Another Orwell domino flipped
Orwell was not a technology expert. He was a supreme expert on human nature and the use of language and culture by tyrants. In designing his dystopia he threw in some tech stuff but didn't think about it deeply. Specifically, the telescreen was dubious because total surveillance via telescreen would require one full-time spy per citizen, or three spies working 8-hour shifts. Dictatorships are always willing to support huge spy agencies, but this degree of imbalance between spies and workers would have been economically impractical.

But we've made tremendous "progress" since 1948, and finally we have a SPECIFIC proposal for the telescreen by a company that can make it happen. More precisely, we can be sure the company has ALREADY made it happen.

"We should build tools to help de-escalate tensions on social media - sort of like spell-checkers, but for hate and harassment. We should target social accounts for terrorist groups like the Islamic State, and remove videos before they spread, or help those countering terrorist messages to find their voice.

NSA has been working on this for 30 years, so we can be sure it's already in place. Now the Google division of NSA will make money from it through various forms of blackmail.

The latter part still runs beyond Orwell. He didn't foresee government surveillance as a profit-making venture by government contractors posing as "business". CS Lewis did.


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A bit later: Trump has said EXACTLY THE SAME THING as Schmidt.

All the usual suspects are thoughtfully stroking their chins and saying "Yes Sir Mr Schmidt! We hear and we obey! Shut down all hate NOW! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!"

In response to the same proposal from Trump, the very same usual suspects are saying "christ! trump is hilarious that bloody idiot we have to go see bill gate about closing up that internet what is he 4? oh wait thats his iq." [Direct quote from typical Arstechnica commenter.]

Hmm. I wonder why the EXACT SAME PROPOSAL is "Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!" when Eric Schmidt proposes it, but "wait thats his iq" when Trump proposes it? I can't hope to answer this total mystery. Can't even begin to parse the difference between these two men. Must be something, but it's utterly beyond me.

Labels: Asked and answered

  ¶ 3:34 AM