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When Internet techies stated that "information wants to be free", they never imagined that "information" would come to include lies, disinformation, propaganda, hate speech, gore & much worse.
They never imagined that "information" could be a potent weapon to corrode societies.
They never imagined that "information" could be a potent weapon to corrode societies.
These pioneers had lived in an era where "information" was scarce and locked up in books. Their dream was to liberate it from the dead page and make it available to one & all. This, they believed, would lead to an information Utopia where people's reach & grasp would expand.
To a huge extent, we did get massively increased access to information & many aspects of the Internet are Utopian. The fact that your smartphone can give you the weather and train schedules and every map in the world and entertain & teach you is a miracle of technology.
But this Utopia has come with a heavy cost. Just as the the Internet gives you data at a swipe, it can track you & hand that information to [potentially oppressive] states. The Internet addicts you to outrage & promotes "alternative fact bubbles" where objective truth dies.
It has never been more profitable to lie and pander to people's worst instincts. The Internet has created an economy based on ever worse lies & corrosive falsehoods. Why? Because it is hugely profitable to titillate, lie & frighten. You earn billions by spreading hate.
Just think about that for a moment. Tech has created a situation where it is incredibly easy & incredibly profitable to create panic, disorder & chaos. Tech loves to characterize social media as a "common carrier" much like the phone company & wash its hands but it is culpable.
Social media algorithms are like "silent editors". They determine what gets promoted and guess what? They promote hate, bias, lurid lies, gore, propaganda & outrage.
That's what gets tacitly pushed.
Why?
Because you, as a great ape, are inexorably drawn to such things.
That's what gets tacitly pushed.
Why?
Because you, as a great ape, are inexorably drawn to such things.
Tech has adopted a libertarian party line of "personal responsibility" but this is a sneaky cop out. In many ways, social media companies are profiting hugely off yelling "fire!" in many crowded theaters. We'd never accept this in meatspace but we accept it in cyberspace. Why?
It is because it is hugely *profitable*. There are massive bucks in yelling "fire!" because it draws eyeballs to the yeller & eyeballs are the currency of Internet advertising. There is so much money here that we've decided to turn a blind eye to the destruction of truth itself.
The early Internet pioneers wanted to create a global village, a Utopia of infinite possibility & limitless human potential.
Instead of that Utopia, we created something with a huge significant dark side that often crushes human potential.
I wonder what they'd think?
//FIN
Instead of that Utopia, we created something with a huge significant dark side that often crushes human potential.
I wonder what they'd think?
//FIN
