In 2012 I participated in a small group discussion led by @doctorow. I chanced into it, but he painted a picture I've thought about often in the years since, and that has changed the way I see the world.
Show this thread
-
Eventually it seems likely that everything from the tiniest objects to the largest systems will be mediated by a complex ecology of software.
Show this thread
What @doctorow pointed out is that that mediation layer is an absolute, full-on battleground.
It's a battleground of all the governments of the world. Companies. Not-for-profits. Activists. Black-hat hackers. White-hat hackers. Etcetera etcetera etcetera.pic.twitter.com/jB4qafkxho
-
-
Over time, invisible to most users, that battle is becoming fiercer & fiercer & fiercer, as the stakes rise & rise.
Show this thread -
And because this mediation layer increasingly runs our lives, it has many of the characteristics of both law and infrastructure. But it's law and infrastructure subject to an increasingly fierce, ongoing, invisible battle by a multitude of interests.
Show this thread -
We'll all be subject to the outcomes of that battle in unexpected ways, ways that will be profound, sometimes big and obvious, sometimes very hard to detect until after the fact https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1144011630197522432 …pic.twitter.com/HeJL3Ctmm9
Show this thread -
Anyways, I think often of that mediation layer now, and the battle for control, and wonder how it will turn out, and how the outcome can be influenced.
Show this thread -
It seems likely that figuring out the principles & protocols of governance for this mediation layer will be one of the great challenges of the 21st century, a challenge much like figuring out the principles underlying, say, the US constitution.
Show this thread -
Encouragingly, it seems like wisdom & deep thought can make a big difference. Ideas like freedom of speech, separation of powers, & religious freedom aren't obvious; they were invented by brilliant, humane people. I wonder what similar depth of thought can help achieve today?
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
“... this mediation layer increasingly runs our lives, it has many of the characteristics of both law and infrastructure.” “Software is eating the world” ... and not only the business world. Rreminiscent of
@lessig in Code: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_and_Other_Laws_of_Cyberspace …Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Feudal Patriarchal Slave-based Warfare-and-Espionage Entropic Economics ... Which murdered our Biosphere, and now intimates Mass Human Extinction ...
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.