There has been a lot of chatter about Elon Musk’s acquisition of twitter - ranging from panic to celebration. Full transparency: I am definitely in the celebratory camp.
Perhaps my favorite take - informative and certainly amusing - is Elon Conquers the Twitterverse by MIke Solana in Bari Weiss’s substack.
So yeah, I am in the celebratory camp, as well I should be: over the last two years I’ve seen Twitter (and other big tech platforms) censor, throttle, ban, demonetize, de-platform and for all intents and purposes attempt to ruin the reputations and lives of some of the most intelligent, thoughtful, kind and altruistic people I know: many of whom I’ve known for years.
The rise of corporate/government/media/social media coordinated information authoritarianism - culminating now in the Biden administration’s attempts to create a “ministry of truth” run out of the secret intelligence service (!) - is frankly comical, as well as of course terrifying. More terrifying than any of the distractions of the last two years: e.g. covid, stupid covid responses, buggy mandatory vaccines, riots on the right and left, war in Europe, inflation, climate, pollution, and soil loss to name the biggies.
Why is a government ministry of truth, a censored public square, and secret tribunals capable of silencing anyone more terrifying than the partial list of pseudo-apocalyptic horsemen mentioned above? Because it is a direct attack not only on perhaps the most important feature of our US constitution (the first amendment), but also on our collective civilizational mind.
Which brings us to my take on Elon’s twitter acquisition, which I posted privately to some friends but now think I’ll try to circulate publicly:
I believe Elon has a much deeper vision about twitter than most of the existing commentary suggests. I think he bought Twitter because his agendas and portfolios are aligned with a vision of long-term flourishing for humanity: e.g. sustainable transportation (Tesla, Boring Co.), sustainable energy (Tesla), universal access to the internet (StarLink), space settlement (SpaceX), and mind-enhancement via brain-computer interfaces (Neuralink).
Now, after witnessing years of social-media-led censorship, cancellations, and the resultant rush towards dumbing-down of the public discourse – tilting towards authoritarianism and rollback of the constitution – Elon realized that twitter could be extremely high leverage in righting the ship: Restoring free exchange of ideas, open dialogue, the first amendment, and frankly our collective intelligence, analysis, and creativity.
Rest assured Elon (and hence Twitter) will ignore, and if necessary challenge, most laws or regulations from the “ministry of truth” - for the brief time they might exist. Until SCOTUS strikes them down and/or republican sweeps in 2022/2024 roll them back.
Basically (educated guess) Elon recognizes that an ultimate tool for human super-intelligence is exchanging and refining ideas through collective collaboration and debate. And he (and we) choose a collective which is organized organically, bottom-up, with decentralized “authority”. Earned authority rather than mandated authority.
Twitter can now turn into this and more. It will be a grand experiment.
Those who want a more authoritarian version of a collective mind — a top-down, censorship-based Great Firewall held in place by coercion and suppression of both independent thought and self-sovereign decision-making — can (as they have been so fond of telling us over the last few years) flee to "their own platform”, or indeed to another superpower country.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.
— Creon Levit, May 2022.
(note added after publication: here is another excellent and similar article)
Andrew?
What is their REASON for holding the whole world back?
-Chris B