Frank Schirrmacher
Nicknamed the "Dirty Harry" of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's "Feuilleton", award-winning essayist/journalist Frank Schirrmacher (b. 1959) has been writing for the Frankfurt daily's celebrated arts supplement since 1985, and is now on its editorial staff. His latest book Payback (2009) on the consequences of data overload sparked heated controversy in Germany.
Updated: 19 April 2010
In the Internet age, anyone can be an author, journalist, publisher, and anyone can earn money from it: So went the mantra. But the democratisation of information never happened. 
He who submits a vital issue to a referendum is a public menace to Europe. This has been the message from the markets – and since Monday night, from the politicians too. 
What you can look up, you needn’t commit to memory. This old maxim is one that drives Google's business today. But the Internet revolution is still in its infancy, and soon the material of our everyday lives could be fodder for search engines. We should be cautious about what we hand over, warns FAZ. 
The aviation standstill was not caused by facts, but by a computer simulation. Increasingly powerful computers now take decisions off our hands. Not only in the air, but in everyday life, too. So we need an overseer to control computer decisions, urges the FAZ.