Discussion

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  Interesting comment on my FT essay, which shows how easy it is to miss the radicality of that paradigm. The point isn't to find creative uses to computers. The point is to radically change computers, turning them into toy-tool hybrids that aid in estrangement & cognitive mapping.…

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  Researching the podcast and that FT essay, I realized that we barely know the full extent of Cold War collaboration between computer industry/academia and the CIA. For example, looking into the speaker that Brodey *removed* from the podium, here is what I found the CIA's website.…

• @jonathanshainin Jonathan Shainin on x

  I really enjoyed this FT Magazine essay by @evgenymorozov on the “forgotten future” of artificial intelligence, and the band of rebels who tried to make it different — https://www.ft.com/...

• @wavesblog Simonetta Vezzoso on x

  Tech solutionism"has..driven the development of wearable devices that track our health metrics and social media platforms that claim to enhance our personal connections. But it also reduces complex human experiences to data points and ignores the contexts in which problems arise"

• @francesca_bria Francesca Bria on x

  Their vision of computing was not about a mankind captured by machines. The tech they were building wanted to expand our horizons. They saw human relations, art and identity as open-ended, always-evolving ecologies. Read & listen @evgenymorozov masterpiece https://www.ft.com/...

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  In many ways, things with AI went downhill once Cold War concepts like “Man-Computer Symbiosis” got dominant. Instead of using tech to widen the gap between people & machines - by extending human skills and talents - the industry & the military wanted to couple humans & machines.…

• @justincormack Justin Cormack on x

  The ceiling was festooned with strips of Mylar, two video cameras, a parachute. A sofa-like structure, hung from overhead springs, was the venue for business meetings, dubbed “The Cloud” https://www.ft.com/...

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  The Homo Technologicus | Homo Economicus parallel is something that deserves an essay of its own. Ultimately, so much in our tech still relies on the same simplifying assumptions about rational action that underpin the neoclassical synthesis https://www.ft.com/... [image]

• @3eintelligence Willy De Backer on x

  ‘Perhaps this is the root of our discomfort about the direction of the digital revolution: that rather than making machines more human, it is making people more mechanical’ - brilliant long-read @evgenymorozov - of interest to @romankrznaric @APonceETUI https://www.ft.com/...

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  In “AI we could have had” - a six-page spread in tomorrow's FT Weekend - I argue that there used to be another, more humane way to think about intelligence, interactivity, smartness. Sadly, we blew it! An essay inspired by A SENSE OF REBELLION: https://www.ft.com/...

• @profgeraintrees Geraint Rees on x

  Interesting long read - different futures for the way we interact with our technology, and whether it could expand our interests rather than just serve us up our existing interests The AI we could have had https://www.ft.com/... via @ft

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  What's curious about the gang in my podcast is that someone like Warren Brodey, coming out of psychoanalysis, knew the dangers of “symbiosis.” In fact, it's only by having the infant acquire an identity separate from that of the mother that healthy development can be ensured.

• @cesarastudillo César Astudillo on x

  “What we now consider inevitable and natural features of the digital landscape are in fact the result of fierce power struggles between opposing schools of thought” https://www.ft.com/...

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  That's why their approach to intelligence & interactivity recognized the importance of non-communication to growth & identity formation: to be in an always-on, high-info environment leads to enslavement, not independence. It's not symbiosis but differentiation that they wanted.

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  Machines can be humanists' allies. Yes, they can steer us towards independence & autonomy, helping to foster new aesthetic & cognitive skills. Brodey the psychoanalyst knew this is what good nurturing mothers do: they help infants develop separate, post-symbiotic identities.

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  Still can't believe that I managed to put the words “CIA,” “Maoist, “alienation” (qualified with “f*cking”!) into the pages of a single Financial Times article https://www.ft.com/...

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  And yet we've spent decades wondering how to erase the differences between people & machines - either via “artificial intelligence” or “augmenting human intellect.” But the right move is to leverage machines (including LLMs and what not) to widen - not shrink - such differences!

• @albert_sabater Albert Sabater Coll on x

  “Their vision of computing was not about prediction or automation. [...] Their tech would make us more sophisticated, discerning and complex, rather than passive consumers of generative AI-produced replicas of Mozart, Rembrandt or Shakespeare.” https://www.ft.com/... via @ft

• @evgenymorozov Evgeny Morozov on x

  This was needed to raise productivity of firms & armies. Yet such “coupling” came at a cost, conceiving of humans as just better & faster machines to be unleashed on trickier tasks. The “symbiosis” was one-sided, aiming to build mightier machines, not harness the best in humans.