
The False Prophecy of Hyperconnection - walterbell
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2017-08-15/false-prophecy-hyperconnection
======
Top19
There is a horrible story in the book “Googled” by Ken Auletta. There is this
panel at Davos in 1998, and a couple of executives at Google are there, along
a few pseudo-intellectuals of the digerati like Mary Meeker and Esther Dyson.
At the end of their speech where they talk about how blah blah amazing the
world is going to be, the only one who stands up and says no this is bullshit,
the web isn’t about serving the individual, and letting them be whatever or
have whomever choosing what can happen to them, it’s about serving society, is
the ambassador from IRAN. I felt sick the rest of the day about how right he
was, above all these supposed experts, so long ago.

I looked it up and it’s page 331 in the paperback for the full story, or just
look for the only page-mention of “Esther Dyson” in the index.

~~~
Bucephalus355
I think the point of this comment is that the only one with either the
foresight or the courage to stand up to Google at the time, and to take a
position that a lot of people in the US now have, was an Iranian government
official. Because of so much bad history, bad relations, and bad portrayal of
Iran this is ironic, and suggests either a deeper wisdom on their side, or
even more likely, a better familiarity with tyranny. If anything the
ambassador should have seen its vast surveillance potential, but still he
spoke out against the company.

~~~
fit2rule
.. it also highlights the relative naivete - nay, ignorance - of many in the
West for just how close we live to despotism, tyranny and corruption in our
own sphere, and - more importantly - just how rapidly these failings can be
exploited by institutions with nefarious intentions.

We in the West have got to stop it with the moral superiority/manifest
destiny, and start taking a good look at what it is we're doing to make the
future _worse_ , not better. If Iran can point it out, we most certainly can
see it for ourselves - but of course we have to get past the superiority
hubris which disallows any honest discourse on the subject of how our
'superior' technological societies are actually enslaving us all, not making
us better.

Case in point - so far in this thread, nobody has had the temerity to point
out that Western hubris is the real enemy here.

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walterbell
A short overview of social network analysis, by Steve Borgatti of Boston
College,
[http://www.analytictech.com/mb109/slides/networks.pdf](http://www.analytictech.com/mb109/slides/networks.pdf)
(2004)

Borgatti has free software for SNA:
[http://www.analytictech.com/products.htm](http://www.analytictech.com/products.htm)

The math/sociology is broadly applicable, from Palantir to Facebook to
humanitarian programs,
[https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/document/1263/soc...](https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/document/1263/socialnetworkanalysise-
handbook.pdf) (2016)

Theory intro:
[http://www.mjdenny.com/workshops/SN_Theory_I.pdf](http://www.mjdenny.com/workshops/SN_Theory_I.pdf)
(2014)

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CharlesDodgson
This is an interesting article, I've thought about this before but never had
the words or knowledge of network theory to express it correctly. Thanks.

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Chiba-City
Never forget the nightmare of broadcast "Hogan's Heroes" and "I Dream Of
Genie." Imperfection looks good from here. Scale information insecurity will
remain a real and costly problem. But 1-way broadcast funnels were
structurally only problems. Graphs of us are mostly better.

~~~
jedrek
Are... are you a bot?

~~~
Chiba-City
I am a real person. I was presuming people read the article. I am 51 and
caught the tail end of old TV and newsreel culture. People read more of far
less but were mostly denied any access to contextual data. When I arrived in
DC tons of people "front ran" releases of government data sets only available
on tape. I had to go to Library of Congress to read paywalled academic papers.
Many aspects of modern Net lives are far superior and more efficient. Social
ennui and deception were alive and well long before the Net. I studied
philosophy of language so these considerations are my Petri dishes of endless
fascination. I am not a bot. I can answer real questions just fine.

~~~
fit2rule
I concur with your point, which I think is this: we've always had despotism
and tyranny at the door - its just that pre-Web, the door had a small group of
guards that would grant entrance only on condition of servitude. Now, we have
many doors - but they all lead to the same place as before: servitude. The
tyranny of choice.

~~~
Chiba-City
FWIW, the prizes closer to the top are neurotic sons and daughters of legacy
post-Colonial industrial screw ups around constant crises manufactured on
high. I enjoy "high culture" locally fed city living, but white flight we
inherited relegates that to "society luxury" or even "tourist" status in most
cities. Receptive folks who like our subsidized outdoors, cars, TV, booze and
factory food seem happiest here. I can't change that.

"Servitude" for good operations in good ecosystems with good outcomes is
better than fine. The "in charge" positional goods are rare by definition. But
rot at our tops and even collusion in industrial felonies (Enron? Wells
Fargo?...) is mostly preordained by an accidental empire in decline.

The Santa Fe Institute folks narrate our history and recent dog-eat-dog
challenges pretty credibly at different comparative and resource accounting
resolutions. Fixing our very specific post-WW2 population Boom and short lived
apartheid empire is not possible by grand gesture. Culture, know how, will,
patience and trust do not grow on trees. Even trees grow slowly. Interesting
times to be a human and learn how we got here.

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feistypharit
Paywall. Anyone have link to full article?

~~~
MR4D
[http://eng.majalla.com/2017/08/article55254377/false-
prophec...](http://eng.majalla.com/2017/08/article55254377/false-prophecy-
hyperconnection)

