What follows is not literally @doctorow's words, but rather the ideas as they appear refracted through my memory and further reflection.
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He reminded us of what was by then becoming Silicon Valley conventional wisdom, almost certainly correct, that software is eating the world.
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That is, over time, more & more of the objects & systems in our world are having a software layer added. We no longer directly control them; rather their behaviour is mediated. This gives us extra capabilities, but also means a loss of control, ceding it to the software layer
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You know the story: books are becoming mediated by a software layer. Cars are being mediated by a software layer. Home appliances. Even our bodies.
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So too at a higher level, the systems that run our world: housing, transit, conversation (hi
@jack! ), democracy, and almost every other human system.2 replies 1 retweet 22 likesShow 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.
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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
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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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Replying to @michael_nielsen
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.1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
No. Thanks!
8:51 PM - 27 Jun 2019
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