There is something inevitable about the Trump/Musk duopoly currently wreaking havoc on previously solid global and domestic political pillars.
Depending on where you sit on the political spectrum this is either a source of glee (tinged with a soupçon of vengeance) or an appalling spectacle of mass political destruction. It is hard to be centrist about this. It seems as though a side must be chosen and blood must be shed.
But there is something larger at play here.
A graph came across my screen recently. It tracked human progress over thousands of years, specifically in terms of technology tools and increased economic output (yeah, I know, there are other ways to measure human progress, but this is a good proxy).
The graph is basically flat for most of mankind’s history. Not completely flat, sort of creeping up in a barely perceptible way. Then a slight tilt upwards after the industrial revolution. About 100 years later another steeper tilt up after the arrival of integrated circuits which led to PCs, the Internet, smartphones and the rest.
But then the graph hits 2023. The slope of the curve changes from healthily upwards to almost vertical. Asymptotic. WTF-level exponential.
Why? Because AI.
I’ll get back to this presently, but let’s return to Trump and tech titan Musk. Politics has long been entangled with technology (especially media technology), but it was generally a more polite relationship − Roosevelt’s fireside chats over the still young radio, TV broadcasts of the presidential debates, online polling, TV and radio political commercials.
Changed the game entirely
But social media changed the game entirely. Starting with Obama’s first-out-of-the-gate citizen digital outreach in 2012 and metamorphosing into the slouching rough beast it is now − a forum for deception, euphemisms, lies, exaggeration, and blatant partisan censorship, and a wet dream for canny and cynical political operatives.
Worse, those few genuine efforts to curate more objective and sober analyses of political information are smothered at birth − the lurking algorithms of social media have no use for them − they don’t amplify well and so make no money for the tech platforms. Outrage is much more profitable fuel.
None of this is particularly new, of course. Forests have been felled to provide column inches for the commentariat to write about the ascendancy of tech in global politics, and there is a consensus that where we are is an unhappy state of affairs − a candidate simply cannot win on policy or competence or vision or experience. A candidate can only win if they know to shout through the tech-created bullhorns loudly enough.
The candidates’ other qualifications barely matter because (as it tragically turns out), people will believe anything that is cast loudest and spread widest by the plethora of technologies available (to wit, the US now has a Health Secretary, RFK Jr., who is suggesting Vitamin A as a treatment for measles. People believe it because they read it on social media).
Broke bread with presidents
Obscenely rich men like Musk have always cosied up to presidents, seeking their favours and contracts for their business empires. John D Rockefeller (oil), Pierre S Du Pont (chemicals), Howard Hughes (aviation), J Paul Getty (oil), Andrew Carnegie (steel) and Henry Ford (vehicles) all slept in the White House and broke bread with presidents from time to time, begging bowls out, which were duly filled.
But this time is different. It is now the president asking for favours from Musk, not the other way around. From the Twitter/X bullhorn to the political leverage of Starlink to the axe-wielding DOGE brigade to the raw quarter of a billion dollars in cash dispensed to Trump’s campaign. The president needs Musk perhaps even more than Musk needs the president.
This re-ordering of the power balance between politics and technology is unprecedented in human history. The prospect of a head of state deferring to the aspirations of a private citizen is shocking. And yet here we are.
Some of you may remember the David Cronenberg remake of the horror movie, The Fly. A mild-mannered scientist named Seth Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum) invents a teleportation machine. After a number of experiments, he teleports himself to his girlfriend’s home, but unbeknownst to him, there is also a common housefly in the machine. His DNA mixes with those of the fly, with horrifying results. He becomes a monster.
As Trump and Musk start to meld, there are certainly those who might appreciate this comparison, but I think this may be a little premature − the jury is still very much out. What can be said is that politics and tech are at the early stages of a complete merger, and it will be one in which tech will emerge as the controlling shareholder.
For the first time in history
One of the greatest thinkers on the subject of technology and society was author and educator Neil Postman, who died in 2003, long before the grip of big tech took hold. He wrote a book called Technopoly (1992). In it he argued that culture was becoming subservient to technology for the first time in history. This thought was a prescient observation of today’s world. Technology is at the top of society’s hierarchy organising principles now − below it is culture, and below that, our political system.
Which brings us back to AI, if only to say, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The astonishing pace of dizzying new capabilities swamping every corner of human endeavour, from science to education to media to manufacturing to health to law, is quickly going to rewrite how societies work. How humans communicate, learn, create, innovate, age, play, negotiate, transact will undergo transformation we are not really able to comprehend. AI’s ability to shape opinion will make today’s social media influence look pale in comparison. And the time frame is years, not decades or centuries.
The corridors of power from Washington to Beijing have already started positioning themselves, with both money and favours. Politicians know that he who wins the AI race rules the world, and politicians who accept AI as their lord and saviour will be graced with unimaginable power.
Tech will be our god, AI its messiah. Politics will merely be its serf. Alarm bells have been rung, but few are listening.
[Image: Ideogram.ai]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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