[Me & X] Social Media Ban
X : Do you think social media should be banned for under 16 year olds?
Me : Hmmm, you're talking the Australia example here, starting on the 10th?
X : Yes.
Me : I like it, but I would extend such actions much further to include AI services and also examine games with community aspects. Personally, I'd make the fines much more severe, including a percentage of revenue.
X : You'd ban AI services like ChatGPT for under 16 year olds?
Me : Oh no. I'd ban them for under 30 year olds. The UK is not like China where the Ministry of Education identified critical thinking as a core skill back in 2018 and where the teaching of AI is under this critical thinking syllabus. Until we start taking critical thinking seriously, I would urge caution and give people a chance to develop the skills necessary.
X : You're a lunatic.
Me : Lunacy is allowing coherence engines to gain control of peoples' decision making in an environment which lacks critical thinking. For an extra dollop of lunacy, allow those coherence engines to be under the control of others who might not share your values. This is what tips them into a non-kinetic form of warfare akin to Hollywood's use of soft power. The difference is that this effect extends beyond just exploiting narrative (the heroes, the symbols, the stories and the other forms of art) to change beliefs and into how we reason. Soon, all your values will be the ones embedded in these systems as they capture your ability to reason.
X : They won't capture my ability to reason.
Me : So says every CIO that uses vibe coding to create a system they don't understand. All the actual decisions are made by the machine and that comes with whatever values it has been trained on.
X : I write the specification!
Me : Specifications, architectural diagrams and the like are always statements of belief. The actual decisions are made in the code, which you don't understand.
X : But if you banned them, that would have a terrible impact on the market.
Me : The market should be seen as a tool of society and not the other way around. I would ask you to think about what society you are attempting to create before you plunge us into this Brave New World.
Originally published on LinkedIn.