We live in an age largely defined by our technology. This is also a time of unprecedented wealth but also unprecedented disparities in wealth, resulting in a sort of techno-authoritarianism that is undermining our democracy and other precious accomplishments.
Some think technology is the best hope to solve these problems, but all those wonderful technologies are the result of binary thinking — an infinite set of variations of 1’s as 0’s.
I’m not questioning the brilliance of advanced coding but it will never be able to devise solutions to our most pressing social problems, like the high cost of living, homelessness, health care, mental health and addiction, poverty and environmental degradation.
To address these issues, we need something more holistic like ecological thinking — an approach capable of multi-variable analysis, grounded in the understanding that everything is related to everything else.
We need leaders and policies that address our role in the web of life, not just the web that’s on your computer. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any such leaders at the moment. (The closest might be a businessman — Jamie Dimon of JP MorganChase.)
Of the main political leaders during my lifetime, it may be that Al Gore came the closest to becoming such a thinker, right around the time he beat George W. Bush in the popular vote but lost the electoral college vote in 2001.
Gore was far from a perfect leader but I wonder how much our subsequent history might have been altered had he been in the White House rather than Bush.
That speculation is pointless now, except that we still as a society need to produce the leadership capable of helping articulate how democracy is a vital part of the web of life, which all too easily can be reduced by binary thinking to “survival of the fittest.”
BTW, this is also the fatal flaw in AI. It has been developed by binary thinkers. To take it to its absurd extreme, imagine that you are a well-educated young woman who moves to San Francisco in the near future and checks out the dating scene, only to discover that the only guys able to pay for dinner are robots.
Note: This is not a knock on coders; I know many charming coders with great intellectual breadth. It’s rather a toast to a disappearing species — the generalists.
HEADLINES:
Trump grants pardons to Giuliani, Meadows, others linked to 2020 election efforts (NPR)
Democratic unity fractures, paving the way for the government to reopen (CNN)
Senate Votes to Advance Measure to End Shutdown (NYT)
Press freedom threats surge with ICE raids (Axios)
Officials Demand States ‘Undo’ Work to Send Full Food Stamp Benefits (NYT)
Government shutdown reaches its 40th day as senators work through a crucial weekend (AP)
Small businesses are a huge part of the U.S. economy – and they’re not hiring (WP)
BBC director general and News CEO resign over Trump documentary edit (BBC)
Trump says he’ll issue $2,000 tariff dividend to all except ‘high-income people’ (ABC)
What Did Men Do to Deserve This? (New Yorker)
Trump Renews Attacks on Obamacare in New Push Over Government Shutdown (NYT)
Shutdown could reduce US flights ‘to a trickle’, transport secretary warns (BBC)
How a childhood virus can contribute to dementia later and what you can do (WP)
Newsom, Eyeing 2028, Tries to Mess With Texas: ‘Don’t Poke the Bear’ (NYT)
One photo, a deluge of threats: Inside the Arizona high school turned upside down by right-wing activists (NBC)
Do prediction markets make polls useless? (Silver Bulletin)
China’s DeepSeek makes rare public comment, calls for AI ‘whistle-blower’ on job losses (SCMP)
Is Wall Street losing faith in AI? (TechCrunch)
Debt Has Entered the A.I. Boom (NYT)
Patriots Starting To Regret Drafting 130-Pound Linebacker Based Exclusively On Strength Of Cover Letter (Onion)
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