It's Friday here, which is kind of cool. Not a ton of big news that I found interesting today, Facebook still seems to be getting a lot of attention. Probably the best part of that story that I came across, Tony Stark (played by Elon Musk) decided to continue with his antagonizm of Zuckerberg and deleted the Tesla and SpaceX Facebook accounts. Somewhere in that tweet stream, it was suggested that Elon should create a new social network. Either "Martian Mingle" or "FaceX" were the two ideas that made me chuckle.
The simple reality, however, is that while it would be fun to see, such a thing is not really needed. The groundwork has been well laid for people to use the STEEM blockchain to participate in a vibrant community which does not have a walled garden approach to hoovering up data and locking it away for themselves to profit from. It is really quite the opposite conceptually, as the network is open and empowering. This isn't just about people getting paid for helping build a community. That's a great idea that seems to be a fair exchange of value. Everybody gets something, it takes a lot of work to make it work, and people can flourish in this environment. The really interesting part to me is that it seems to be a hotbed of innovation and activity. I've kind of given up trying to find everything, because as soon as I think I've got it figured out there is some other project doing something interesting with the data.
When all of this heat started coming down on Facebook, their response (https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104712037900071) says a lot about the difference in philosophy between a walled garden and an open system. Rather than become more transparent and give users more control, everyone can now rest assured that they will do a much better job of keeping people away from their treasure trove.
Since we kind of started with Elon Musk and Twitter, I want to spend a little bit of time digging into that running feud between the tech billionaires just a bit more. One of the more noteworthy parts of the saga is the discussions around the downsides of artificial intelligence. There are two different narratives around this topic, and I find the question fascinating. Is the future all fluffy bunnies and milkshakes? Nobody will have to work and the machines will take care of all of the heavy lifting. OK, sign me up for that. Or is there some version of the future that looks a bit less fun? There is a lot of material here, and it's a pretty complex topic. One of the more logical, short intros I've seen on the "run for the hills" side is Sam Harris' TED talk (https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_can_we_build_ai_without_losing_control_over_it). If you haven't already seen it, that one's well worth the 14 1/2 minutes it takes to watch.
Let me know if any of this seems interesting or strikes a chord. I'll probably keep talking about the AI stuff and the blockchain anyway, but it would be nice to know what you think.
Until next time...
