We do things to ourselves we would never tolerate being imposed on us
by others.
In 1984, the famous dystopian sci-fi novel, the Party has a
television in every home. It’s two way, recording everything that
is said, watching everything that is done. It’s always connected to
some far off, unseen Party official, and able to chastise a citizen
who is not keeping up with the Party’s official fitness programme
(for example). But it doesn’t laugh like a witch, to be fair.
[Spoilers for the first three Mass Effect games follow].
The Mass Effect Trilogy* is a fantastic set of sci-fi games set a few
hundred years in the future. Humanity has risen to the stars, and
encountered numerous alien races. In this galaxy, the equivalent of a
Galactic UN resides upon the Citadel, a space station discovered long
ago (having been mysteriously abandoned). The Citadel sits at the
heart of a Mass relay network, each Mass relay enabling immensely
fast travel between two points.
It’s a trap. The discovery of the Mass relay network dissuades
advanced races from developing their own faster than light
capabilities, because they already have a system that works perfectly
well. The Citadel space station being at the centre of the network,
as well as being very sizeable and perfect for settlement, naturally
makes it the seat of an inter-governmental organisation.
Advanced races are unwittingly funnelled into a pre-determined course
of action. They’re surrendering their freedom to choose their own
fate and develop in their own way because of the gifts they’ve been
given, without realising there’s even a giver.
In the vast chasm between galaxies, a race of sentient machines known
as the Reapers live. Once every age, they return to devastate the
advanced races of the galaxy before they reach a stage where they
might be a threat to the Reapers. The Citadel can be remotely
controlled by the Reapers, and used to destroy the seat of galactic
government. Lack of stand-alone faster-than-light travel capabilities
means civilisations develop along the Mass relay network and can be
readily obliterated. The path of civilisation occurs along lines laid
down ages ago, in a repeated cycle of growth and destruction.
The funnelling effect (although, happily, not the mass extinction at
the hands of heartless sentient machines) is something we’re seeing
now in social media. The internet is becoming more and more
consolidated, certainly in social media terms, in the hands of fewer
and more powerful firms. Algorithms are used to massage/manipulate
what stories get more coverage. Users can be shadowbanned so their
messages don’t show up, without even realising it.
We’re collectively empowering these social media firms and limiting
our own freedom to discover news free from the filter that such sites
(must necessarily) impose. This is, perhaps, to be expected. Human
history has seen a shift throughout the ages whereby the many
villagers migrate to the few cities. There are advantages in scale to
being a member of a large, rather than a small, community (just ask
on Twitter if someone knows something, and you’ve got a decent
chance of getting the answer).
But with social media there is also a significant downside. Such
sites must have the right and ability to expel those who are
troublesome. They are not free from laws forbidding, for example, the
sharing of state secrets. And that requires punitive action to be
taken. The problem is that, because they’re social media, this can
extend to silencing the troublesome who have unorthodox/challenging
opinions. Deciding where to draw the line in such cases is not easy.
But drawing it wrong can stifle debate, even if said social media
firm has no agenda of its own (and some clearly do).
You cannot like a comment if you never see it. And if the algorithm
decides an unorthodox opinion is wrong and harmful, see it you shall
not.
Social media is incredibly useful, and it’s here to stay. But I
would strongly advocate not relying solely upon it (particularly a
single firm) for news. Because doing so is to put blinkers on
yourself, not even knowing what the filters are preventing you from
seeing.
Thaddeus
*There is a fourth game, which I haven’t played, and the first
three do form a single overarching story.
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