York banned the use of OpenAI’s AI.

The result of checking the text generated by ChatGPT on the Writer site.
The result of checking the text generated by ChatGPT on the Writer site.

For this purpose, special services have been developed that also work with neural networks. Some of them are AI Content Detector from Writer and AI Text Classifier from the already mentioned OpenAI. So far, however, AI detectors have low accuracy in determining neural networks work. AI Text Classifier, for example, successfully identified only 26% of AI texts. In addition, this detector will fail if the text is even slightly edited, written by children or not in English, and contains less than a thousand characters.

Despite minor advances in this area, services that mask the work of neural networks are already being developed in parallel. This is how Stealthwriter AI handled rewriting ChatGPT’s response to my question about whether he would be offended if the author did not mention him in the article (the text is given in unmodified form):

Since I am only an Al artificial intelligence modeled brain, there are no sentiments or affections inside me that can cause offense. To assist in any way possible and offer information is my purpose. The decision of mentioning my support in the article lies entirely with you. That said, recognizing and attributing sources or tools utilized in your work is a common practice for ensuring transparency and integrity.

Original text:

As an Al language model, I do not have feelings or emotions, so I cannot be offended. My purpose is to assist and provide information to the best of my abilities. Whether or not you mention my assistance in your article is entirely up to you. However, it’s always good practice to acknowledge and give credit to the sources or tools that you use in your work for transparency and integrity.

Which version is more like «made by human» is a subjective question.

Artificial Intelligence has indeed reached a new level: neural networks are now able to perform some tasks faster than humans, and sometimes even better. Nevertheless, they still make mistakes, and in some places, they are far from being successful at all. There is no need to be afraid of robots taking over the world. Probably.

The Money Explosion Theory

The most expensive scenes and special effects in movie history

Reading time 8 minutes

Digital doppelgangers, photogrammetry, real-time rendering using game engines – it seems like just an incomprehensible set of words from the IT-sphere. In fact, these terms are the latest technologies that the film industry is trying to implement or is already actively using. With the advent of computer graphics, the scale and showiness of a scene in a movie, and with it its price is determined only by the imagination of the director. For what episodes of world cinema creators had to pay a lot of money – we tell in this article.

The most expensive

For more than 20 years, the seventeen-minute fight scene of the main character in the movie “The Matrix: Reloaded” has held the title of the most expensive episode in cinema. All the heroes were dressed in special costumes created just for this scene. Drones and video cameras were used to shoot, and many different visual effects were added in post-production, which made the battle where Neo stops the bullets really incredible. For example, the rotation of the camera around the stairs while the characters are in the antigravity environment makes it feel like they’re flying. It’s worth noting that a three-lane, three-mile-long highway was built for the chase scene. The seventeen minutes of film cost 40 million dollars and took 27 days to film. The main share of the check was the special effects. Producers doubted that such an investment would pay off and Keanu Reeves even turned down $38 million from ticket sales. Fears, however, were not borne out: on a budget of $ 150 million box office receipts the film was more than $ 742 million.

The frame from the film «The Matrix: Reloaded». The scene on the stairs is shot as if the actors «soar» during the battle.
The frame from the film «The Matrix: Reloaded». The scene on the stairs is shot as if the actors «soar» during the battle.

How much does it cost to blow something up?

Sometimes directors don’t want to use computer graphics for one reason or another. For example, in the film by Christopher Nolan «Tenet», it would be more expensive to use special effects than to blow up a real plane:

I planned to do it using miniatures and set-piece builds and a combination of visual effects and all the rest. We started to run the numbers… It became apparent that it would actually be more efficient to buy a real plane of the real size, and perform this sequence for real in camera, rather than build miniatures or go the CG route. It’s a strange thing to talk about – a kind of impulse buying, I suppose.

The frame from the film «Tenet». In the scene the real plane of the brand «Boeing» was used.
The frame from the film «Tenet». The real plane of the brand «Boeing» was used in the scene.

