S07E09 of Connection Problem: Congressional hearings and the new tech narrative

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Hello friends,

I hope you’re doing well, wherever this finds you. Last week I touched on some traditional politics and some folks were a bit surprised. Turns out I had forgotten a bit of important context: I forgot to add that the section on the rise of the right was of course on the occasion of Twitter finally taking action on some of the right wing extremist and conspiracy theorist groups on their platforms. Apologies for that oversight.

The topic will continue to be relevant to a degree in this issue as it was addressed in the congressional hearing with tech CEOs. That piece turned out to be a bit of a whopper after I sat through the whole thing — so this issue is going to be just about the hearing, plus two book recommendations.

Yours,

— Peter

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You’re receiving this because you signed up for this newsletter on tinyletter.com/pbihr or through my company’s website, thewavingcat.com. The Waving Cat is a boutique research and strategic advisory firm; I also co-founded ThingsCon, a non-profit that explores fair, responsible, and human-centric technologies. On Twitter, I’m @peterbihr. If you'd like to work with me or bounce ideas, let's have a chat.

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The New Tech Narrative

I’ve been watching the congressional hearing with tech CEOs Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook on the side this morning - the GAFA gang.

I didn’t expect to get through the full 5+ hours but it certainly was interesting to see how alliances emerge and fall apart, how there’s a broad mix of very concrete, well-founded concerns and wild guessing bordering on conspiracy theory — which to me admittedly seemed to happen more on the Republican side of the aisle, around alleged censorship of conservative viewpoints online.

That said, I found it a very interesting watch altogether and, to my big surprise, entirely worth that time. (With admittedly only partial attention for parts of the show.)

As I mentioned on Twitter, I found that the members of the committee overall had really done their homework. They made points based on apparently well-done, deep research (there was mention of a million+ documents and countless interviews at some points). On the Republican side, there sure were a few conspiracy theorist arguments that made me cringe hard; but also some interesting angles of attack around national security and market dominance. The Democrats had really done their homework, too. Together, they went at the CEOs pretty hard, from many angles, and it was interesting to see the types of reactions.

If I had to summarize it in the shortest, most subjective terms, I’d say that Zuck was being Zuck, spineless as ever; Pichai and Cook knew their stuff, and while they leaned on generic talking points pretty heavily they seemed competent and aware of what was going on; and Bezos seemed tremendously out of touch with what’s going on in his company. Is it a coincidence that the companies represented by their founders came off looking worse than those run by non-founding executives?

So where does that leave us? I think it’s important to remember that this type of hearing isn’t a fact-finding exercise. It’s an opportunity for tech leadership to respond to the results of a long investigation, and for congress to establish and align narratives going forward.

And those things all worked remarkably well, or at least so it appears to me. I always have mixed feelings with these types of interactions between politics and tech, but in this case I think it’s relevant and overdue.

The market dominance and influence of these companies on the way we find and consume information is enormous on a scale we’ve never seen before; this requires all the scrutiny. These platforms are weaponized by various players, and potentially their financial incentives are aligned with that weaponization, at least in the short term, so that requires scrutiny. And of course the giant moat as a barrier to present and future innovation they’ve been building requires scrutiny.

Committee chair Mr Cicilline concludes with a remarkably strong statement that he sees clear monopolies at play here, and that all four companies need to be heavily regulated and some broken up, and ends on a note quoting former supreme court justice Brandeis. Brandeis had strong views against monopolies and said (in 1941 or so?) that “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both” — that’s the line that Cicilline quoted here.

That concludes the official part and sets the stage for the next act. Unregulated tech or a thriving democracy: That’s the new tech narrative for the next few years.

Some other related things I couldn’t help notice throughout the hearing:

It would have been a nice touch, a show of some spine, if some of those CEOs had rejected the long diatribe towards the end of the hearing against so-called “cancel culture” and indirect attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement by Republican member of the committee Mr. Jordan. But, y’know, showing values and standing for principles isn’t what they came to do apparently.

