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As any company reaches scale, they will begin to have negative externalizes due to that scale. It is rational to address these externalities. The author, howev
by rapatel0 2y ago
As any company reaches scale, they will begin to have negative externalizes due to that scale. It is rational to address these externalities.
The author, however, fails to put forward any real criticism of government authorities who:
- Have much greater scale
- Are more opaque
- Engage more aggressively to control and manage narratives
- Are routinely shown to be subject to corporate capture---negating the fundamental point of the argument.
Tech companies (in spite of all of their warts) are at least promoting the free flow of information. This (free thought and expression) is the bedrock of every successful culture in history. Moreover, loss of these has been the downfall of almost every one of these cultures.
Examples:
- Late Ming Dynasty China (16th-17th centuries)
- Late Ottoman Empire (18th-19th centuries)
- Fall of the roman empire
- Tokugawa era in Japan
- Ancient Greece after the execution of Socrates.
- Golden Age of Islam (9th to 10th centuries)
Pretty much all of these examples were cases where the political class enacted controls that prevented challenges to government orthodoxy and/or becoming more isolationist, and other avenues to preventing/controlling free speech in the name of "better social cohesion" and preventing bad influences (...cough...misinformation...).
So I cannot more vehemently disagree with the authors precept (especially since she is likely in a position to benefit from it)
- jvanderbot 2y ago> The author, however, fails to put forward any real criticism of government authorities who: - Have much greater scale - Are more opaque - Engage more aggressively to control and manage narratives - Are routinely shown to be subject to corporate captur The author has chosen to write about, and I quote "How the Unchecked Power of Companies Is Destabilizing Governance" This does not include, and is not obligated to include, any other factors that might destabilize governance. As for the claims of virtue re: tech companies, I think they are overbroad and overpositive. There are several examples of tech companies violating any of the virtues you mention, and going head to head with government regulation to the determent of us all. This is not to say tech companies lack virtue, just that they may not all be the paramount morality that you seem to describe.
- fallingknife 2y agoYes, the author is not obligated to include that, but nor is the reader obligated to ignore obvious evidence of her hypocrisy and self interest. And when a creature surfaces from the morass of governemnt bureaucracy to complain about the threat of something much less ominous and powerful than itself, that hypocrisy is certainly something I will point out.
- jvanderbot 2y agoThis person is an academic at stanford, not a " creature surfacing from the morass of governemnt bureaucracy". I can see a little of the pot calling the kettle black, sure, but I think we disagree on degree enough to call it a disagreement of kind.
- fallingknife 2y agoBased on her resume, I have to stand by my statement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marietje_Schaake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marietje_Schaake