Of course, you can’t blow up a plane twice. The episode was shot in one take. The crew was cheering and shouting “Hooray!” when the director said: «Stop, shot». The cost of a Boeing 747 (that’s what blew up in the movie) is about $ 385 million, which does not fit into the budget picture – $250 million. Director himself does not specify a purchase price, saying only that it was «impulsive».

Before the movie «Tenet» Nolan also set off explosions. His pyrotechnic debut can be considered a scene in «The Dark Knight», when the Joker leaves the hospital and blows it up. For the shooting of this episode producers specially purchased the building of the old candy factory and converted it into a hospital, where the huge explosion was made. It cost $700 thousand, but during the shooting of the scene there was a problem with the pyrotechnic charges and the chain reaction of the explosion stopped. Then the scene was saved by improvisation by Heath Ledger, who adjusted to the situation without stepping out of character. In this case, computer graphics would be a safer investment, but it was probably because of the episode from The Dark Knight that we saw the larger experiment in Tenet.

The frame from the movie «The Dark Knight». Joker performed by Heath Ledger several times presses on the remote control, but the explosion does not happen immediately. The actor has successfully improvised, so the scene was not reshot.
The frame from the movie «The Dark Knight». Joker performed by Heath Ledger several times presses on the remote control, but the explosion does not happen immediately. The actor has successfully improvised, so the scene was not reshot.

The bombing scene of the central span of the Brooklyn Bridge in the movie «I am Legend» cost $5 million. There, on the contrary, was no computer graphics. The episode is based on the evacuating the main character’s family from the contaminated zone. To do this, it was necessary to attract real military equipment: the Ministry of Defense and soldiers of the National Guard helped the filming. About a thousand extras and about 250 crew members took part in the scene.

The frame from the film «I Am Legend»
The frame from the film «I Am Legend».

Thousands of dollars for every word

However, the cost of a stage is not always determined by the number of special effects or the use of special techniques. Sometimes the main cost of the episode is the participation of a famous actor in the frame. For 15 minutes in the blockbuster «Spider-Man: Homecoming» Robert Downey Junior was paid $10 million. Of course, the actors received larger sums for filming, but they received such money not by the contract, but by the percentage of box office fees. For example, in the film «Mission: Impossible 2» Tom Cruise had no fixed salary at all. The picture brought him $147 million.

Julia Roberts in the film «Valentine’s Day».
Julia Roberts in the film «Valentine’s Day».

The shortest and at the same time the most expensive scene is attributed to Julia Roberts in the film «Valentine’s Day». For six minutes on the screen she earned $3 million. Her fans counted: during this time the actress said 251 words. If you divide them by the amount earned, it turns out that for each word the actress earned almost $12,000.

The real virtual crime

How piracy affects original content

Reading time 5 minutes

According to a 2019 survey by the Slovak company ESET, 91% of Russians use pirated content and software. The high cost of online products is the main problem that, according to 75% of respondents, causes people to illegally watch movies, play computer games and purchase software. Piracy affects the distribution of original products, but is it always on the negative side? It turns out that no.

The ambiguity of the effect of piracy

Piracy, of course, can lead to lower sales and losses for copyright holders who invest money and time in creating and promoting a product. On the other hand, it can help to distribute content or software in regions where there is no official distribution or support for a certain language. However, a study by the European Commission did not find any statistical connection between piracy and falling sales. This does not mean that it does not exist, but a direct correlation has not been proven. Rather, it depends on the type of content.

Piracy does help to increase sales of obscure films and television series. People have an opportunity to “try out” a media product before they buy it and, for instance, if they don’t like the plot of the movie, they don’t have to pay. But for blockbusters the situation is reversed: popular films are sure to lose some box office receipts due to piracy. Sometimes film companies even cancelled screenings in some regions to prevent the “theft” of content. And in 2016, Century Fox refused to participate in the famous Comic-Con festival because of concerns about piracy.

Cast of the X-Men franchise in 2015 at Comic-Con. In 2016, Fox representatives had no comment on their refusal to show their upcoming films in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con.
Cast of the X-Men franchise in 2015 at Comic-Con. In 2016, Fox representatives had no comment on their refusal to show their upcoming films in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con.

