Russia is risking the creation of a “splinternet”—and it could be irreversible

Cut off: Russia’s disconnection from the online services of the West has been abrupt and severe. Facebook has been blocked entirely by Russian authorities, while Twitter is almost completely cut off. Many more companies have voluntarily withdrawn from the Russian market—including Apple, Microsoft, TikTok, and Netflix.

Deeper splits: But all these are just services that use the internet, rather than the technologies or agreements that power it. More profound splits are on the cards—provoked by action on both sides. The moves have raised fears of a “splinternet”, in which instead of the single global internet we have today, we have a number of national or regional networks that don’t speak to one another and perhaps even use incompatible technologies.

Why it matters: That would spell the end of the internet as a single global communications technology. If countries like China, Russia, and Iran set up rival governance bodies and a rival network, only the mutual agreement of all the world’s major nations could rebuild it. Read the full story.

What do psychedelic drugs do to our brains? AI could help us find out

The big picture: Psychedelic drugs have long been touted as possible treatments for mental-health disorders like depression and PTSD. But very little is really known about what these substances actually do to our brains. Understanding how they work could help unlock their potential.

A new methodology: Some scientists are using AI to figure it out. A team at McGill University in Montreal used natural language processing to study written “trip reports” of users’ experiences with a range of drugs. The team then integrated this data with records of which neurotransmitter receptors in the brain each drug is known to interact with. Together, these steps let the team identify which receptors are linked to specific drug experiences.

What next: The work could shed light on how hallucinogens trigger specific mental states, whether that be euphoria, anxiety, or a sense of being at one with the world. It could also help design new drugs for mental health disorders—something some firms are already trying to do.