Recommended Reading
A pointer to a searing essay about the pickle we're in due to Big Tech
Ted Gioia has written a post that I recommend you read.
It addresses how Silicon Valley has intentionally or inadvertently created a world where people feel less connected along social, romantic, and familial dimension, how norms have slipped, and how all these things have led to a society filled with extreme narcissism, random violence, and disengagement, while the erosion of norms has led to anomie, or a feeling of meaninglessness, which can in extreme cases lead to suicide.
One of the most relevant sections deals with anomie, or the feeling that life has no purpose or meaning. In STM publishing, the intrusion of OA — which shifted our work from meaningful, intellectual, and ethical pursuits aimed at quality to far-less-meaningful, production-oriented, and conflicted pursuits aimed at processing as many papers as possible — has left a trail of anomie in our ranks.
Gioia’s post is informative and interesting throughout. Here’s a selected quote:
Today social engineering is implemented by profit-seeking technocrats with no expertise whatsoever in social dynamics or individual psychology.
In fact, a large percentage of these tech leaders appear to be socially inept, and disconnected from the people around them. They are the last folks on the planet you would trust with reinventing society.
Perhaps they understand semiconductors and super computers, but they have no grasp of how individuals will respond to the rapid . . . shifts they are forcing on a reluctant public.
How do you destroy the purpose and meaning of human life? Is it even possible?
Unfortunately it’s not only possible, but already underway. Silicon Valley shows us how it’s done, step-by-step.
There are data, there are strong, linked, logical arguments, and this essay feels important.
Recommended.