Thread by @tiffanycli

I came across a mention of this think tank report in an old Joan Didion essay, and of course I had to find it immediately. The title alone is amazing, and there are some real gems in there.

“Cybernation: The Shadow Conquest” (1962) stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:rr2…

This 1962 report from the (now defunct) Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions includes many very familiar themes: automated workforce, AI, IoT, networked communications, supply chain dynamics, decline of the middle class, etc. stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:rr2…

“Cybernated systems perform with a precision and a rapidity unmatched in humans.” (By the way, should we bring back the term “cybernated” - Y/N?)

Should we bring “cybernate” back into English vocabulary? (Make cybernation great again?)

Here, the author predicts that an automated economy will lead to mass unemployment as well as social unrest, especially as young people are unable to find work.

The author criticizes the solution many proposed then (and do now) for automation-induced unemployment: re-training workers to learn tech skills.

NB: IMO re-skilling workers is a temporary fix, but still a worthwhile one. We do need larger systemic solutions as well.

The state of leisure post-automation is something I’ve been thinking about for some time. What will humans do with all our additional free time? If humans have a right to work (as enshrined in the UDHR), how can/should we protect this right in a post-automated world? @eduardfosch

These are essentially predictions for government use of automated decision-making systems. The report doesn’t say this so many words, but it’s getting close to current ideas re: privacy and security problems of black box AI. @LB_W_

"Thus, somewhere along the line, the idea of the individual may be completely swallowed up in statistics.”

Finally, the hot topic of the day: who should control automation in a cybernated society – the government or private industry? @FrankPasquale

In conclusion: Think tank friends, if you ever worry that no one is reading your white papers, never fear. Academics half a century later might pull out your random old reports and tweet them to the world.