Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see”.

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another: 

• Graphs That Will Make You Gasp - Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. “Some hard data on just how unequal the balance of the sexes is, from authorship, to housekeeping, to tenure. We have a long way to go.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Is the Universe a Simulation? Scientists Debate – Space.com. “Every year, there’s a debate of a big question, held at the American Museum of Natural History, an homage to Isaac Asimov. This year’s question is pretty serious, and silly, and old, and new: Are we living in a simulation? Turns out, this isn’t an easy question to answer. And there are reasons to think we might be. In which case, let me be the first to say: Hello to our Captors. The best line? ’If you’re not sure, at the end of the night, whether you’re actually simulated or not, my advice to you is to go out there and live really interesting lives, and do unexpected things, so the simulators don’t get bored and shut you down.’ This is a long debate (the article is interesting on its own) but if you think hard enough about it you might lose some sleep. Or some simulated sleep.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Million Student March organizer: Capitalism has proven itself illegitimate – Fox Business. “Watch this entertaining, and testy exchange between a Fox News dude and Darletta Scruggs, million student march activist. ‘We have more prisons in the US than degree granting colleges and universities.'” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Christopher Walken: ‘I don’t need to be made to look evil’ – The Guardian. “Nice interview with the great Christopher Walken, famous dancer and sometime actor.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• The Last Frontiers of AI: Can Scientists Design Creativity and Self-Awareness? – SingularityHUB. “We are building a lot of new technology. We are pushing towards artificial intelligence through initial development of machine learning. So, just how well are these computers learning? It’s still early days. With that, it’s important to think about what the end game is for these computers. It could be that they’re smarter than human beings? What work will us – the mere mortals – do? Some have been arguing that humans will handle the creative work. What if we’re actually pushing for computers to be as creative and self-aware as the rest of us?” (Mitch for Alistair).
• A serious problem the news industry does not talk about – Jennifer Brandel – Medium. “What’s the biggest problem facing the news industry? This writer thinks it has to do with how traditional outlets treat and deal with their audience. It’s an interesting argument… and does hold some weight.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.