Man / Machine I: conceptual remarks.

How does man relate to machine? There is a series of questions here that I find fascinating and not a little difficult. I think the relationship between these two concepts also are determinative for a large set of issues that we are debating today, and so we would do well to examine this language game… Continue reading Man / Machine I: conceptual remarks.

Notes on attention, fake news and noise #4: Jacques Ellul and the rise of polyphonic propaganda part 1

Jacques Ellul is arguably one of the earlier and most consistent technology critics we have. His texts are due for a revival in a time when technology criticism is in demand, and even techno-optimists like myself would probably welcome that, because even if he is fierce and often caustic, he is interesting and thoughtful. Ellul… Continue reading Notes on attention, fake news and noise #4: Jacques Ellul and the rise of polyphonic propaganda part 1

Notes on attention, fake news and noise #3: The Noise Society 10 years later

This February it is 10 years since I defended my doctoral thesis on what I then called the Noise Society. The main idea was that the idea of an orderly, domesticated and controllable information society - modeled on the post-industrial visions of Bell and others - probably was wrongheaded, and that we would see a… Continue reading Notes on attention, fake news and noise #3: The Noise Society 10 years later

Notes on attention, fake news and noise #2: On the non-linear value of speech and freedom of dialogue or attention

It has become more common to denounce the idea that more speech means better democracy. Commentators, technologists and others have come out to say that they were mistaken - that their belief that enabling more people to speak would improve democracy was wrong, or at the very least simplistic. It is worth analyzing what this… Continue reading Notes on attention, fake news and noise #2: On the non-linear value of speech and freedom of dialogue or attention

Data is not like oil – it is much more interesting than that

So, this may seem to be a nitpicking little note, but it is not intended to belittle anyone or even to deny the importance of having a robust and rigorous discussion about data, artificial intelligence and the future. Quite the contrary - this may be one of the most important discussions that we need to engage… Continue reading Data is not like oil – it is much more interesting than that

A note on complementarity and substitution

One of the things I hear the most in the many conversations I have on tech and society today is that computers will take jobs or that man will be replaced by machine. It is a reasonable and interesting question, but I think, ultimately wrong. I tried to collect a few thoughts about that in… Continue reading A note on complementarity and substitution