Essays on technology, media, marketing and politics.
Wikiality, “the best narrative wins,” has all but replaced reality. Fiction often replaces facts. Lies are harder and harder to separate from truths. A pure democracy is truly dangerous to powerful people. Narratives are hard to control. Which raises the question, can a constitutional republic (or a bunch of other elected central governments) control a true democracy that is the direct voice of about 55 percent of the global population?
We get to work with super-smart people who are being forced to adapt their organizations to the accelerating pace of exponential change. The process is generally known as “digital transformation.” But that is a misnomer. There’s no such thing as analog transformation, or quantum transformation. By definition, all current technological transformations are digital. It is also important to point out that technology is ephemeral – the only successful path to digital transformation is through sociological transformation – so we need a new name!
Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Can you imagine seeing a technology and completely misunderstanding what it was doing and how it might work?
"WARNING! The music you are about to hear and the audio mix you are about to experience are being composed, produced and performed in real time to fit your mood and match your personal preferences and listening environment by an AI system called AutoScoreAI-2. We have previously sought, and you have granted, permission for us to collect and analyze data generated by your audio and video consumption behavior for the quality of your enjoyment. No humans were harmed during this production." Or were they?
When will all the data (or a significant amount of data) from all the disparate, specialized, purpose-built artificial intelligence systems be hacked into a single, massive artificial control system? Or even worse, several competing massive artificial control systems? We could call it Meta-AI or Artificial Control – but whatever we call it, it won’t be good for us.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter featuring current events and the top stories in technology, media, and marketing.
Subscribe