There's a problem in the world which I struggle to capture in words. Whenever I try, it's usually summarised as "the usual communist critique of capitalism". I think it's a different problem.
The problem? Computational Tyranny.
The problem? Computational Tyranny.
It's a mix of bureaucratic hell, responsibility laundering, over optimisation causing havoc due to Goodheart's law, a computational load we place on people just to navigate the world.
It's "the computer says no" problem, it's the rent fixing via a coordinated algorithmic process rises, it's enshittification of software products.
It's the increased complexity of everyday life, which is asymmetric: disability benefits law can be arbitrarily complicated: government will automate it and largely won't care.
People needing disability benefits? They need to understand the complications. They'll be stuck in corner cases which are mishandled by the software but the complexity will be overwhelming - they won't be able to advocate for themselves.
It's also how adversary using internet feels. Each search result tries to take advantage of me. I'm a relatively young technical person and at times I almost got scammed.
How can rest of the society cope?
How can rest of the society cope?
And the responsibility laundering. Nobody's responsible for it. It's the incentives, it's "I don't make the calls", it's "if I don't do it, somebody else will".
It's the over optimisation shifting the value from economic transactions from mostly going to consumers to mostly going to corporations. In large part it's due to computational and informational asymmetry.
Computational Tyranny.
It's the best I came up with to describe the phenomenon. I hope once we can name it, we can take the first step in defeating it.
It's the best I came up with to describe the phenomenon. I hope once we can name it, we can take the first step in defeating it.
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