Almost everything you know to be right and wrong
Is context specific.
Image by Alberto Sanchez from Pixabay
#Idea – Context / 26.01.21
#ThoughtExperiment – Stupid Questions Vs. Stupid Answers / 25.01.21
No stupid questions,
Only stupid answers.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
#Idea – Ira Glasser / 24.01.21
Sure,
Everyone wants freedom of expression
Provided it’s their freedom of speech.
#Idea – 24.01.21
Don’t let your scepticism become cynicism.
Image by meineresterampe from Pixabay
#Idea – The Tyrannic Milestone / 17.01.21
Once orthodoxy*
(however defined at the time, its parameters change)
Becomes more important than free discourse
(ie. you are no longer allowed to hold an opinion that differs from the narrowly defined orthodoxy)
Then,
We cross a major milestone on the path to tyranny.
Freedom of expression
(ie. the open expression of freedom of thought)
Is a vital check against tyranny
And the kind of groupthink
That leads to awful things being done
To those on the wrong side of history.
*political correctness/the right way/Goodthink/etc.
Image by Sang Hyun Cho from Pixabay
#Idea – Machine Learning Vs. Making Your Own Shitty Decisions / 17.01.21
Here’s a dilemma we already face
(…in opening stages, at least)
Making your own decisions independently
Vs.
Allowing your decisions to be guided by AI.
Many of us already depend on AI to make decisions
Arguably, lower stakes decisions
Product recommendations
Navigation decisions
What media to consume next*
Etc.
But,
As AI gets better at making suggestions
Where (…if at all)
Will you draw the line?
Will you let it guide you on the more important decisions?
What partner to choose?
What career to follow?
Who to vote for?
What to believe?**
Of course,
Such AI-guided decisions will be better decisions
Because AI will know you
Better than you know you.
Put another way
Would you rather make your own decisions?
Or
Would you rather make better decisions?
*Arguably a high stakes decision: – your values can be shaped by your media consumption. Consider the Youtube ‘rabbit hole’- which has a hole on the other side from which you emerge, fully radicalised.
**See asterisk one.
#Idea – Pose a Problem, Solve a Problem / 15.01.21
We often create problems
That we’re incapable of solving
Or
Unable to recognise.
This is one of life’s great inequities:
Those who create the problem
Often aren’t the best people
To solve the problem.
Instead,
That burden falls to others.
In some cases (…and for particularly difficult problems) this is intergenerational.
For example, we must solve problems
Created by people who are long gone.
Alternatively,
You and I will create quandaries today
For our distant descendants to deal with.
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
#Idea – Modern Consumerism / 13.01.21
It doesn’t matter if you have lots of options
If they’re all bad.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
#Idea – AC Grayling / 15.01.21
No holy wars were declared
And
Nobody was burned at the stake
For the sake of rival theories in physics.
Image by Elchinator from Pixabay
