Are Google and Facebook Evil?

I’ve read two recent pieces which attack the tech giants—google, facebook, apple, twitter, microsoft—in various ways. “Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend,” and “Ashamed to work in Silicon Valley: how techies became the new bankers.”

Let me state unequivocally at the outset that I don’t know almost nothing about how technology works, and I have no expertise in the complex relationship between the techology, politics, and society. So what I say here should be taken with a grain of salt.

First, I have mixed feelings when I read these attacks, mostly because I’m a transhumanist who believes that only science and technology informed by philosophy can save us. Now obviously a lot of junk gets produced by technology companies, a lot of time is wasted on facebook, there are a lot of clueless nerds in the world, and a lot of bad stuff happens when lies about politics are spread on the internet.

It is especially disconcerting when you consider that Google could cut off Breitbart, Alex Jones, and neo-Nazi nonsense from search results in a second, but it doesn’t want to be perceived as “left leaning” or lose advertising money—keeping the advertisers is more important than making sure that people read the truth.

So I do think  tech companies have huge responsibilities, perhaps a model like wikipedia, where they take their civic responsibilities seriously, as opposed to just focusing on profit. Of course this all depends on a new economic model, since the drive for profit as opposed to societal good is by definition a large part of the problem.

As for jobs lost to tech, i’ve written about this multiple times too, and I say again that we need a new economic system to our present one which  encourages despoiling the natural environment and climate, leaves vast wealth in the hands of a very few, etc.

Still tech companies do research and produce things—some of the most important possible research like AI and robotics and longevity is done by tech companies. So in that way they have the potential to do enormous good to. That also provides quite a contrast to Wall Street, the whole point of which is to scam money off others without contributing to the system as a whole.

Finally, let me say that ideally scitech research should be mostly funded by the public sector with accountability towards public good vs. private profit. Or at least there should be enough government regulation to ensure that the private operate in the public interest.

And again, a disclaimer. I am not an expert in such matters and these are complex issues.