|
|
@ -33,12 +33,12 @@ be “move fast and break things”, however, after Zuckerburg was |
|
|
|
lambasted in front of congress, that motto is slowly changing. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Facebook like many tech companies creddits it’s major success to |
|
|
|
Facebook like many tech companies credits its major success to |
|
|
|
optimizing a sometimes niche problem -- this is something that |
|
|
|
programmers love to do and computers are perfect at. Facebook |
|
|
|
optimized how people consume media, but they did it at the detriment |
|
|
|
optimized how people consume media, but they did it to the detriment |
|
|
|
of quality content. Youtube tremendously optimized how we view videos |
|
|
|
by suggesting us recommended videos to watch, but, if often suggests |
|
|
|
by suggesting us recommended videos to watch, but, it often suggests |
|
|
|
repulsive content. Uber optimized how people found rides, but it |
|
|
|
resulted in an influx of part time drivers that are slowly pushing out |
|
|
|
full time drivers. This is not to say that optimization is a bad |
|
|
@ -54,24 +54,24 @@ This now begs the question: how do we do we solve these issues? This |
|
|
|
is something that Thompson didn’t discuss in depth nor had a great |
|
|
|
answer for. We could point our fingers at governments, companies, or |
|
|
|
consumers and tell them to solve the problem. Surely having the |
|
|
|
government enact some well constructed public policy based on the |
|
|
|
government enact some well-constructed public policy based on the |
|
|
|
current policy environment would solve the issues… right? The problem |
|
|
|
in the age of big data is that things are changing at a rapid pace and |
|
|
|
by the time we realize the dangers of a particular issue, it may have |
|
|
|
already caused grave damages or morphed into another form. Look at |
|
|
|
gambling for example, we have had decades of laws and regulations |
|
|
|
surrounding underage gambling, however, online gambling issues has |
|
|
|
been consistently creeping its way into policy discussion over the |
|
|
|
last five. It is fascinating that most public policy generated in the |
|
|
|
surrounding underage gambling, however, online gambling issues have |
|
|
|
been consistently creeping their way into policy discussion over the |
|
|
|
last five years. It is fascinating that most public policy generated in the |
|
|
|
technology field is actually created in the court systems. This is |
|
|
|
good in the sense that the court system is often faster than passing a |
|
|
|
new law, but, it is also very problematic. Old laws when used to |
|
|
|
interpret a nuanced technological problem often yields outcomes that |
|
|
|
interpret a nuanced technological problem often yield outcomes that |
|
|
|
the original authors of the law would possibly disagree with. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Although Thompson’s talk raises more questions and problems than |
|
|
|
tangible easy to implement solutions, we must start having discussions |
|
|
|
tangible easy-to-implement solutions, we must start having discussions |
|
|
|
like this so we can enact a cultural change around how we approach |
|
|
|
optimization tasks. Adding back careful reflection and deliberation |
|
|
|
back to currently optimized tasks on the internet could give us more |
|
|
|