Rob Horning

Reality as a clay, malleable simply through the power of thought, is the premise of a magical thinking. Social relationships are giving way to the imagination because it alone can manifest desire and fantasy – just after hitting the return key, that is. By Rob Horning

The New York Times virtual-reality app takes Rob Horning to deep space, to the front lines in Falluja or to artist’s studios. But once you have stepped inside these worlds, it's not clear what you are supposed to do there.

Finally there is software that knows exactly how we feel inside – even better than we do. Thanks to Affectiva, market researchers no longer have to ask test subjects about their feelings: algorithms can scan these directly from their faces. Rob Horning explains the next phase of life with machines.