Eric Schmidt on How to Build a Better Web http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/opinion/eric-schmidt-on-how-to-build-a-better-web.html
My capsule summary of Eric's essay -- doing it justice would require a longer essay of my own -- is that Eric is here proposing a hopeful, rational, and in certain respects ultimately doomed strategy. There are no mechanisms or policies that I can devise that could attempt to block evil and hate of the kind under discussion -- without also driving it underground where it would be far harder to monitor -- while simultaneously enabling tyrants and other hateful groups and individuals to leverage censorship and control of Internet resources for their own evil ends. It's the classic "three wishes" problem of legend -- no matter how carefully you word your wishes, the genie finds a way to make them transpire in, uh, "unexpected" and uncontrollable ways. And the genie of technology is not going back into the bottle. I strongly agree that the answer to false information is truthful information in ever larger quantities, but attempts to actually throttle bad information and evil communications can at the very best have minimal positive effects around the edges, while themselves causing even more horrific negative collateral damage. Meanwhile, the core problems will continue to metastasize around the world. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so. My opinions expressed here are mine alone. _______________________________________________ pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
