This makes me think Althusser’s essay on ISAs (Ideological State Apparatuses).
More particularly, the description of what I’ll call the human data cycle where:
Experienced/viewed information becomes internalized, then rationalized (puzzled/fit into “own,”personal view[built upon biases from the individual’s entire life experience]), and then expanded upon/furthered in either a verbal response or exploration of thought in accordance to the individual’s personal view or “ideology.”
The fact that this process is now subject to the unfeeling and unknown whims of LLMs (and those behind them) is extremely worrying. Evolutionarily, knowledge sharing was a huge survival advantage, being able to digest information from peers and apply it greatly increased survival odds. Now, it feels like the opposite.
It feels like a shift from guard rails to guiding hand. A new era of information asymmetry. For the individual, how can one know the “true” thoughts and feelings of a nation or society on an issue, when it’s impossible to know if the information we’re seeing is truly from real people. It makes me wonder if, in terms of societal pulse, we’ll become limited/isolated to only our own local communities. But even then, there will still lie the influence of the digital world…
Great read
Thanks!
👏👏👏
Great thread connecting what has been a fun series of works.
This makes me think Althusser’s essay on ISAs (Ideological State Apparatuses).
More particularly, the description of what I’ll call the human data cycle where:
Experienced/viewed information becomes internalized, then rationalized (puzzled/fit into “own,”personal view[built upon biases from the individual’s entire life experience]), and then expanded upon/furthered in either a verbal response or exploration of thought in accordance to the individual’s personal view or “ideology.”
The fact that this process is now subject to the unfeeling and unknown whims of LLMs (and those behind them) is extremely worrying. Evolutionarily, knowledge sharing was a huge survival advantage, being able to digest information from peers and apply it greatly increased survival odds. Now, it feels like the opposite.
It feels like a shift from guard rails to guiding hand. A new era of information asymmetry. For the individual, how can one know the “true” thoughts and feelings of a nation or society on an issue, when it’s impossible to know if the information we’re seeing is truly from real people. It makes me wonder if, in terms of societal pulse, we’ll become limited/isolated to only our own local communities. But even then, there will still lie the influence of the digital world…