MEDIAEATER DIGEST TUE 25th, DEC, MMXVIII MERRY CHRISTMAS DISPUTE THE TEXT, SAPERE AUDE
The Abstracted Absent Arbiter or The New Other
The absent arbiter and providence obscurer are new mechanisms for control.
We are at the intersection of several concepts that have not fallen in place with such scale before. They form the steps towards a dystopian future, a place where provenance, disintermediation, anonymity, arbitration and AI all intersect.
When connected they raise the need …
- For provenance across all digital assets. One of the greatest problems of our time.
- To bring clarity to the abstraction and disintermediation of authority in critical decision making processes that impact our lives.
- To implement AI’s with goals clearly stated and provenance established
This is important because the absent arbiter and providence obscurer make possible fake news, they make possible for accountability to be obscured.
We need to address provenance not for business need cases like tracking IP for profit, or DRM for protection, but more important – knowing source – is part of understanding truth, and that should supersede capitalistic or technological advancement needs. Root always matters.
Visible examples of this abstraction when you are unnable to speak with a human on a help line, or that decision making AI in a black-box abstracting us from the logic and the decision tree that changes your life. These mechanisms of disintermediation are the ‘anonymity authority’ or ‘absent arbiters’.
Not coincidentally these are all intersections of AI optimization. Abstraction of authority in critical decision making is the mechanism that allows for the casualties of AI’s implementation.
Perhaps even more critical there is also the abstraction and appropriation or our cultural heritage . The corporate copyright against putting ‘Hakuna Matata’ on a t-shirt (like trademarking ‘good morning’ use on a tee-shirt). “It’s a common phrase we use every other day. No company can own it.” Your history and language “not yours” as the auctioneer says. The provenance stolen, then claimed. Suddenly saying good morning in your native language on a t-shirt is a crime.
Numerous examples surface everyday in our lives. Located at the intersection of provenience and truth in the area of anonymity. Its at that intersection that we need to be most transparent – as these things ‘move men to action’ and change lives. Our northern border legal immigration process is being abstracted by the current administration is another current example.
Without the ability to know the goal, motive and ownership of the new master abstractor we all end up enslaved to prescribed fiction vs news and further disintermediated from things that move us forward. Be it basics like food, shelter, clothing (2of3 of three are now services) to knowledge and wealth creation for prosperity.