In the sphere of video games piracy has a positive effect on sales. Illegal consumption leads to the growth of legal consumption. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the industry successfully converts “pirates” into paying users. One of the successful tactics that contribute to this process is to offer additional levels or bonuses in the game on a paid basis.

In music and literature, piracy plays almost no role, except that it can increase concert sales for performers through the distribution of content. Moreover, for books, audio compositions, and video games, prices are at a level that corresponds to the willingness of “illegal users” to pay for content. This suggests that lowering the price level will not reduce piracy in these areas.

Why piracy must be fought

Nevertheless, piracy is not just a way of distributing content or software. It is an illegal activity that is forbidden for a number of reasons. Piracy is not only a theft of intellectual property from companies or the individual developer, but it also has a significant negative effect on the economy and innovation. Piracy costs the economy tens of billions of dollars each year. In 2017 alone, the value of all unlicensed copies of computer software installed worldwide was estimated at $46 billion. Also, piracy reduces demand in the labor market. Thus, according to 2016 data, 27 thousand jobs were not created in Poland.

In addition, piracy affects not only sales, but also innovation. Unable to profit from their creative works, copyright owners may find it difficult to finance new projects. This often causes inventions and developments to be frozen. Creators have to invest extra money to fight piracy and spend time and resources to block illegal ways to acquire content or software.

Holes in Invisibility Cloak

How metadata destroys your anonymity

Reading time 7 minutes

The previous article about information security focuses on how to be invisible on the Internet. In addition to the technical instruction, we also told about the errors of the «human factor». However, «torified» traffic, while preventing any IP-address leaks, does not save from other paths to lose data or giving yourself away. About one of the least obvious – read in this article.

Some significant points from the previous article

When a computer connects to Tor, a user’s actions on the Internet are (almost) impersonal. It becomes impossible to track the person’s location, IP-address and other data. However, there are a number of ways to find out where you are and what you are doing: the use of bank cards or phone compromise any information about purchases, movements, calls. Suppose you do not make errors of «human factor» and have successfully installed Whonix according to our instructions. The next step for secure communication or activity on the Internet will be to clean up metadata.

For what reason it is used and why metadata is dangerous

Metadata is an information about a file on your device inside the object itself. To make it easier to understand, let’s take a picture on your phone for an example. The picture has both data (information about where and what color the pixel is) and metadata (it helps to identify a device with which the photo was taken, geolocation at the time of shooting, the size of the image). Metadata improve the quality of information, as it can help to structure the data and set its context. It is used in different areas for analytics, increases the speed of systems and optimizes communication between computer software and files, establishes software licensing restrictions.

Metadata of the author of the article. With its help you can find out the location, model of the phone and even the height above sea level. Site suIP.biz was used to view the metadata.
Metadata of the author of the article. With its help you can find out the location, model of the phone and even the height above sea level. Site suIP.biz was used to view the metadata.

Despite all the advantages, metadata is dangerous when you seek to anonymize your activities. The fact is that they provide much more personal information about the user than the IP-address. For example, you can find out where a person spends most time (home and place of work), geolocation, devices’ operating system, date of video shooting or creation of a text document, authorship. In Digital Security research «II Files’ metadata: Invisible information, revealing your identity», experts note that mail services, even Protonmail, which is considered the most secure, do not delete metadata at all. Messengers erase all metadata from photos, but files (including images sent as files), video and text documents remain intact. Therefore, anonymizing traffic with Tor makes no sense if you do not delete metadata from published or sent materials, as you become easy to track.

Digital Security research found that mail, messengers, sources for photo and video, and cloud storage leave metadata in most uploaded files.
Digital Security research found that mail, messengers, sources for photo and video, and cloud storage leave metadata in most uploaded files.

Security tools

You probably don’t need such a serious anonymization yourself in regular life, so this utility is related to Whonix (Linux’s distributive from the previous part). However, I cannot advise nothing to clean metadata ordinary users too. For laypersons online resources will be suitable, for example, imgonline. But this method has two obvious drawbacks. Firstly, information will be transferred to a specific site, and secondly, the number of file formats which metadata can be deleted is much smaller.

