Disrupting Dangerous Algorithms

American Mind ^ | 12/10/21 | James Poulos

[Pollard]

The following text is an expanded version of testimony that the author delivered to a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband on December 9, 2021.

The meme that algorithmic harm results from greedy CEOs hacking our minds fails to grasp the true nature of the digital crisis roiling America. The main purpose of algorithms, like digital programs and datacenters more broadly, is not to make money or influence thoughts, but to control people—in a direct and alien way hostile to our core beliefs and principles.

True, the objection could be raised that algorithms, in a certain strengthening sense, actually mainly exist so that digital devices and entities can communicate with one another. One reason digital technology is so alien to us is its indifference to our feelings and our existence alike, and our shared sense that digital tech which operated even in part based on its awareness of our presence and attitudes would be dangerous or difficult to establish trust with.

[alternatives?]

The problem is evil bureaucrats.

[Pollard]

This lockstep reconfiguration of American life outside the reach of the democratic process has plunged us into a nascent social credit system. Social media’s algorithmic harm is real, but social media is, true to form, a screen that obscures the depths below, where leaders like former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt—formerly the CEO of Google and most recently the Chair of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence—are working to re-found America as a control system built on innumerable swarms of programs and devices in a network of vast datacenters. However well-intentioned he and his fellow Commission Members may be, their Final Report, submitted this year, fails to assuage concerns that leaders will manage to preserve our republic and our values by availing themselves of the risk assessments and oversight boards the Commission recommends to protect liberties, rights, and due process—especially in a political environment increasingly tyrannized by the idea that citizens taking positions on fundamental regime questions, such as whether migration should be halted or whether biological sex is real, are dangerous extremists posing existential threats to the country.

[SunkenCiv]

The main purpose of algorithms, like digital programs and datacenters more broadly, is not to make money or influence thoughts, but to control people—in a direct and alien way hostile to our core beliefs and principles.

[null and void]

The main purpose of algorithms, like digital programs and datacenters more broadly, is not to make money or influence thoughts, but to control people—in a direct and alien way hostile to our core beliefs and principles.

The government wants to disarm us after 245 yrs 'cuz they plan to do are doing things we would shoot them for!

At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son

The biggest killer of mankind

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand." ~ Putt's Law

[sauropod]

.

[GingisK]

No, its those Taylor Series.

[ThunderSleeps]

Serious question here. Is blaming the algorithm or labeling the algorithm as “dangerous” a little like blaming the firearm for the shooting? Shouldn’t we be blaming the mis-use of algorithms?

[Pollard]

See post three. Tech CEOs.

[SunkenCiv]

Putt’s Law, that’s a new one, and it makes a lot of sense right away.

[semimojo]

The main purpose of algorithms, like digital programs and datacenters more broadly, is not to make money or influence thoughts, but to control people...

LOL.

I guess it's too much to expect people to learn what an algorithm is before trying to write about it.

[Nifster]

Shhhh. Don’t speak the truth

[FreedomPoster]

Dilbert and his PHB have exemplified Putt’s Law for three decades plus.

Still, nice to have it laid out so succinctly.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks FreedomPoster.