Reply to post: Zuckered

Zuckered

I will never understand why people think Zuckerberg is smart. Let us now recount previous ways in which the Zuckerberg has iceberged like the Titanic into ethics and just like that ship of legend, he too has decided to go faster and faster through dangerous terrain...

His "real name" policy became a magnet for abuse against LGBT, domestic abuse victims, and basically every other marginalized group in society. His solution? Algorithms. And the abuse continued. His solution again? To affirm that, of course it's wrong to go after these people and you know, please stop. People didn't. His solution even booted off Facebook the former employee who campaigned to get extra gender options added to the website... repeatedly.

But that's just one example, right? No. Then it leaked out the advertising backend was tracking people's race, gender, etc., and that these options could be used to discriminate against people in housing and employment. And the same scenario played out: He promised oversight, and a new algorithm was rolled out, which of course promptly fell flat on its face... because it only tracks a few keywords and is easy to get around. And there's no punishment for repeat offenders of course, because acting ethically would get in the way of Facebook being the premier source of turning people into products for advertisers.

And now, this lovecraftian horror story of what happens when you let someone young and stupid become rich and famous (nothing good, obviously) has its third chapter: It's now destabilized a major world government by pumping out fake news that crashed an election, and again the excuse was "the algorithm did it". And the same empty promises: That it will be tweaked soon. You can trust us. Honest. We're good at this. And people keep right on believing that with the right application of code, algorithms, and technology, we can just dial up justice. Fairness, perhaps, but never mistake that for justice -- the cold logic of a machine can pump out baby bottles and with equal efficiency launch the missiles that will end civilization.

Those of us who helped bring the internet to the masses thought it would encourage democracy, that the free flow of information would lead to better education and decisions, and that social problems like sexism, racism, nationalism, and more would all be washed away and we'd all become international citizens and kick off an evolution in what it means to be human that would accelerate the elimination of these social problems.

We were very, very wrong. I feel like Wernher von Braun watching his V2 rockets sail into Paris... the rocket performed perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet. The internet is my generation's V2, and the sad part is... even as our world burns, people still applaud. They have no idea what they've done.