permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Crypto-Gram: 2024 Archives

June 15, 2024

https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2024/0715.html/

The Hacking of Culture and the Creation of Socio-Technical Debt

[2024.06.19] Culture is increasingly mediated through algorithms. These algorithms have splintered the organization of culture, a result of states and tech companies vying for influence over mass audiences. One byproduct of this splintering is a shift from imperfect but broad cultural narratives to a proliferation of niche groups, who are defined by ideology or aesthetics instead of nationality or geography. This change reflects a material shift in the relationship between collective identity and power, and illustrates how states no longer have exclusive domain over either. Today, both power and culture are increasingly corporate.

Go here to read the full article:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/06/the-hacking-of-culture-and-the-creation-of-socio-technical-debt.html

Rethinking Democracy for the Age of AI

[2024.06.18] There is a lot written about technology’s threats to democracy. Polarization. Artificial intelligence. The concentration of wealth and power. I have a more general story: The political and economic systems of governance that were created in the mid-18th century are poorly suited for the 21st century. They don’t align incentives well. And they are being hacked too effectively.

Go here to read the full article:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/06/rethinking-democracy-for-the-age-of-ai.html

Upcoming Book on AI and Democracy

[2024.07.02] If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve noticed that I have written a lot about AI and democracy, mostly with my co-author Nathan Sanders. I am pleased to announce that we’re writing a book on the topic.

This isn’t a book about deep fakes, or misinformation. This is a book about what happens when AI writes laws, adjudicates disputes, audits bureaucratic actions, assists in political strategy, and advises citizens on what candidates and issues to support. It’s a book that tries to look into what an AI-assisted democratic system might look like, and then at how to best ensure that we make use of the good parts while avoiding the bad parts.

This is what I talked about in my RSA Conference speech last month, which you can both watch and read. (You can also read earlier attempts at this idea.)

The book will be published by MIT Press sometime in fall 2025, with an open-access digital version available a year after that. (It really can’t be published earlier. Nothing published this year will rise above the noise of the US presidential election, and anything published next spring will have to go to press without knowing the results of that election.)

Right now, the organization of the book is in six parts:

AI-Assisted Politicians

AI-Assisted Legislators

The AI-Assisted Administration

The AI-Assisted Legal System

AI-Assisted Citizens

Getting the Future We Want

Go here to read the full article:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/07/upcoming-book-on-ai-and-democracy.html

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Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com