Reality Bytes the Dust

“Believing what is happening right in front of us…” is a phrase at the heart of the struggle of the modern age. What’s happening in front of you depends largely on the filter through which that reality passes. Increasingly, those filters are being managed by a shinking number of people with a very large stake in the game (and one that doesn’t necessarily represent your stake). The Atlantic (Gift Article): Americans Are Trapped in an Algorithmic Cage. “These tycoons represent a tech elite that collectively controls the mediums through which Americans collect and assess information, and therefore determine much of what Americans see and hear on a daily basis.”

+ Sometimes the disinformation effort is more direct that a few slight tweaks to an algorithm. How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid.

+ These days, the tech overlords don’t just determine what we see on our computers. They’re taking control of what federal government employees see on theirs. Kara Swisher has been covering the rise of the broligarchs since the beginning. In an NYT (Gift Article) with Ezra Klein, here’s her take on What Elon Musk Wants. “That is a really big quality that Musk has: Let’s say things and wait for them to sue us or wait for them to stop us. They won’t stop us. Again, very much like Trump: The people don’t stop you. We just operate on a set of polite rules in society, and they just barrel right through them.”