The weaponization of Waymo
In Internet for the People, leading tech writer Ben Tarnoff offers an answer. The internet is broken, he argues, because it is owned by private firms and run for profit. Google annihilates your privacy and Facebook amplifies right-wing propaganda because it is profitable to do so. But the internet wasn't always like this—it had to be remade for the... See more
Ben Tarnoff • Internet for the People
What do I take from this data? Freedom clearly has a wider range of meaning to young people today when it comes to cars—not just personal mobility or control over a machine but also freedom from debt, freedom from feeling guilty about the environmental impacts, freedom from anxiety about risky activities. To me, these clues alongside the advance of
... See moreJane McGonigal • Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything—Even Things That Seem Impossible Today
omnipresent technologies that are governed according to opaque algorithms and whose often-arbitrary, hugely consequential decisions are outside the reach of existing laws. Seen in that context, it shouldn’t be a surprise that her state of alarm resonated with people who came across her videos.
Naomi Klein • Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
Let’s imagine Nir is wrong, and we all follow his advice anyway—we allow surveillance capitalism to continue getting us “fiendishly hooked,” with only light regulation. Then let’s imagine Tristan is wrong, and we all follow his advice anyway—we regulate the Big Tech companies to stop their invasive practices.
Johann Hari • Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again
How it’s an astonishingly effective machine to turn people against each other. And monitor people at a scale that was never possible before. And manipulate them. It’s an incredibly valuable tool for the most autocratic, oppressive regimes, because it gives them exactly what those regimes need: direct access into what people are saying from the top
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