What I see in different shades of gray, from behind my reading glasses
This article, by Evgeny Morozov, about the hypocrisy of information consumerism that has enveloped the world, was published recently in the German magazine faz.net. Worth a read.
Even the best laws will not lead to a safer internet. We need a sharper picture of the information apocalypse that awaits us in a world where personal data is traded to avert the catastrophy.
Jaron Lanier, author of “Who owns the future?”, says we’re being enslaved by free information. He explains in this interview.
Evgeny Morozov takes the opposite view – he thinks there are many simpler ways to protect the middle classes. Pushing technology companies to provide better working conditions — it was only last year that Amazon agreed to install air conditioning in its warehouses — and closing numerous tax loopholes would be a good start. Lanier’s solution, alas, is an odd and unfortunate distraction.
The NY Times Nick Bilton walks into the echo chamber called Silicon Valley, & discovers that lots of startups are solving fake problems that don’t actually create any value (or in other words, a solution is search of a problem). Read more from Evgeny Morozov here
James Temple advocates why we need more like Evgeny Morozov, the 28 year old author who has been a vocal opponent of the tech industry’s simplistic view of the world. For eg. Here’s Google’s Eric Schmidt “”The Web will be everything, and it will also be nothing. It will be like electricity. … If we get this right, I believe we can fix all the world’s problems.”