> failed to see was the democratization of tech. "A computer on every desk" has become an internet node in every pocket.
I find it harmful to equate mere proliferation with democratic participation. Sure, you have many terminals, but most of the information processing is still lopsided towards the centralized "server". When recommendation algorithms shove content down people's throats, only consequential participation expected from them is to engage with the ads, and they can't talk back to ads. The rest is almost as "democratic" as watching TV.
> One measure of the progress of a civilization is efficiency with which ideas can be communicated.
And it is a bad measure.
A psychotic person's mind also communicates tons of ideas back and forth, in fact too "efficiently". Propaganda posters from an airplane also communicates very efficiently. The idea that mere communication makes progress is what we've been thought by the engagement-maximization culture.
Real measure of progress is the extent those ideas converge towards the truth. How they can form a pattern of meaning that increasingly conforms to the reality. Current tech cares about none of those, and no wonder there is a crisis of meaning making and acceleration from departure from reality, just like a psychotic person.
> Now that capability is accelerating, the same fears arise anew. But it's a different world today. Tech is not developed in secret large scale government run labs of yore.
It is just developed in secret by large scale internet companies now. For most of the tech most of the people have the most screen time with, what content is recommended why, what data is processed how etc are the biggest secrets.
I find it harmful to equate mere proliferation with democratic participation. Sure, you have many terminals, but most of the information processing is still lopsided towards the centralized "server". When recommendation algorithms shove content down people's throats, only consequential participation expected from them is to engage with the ads, and they can't talk back to ads. The rest is almost as "democratic" as watching TV.
> One measure of the progress of a civilization is efficiency with which ideas can be communicated.
And it is a bad measure.
A psychotic person's mind also communicates tons of ideas back and forth, in fact too "efficiently". Propaganda posters from an airplane also communicates very efficiently. The idea that mere communication makes progress is what we've been thought by the engagement-maximization culture.
Real measure of progress is the extent those ideas converge towards the truth. How they can form a pattern of meaning that increasingly conforms to the reality. Current tech cares about none of those, and no wonder there is a crisis of meaning making and acceleration from departure from reality, just like a psychotic person.
> Now that capability is accelerating, the same fears arise anew. But it's a different world today. Tech is not developed in secret large scale government run labs of yore.
It is just developed in secret by large scale internet companies now. For most of the tech most of the people have the most screen time with, what content is recommended why, what data is processed how etc are the biggest secrets.