What is the opposite of fake news? Is it real news? What, then, would that mean? It seems important to ask that question, since our fight against fake news also needs to be a fight _for_ something. But this quickly becomes an uncomfortable discussion, as evidenced by how people attack the question. When we discuss … Fortsätt läsa Real and unreal news (Notes on attention, fake news and noise #7)
Månad: februari 2018
Towards a glass bead game (The Structure of Human Knowledge as Game I)
Herman Hesse’s glass bead game is an intriguing intellectual thought experiment. He describes it in detail in his eponymous last novel: "Under the shifting hegemony of now this, now that science or art, the Game of games had developed into a kind of universal language through which the players could express values and set these … Fortsätt läsa Towards a glass bead game (The Structure of Human Knowledge as Game I)
Simone Weil’s principles for automation (Man / Machine VI)
Philosopher and writer Simone Weil laid out a few principles on automation in her fascinating and often difficult book Need for Roots. Her view as positive, and she noted that among workers in factories the happiest ones seemed to be the ones that worked with machines. She had strict views on the design of these … Fortsätt läsa Simone Weil’s principles for automation (Man / Machine VI)
Justice, markets, dance – on computational and biological time (Man / Machine V)
Are there social institutions that work better if they are biologically bounded? What would this even mean? Here is what I am thinking about: what if, say, a market is a great way of discovering knowledge, coordinating prices and solving complex problems - but only if it consists solely of human beings and is conducted … Fortsätt läsa Justice, markets, dance – on computational and biological time (Man / Machine V)
A note on the ethics of entropy (Man / Machine IV)
In a comment on Luciano Floridi’s The Ethics of Information Martin Falment Fultot writes (Philosophy and Computers Spring 2016 Vol 15 no 2): “Another difficulty for Floridi’s theory of information as constituting the fundamental value comes from the sheer existence of the unilateral arrow of thermodynamic processes. The second law of thermodynamics implies that when … Fortsätt läsa A note on the ethics of entropy (Man / Machine IV)
On not knowing (Man / Machine III)
Humans are not great at answering questions with “I don’t know”. They often seek to provide answers even where they know that they do not know. Yet still, one of the hallmarks of careful thinking is to acknowledge when we do not know something - and when we cannot say anything meaningful about an issue. … Fortsätt läsa On not knowing (Man / Machine III)
Hannah Arendt on politics and truth – and fake news? (Notes on attention, fake news and noise #6)
Any analysis of fake news would be incomplete without a reading of Hannah Arendts magnificent essay Truth and Politics from 1967. Arendt, in this essay, examines carefully the relationship between truth and politics, and makes a few observations that remind us of why the issue of “fake news” is neither new nor uniquely digital. It … Fortsätt läsa Hannah Arendt on politics and truth – and fake news? (Notes on attention, fake news and noise #6)
Intelligence, life, consciousness, soul (Man / Machine II)
There is another perspective here that we may want to discuss, and that is if the dichotomy we are examining is maybe a false, or at least, less interesting one. What if we find that both man and machine can belong to a broader class of things that we may want to call “alive”? Rather … Fortsätt läsa Intelligence, life, consciousness, soul (Man / Machine II)
Notes on attention, fake news and noise #5: Are We Victims of Algorithms? On Akrasia and Technology.
Are we victims of algorithms? When we click on click bait and content that is low quality - how much of the responsibility of that click is on us and how much on the provider of the content? The way we answer that question maybe connected to an ancient debate in philosophy about Akrasia or … Fortsätt läsa Notes on attention, fake news and noise #5: Are We Victims of Algorithms? On Akrasia and Technology.
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 … Fortsätt läsa 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 … Fortsätt läsa 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 … Fortsätt läsa Notes on attention, fake news and noise #3: The Noise Society 10 years later