It has been an intense few months for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Having survived an attempted coup, he is now looking to accelerate his artificial intelligence revolution. His next step is to raise $7 trillion in investment capital to build …
The Road to a New McCarthyism
I wonder how many people have recoiled with horror at what happened in the House of Representatives recently. I am referring to the decision, effectively, to ban the social media platform, TikTok, in the United States (to ‘protect Americans from …
Ketanji Brown Jackson Defenestrates the First Amendment
At her confirmation hearings, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson claimed she lacked the expertise to define “woman.” Just two years later, she did not hesitate to redefine the First Amendment and free speech as she advocated for the regime to bulldoze …
Anatomy of the Tech-Industrial Complex
In the news this week, there is a lot of controversy over the US House of Representatives voting on Bill HR7521 which gives the Executive Branch of government the power to control and/or censor the content on websites and apps …
Google’s A.I. Fiasco Exposes Deeper Infowarp
When the stock markets opened last Monday morning, February 26, Google shares promptly fell 4%, by Wednesday were down nearly 6%, and a week later have now fallen 8%. It was an unsurprising reaction to the embarrassing debut of the …
How Did American Capitalism Mutate Into American Corporatism?
In the 1990s and for years into our century, it was common to ridicule the government for being technologically backwards. We were all gaining access to fabulous things, including webs, apps, search tools, and social media. But governments at all …
The War Between Knowledge and Stupidity
Bernard Stiegler was, until his premature death, probably the most important philosopher of technology of the present. His work on technology has shown us that, far from being exclusively a danger to human existence, it is a pharmakon – a …
Reflections on Brownstone’s Retreat
My mind “hurts.” I just got back from the Brownstone Institute’s Retreat in Avon, Connecticut, February 22-25, 2024. Thirty-five people from a diverse mix of backgrounds and professions were invited to participate in two and a half days of presentations, …
How the Sea Turns Stones Into Pebbles
One of the favorite pastimes of my often competitive family growing up was seeing who could get the most “skips” from a stone thrown into the low-tide waters at the beach. This is a game that, as anyone who has …
Technocrats Cut Ireland at the Knees
Driving home after Christmas, we pulled in at the last toll plaza on the M8 to Cork. It had been dark for hours with ‘Storm Gerrit’ still pelting. As I lowered the window to hold out my card, a voice …
Technology: Weapon of the People
In an essay titled “Looking forward, looking backward,’ philosopher of technology, Andrew Feenberg writes (in Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity, The MIT Press, 2010, p. 61; my emphasis, B.O.):
The utopian and dystopian visions of the …
Technology: Weapon of the People
In an essay titled “Looking forward, looking backward,’ philosopher of technology, Andrew Feenberg writes (in Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity, The MIT Press, 2010, p. 61; my emphasis, B.O.):
The utopian and dystopian visions of the …
Big Tech has stolen our children
“Internet addiction” has lived a strange life since the Nineties. In 1995, a New York psychiatrist introduced the term, not to describe a real affliction of internet users, but to parody certain diagnostic tendencies in his field. Then other people, …
Censorship Literally Cannot Work
The digital era exposes citizens to a dizzying range of sources of information and evidence. The old days when public information was vetted by a few prominent newspapers and TV and radio stations are over. Under these circumstances, censorship and …
Google has Usurped Democracy
We hear a lot about “election integrity” or lack thereof, particularly around the issues of counting the vote and the ballot box. But the truth is that elections are more likely to be stolen via search engine manipulation effects (SEME).…