#26: Bubbles, Floods, & Fires
Norbert Wiener, the founder of cybernetics, observed that “there are local and temporary islands of decreasing entropy in a world in which the entropy as a whole tends to increase, and the existence of these islands enables some of us to assert the existence of progress.” At a moment when it feels like much of the planet is either on fire or underwater, Wiener's statement achieves a chilling resonance. People who argue for and against the notion that the human condition is better than it's ever been always seem to be talking past each other; this reminds us why.
One of the major narratives that emerged from the 2016 presidential election was the existence of two Americas with drastically different worldviews that continue to diverge. Inextricably linked to this divide were neologisms like "fake news," "echo chamber," and "bubble," our nascent (but still clumsy) vocabulary for describing the invisible cultural landscape that the internet has terraformed in the past twenty years. Wiener died decades before any of that happened but the entropic landscape he described is more pronounced in Facebook's world than it was in his own.
Silicon Valley birthed many of the inventions that enable us to assert the existence of progress today, yet those same technologies help to conceal the contours of our islands on which entropy is decreasing, and outside of which it's growing. This can even be literal, as consumption within the privileged bubbles exports heat that ravages the environment outside and further solidifies the desire not to go there. Silicon Valley, the physical place, is increasingly a fortress that only admits the wealthy, but that condition, being geographic and thus visible, might at least help its residents finally see that the most urgent problems are cultural and political, not technical.
Reads:
A tour of the secret village called "Carcraft" where Waymo tests its self-driving vehicles
Related to the last issue: How Silicon Valley helps spread the same sterile aesthetic across the world (thanks Miz)
Twelve ways to spot a Twitter bot (many are obvious but I appreciate a good "field guide" to digital wildlife)
Until next time,
Drew