Edge.org
To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.
Published on Edge.org (https://www.edge.org)

Home > “NO ONE IS AT THE CONTROLS”: HOW FACEBOOK, AMAZON, AND OTHERS ARE TURNING LIFE INTO A HORRIFIC BRADBURY NOVEL

News :

“NO ONE IS AT THE CONTROLS”: HOW FACEBOOK, AMAZON, AND OTHERS ARE TURNING LIFE INTO A HORRIFIC BRADBURY NOVEL

Nick Bilton [1.3.19]

Could 2019 be the year that these and other emergent technologies evolve from merely creepy to potentially totalitarian? In a New Year’s Day column published on Edge, a Web site devoted to discussions about science, technology, and philosophy, George Dyson, the science historian and author, argues that we’ve reached an inflection point. “Once it was simple: programmers wrote the instructions that were supplied to the machines,” Dyson writes. “Since the machines were controlled by these instructions, those who wrote the instructions controlled the machines.” Today, code itself has come alive: algorithms sift through our search histories, credit-card purchases, and geolocation to model our personalities and anticipate our desires. For this, a small number of people such as Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page, have become unimaginably rich.

In the beginning of the essay, Dyson cites the novel Childhood’s End, written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1953, which tells the story of a peaceful alien invasion of Earth by mysterious “Overlords” who “bring many of the same conveniences now delivered by the Keepers of the Internet to Earth.” As Dyson points out, this story, much like our own story, “does not end well.”

“NO ONE IS AT THE CONTROLS”: HOW FACEBOOK, AMAZON, AND OTHERS ARE TURNING LIFE INTO A HORRIFIC BRADBURY NOVEL [1]

Related Content: 

Childhood's End [2]

News From: 

Vanity Fair [3]
Nick Bilton [4]
Read the full article → [5]
[ Thu. Jan. 3. 2019 ]

Could 2019 be the year that these and other emergent technologies evolve from merely creepy to potentially totalitarian? In a New Year’s Day column [2] published on Edge, a Web site devoted to discussions about science, technology, and philosophy, George Dyson, the science historian and author, argues that we’ve reached an inflection point. “Once it was simple: programmers wrote the instructions that were supplied to the machines,” Dyson writes. “Since the machines were controlled by these instructions, those who wrote the instructions controlled the machines.” Today, code itself has come alive: algorithms sift through our search histories, credit-card purchases, and geolocation to model our personalities and anticipate our desires. For this, a small number of people such as Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page, have become unimaginably rich.

In the beginning of the essay, Dyson cites the novel Childhood’s End, written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1953, which tells the story of a peaceful alien invasion of Earth by mysterious “Overlords” who “bring many of the same conveniences now delivered by the Keepers of the Internet to Earth.” As Dyson points out, this story, much like our own story, “does not end well.”

  • John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
  • Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher
  • Nina Stegeman, Associate Editor
 
  • Contact Info:[email protected]
  • In the News
  • Get Edge.org by email
 
Edge.org is a nonprofit private operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Copyright © 2021 By Edge Foundation, Inc All Rights Reserved.

 


Links:
[1] https://www.edge.org/news/%E2%80%9Cno-one-is-at-the-controls%E2%80%9D-how-facebook-amazon-and-others-are-turning-life-into-a-horrific
[2] https://www.edge.org/conversation/george_dyson-childhoods-end
[3] https://www.vanityfair.com
[4] https://www.edge.org/memberbio/nick_bilton
[5] https://bit.ly/2GV33bC