Monday, August 20, 2012

Mark Steyn, call your office

He said all this and more in After America. Maybe Mr. Ferguson should read it, if he's not done so already.
In the words of Peter Thiel, perhaps the lone skeptic within a hundred miles of Palo Alto: In our youth we were promised flying cars. What did we get? 140 characters. 

[or as Steyn puts it, more ways to listen to Justin Bieber]

So let me offer some simple lessons of history: More and faster information is not good in itself. Knowledge is not always the cure. And network effects are not always positive.
[...] It’s a dangerous world. Ask anyone who works in the world of intelligence to list the biggest threats we face, and they’ll likely include bioterrorism, cyber war, and nuclear proliferation. What these have in common, of course, is the way modern technology can empower radicalized (or just plain crazy) individuals and groups.

When it comes to technology's ability to save us, I am, like Ferguson and Steyn, a 'depressimist'.
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