The Existential Threat of Big Tech w/ Franklin Foer
Channel: SatoriD
Date: 2017-09-27

FRANKLIN FOER, Author, “World Without Mind”: 
Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple are among the most powerful monopolies in the history of humanity. So, the problem is, is that they have tremendous ability to shape the way that we think, the way that we filter the world, the way that we absorb culture.
And if they were just companies, maybe we shouldn’t be so concerned about them, but they play an incredibly vital role in the health of our democracy.

On why the threat of big tech companies is an existential one

If you're of a certain age, you have a good appreciation for the ways in which we've all become a little bit cyborg. I grew up using maps and having a sense of direction, and now I have a phone. I used to try to remember numbers, and now I ... can just call them up instantly. And that's great. But what's happening right now is that we're in a phase of human evolution where we're merging with machines.

It's not necessarily a bad thing, but we're not just merging with machines. We've been merging with tools since the beginning of human evolution and arguably, that's one of the things that makes us human beings. But what we're merging with [now] are machines that are run by companies that act as filters for the way in which we interact and process the world.

And so the values of those companies become our values. We become dependent on these companies in a way in which we've never really been dependent on companies before. And this could all work out in a utopian, beautiful sort of way, or it could unfold as a dystopian, sci-fi nightmare. And I just think that because the stakes are so high, we have to be extra skeptical.