Thomas F

“He told me that literature is full of stories where humans create something in a burst of optimism and then lose control of their creation. Dr. Frankenstein creates a monster only for it to escape from him and commit murder. Aza began to think about these stories when he talked with his friends who were engineers working for some of the most famous websites in the world. He would ask them basic questions, like why their recommendation engines recommended one thing over another, and, he said to me, "they're like: 'We're not sure why it's recommending those things.'" They're not lying—they have set up a technology that is doing things they don't full comprehend. He always says to them: "Isn't that exactly the moment, in the allegories, where you turn the thing off—[when] it's starting to do things you can't predict?”
― Johann Hari, Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again