For Linux there is a special software to clean metadata: «MAT – Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit». There are two versions: MAT and MAT2. The last one is more convenient and easier to use. To download the software, you need to enter the command in the Whonix terminal:

$ sudo aptitude install mat2

To view all available commands, type:

$ mat2

Then the list of actions will appear:

Terminal window in Whonix. The screenshot shows all possible operations in MAT2.
Terminal window in Whonix. The screenshot shows all possible operations in MAT2.

To use any command, you must first write the tool name – mat2. The most interesting of the proposed commands is called «–inplace» which removes all metadata. Unfortunately, to address a specific object, you need to specify its directory, so to make this action easier, you should place the files in the system, for example, on the desktop. Write a request in the terminal line:

$ mat2 –inplace /home/user/Desktop/имя файла

We tested the operation of this method by cleaning the metadata from the picture from the gallery, comparing the size of the file before and after: 3.3 MB and 2.3 MB respectively. Almost a third of the information is «data».

Of course, photo does not take up much space on the hard drive, and if you take a larger file, the share of metadata will be insignificant. However, the most popular files distributed by people are images, video, audio and text documents. Together with them, a significant amount of information, however hidden from the average user, but confidential, is transmitted.

233 degrees Celsius: what literature could not be read in the USSR?

Big soviet brother is watching you

Reading time 7 minutes

«It was impossible to find these two volumes on sale, only in libraries and without taking out» – say Kirill Sorvin, HSE sociology professor, about one book which he was looking for when he was a student in USSR. Some literature was banned in USSR due to official ideology. Very few people at the time knew about it. Nevertheless, such books were read and even distributed with Samizdat that was illegal in the country. However, the majority of citizens found out about banned literature only after the collapse of the USSR.

Contradictions of Early and Late Marx

For the first time it became possible to buy «Economic-philosophical manuscripts, 1844» in the USSR only in 1983.
For the first time it became possible to buy «Economic-philosophical manuscripts, 1844» in the USSR only in 1983.

«The work is called Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts 1844, it was the 42nd volume of the Works of K. Marx and F. Engels collection or a separate volume From Early Works. This work was not presented in any other form. Western Marxists discovered in this book another Marx’s philosophy, they called it «Marx-humanist». There was a discussion about the contradiction of «Early and Late Marx», which, of course, was denied in our official philosophy». Accordingly, this work was not among the «canonical» books like «The Capital» which was close to Russian vision of communism.

As a student, Kirill Sorvin tried to exchange a two-volume book of the Strugatsky brothers, which was highly valued among the youth of that time, for «Economic and philosophical manuscripts», but such a book anybody from his classmates did not have.

Second volume of ‘Robinson Crusoe’

The Novel of English writer Daniel Defoe started publishing in Russian Empire in 1762. Only the first part of the series entered the treasury of world literature, which spawned a fashion for pseudo-documentary fiction. Nevertheless, people knew about existing of the sequel and even the book was popular among Europe readers. However, in Russian Empire the second volume was not published and in USSR from 1935 to 1992 it was banned.

In 1971, the publishing house «Pravda» published a retelling of the work with a limited edition.
In 1971, the publishing house «Pravda» published a retelling of the work with a limited edition.

Only In 1971, the publishing house «Pravda» published a retelling of the work with a limited edition. The main reason for this was that Robinson during his Siberian trip faced a lot of corruption and said that Moskovia is «barbaric, powerless and poorly managed mob of slaves».

«In the second part Robinson, among other things, travels in Russia, gives her not all the appropriate characteristics. Why did publishers have to take the responsibility to comment on «such» past of people?» – Kirill Sorvin explains.

George Orwell and Yevgeny Zamyatin

Yevgeny Zamyatin is considered a pioneer in the genre of anti-utopia. The novel «We» became the cause of serious criticism of the writer, and since 1929 his books have stopped at all publishing in the USSR. Zamyatin describes a society of rigid totalitarian control over the individual. Actually «We» is a critic of the Soviet system, with which the genre of anti-utopia began to flourish. Although, for example, Aldous Huxley, one of the first writers in this direction, categorically denied acquaintance with the work of the Russian writer.

