My name is Christopher Schwartz. I am an American journalist turned philosopher. I am currently a research scientist at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Department of Cybersecurity and School of Interactive Games and Media. In this capacity, I am part of the DeFake Project, which is building a deepfake detector for journalists and intelligence analysts, and the Jack Voltaic cybersecurity wargame based in the Army Cyber Institute. I earned my doctorate in philosophy from KU Leuven. I am currently writing three books: Fake-Checking (for Routledge, with Matthew Wright and Andrea Hickerson), The Guardians of Rhetoric (for Lexington Books), and a novella, Vanity Detector.
I am specialized in counter-disinformation, with a growing focus on deepfakes, simulation ethics and AI ethics. I am also specialized in audience theory and the socio-linguistics of news. I also have a lot of project management experience in communications and technology adoption. To learn more about me, you may check out my CV or visit my Academia.edu and LinkedIn profiles. You can request to follow me on one of those platforms, or shoot me a direct message via my Twitter and Infosec profiles.
All that said, this blog is really a personal affair, not a professional one. Although I dabble in the occasional review or thought experiment, it primarily concerns my explorations, a “spiritual journalism” in the sense of “reporting” on my spiritual-intellectual journey, akin to a diary — a peculiar diary, for sure, give that whoever you are, an intimate or a stranger, are part of an audience that normally would only be myself. So to speak, I am a correspondent to the foreign land of my inner self. To read my entries, click here.
Before diving in, though, please be advised about two items. First, as an outward, and somewhat refracted, reflection of my inward self, this blog is constantly evolving. Second and relatedly, I often password-protect some posts in order to limit reading to intimates; I sometimes even de-publish posts altogether. In other words, yes, I practice a kind of self-censorship, for better or for worse. My reasons vary according to the post, so sometimes previously public content becomes closed and previously closed content becomes open.
To close this introduction to myself, the following is perhaps one of my favorite passages from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, the prophet-founder of my former religion, the Bahá’í Faith:
In this Day the secrets of the earth are laid bare before the eyes of men. The pages of swiftly-appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world. […] This is an amazing and potent phenomenon. However, it behoveth the writers thereof to be purged from the promptings of evil passions and desires and to be attired with the raiment of justice and equity… — Baha’u’llah, Tarzát #6
Spiritual Journalism 