Scott Siskind, after reviewing the arguments over how bad AI Chatbots will be:
I’m nervous writing this, because I remember the halcyon days of the early 2000s, when we all assumed the Internet would be a force for reason and enlightenment. Surely if everyone were just allowed to debate everyone else, without intervening barriers of race or class or religion, the best arguments would rise to the top and we would enter a new utopia of universal agreement.
The scale at which this project failed makes me reluctant to ever speculate again about anything regarding online discourse going well.
I never thought that, but I did at one time think it would be easy to find online communities I wanted to be part of. As a certain former president would say, "Sad!"
"I’m nervous writing this, because I remember the halcyon days of the early 2000s, when we all assumed the Internet would be a force for reason and enlightenment. Surely if everyone were just allowed to debate everyone else, without intervening barriers of race or class or religion, the best arguments would rise to the top and we would enter a new utopia of universal agreement."
ReplyDeleteDavid Bowie, at least, knew better back in 1999 - he did an interview with Jeremy Paxman where he talks about how utterly naive and unprepared the world was for the internet's inevitable effects, both good and bad. Brilliant and insightful, as he always, always was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7s_0tGsg