Matt Davies

@halcyene.bsky.social

4291 Followers 886 Following

Data/AI policy @adalovelaceinst.bsky.social (Political) philosophy of tech @lsegovernment.bsky.social @lsepoltheory.bsky.social Views my own 🔮✨ 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Screenshot of text from an article reading: "Macon-Cooney says Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” in the US proves the public is “ ready for a radical modernisation agenda of the state”."

Screenshot reading: "Masamune flourished in the latter part of the Kamakura era, and his works are uniformly prized by all the sword connoisseurs for their excellent qualities. As far as the edge of the blade is concerned, Masamune may not exceed Muramasa, one of his ablest disciplines, but Masamune is said to have something morally inspiring that comes from his personality. The legend goes thus: When someone was trying to test the sharpness of a Muramasa, he placed it in a current of water and watched how it acted against the dead leaves flowing downstream. He saw that every leaf that met the blade was cut in twain. He then placed a Masamune, and he was surprised to find that the leaves avoided the blade. The Masamune was not bent on killing, it was more than a cutting implement, whereas the Muramasa could not go beyond cutting, there was nothing divinely inspiring in it. The Muramasa is terrible, the Masamune is humane. One is despotic and imperialistic, the other is superhuman, if we may use this form of expression."

Screenshot of text reading: In light of this, our suggestion — to everyone, but especially journalists, policymakers, and the AI community — is to end the deference to insiders' views when they predict the future of technology, especially its societal impacts. This will take effort, as there is a pervasive unconscious bias in the U.S., in the form of a “distinctly American disease that seems to equate extreme wealth, and the power that comes with it, with virtue and intelligence.” (from Bryan Gardiner’s review of Marietje Schake’s The Tech Coup.)