the techno-social environment

The Internet provided an opportunity not only for imaginative play but for personal transformation, a liminal space between fantasy and reality, something betwixt and between. Just as the printing press brought individuality through literacy and the novel helped create the modern sense of self, the Internet fractured this self by enabling multiple... See more

But it is not clear whether such systems – even if they work as advertised – can solve the problem of reliable knowledge in a balkanised public sphere. Just as commercial incentives led to fake content and filter-bubbles, LLMs likely face the same pressures in a world of sharply diminishing returns. Because the firms training them desperately need... See more

. The Database has displaced the Narrative.

Narrative is our primordial tool for sense-making, but in digital information environments narratives are framed by a more immediate experience of the Database. I’m using the term Database loosely to capture how, especially when an event is unfolding, we confront a cacophony of data points (videos,... See more

the ease of exchanging digital speech has shifted the focus of mass communication from reflections to reflexes, from substance to attitude. Social media demand that everyone relate to others, to their ideas, to their troubles and achievements—indeed, to their very existence.