Illustration to the novel E. Zamyatin «We»
Illustration to the novel E. Zamyatin «We»

The satirical story «Animal Farm, 1945» by George Orwell depicts the transition of the animal society from their freedom to the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. According to playwright Arkady Bartov, «Animal Farm» is an allegory of the 1917 revolution and subsequent events in the USSR. Orwell wanted to portray how easily totalitarian propaganda could control people’s opinions and at the same time to condemn «Stalin’s distortion of socialist ideals». Last but not least fact about this book is that boar Old Major is an allegory of Karl Marx. And how you find out from the first paragraph: Soviet authorities couldn’t stand when somebody represented the idol of their philosophy in «wrong way».

The Russian aphorism «All are equal, but some are more equal» belongs to George Orwell. The complete version in the book «Animal farm» sounds like this: «All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal».
The Russian aphorism «All are equal, but some are more equal» belongs to George Orwell. The complete version in the book «Animal farm» sounds like this: «All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal».

Subsequently, most of the books in this genre, including the Soviet ones, were banned in the USSR. Anti-utopias will appear in Soviet society only with the introduction of a policy of publicity near the end of the 1980s. For example, George Orwell’s most popular novel «1984» was declared anti-Soviet immediately after its release in 1949 and remained banned until 1988. The policy of publicity is a controversial process in the history of the USSR. Some believe that it has undermined the people’s belief in the system, while others thank Gorbachev for it. But the fact is that these books can now be read legally – both online and offline.

Snowden method: how to be invisible on the Internet

Complex instructions in simple words

Reading time 8 minutes

In June 2013, Edward Snowden shared classified information with The Washington Post and The Guardian. It said that the American secret services were doing total surveillance on people all over the world. «It is becoming more and more difficult to be anonymous» – hacker group Cicada 3301 declared this in 2012. But what if a person needs to hide, and he is not a computer geek? Read the step-by-step instructions in this article.

Anonymity and pseudonymity

Before diving into the technical part of the task, it is necessary to understand the purpose of hiding. Anonymity implies a single statement about any information, as in the case of Snowden: someone has told the world something and has «dissolved». To remain anonymous is simple: enough not to make mistakes, which will be listed below. Pseudonymity means creation of alter ego, to which the person plans to return a long period of time. «To keep a virtual» – this was called a pseudonymous activity – much more difficult, because the human factor every day increases the risks that the user will make a mistake somewhere.

Why are we not anonymous on the Internet

The digital footprint might be active and passive. Active one is a message or publication, for example, on a social network. A passive digital trace is created when information about the user is collected without his knowledge, for instance, during a visit to the site. The IP-address is a unique numerical identifier of a device in a computer network. It can be used to get approximate information about your location (country, city, zip code, ISP), restrict access to specific sites or servers, and run a DDoS attack. What should be done to completely anonymize activities on the Internet?

Invisibility Cloak

One of the most reliable ways is Whonix, which was used by Edward Snowden. Technically, a new operating system – Linux – appears on the computer, which exists separately from the main one and runs Whonix. Its system consists of two virtual machines connected via an isolated network. The first, Whonix-Gateway, runs exclusively through Tor and acts as a gateway or an artificial server. The second, Whonix-Workstation, is a workstation that connects to the Internet. Thus, all network connections are possible only through Tor: neither malware nor super-user rights can cause IP address and DNS leaks.

Installation

  1. First you need to download VirtualBox and unpack the package. Next, you should install Whonix. It is important not to open the system after downloading, as it has an extension .ova what is the format of the virtual machine file.

    VirtualBox's main window
    VirtualBox’s main window
  2. Starts VirtualBox and imports Whonix via the «Import» button.
    Whonix is installed. It is important to specify that a unique MAC or WIN address for network adapters is generated each time.

