In the debate over the impact of machine learning and similar technologies on the economy, the world’s experts are largely split into two camps.
One camp, which we’ll call the optimists, think that this digital revolution, like the technological upheavals of the past, won’t derail the economy and cause unemployment rates to skyrocket to pandemic levels for good. Instead, the workers that will be put out of business by smart algorithms will learn new skills and adapt, perhaps after “a long period of painful adjustment”.
The pessimists aren’t so sure. They readily embrace that we’ll need, as societies, to reshape…
Many people that I talk to view the web as unchangeable. They see the endless cycle of Facebook, Google, Instagram and news sites as “just the way things are” and can’t really imagine a new site or piece of software that’s going to reshape the way we use the web.
For all of our sakes, I hope these people are wrong. The version of the internet that we’re all surfing on is in dire need of an update, and I think that we can probably do better. The consumers of the internet do not need to remain the products.
How…
Milo Shields
aspiring speed typist, currently stuck at 84 wpm.
