| What this article describes is a terrible, confused, scary nightmare. From the very first picture that begins the article on-down, Elizabeth Mason advocates an absolutely frightening system that is made even more scary by how she comes through as genuinely/naively believing in it all. > Big data promises something closer to an unbiased, ideology-free evaluation of the effectiveness of these social programs. We could come closer to the vision of a meritocratic, technocratic society that politicians from both parties at state and local levels — those closest to the practical problems their constituents face — have begun to embrace. First, meritocracy was first brought up as a joke by the author who coined the term. Second, who is advocating for this “technocratic vision” short of Silicon Valley CEOs? This “vision” of centralized, unbiased analysis by top-notch planners was what we had in Vietnam or with GOSPLAN in the USSR, not what we need now. Third, AI works fast, which means even if it’s 75% less “ideological” or whatever, it’s rate of speed is so fast that it will magnify any and all biases that might be lurking inside. To imagine that it is unbiased is crazy, let alone to think that it wouldn’t be used to some horrible malevolent end (cough China cough). This article made me sick, but it was so uplifting and wonderful to see all the other negative reactions on here and that this is not representative of HN. |