    Creating new MAC or WIN addresses is necessary to improve security. This setting forces Whonix to create a new network address for each site.
    Creating new MAC or WIN addresses is necessary to improve security. This setting forces Whonix to create a new network address for each site.
  3. The menu includes two machines: Whonix-Gateway and Whonix-Workstation. You cannot access the Internet through the server: the gateway isolates the workstation, but it works with open Internet traffic. You must run the server part first, and then the working part.

    Whonix system settings window. Here you can change the operating memory, graphics processor, audio input and output devices using by the virtual machine.
    Whonix system settings window. Here you can change the operating memory, graphics processor, audio input and output devices using by the virtual machine.

During the installation process, an error «Kernel driver not installed (rc= -1908)» may occur on MacOS computers. It is solved by admitting the «Oracle America, Inc» software in the system settings of security and safety. If you have any other problems, you should look at the detailed guide about installing Whonix.

To solve many VirtualBox errors on the macOS operating system, it is enough to open the emulator access to the system.
To solve many VirtualBox errors on the macOS, it is enough to open the emulator access to the system.

A window appeared on the computer with the system desktop. At this stage, Internet traffic is fully protected and isolated. Now you should pay attention to the factors that can compromise your security.

The Whonix desktop opens in a separate window as an application. The top right-hand tab has everything you need: an electronic cryptocurrency wallet and a Tor browser.
The Whonix desktop opens in a separate window as an application. The top right-hand tab has everything you need: an electronic cryptocurrency wallet and a Tor browser.

Basic mistakes

  • The phone collects personal information even in «brick» mode when the device is off. The device needs to be disposed of, and it is better to send a phone by courier to another city: it will help to confuse the tracks. Don’t turn on your new phone in places you’ve been before, especially at home.
  • You need to buy a corporate SIM card. Each smartphone has a unique IMEI-code, which is permanently registered in the database of the mobile operator after inserting the SIM card, so you need to use it only on a new device.
  • Do not set the password fingerprint or Face ID. In 2019, so unlocked the phone of the owner of the telegram channel «Prometheus». Biometric identification is much less effective than the password.
  • You can only use cash. Purchases made with bank cards give geolocation or just report online activity. If a person presents his documents anywhere, it will also compromise his location.

Russian Empire writers who was subjected to the cancel culture

Not new phenomenon in Russian literature space

Reading time 8 minutes

In modern space cancel culture is known as a «boycott» of a person, group or brand that has done or said something outrageous or offensive. It is believed that the socio-political term emerged recently in the United States and Europe among African Americans who ignored products that actively expressed racist views. In Russian culture and media, the use of «cancel culture» is perceived as inappropriate copying, but what if the cancelling as a phenomenon lies at the heart of Russian literature? Let’s consider writers who have been ahead of the trend by several decades.

Uspensky

F. Dostoevsky's magazine «Time» , in which he told about Uspensky's works: there is no feeling of «real life's thought».
F. Dostoevsky’s magazine «Time» , in which he told about Uspensky’s works: there is no feeling of «real life’s thought».

Nikolay Uspensky began his writing activity in 1857 after publishing in the magazine «Son of the Fatherland» two debut stories: «Pig» and «Old Woman». The creativity of the young author was immediately warmly welcomed, since the realistic character of the works, which left the exclusively aesthetic narrative, and provided support for Uspensky from such prominent contemporaries as L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky, I. Turgenev and especially N. Chernyshevsky. The latter, in turn, wrote a critical article about the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich «Не начало ли перемен». This was to be a turning point in the writer’s career, who was made to understand that his rightly revolutionary-democratic narrative should not be directed to ridicule the vices of the people, but to support the nascent break in the everyday life and culture of peasants.

However, Uspensky did not begin «rapprochement with the liberation movement». His «truth without a veil» turned into an outspoken «negative fiction», as later F. Dostoevsky reported in his article about the creativity of Nikolay Vasilyevich in the magazine «Time». There was criticism everywhere. Writers and literary scholars did not skimp on harsh words: – «Talentless fictionist with a tiny chicken world-view and a tiny chicken observation». The chanting of the folk became fashionable, and Uspensky’s vision of it was ugly: «… a man certainly or a thief, or a drunkard, or such a fool as the world has not ever produced; every woman is such an idiot that cannot be imagined», – as A. Skabychevsky wrote.

