If you’re a Staunch Capitalist, Don’t Read This 

And here’s why --- I’m rapidly approaching the age of 85  and it’s my sneaky way of satisfying my last wish and final request while I’m still alive and kicking (well, at least limping along). Although I invite comments to these pieces, I rarely receive them except  from folks my wife or I happen to know or perchance bump into while shopping. 

As far back as I can remember, I have wanted to teach and even recall  being brainwashed by my mom calling me her “little professor”.  I eventually partially fulfilled her prophecy by becoming a Professor (of Computer Science at SUNY Plattsburgh).  I have no idea  whether my basic motives for teaching or writing this column are driven by lust for fame or the fact that acquiring knowledge and then getting to share it with others is fulfilling and that just makes me happy.

The other reason I write is that I believe that writing clarifies thinking and it should be the main reason that it be taught to everyone as soon as possible. Just the act of “sitting right down and writing myself a letter” forces me to better organize my thoughts and hence my understanding of things I’m curious about --- like the complex interactions between technology and society and the issues that arise such as Privacy, Security, and Freedom of Expression. Usually, solutions to these problems inevitably give rise to new issues to consider like Artificial Intelligence and how to apply it usefully and justly. I know I’ve said something like this before, but what seems to separate us humans from other animal life is our propensity for creating problems for ourselves and, in attempting to solve them,  creating newer and more interesting problems to solve. 

If you got this far I’m assuming you are interested in what I have to say (whether or not you agree or disagree or chose to comment) and perhaps know of others who also might be interested. With all that as prelude, here’s the pitch:  As I write this column gratis and there is no personal  financial reward, and you’re are willing to believe that it is not just another case of ego  stroking for yet another psychopathic personality common to many politicians and other thespians, I would appreciate your advice on how best to get this column out to other sources, particularly small town newspapers. I still believe that a newspaper (print or internet) is the best way to deliver news that is edited responsibly.

Send any suggestions you may have to denenbsa@gmail.com and you have my word. they will be immensely appreciated.

Now let’s get down to business with the presentation of this month’s article which is entitled,

A stream of consciousness look at my process of creating this article

 

A recent PR editorial railing about how the first amendment was violated by a seemingly mean-spirited, overzealous  police search and seizure raid of  a small local newspaper in Kansas immediately aroused my curiosity about this situation. I felt it was one-sided as it only contained irate statements from other news organizations and none from the police as to why the raid was hatched in the first place.  I was not the only one who suspected a juicy soap-opera as the Internet exploded and so it took quite some time to sort out exactly what happened when and why the situation occurred in the first place.

The Internet tends to have too much information and the situation turned out to be much, much more complicated thanI had anticipated. Each new article I read added more information and layers of complexity, so I did what any normal reader would do: I gave up. But it was important enough to put it on the back burner figuring all would be revealed in the following weeks. I was temporarily satisfied to categorize it as just another  dispute arising from the natural tension between the Politicians and Police (who, not unsurprisingly, are appointed by the politicians ) vs the Press and let it simmer till done. Serendipitously, one of my favorite sources, The Washington Post, came out in its 8/26 Evening Edition with a comprehensive, convincing and interesting article explaining the whole megillah. Decide for yourself by searching on, “How A small-town feud in Kansas sent a shock through American journalism”  If you do, be sure to read the ironic first comment which pointed out that the raid could have been avoided if the judge who approved it had followed the law and issued a summons instead of a search warrant.

While I was in  the process of surfing the Net for more details on the Police raid, I stumbled upon the site, ProCon.org,  which primarily serves an audience of educators to help them understand and teach about various societal issues by presenting their Pros and Cons from a variety of sources. I quickly realized that many, if not most ,of my columns are also centered on the pros and cons of various issues that arise due to the symbiotic as well as the disjointed and unhelpful relationships that arise between Technology and Society.

I  believe that the largest Pro or best outcome could very well be that the Internet, when properly utilized, can help us fulfill a measure  of what  a successful society should be aiming for as formulated by the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, “Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.” 

While one may not entirely agree with this formulation as it appears to deprecate thinking itself, paradoxically it does not as he also has said “The purpose of thinking is to let the ideas die instead of us dying.” If that sounds confusing to you, welcome to the club but I found the consensus of opinions as to its meaning is something like: when thinking about a problem usually many ideas come to mind and it’s very easy to just acquiesce and choose  the most pleasing one for the moment. Whitehead would view this to be a form of mental laziness and probably would not yield the best result. It would be a  more effective strategy to carefully examine all of the conflicting  ideas before choosing one and let the others die.  In any case, before this article drifts too far into the realm of esoteric philosophy, let’s examine the cons or negative consequences of an Internet Technology that has been  supercharged with Artificial Intelligence .

It seems the pros and cons are in a race to dominate AI but I believe that the most worrisome aspect of  the Internet is in its indiscriminate intermixing of information, misinformation and disinformation which not only contributes to confirmation bias but most importantly, to the disintegration of the basic glue which holds society together --- trust  --- or at least a minimal level of civility when discussing contentious issues.  In my younger days, working as a programmer, I had  a boss who lived through World War II and he observed that, although those times were tough for everyone, still it was a good time to be alive because it united the country ; we were all working together on a common goal --- to defeat the Axis powers,  so there was no time for meanness and petty political bickering. 

I hate to think that it will take a disaster to get us back to a wholesome, working society especially if it manifests as a civil war or as the results of climate change, but I would not be surprised if that’s the future we are foreshadowing for our children and grandchildren.