5/ Social media is curious: it partly disrupts racism by hiding irrelevant context, partly amplifies via filter bubbles.
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6/ So in terms of capacity to disrupt racism as cognitive technology, online = between town and country. BUT a lot more room, so net plus.
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7/ The reason spelling-bee racists seem so funny is that their very choice of target marks them as living in uncool part of online world
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8/ So prediction: social media will eventually eliminate racism via ephemeralization, because on the social graph isolation is atrophy
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9/ Which isn't to say humans will turn into saints overnight. We'll still be star-bellied sneetches.
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10/ But race as central part of social identity has been disrupted. Racists today seem *technologically* odd like people who use land-lines
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11/ Once you know 1 person of given race personally, even if only online, and enjoy relationship, it's basically impossible to be racist.
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12/ Which means ultimately, it's rather cruel to laugh at spelling bee racists: they are digitally isolated, technologically obsolete.
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13/ Where racism is threatened, such as urban areas, it might react violently, but this is more like taxicab drivers rioting against Uber
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14/ As LBJ found out in 60s, gains against racism results in pent-up violence being released as people sense detente failing, but net gain
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16/ In summary, racism, the cognitive technology equivalent of slide rules for interpersonal relationships, is headed for the museum.
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isn’t their research on how many like-minded individuals you need to be around to not flip over to the local majority?
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yes, Schelling sorting argument. But online "like me" tends to anchor to traits other than race.