Critics and editors of literary magazines at that time had such informational influence that they were really able to «cancel» Uspensky and later Leskov. For the rest of his life Nikolay Uspensky wandered with his daughter and for a small fee told biographies of authors of Russian classics. For Pushkin took the smallest fee, and for those who were exiled to Siberia or were in prison – most of all.

Uspensky committed suicide by stabbing himself. The «cancellation» had such an impact on his status that many editions have not even printed the obituary.
Uspensky committed suicide by stabbing himself. The «cancellation» had such an impact on his status that many editions have not even printed the obituary.

Leskov

Most modern people know Nikolay Leskov as modest and harmless author of fairy tale «Lefty». This work appeared in 1881, when the writer had already tried on himself «cancelling» of the literary community. Leskov was active in politics until 1870. Nikolay Leskov, contrary to public opinion, was an outrageous author of provocative articles, held right-wing views. In 1862, the «Northern Bee» published the so-called «Article on Fires», where the writer mentioned and thus spread a rumor about arsons carried by revolutionary students and Poles. The left-wing critic took this as a denunciation, but also the emperor resented because of Leskov’s bold remark about administrative authority: «…to send firefighters to the fires for real help, not for standing up». That’s how Nikolai Leskov’s cancelling began.

Rubahin V. F. «Fire in Apraksin Yard», 1862. Leskov critically reflected this event in his article, which was the reason for «cancelling».
Rubahin V. F. «Fire in Apraksin Yard», 1862. Leskov critically reflected this event in his article, which was the reason for «cancelling».

The editor of «Northern Bee» had to send Leskov on a «long business trip», some kind of reference, after which he wrote the novel «Nowhere». The work is the radical debut of the author, where in a satirical manner he depicted the left-wing lobby of writers, whose criticism will accompany all Russian literature for a long time. However, Nikolay Leskov did not change his views and creative direction, on the contrary, he joined the editor of the right-wing magazine «Russian bulletin » – M. Katkov – and continued to write on the topic of the day. Subsequently, the writer so «crossed the line» that in the 1870 novel «On the Knives» depicted all revolutionaries as criminals. Leskov’s degree of «cancellation» reached its peak, and even his associates, Katkov and Dostoevsky, disowned him.

Illustration of the artist Nikolai Kuzmin to the story of Leskov «Lefty»
Illustration of the artist Nikolai Kuzmin to the story of Leskov «Lefty»

«Cancelled» Nikolay Leskov fell silent. The bold writer returned with much less provocative texts about the mighty folk and religion. Unlike Uspensky, Leskov managed to rehabilitate and earn fame thanks to the famous fairy tale «Lefty».

Nabokov

The history of Vladimir Nabokov is an example of the influence of left-wing critics on Russian literature even after his death. The writer did not become a victim of the cancel culture, but his novel «Gift, 1938» lost a whole chapter. Instead of the text, readers could see this:

The Modern Notes 67, p. 69 (Paris, 1938). The first publication of the novel «Gift» by V. Syrin (Nabokov) with explanation: «Chapter 4, consisting entirely of «Life of Chernyshevsky», written by the hero of the novel, skipped with the consent of the author. – Ed.

One of the variants of the fourth chapter of the novel «Gift»
One of the variants of the fourth chapter of the novel «Gift»

It is believed that the fourth chapter was a felleton on comrade Chernyshevsky, part-time one of Lenin’s favorite writers. Nabokov ridiculed primarily for his lack of aesthetic focus in his literary view of criticism, which, in his view, leads to Bolshevik ideology and repressions.

The cancel culture is present in Russian culture today. As before, it exists in two dimensions: aesthetic and political. However, the modern field for creative statements is rather visual content – movies and clips. Literature has ceased to be a forum for political debate. Individual authors, like Pelevin, still speak on sharp topics, but in the general masses – these are only exceptions.