Google Becomes Evil

Counter to its positive mythology, Google manipulates search results to suit its own corporate purposes, quashing free access to information on the Web.

By Tom Valovic | October 16, 2019 | Ethics, Journalism, Media, Privacy, Society | Algorithms, Alternative Voices, AlterNet, Carey Gillam, Censorship, Control, Disinformation, Filtering, Fraud, Google, Harrassment, Information, Mercola.com, Monopoly, Monsanto, Search Engine, The Guardian, YMYL

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Podcast #34: Ben Green on Smart Enough Cities

Data technology researcher and author Ben Green punctures the myth of the smart city.

By Mo Lotman | August 8, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Community, Culture, Government, Human Rights, Law, Podcasts, Policing, Politics, Prediction, Privacy, Safety, Security, Society, Transportation | Alphabet, Autonomous Vehicles, Bike Share, Boston, Branding, Cameras, Cities, City Services, Civic Engagement, Civic Pride, Complexity, Data Gathering, Data Monetization, Democracy, Dynamic Systems, Efficiency, Engineering, Google, License Plate Readers, Mixed-Use, Optimization, Predictive Policing, Public Policy, Public Space, Racism, Reductionism, Richness, Seattle, Sensors, Sidewalk Labs, Smart Cities, Smart Technology, Social Justice, Street Life, surveillance, Surveillance Oversight Ordinances, Tech Goggles, Traffic, Transportation, Urban Design

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The World Wired Web

Despite marketing imagery to the contrary, the “cloud” remains very much grounded in physical infrastructure, including unfathomable miles of wires.

By David A. J. Reynolds | July 24, 2019 | Environment, Media | Amazon, Bandwidth, Britain, China, Choke Points, Coaxial Cable, Communication, Content Providers, Data, Entertainment, Facebook, Fiber-Optic Cable, France, Google, Infrastructure, Internet, Internet Traffic, ISPs, Long-Distance, Railroads, Servers, Telecoms, Telegraph, Telephone, The Cloud, Undersea Cables, US, Wires

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Curbing Our Tech Obsession: What, Why, & How

Young people are obsessively checking their phones more every year. Here are some reasons why, and strategies to regain control.

By Larry Rosen | January 30, 2019 | Media, Neurology, Psychology, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Alerts, Android, Anxiety, Apple, Attention, Blue Light, Boredom, Circadian Rhythm, Cues, Depression, Digital Media, Digital Wellness, Distracted Driving, Distraction, FOMO, Google, Information Foraging Theory, Marketing, Metacognition, Nir Eyal, Nomophobia, Obsession, OCD, Psychology, Sleep, Smartphones, Social Media, Social Obligation, Teens, Tim Wu, Young Adults

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Podcast #24: Michael Zimmerman Gets Philosophical on Tech

In a wide-ranging conversation, philosopher Michael Zimmerman contextualizes our technological journey within the history of Western thought.

By Mo Lotman | January 9, 2019 | Artificial Intelligence, Culture, Employment, Environment, Ethics, Knowledge, Philosophy, Podcasts, Religion, Society | Acts of Enclosure, Addiction, Agriculture, Ancient World, Anger, Aristotle, Arnold Toynbee, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Authenticity, Axial Age, Behavior, Bible, Bolsheviks, Boundaries, Buddhism, Capitlism, Carolyn Merchant, Christianity, Civilization, Control, Craving, Creativity, CRISPR, David Loy, Death, Decadence, Deep Ecology, Delusion, Desire, Distraction, Earth, Ease, Embodiment, Engineering, Environment, Eternity, Exploitation, Exponential Growth, Facebook, Fake News, Fate, Finitude, Fire, Francis Bacon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gnosticism, Golden Rule, Google, Greed, Hatred, Hegel, Heiddeger, Hubris, Human Nature, Humanness, Immaturity, Immortality, Industrial Revolution, Infantilization, Isaiah, Islam, Jaron Lanier, Karl Jaspers, Karl Marx, Knowledge, Lab-Grown Meat, Life, Loss, Martin Rees, Marxism, Master-Slave Dialectic, Meaning, Meat-Eating, Mediation, Medieval World, Metallurgy, Mind, Mining, Modernity, Money Economy, Morality, Mortality, Native Americans, Nature, Nazis, News, Nihilism, Obesity, Pain, Pascal, Peter Thiel, Philosophy, Plato, Playing God, Power, Production, Progress, Propoganda, Protestant Reformation, Ray Kurzweil, Reincarnation, relationships, Religion, René Descartes, Resentment, Resources, Respect, Sailing, Security, Self-Mastery, Silicon Valley, Smartphones, Socialism, Soviets, Spirituality, Splintering, Steve Jobs, Suffering, The Overman, The Singularity, Trade, Traditional Societies, Transhumanism, Twitter, Utopia, Wealth, Wildfires, Will to Power, Wisdom, Wonder