I was all the more surprised to read these last few days that Twitter and Facebook have been deleting or freezing posts and accounts by T//ump (apologies for the misspelling; I want to minimize the online attraction by the professional trolls and harassers) and others who make false and potentially hurtful claims around Covid online. This is going to be one of the major proxy conflicts leading up to the US presidential election in November. And make no mistake, it is of course a proxy conflict, because health care is slightly less political than tackling the hate speech the T//ump campaign has been and will continue to spread.

So we’ll see how that plays out. But I’m betting that we’ll see those four and other companies fall, by the end of the year, into one of two piles that might be more binary than expected: They either position themselves against hate speech and hence allow for a thriving democratic discourse; or they aggressively position themselves for free speech, inviting and feeding off the professional trolls.

I’m not sure that’s the best distinction when really I’d like them to adopt less monopolistic approaches and tamp down on their ad surveillance, but from the vantage point of August 2020, this is what it looks like to me.

Speaking of vantage point, I’d have loved to see the setup behind the CEOs cameras. What setup of screens, tele prompters, etc. was there for their legal counsel to put info in front of them? How many researchers and lawyers were sitting there as a support team and how did they coordinate? If anyone knows of a pic that leaked of those setups I’d love to see it.

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Book recommendation: HOW TO FUTURE

The Changeist team’s book HOW TO FUTURE is about to be released globally (except US & Canada) on 10 September, and in US & Canada on 29 Sept. I’m a big fan of the Changeist team — Scott Smith, Susan Cox-Smith and a hand-picked crew of excellent future-types — as well as their work. So I happily pre-ordered the second they announced.

There are many sketchy companies in the space of futurism, forecasting and strategy. Changeist is a delightful exception. Their methods are robust, they’re reliable and principled. I’ve had the opportunity to work with them here and there, we’ve been quite active in adjacent fields for a long time, and I have nothing but respect for them. So y’know, get that book.

I’d like to add that I don’t do paid placements or sponsorships or anything like that. This is a true endorsement because I have zero reason to believe this book won’t be good.

So: Scott kindly shared a code which will get you 20% off plus free shipping if you order directly from the publisher here. Just use the discount code KOGANPAGE20.

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Book Recommendation: Creating a Culture of Innovation: Design an Optimal Environment to Create and Execute New Ideas

Frequent collaborator and long-time friend Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino has a new book coming up, and it just went up for pre-orders. This time she tackles corporate innovation culture. From the cover:

“Innovation can only occur in the right environment. While organizations can attempt to hire for innovation, there is little that can blossom in a restrictive and discouraging physical setting―even if the space holds the most creative and vibrant thinkers. In Creating a Culture of Innovation, deconstruct the history of patterns of failure in business cultures and environments, and learn how to create an optimal combination of factors to ensure future success.”

I couldn't imagine anyone better suited to breaking it all down and to demonstrate what works and what doesn't. Alex has certainly seen it all. I just pre-ordered a copy and highly recommend you do the same for your organization.

You can pre-order Creating a Culture of Innovation now.

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Miscellanea

Even though it’s apparently been around for years, I hadn’t heard the term silkpunk before. It sounds like a pretty awesome foundation for world building: “Like steampunk, silkpunk is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. But while steampunk takes as its inspiration the chrome-brass-glass technology aesthetic of the Victorian era, silkpunk draws inspiration from classical East Asian antiquity.”

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Currently reading: A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson

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If you’d like to work with me or have a chat to explore collaborations, let’s chat! 

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Who writes here? Peter Bihr explores how emerging technologies can have a positive social impact. At the core of his work is the mission to align emerging technologies and citizen empowerment. To do this, he works at the intersection of technology, governance, policy and social impact — with foundations, public and private sector. He is the founder of The Waving Cat, a boutique research and strategic advisory firm. He co-founded ThingsCon, a non-profit that explores fair, responsible, and human-centric technologies for IoT and beyond. Peter was a Mozilla Fellow (2018-19) and an Edgeryders Fellow (2019). He tweets at @peterbihr and blogs at thewavingcat.com. Interested in working together? Let’s have a chat.

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