Is technology a force for good?
The rise of artificial intelligence is leading to growing misinformation and safety concerns. And even with new regulation like the EU AI Act to address things like algorithmic bias and cybersecurity to promote ethical AI, people are still worried about what the future holds. But of course it’s a lot more nuanced, as Margaret Atwood writes in Alias Grace (also available on Audible):
What is believed in society is not always the equivalent of what is true.
If you need more guidance, here are some of my favourite Seth Godin quotes from his 2023 blog posts, together with a recommended title from Blinkist.
A new technology or approach could be the answer to a bunch of questions, but not all of them. ~ The answer to every question
Learn more: Human Plus Machine
As we race to fill in every moment with swiping, surfing and clicking, it’s easy to forget that we’re allowed to leave some blank spaces. In fact, not just allowed, but if we want to live well, required. ~ Nihil hic deest
Learn more: The Lost Art of Silence
Every day, we make decisions. These require effort, and there’s probably a finite amount of energy available for these focused choices. That’s why our digital habits matter. Not to save us five or ten minutes a day, but to save us from a few hundred unimportant decisions that break our flow. ~ Digital shortcuts and cognitive load
Learn more: Deep Work
Giving anonymous people and organizations the chance to steal your attention all day, at scale, seems like a worse idea every day. ~ Revisiting stamps for email
Learn more: Attention Factory
If the bad news (comments, drama and controversy) is simply manipulating you into a certain state without productive effects, consider turning it off. ~ The good news
Learn more: Alone Together
If we’re not happy with how external forces are stealing and redirecting our attention, we can change it. ~ Focusing attention is a skill
Learn more: Hyperfocus
It’s easy to imagine that culture is immutable and that we have no choice but to pander for attention. But in fact, the culture keeps changing, and when we shift what we make and change what we pay attention to, the culture follows. ~ The catfight and the construction site
Learn more: Co-Intelligence
Our choice of media and cultural inputs matter, now more than ever. When we choose what to see and who to hang out with, we’re actually choosing our future. ~ Belief is contagious
Learn more: Filterworld
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter seem like they will last forever. Until they don’t. ~ Build a new one
Learn more: Extremely Hardcore
Somehow, we survived as a culture for centuries without exposing ourselves to thousands of profit-driven manipulations dumped on our living room carpet all day, every day. No wonder we’re exhausted after a day online. ~ Shields up
Learn more: Dopamine Detox
Someone is going to end up with 10,000,000 followers. Someone is going to post the next viral TikTok. Someone is going to build a meme that spreads around the world. But it probably won’t be me and it probably won’t be you. ~ The social media lottery
Learn more: Stop Checking Your Likes
The real impact of AI isn’t going to be that it regularly and consistently does far better than the best human effort. The impact will be that it is widespread, cheap and always there. ~ The coming ubiquity
Learn more: Atlas of AI
There have always been forces at work that prize disrupting our civic systems. But thanks to AI and digital deepfakes, it’s significantly easier to create and spread a story that simply didn’t happen. ~ Checking the date
Learn more: May Contain Lies
Understanding a mystery not only makes it feel less like a threat, it gives us the confidence to make it into something better. ~ ChatGPT for you
Learn more: Competing in the Age of AI
We can decide that technology exists to create opportunity, to help people find resilience, meaning and connection. We can realize that technology changes the status quo, and that change is up to us. ~ Late-stage technocrats
Learn more: The Coming Wave
We get to choose our tools, and the tools we choose alter the work we do. ~ Commonplace technology
Learn more: Swipe to Unlock
We shouldn’t be here to feed the platform. The platform needs to be here for us. ~ The platform and the curator
Learn more: The Technology Trap
We’ve long passed the point where an active professional can simply choose to not understand how tech works. You’re a user or you’re being used. Best to know which. ~ What’s a “techie”?
Learn more: Tribe of Hackers
When a simple, convenient bit of data shows up on your computer screen, take it with a grain of salt. ~ Overconfidence and AI
Learn more: If It’s Smart It’s Vulnerable
When there’s an iterative cycle of new technology, the systems can’t help but improve, and the tech is likely to as well. ~ The 77% threshold
Learn more: The Singularity is Nearer
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