Tag Archives: technology

Facebook: platform or publisher?

On the slippery slope to AI a debate rages these days about whether Facebook and other social media platforms are in fact platforms or publishers. A platform, like the physical raised stage whence the metaphor derives, it is a completely neutral enabler of communication, like the printing press or telephone. We don’t blame the podium, […]

November 23, 2019 – 10:53 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Resisting the AI future?

What will become of us? How technology is changing what it means to be human” is the title of a recent issue of the New York Times Magazine. Something about the helplessness of that plaintive question says a lot about our situation when it comes to the computerization of life and AI (artificial intelligence). Two […]

January 5, 2019 – 6:11 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

WHY THE FUSS ABOUT ONE SELF-DRIVING CAR FATALITY?

The death in March by an Uber self-driving prototype in Phoenix has been a serious speedbump on the road to what many think is the imminence of this revolutionary technology. The car’s braking system was apparently mis-programmed and the human overseer possibly distracted. In media stories, all the emphasis has been on the unacceptability of […]

May 28, 2018 – 4:05 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Does Facebook have more to apologize for than electricity or the telephone?

I’m sure there must be an easy answer to the following question that occurs to this pre-millennial. In Mark Zuckerberg’s recent appearance before a congressional committee, Rep. David McKinley, a West Virginia Republican, pointed to Facebook ads offering opioids for sale without a prescription and addressed Zuckerberg accusingly: “Facebook is actually enabling an illegal activity, […]

April 18, 2018 – 2:58 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

AI : thinking about the end of the human era

Don’t look now, but while our attention is being distracted by all the media focus on climate change, there’s a much more ominous threat on the horizon: artificial intelligence ( AI). Unlike climate change, AI is not an unintended consequence of technology but something fellow humans are working hard to bring about. The goal the […]

November 26, 2016 – 2:48 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

GPS almost almost got us killed

Those of us old enough to straddle the digital watershed are probably more sensitive to the downside of killer apps than millennials. In July, an old friend visiting the Cape from out of town was staying in a B&B in Eastham. He had ridden his bike up to Wellfleet for a visit, but when we […]

October 20, 2015 – 12:20 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Labor Day, Self-driving cars and John Henry

Don’t look now, but the self driving car (SDC) is apparently about to run us over. Already prototypes have put in over a million miles on public roads (so far with a human co-pilot for emergencies). Google says it plans to make SDCs available by 2020. It’s a shock reading that the SDC will have […]

September 13, 2015 – 12:31 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

GPS: yet another delegation of power

My wife and I were in Boston recently, driving to a French restaurant where we were looking forward to having lunch. The city is complicated territory to us country mice, but the GPS lady –nice, if a bit of a know-it-all—seemed to have it under control. Do this, do that, turn here, turn there, turn […]

July 31, 2015 – 12:13 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

GPS: Another delegation of power

My wife and I were in Boston recently, driving to a French restaurant where we were looking forward to having lunch. The city is complicated territory to us country mice, but the GPS lady –nice, if a bit of a know-it-all—seemed to have it under control. Do this, do that, turn here, turn there, turn […]

July 28, 2015 – 2:55 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Eastham: electronic voting will mean the loss of the essence of town meeting

At their May 5 town meeting, Eastham citizens will vote whether to be the first on the block to replace traditional voting by voice or raised hands with electronic voting. The idea is that it will shorten meetings, improve accuracy and ensure privacy. In a newspaper story on the proposal a former moderator from Westboro, […]

May 2, 2014 – 1:46 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)