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.
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Over time, invisible to most users, that battle is becoming fiercer & fiercer & fiercer, as the stakes rise & rise.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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?
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Are familiar with any of
@bratton’s work (specifically, “The Stack”)? I’ve found it to be an increasingly useful and interesting lens to think about this. -
No. Thanks!
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Oddly, much of the battle is to get other entities to do the messy business of governing. Big tech has to do it because everyone else outsources it and demands it of them.
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