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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Sci-fi could help us see our own times, but now we are sci-fi. Computer screens are icons of our time. Inga Strümke just received the Brage prize for this year's non-fiction book.

INTERNET: In 2017, two-thirds of Americans received large portions of their daily news dose via social media. The coincidence of financial capitalism and information technologies creates, according to Joseph Vogl, "resentment-driven echo chambers."

EUROPE: Europe and EU co-operation have developed in step with society's crises and challenges. On that occasion, MODERN TIMES has asked a number of Norwegian opinion leaders questions about the future of Europe. The EU's Green Deal shows leadership on the environment and climate, in addition to digital services. We ask which areas the EU should prioritize, with appropriate political, legal or industrial initiatives and forms of cooperation.

AUTOMATION: The Internet is far from just a direct information highway towards freedom

SURVEILLANCE:State surveillance would not have been possible without the services of Silicon Valley's technology companies. For example, Google in Surveillance Valley is described as "a full-fledged military contractor, who sold versions of the company's consumer data and analytics technology to police departments, city councils, and major U.S. intelligence and military organizations."

GIMMICK: Sianne Ngai is one of the most original Marxist cultural theorists of her generation. But she seems keen on pulling the aesthetics down into the mud.

Big tech: The planet of apps is probably one of the richest things you can now read about how we humans "sew together" with communication technology. But what about surveillance?

DOTCOM: The first internet revolution is a wild chapter with a strange mix of comedy and disaster. An inside perspective and the wisdom of the future help us to ask again if everything could have gone differently.

Individual medicine and the alternative medical traditions seem to fill a need that the public health service does not meet: to give answers to individuals about causes.

The Facebook scandal last year demonstrates how negligent social network providers are bypassing the data of their users – and clarifying what enormous challenges "The Big Four" faces in our democracy.

The book Move Fast and Break Things draws sharp criticism of Google, Facebook and Amazon, but at the same time is partly romantic and uninhibited.

The United States can soon gain global access to all private data traffic abroad each time Microsoft, Google or similar companies are used.