I like this essay. I find it interesting how pre 2020 we were outraged over social media harnessing our data but post 2022, we are voluntarily giving our information, psyche, dreams, deepest fears and digital friendship to databases owned by tech companies.
I think a reason the word agency has become more central in our vocabulary, is because of how easily we are willing to give it up to a bot to use it for us
Living with this kind of unrepentant surveillance also becomes performative rather than authentic. We focus on whether we’re conforming rather than innovating. And since data extraction requires predictability, that’s what gets rewarded, too. N’est-ce pas?
Was wondering why I have a paid subscription and this article provided the reason. Learning and thinking about topics not in the mainstream firehose of AI information. Thank you.
I should've written more about this, but one thing that makes it different is that the panopticon in the prior age was a function of the network, while the current version is embedded into the software itself. LLMs have an ethical view point baked into their training that makes the panopticon as a function of its very existence.
This is such a beautiful essay – and sadly, i think your warning here will age well. The silicon panopticon is only partly about surveillance and self censorship of thought. It's also about the atrophying of our ability to independently think and reason.
I like this essay. I find it interesting how pre 2020 we were outraged over social media harnessing our data but post 2022, we are voluntarily giving our information, psyche, dreams, deepest fears and digital friendship to databases owned by tech companies.
I think a reason the word agency has become more central in our vocabulary, is because of how easily we are willing to give it up to a bot to use it for us
George Orwell is probably screaming in his grave
Living with this kind of unrepentant surveillance also becomes performative rather than authentic. We focus on whether we’re conforming rather than innovating. And since data extraction requires predictability, that’s what gets rewarded, too. N’est-ce pas?
Was wondering why I have a paid subscription and this article provided the reason. Learning and thinking about topics not in the mainstream firehose of AI information. Thank you.
Thank you Wayne! This sorta is only possible because I have paying subscribers like you.
sorta article*
Evan, it's interesting how similar this is to ideas from earlier internet times. Like this book, Prometheus Wired (https://www.amazon.com/Prometheus-Wired-Democracy-Network-Technology/dp/0226037452), really highlighting the same themes in 2000 as a rejoinder to the netizen movement.
I should've written more about this, but one thing that makes it different is that the panopticon in the prior age was a function of the network, while the current version is embedded into the software itself. LLMs have an ethical view point baked into their training that makes the panopticon as a function of its very existence.
This is such a beautiful essay – and sadly, i think your warning here will age well. The silicon panopticon is only partly about surveillance and self censorship of thought. It's also about the atrophying of our ability to independently think and reason.