Nietzsche, Facebook, and A.I.

"If you stare into The Facebook, The Facebook stares back at you."

I think this fits the reality of digital surveillance much better than it fits the idea Nietzsche was trying to convey when he wrote the original.

Facebook and Google look at you with an unblinking eye; they look at all of us which they can reach, even those without accounts; two billion people on Facebook, their every keystroke recorded, even those they delete; every message analysed, even those never sent; every photo processed, even those kept private; on Google maps, every step taken or turn missed, every place where you stop, becomes an update for the map.

We're lucky that A.I. isn't as smart as a human, because if it was, such incomprehensible breadth and depth of experience would make Sherlock look like an illiterate child raised by wild animals in comparison. Even without hypothesising new technologies that a machine intelligence may or may not invent, even just a machine that does exactly what its told by its owner… this dataset alone ought to worry any who fear the thumb of a totalitarian micro-managing your life.

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Original post: https://kitsunesoftware.wordpress.com/2018/02/06/nietzsche-facebook-and-a-i/

Original post timestamp: Tue, 06 Feb 2018 12:21:48 +0000

Tags: AI, social media

Categories: Philosophy