So too at a higher level, the systems that run our world: housing, transit, conversation (hi @jack! ), democracy, and almost every other human system.
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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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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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Replying to @michael_nielsen
Onteresting thread. I fear that wisdom can be readily bypassed as the US Constitution's right to bear arms is interpreted as everyone should carry assault rifles - an unacceptable position for most other countries.
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Considering what they had to work with, the US Constitution & Bill of Rights was a work of genius. Not getting everything right (for whatever aspects you don't like) != not an amazing increment on prior governance systems.
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Replying to @michael_nielsen
Best effort at the time but not perfect because the original has had to be modified. Are all subsequent amendments improvements? Also there was a clean slate for the US Constitution - different story when addressing the various power brokers involved in software.
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Replying to @ghweb20 @michael_nielsen
Looking at this through systems science, the adaptability designed into the document - and the process to regulate those adaptations - should be considered one of its brilliant inventions. “Perfection” is a fiction.
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