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Is the Greatest Threat to Humanity Something Called an Algorithm?
Algorithms used in social media are not tuned for what is best for society. They don’t ask themselves, “Is this true?” or “Will this information help or hurt humanity?”
The man who coined the term “virtual reality” and helped create Web 2.0, Jaron Lanier, recently told a reporter for The Guardian there’s an aspect to the internet that could endanger the literal survival of humanity as a species. It’s an amazing story, and I believe he’s 100% right.
Humans are fragile creatures. We don’t have fangs or claws to protect ourselves from other animals that might want to eat us. We don’t have fur or a pelt to protect us from the elements.
What we do have, however, that has allowed us to conquer the planet and survive for eons is our interconnection with each other, something we generally refer to as society, community, and culture.
Humans are social animals. Our ability to share information with each other in ways that are meaningful and credible has been the key to our survival.
For hundreds of thousands of years, it was scouts, neighbors, and family members reporting predators or prey, animal or human, just around the other…
