RESET Meeting 9: The Tech Giants
Wed, November 6, 2:30 PM in Folsom Libary Rm. 353B
Topics:
Last meeting:
- A realistic picture of automation. How things may not be fully automated any time soon but might be semi-automated and require human supervision.
- Displaced workers. Truck drivers, McDonald's employees, teachers, office workers. All being automated or with the potential to be automated.
- Competing interests of new technologies: corporations interest in wealth, politicians interest in public welfare (just kidding wealth), and workers interest in not being replaced
- Automated tools in education and the potential for human isolation
- Automated assault drones and what an all-out automated war with Canada may look like
- The reason we don't like RPI's administration (we had to indoctrinate the freshmen in the group)
This meeting:
- Have the Tech giants gotten too large and why? What can be done to reduce their power and influence? Do traditional monopoly laws apply?
- Facebook likes to stress that it is only a platform and not responsible for the content posted on it. However, with over 2 billion users and it being the primary source of news for many people, they have become inextricably linked to the political system. What are their responsibilities in this position? How can they better regulate content? Is there a happy medium between a Facebook free-for-all and government censorship?
- Amazon ships millions of packages a day at the expense of warehouse employees and delivery drivers. They have actively worked to prevent these workers from unionizing or even demanding meaningful change. How can this change?
- Google regularly collaborates with authoritarian governments to sell censored versions of their tools. Often, Google has more leverage with foreign governments than the U.S.'s own government. Are we trending towards techno-diplomacy instead of typical foreign relations? What does a world where Google negotiates ceasefires and treaties look like?
- Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have contracts with the military and other agencies of the DoD. Third-party contracts are nothing new in defense but does the tremendous size and influence of these companies in other fields make the situation different?
- Amazon is becoming a one-stop-shop for all consumer goods, internet services, and surveillance equipment giving them leverage over the government, the economy, and American citizens. Is this undemocratic? Is this inevitable with America's economy? If not, how do we limit Amazon?