System Error

Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot

By: Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami, Jeremy M. Weinstein

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

"System Error is a triumph: an analysis of the critical challenges facing our digital society that is as accessible as it is sophisticated." (Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America)

A forward-thinking manifesto from three Stanford professors - experts who have worked at ground zero of the tech revolution for decades - which reveals how big tech’s obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental human values and outlines steps we can take to change course, renew our democracy, and save ourselves.

In no more than the blink of an eye, a naïve optimism about technology’s liberating potential has given way to a dystopian obsession with biased algorithms, surveillance capitalism, and job-displacing robots. Yet too few of us see any alternative to accepting the onward march of technology. We have simply accepted a technological future designed for us by technologists, the venture capitalists who fund them, and the politicians who give them free rein.

It doesn’t need to be this way.

System Error exposes the root of our current predicament: how big tech’s relentless focus on optimization is driving a future that reinforces discrimination, erodes privacy, displaces workers, and pollutes the information we get. This optimization mindset substitutes what companies care about for the values that we as a democratic society might choose to prioritize. Well-intentioned optimizers fail to measure all that is meaningful and, when their creative disruptions achieve great scale, they impose their values upon the rest of us.

Armed with an understanding of how technologists think and exercise their power, three Stanford professors - a philosopher working at the intersection of tech and ethics, a political scientist who served under Obama, and the director of the undergraduate computer science program at Stanford (also an early Google engineer) - reveal how we can hold that power to account.

Troubled by the values that permeate the university’s student body and its culture, they worked together to chart a new path forward, creating a popular course to transform how tomorrow’s technologists approach their profession. Now, as the dominance of big tech becomes an explosive societal conundrum, they share their provocative insights and concrete solutions to help everyone understand what is happening, what is at stake, and what we can do to control technology instead of letting it control us.

©2021 Robert Reich, Mehran Sahami, and Jeremy Weinstein (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Such a Good Book!

An ethical framework for technology is sorely lacking in our society. The authors of this book break down the incentives that lead to lack of regulation in the tech industry and give practical examples on how to address these shortcomings.

We need to be having these conversations now more than ever.

Excellent on tech. Weak on political speech.

they fail to deal with the downside of censoring speech. I would have loved to hear then discuss the censoring the New York Post stories on Hunter Biden's laptop.

Biased Examples.

great information. all of his examples showed a left wing bias. hate speach and misinformation works both ways.

We all need to pay attention to the power of tech

And we can indeed take steps… not to understand it (reading the book), and to act ourselves (last chapters).

I get the ideal but...

The short take is I understand where the authors are coming from.

A plus is they don't get lost in academic jargon. And don't dump vast amounts of numerical data on you. So you don't feel like they are talking over your head, which certainly made the topic easier to listen too.


However, the following are some ofbthe things that suck out to me while listening.

it's interesting to read how they filter the advancement of technology and western democracy as a every society needs this version of government. There are parts where they kinda of use a one size fits all on various regions of the world and the cultural groups in them.

I also think there is a air of "we know better because we're acedemics from Silicon Valley and we're connected to the industry." vibe. Not to say they are wrong about seeing the industry develop/expland. it was just my take on how they explained the issue in the industry.

Facebook is mentioned a number of times and used for both side of the argument about setting up better rules to hold tech giants accountable. They down played the Cambridge Analytic situation, but then say Russia was influencing American elections while citing reports saying the "russiand backed" political propaganda on social media didn't reach as many people as publicized.

Half way through, I feel like the authors were arguing for a more big government approach to how society develops, governments regulate, technology advance, and the capitalist private sector grows.

Another thing I just realized, they made no real mention of the C19 situation but stayed clear of CDC and Faucci.. Which then bring me to how many things came out after the book in 2022 and 2023. heaven knows how this book will age after 2025 or 2030.

The take away I'd say is that ¤democracy is robust at adopting to modern times and the way people live. However, it is still fragile at the same time because of how modern man lives thanks to technology. Thomas Jefferson is quoted a number of times by the authors relating to the idea of being a well informed citizen, practicing privacy, keeping a democracy alive. It's ironicbecause, the US is a republic not a democracy, lol.

So they're pontificating on the balancing act of technology, privacy, capitalism, advancing technology and society, with a governmental system we don't even use, 😆.