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When Developers Can’t Explain Their AI, Laws No Longer Apply

The hows and whys of the decisions of machine-learning algorithms are increasingly opaque, even to their programmers. That makes laws and norms increasingly difficult to apply.

By Lynne Peskoe-Yang | May 23, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Health, Law, Prediction, Society | Accountability, AI, Algorithms, Asimov's Laws, Big Data, Black Boxes, Code, Corruption, Crime, Deep Learning, Efficiency, Fake News, Google, Harm, Health Care, Injustice, Isaac Asimov, Judgment, Law, Neural Networks, Palantir, Power, Predictive Policing, Programming, Racial Bias, Robots, Rules, Social Groups, Syntax, The Brain, Trust, Unintended Consequences

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iPhone, Therefore I Am

Once we’re all parroting back Wikipedia entries to each other, what unique knowledge or wisdom do we have to offer?

By Isabel Sterne | March 28, 2018 | Cognition, Culture, Identity, Knowledge, Relationships | Efficiency, External Memory, Google, GPS, Individuality, Information, Knowledge, Memory, Overconfidence, Phaedrus, Plato, Recall, Smartphones, Socrates, Wisdom

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A Message From the Publisher

It’s our 2nd birthday! Publisher Mo Lotman shares a few thoughts about where we’ve come and where The Technoskeptic is going.

By Mo Lotman | February 28, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Community, Economics, Ethics, Government, Media, Philosophy, Privacy, Relationships, Society, Well-Being | Addiction, Amazon, Anxiety, Apple, Attention, Business, Center for Humane Technology, Community, Depression, Disconnection, Economics, Ethics, Facebook, Farhad Manjoo, Google, Microsoft, Opioids, Reality, Roger McNamee, smart phones, Specialization, Suicide, Tristan Harris

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Podcast #16: Tomaso Poggio on the State of AI

After a long so-called winter, artificial intelligence has recently made amazing gains. Tomaso Poggio, Director of MIT’s Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, explains why this success is still a long way from the dystopian fears of robot overlords, but that the threat to jobs is real.

By Mo Lotman | February 14, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Cognition, Employment, Ethics, Podcasts, Society | Academia, AI, AI Winter, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Autonomous Vehicles, Back Propagation, Center for Brains Minds & Machines, China, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, Deep Learning, Doctors, Economy, Facial Recognition, Google, Job Loss, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Meaning, Microsoft, MIT, Mobileye, National Science Foundation, Natural Language Processing, Neural Networks, Purpose, self-driving cars, surveillance, Truck Drivers

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Google’s Smart Reply: Convenience Over Connection

Gmail offers users canned responses to emails, based on AI interpretations of the contents and the user’s typical writing style. This convenience, unknown to the recipient, comes at a social cost.

By Samantha Maxwell | December 20, 2017 | Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Ethics, Relationships, Society | Automation, Communication, Connection, Connectivity, Convenience, Conversation, Email, Friendship, Gmail, Google, Love, relationships, Smart Reply, Social Interaction, Speed

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