And now heres cohen on growth and influence of Silicon Valley. Hello. Were going to get started here tonight my name is seth im the director of the Communications Forum and a couple of quick announcements before we start, these are held three times semester six times year if you would like to be informed of future events theres a signup sheet over there put your name and email and only send news about our six events a year. We have pretty good ones, we had it earlier this year john last semester. These three we have some great stuff planned for next semester already. Also tonights forum is being filmed by cspan so the question part of the tore rum, if you would go to one of the microphones and a also hopefully state your name and your question another reason we ask you to sate your name is because we then do a writeup of all of the forum afterwards, which you will be able to read a couple of days after the event. On our website, which is come forum. Edu and the last announcement is that this event tonight is cosponsored by radius which is another group here at m. I. T. Im thrilled to be able to introduce these three. It is a different three than we initially thought would be here. Because jeff hao he called me up at a little past five because his daughter was puking and a as father of two yng kids, myself, i said please stay home. And so furniturely chris couch who writes a lot about Technology Works with the forum is a brilliant journalist in her own right agreed to fill in as a moderator. But let me introduce to everyone cohen is the author of the new book the know it alls and that will also be a hashtag tonight and i think moving forward know it all. Got to get on that. Yep. We worked together a decade and a half ago. Ive known him ever since he is a great guy, and a brilliant journalist. He covered the influence on internet for larger culture for New York Times wrote a link by link column beginning in 2007. His first book the know it all a rise of Silicon Valley is political power house and social wrecking ball is an intellectual history of Silicon Valley and critically examines how culture and ideology belittle sympathy and even democracy. That was published in october 2017, and it is available for purchase right here, and in addition to, to supporting open discussion, we also support both book stores and authors. So please by all means buy the book its a great book. Have appeared in the Technology Review company and in wired magazine and to put the twitter handle on the board and i will turn it over to chris. In addition to this but we have a book called whiplash that is also a great book and obviously the author is here to sign now back to the presentation. Thank you for all being here we are so excited for this panel addressing the important issues and encourage you to buy books so first of all talking about the central argument of the book and correct me if im wrong but the disruption and individualism that has eroded humanity is that fair to say . So the premise of how to get together but then the deeper question everybody has humanity so i approach this of the science aspect thinking of machines as people and people as machine so that denies the humanity if you think of them as so individualistically but googles first design director and he suggested a color and instead of they use the color they wanted they tested all the different shades of blue what they used the most is what they were going to use and then he resigned and said there was a human vision but then they dont apologize that is the most popular it increases revenue so it is that breakdown. I have seen the data points. They are not apologetic. Can you speak to what those outcomes are . With those intricacies of Silicon Valley how does that play out . To make it seem more mainstream but whitakers existing regulation with the idea and you can think of all the Different Companies to regulate what children see on video should they declare what they are doing . That is one part of the ideology this taste for regulation and distrust of government that is poisonous to society. But the idea of extreme free speech is another and i wrote a piece in the new yorker on the Bulletin Board if there is any limits on free speech that was racist or sexist and then try to limit that there was such severe pushback that it was reversed to have limits on free speech is cohesive. So there is that other dangerous aspect but we are doing this so i wrote this book before the 2016 election but what happened from that fruition is the fact that these Big Companies like google or facebook or twitter that if our country could try to influence our election or disclosure or if these could be used by anybody to stir up anger and resentment. They dont see themselves as custodians of power for profit or that utopian vision that supersedes other concerns. Clearly in the 2016 election it was a turning point and using gmail and in order to place ads for that in my mom at the time i never mentioned the word cancer in the email because i didnt want radiation treatment so that is similar the custodian of my information it felt like they had a right to commercialize that. Allied third work deals with criticism but also the culture but from your perspective do you agree with or how do you feel love the premise to have an impact on humanity . Absolutely i agree with the overall premise they have started to unpack those implications the way it is built with the assumptions and ideologies that are acted out in the technology itself and looking at those individuals that come up with these designs and their ideologies do matter. But the biggest thing for me is in terms of optimization most Silicon Valley leaders are designed around optimization whether the design itself getting the information or connecting to all of the world. Those are questions of efficiency and optimizing for profit. Those are taken for granted for optimization and trying to unpack those assumptions what if it was not the optimization model . What would that look like or how does that change the experience . What does that change about facebooks role in our life . So the trick is using the terminology of the industry the way they think of problems that is a way to share language that we have not necessarily agreeing to the terms of optimization but that is a natural way things evolve but those are the terms we agreed to. What was well done in the book many of those that we associated with issues of privacy and commercialization that they may not agree to but some are major giants currently google is one that started the east coast that was against all of those. So how did we get here . Sure. But that was spot on and i was reading her report and she went after the critics and i could see myself in there that what she talks about is try to get to a better place and i was looking at the history also think of the efficiency argument almost like in the beginning of the book that there was the feel that you give that one pass to harvest you shouldnt go back a second time because of that ecosystem that live off of the cleaning. So what the efficient thing would be like that is what i do i am a farmer. But again it is like using their language so recently sending me a tweet where mark sucker berg said he cared so much about the selection meddling that the company would spend all this money to hire people they were so prepared to lose money but and that is the efficiencies that were set up but how did we get here . And to feel that that Computer Science accounts for some of the extreme ideological ideas and lack of diversity and then credit for those profits so the google case if you go back to leave your mom read the original papers like the Google Search engine everybody agrees they were standing on the shoulders of others but they took this early west that was chaotic and made it coherent. Wyatt needed to be advertising free and in the academic world a place for it was transparent now we accept the idea these are the secret things nobody should know what we are doing that they were arguing it is bad for science and trusting the system so they wrote the paper explaining all of that. So they are serious academics they were getting the phd off of this idea that was so much bandwidth at stanford that how to pay for this. Couldnt stanford have said this is great . We pay for the Nuclear Reactor or for the studying of society and you better figure out a way to do this and connected for and they were not incorporated. So a person who was a stanford graduate wrote their check for google and said there is not one and then one month later there was one and the rest is history so it was almost like corruption i guess maybe you call it selling out that for facebook as well where they really had some idealism in all of the power of computers not necessarily trying to become billionaires but in the book there are other characters that were bankers and that is what they were trying to do. But the others i feel were led astray. That is my view. But talking how the Technology World has changed, how has the media evolved . One of the things i tried to look at is coverage from those Silicon Valley movements and all that energy that went into covering the amazon era and google and facebook and others and starting from a very businessoriented model the talk about politics and people and society shifting the narrative and why this is changing our lives and affecting our lives that shift happens at a couple different points. 2007 the iphone comes out that dramatically changes the day today relationship with the computer in our pocket basically but yet still in that gadget excitement space than 2013 that moment where we come to terms with the fact it is good and bad that is a larger discourse specifically journalist and politicians are willing to acknowledge if you are picking up on this also. But what is interesting right now is when your book came out now there is World Without end also the four by scott galloway. And a bit more on the market side but you also have tim with the emergence so that is an interesting moment right now in part because this was written before the crisis hit. The writing has been on the wall publishers seem to acknowledge this thinking there is a market for the book so where is the audience . So that narrative wires a certain moment with this german politician who has all his data and on the front page of the times. So to say that is weird they keep all that data but and to get attention so that was a big deal. But also talking about access is if we dont have access to these companies to stay on their good side to integrate. That is true if you are a Business Tech journalist. As different walks of life come to terms with technology on society. So when you leave that gadget phase is less important that is usually important with that ratification i didnt seek out access there was the incredible sight of the zuckerberg files it is anything they have ever said. And that they have access with the streaming but i read a lot of that. Almost all of it. But then he deleted his tweets but he tweeted 100,000 times so there was more than enough about him. So they all have documentation because when i did try the interviews it wasnt that revealing. So there is the appreciation. They have to be supported to be willing to stick their neck out i think specifically of the amazon Workplace Environment example that reaction is what are you talking about . Just like everybody ran a large piece on the interwork interworking spanning from the low level not all the way through the top but a detail to get lots of attention. And that response really is a classic libertarian response. I do think he embodies a lot but it was very clear that it cant teacher because they just wouldnt work here so they are treated right so it does seem logical but there cannot be sexual discrimination because of the arbitrage opportunities. And it cant exist. And with this attachment from reality. With current racism and sexism and to have meritocracy but then to say this is effective. So the best rise up. So what we have now is fair if you are not represented if you cant make it you cant cut it. So this was such a reeducation because it is a Digital World of those legacy problems it doesnt matter. To build on that response it is so clearly articulates the complete disregard for the physical world. They are in seattle for them they would have to uproot their families and lives. The question is not if he is a smart person but does he not really understand . When we talk about bio feed and technology with the underrepresentation as well as exhibited by the products of the Computer Vision system or there was an article fairly recently of women getting prosthetics just stemming from a dominant group in power. Very much dominated by white men so from your perspective do you see these types of issues changing . Overtime . Right now. [laughter] as we talk about that. There is more media coverage. Is that landscape beginning to shift . It would require, the book fundamentally says they are against democracy. How do we have wheelchair access . And it isnt true everybody could express their opinion and that is how you represent people. And then a hearing that the senate had about the top lawyers from google and facebook and twitter and she was explaining to them very patiently it is important to control elections. So to have a democracy. So there was the japaneseamerican representative the japaneseamericans would not have happened. There needs to be a political way to correct these but fundamentally they can argue they can self regulate. Those will have a new path. Maybe it is selfregulation. That is 60 . From here selfregulation in the Technology World. Im sure i wouldnt be quite as fair. But i think it is a little scary that i feel like he is often described as a character but he is expressing the main thought that democracy is bad. And that is not good. And the cofounder of paypal said he believes in regulation but it is, i dont know. It does get down to our democracy. That is why it is important but to be reflective of technology and the voices of minority riders have been overlooked in a systematic way. So do you see that end of that changing because certainly in the last couple of years it has drastically changed for the better but that also puts pressure on Silicon Valley to change. At the very least now versus in the future to see the yes we will work on diversity for hiring and thinking more about users whether or not that is effective that on the writing side not just looking at those who Cover Technology but those who are contributing to a larger discourse of the role of technology in society that has to do with looking at a whole range of riders. Not just like those Technology Journalist but those writing the oped. As a direct response to the Current Issue so in trying to articulate this a lot of that has to do with women writing a blog post or critique a technology that doesnt include fitness tracking. Those kinds of pieces come from a lot of Different Directions and not limited to publications with that places you look for coverage from the typical maledominated dominated tech world. And no matter how enlightened you are you cannot do that but so looking at the example of the coverage a lot of Women Journalists are writing that that is a reason if there are similar pushes going on rich and by Women Journalists be making a. Certainly especially in the last two months i am hopeful but looking at what ellen powell went through with her lawsuit, yes. She was in a company and had a Sexual Harassment issue that was shoved under the rug basically. But again that was probably two years ago. And to have support or have people take her seriously. It all remember his name at the engineer . Here these they are libertarians but safe i fire this libertarian guy for his insidious ideas. If you dont know the author included a pretty large critique that the women could be naturally blind and also with guns fire them into yes after that to say it was the autism spectrum. I remember on twitter they cannot work work on twitter but i remember thinking that the problems it isnt just doing programming it is bad enough but it is actually affecting our society. But there are so many rules to be played it is a weird way but that free speech said that i should give this was within the company and they said yes that does not preclude you from so we have a point that google can say that is not their culture or what they dont want it to be like . So all of these just interventions are not valuable in his mind. With the tech culture there is a valid argument as technology increases there is a line on automation but what you might once be able to hold somebody responsible to hire only men that it is the algorithm under visiting. So talk about the role of spleen ability. There is great interest to say they will let the algorithm do the work then we have to say it is not biased. And it isnt a human but then of course it gets back to my main question. If you build this algorithm, then you already bake in those assumptions about the backgroun background, history , all the things that are systemic in the sense you dont have access over the right background or the white man who does not get along. Because there are a lot of people talking about this yes they would obstruct to the decisionmaking process but looking at the terms does matter and that is still a hard conversation. There was a footnote and i went back to look at one of the chapters of mccarthy professor at mit moving to stanford and the idea of peoples machines that the brain is the entity to exist outside of the body but it was an odd request so to be seen in the book with this professor whether a computer could be a judge. So mccarthy of course was it could be a judge just long as it is programmed correctly. And to be a judge or therapist this was a real disconnect with reality. And she interviewed minority students and they