Notices by Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social), page 5

@alasaarela @pettter @drdelle ha I googled where mastodon started and it said Atlanta GA but that's the band...

@pettter @alasaarela @drdelle The international order is interesting now, there is more or less anarchy at the top level, but governance the next step down. As far as I can tell, brains work somewhat similarly. It may be that with ICT we can afford more diversity / complexity because we have prosthetics to help us keep it transparent (apparent, comprehensible). Without clarity giving true legitimacy, we risk facilitating corruption, helping the bullies and warlords.

@pettter @alasaarela @drdelle ha ha ha I totally wasn't trying to say anything positive about Kissinger, I'm not that informed but wouldn't be surprised if he was a war criminal. But seriously, thanks for the main question. I don't think we want ONE company, but we may need SOME companies. We need to figure out how to best regulate these "natural global monopolies", and we haven't, but in general too little variation is brittle / DOA, too much is entropy. Modularity of some form seems to work.

Very tempted to quit #Twitter now that I can't use Tweetbot by Tapbots. Yet will probably soon try the paying version of both twitter and linkedin, because I'm thinking a lot about social media. (If so I will put the double the monthly costs for twitter into mastodon...)
I'm really torn. I still think we need to fight for our digital infrastructure we co-created. Flight is an elite option, but indeed maybe I am elite and should spend more time writing for Wired, not to mention my book.

@alasaarela You may be right about the migration, but while Twitter is the only way for most people in most countries to contact power, and get direct information from trustworthy sources, we shouldn't just abandon it. We would be facilitating a weapon of autocrats: the private purchase of essential infrastructure. We need to stand up for the recognition and public control of technology that has become a utility.

@alasaarela @drdelle I really hope you are right. I am not a networking specialist, maybe there's proveably a way to do this, but IMO we are either going to build something that doesn't provide the reach and discovery possibilities of #twitter, thus no longer a vector for #BLM or "first world" surfacing of developing world talent (listen to Maria Ressa on this.) OR we will be assaulted by state military operations e.g. Russia & China, and I'm not sure we could coordinate a response.

@alasaarela @drdelle I don't have to get all WWIII to say we may need corporation. There were 30,000 people working for #twitter when Musk bought it. Some of them were cybersecurity, some were the team that made it so news agencies could embed tweets in their stories that allowed readers to drill down & throw into the twitter thread. A lot were addressing EU regulations and otherwise addressing #AIEthics and #HumanRights and #dignity concerns. These public goods probably require centralisation.

@alasaarela @drdelle someone like Kissinger once famously said something like "if you need to talk to Europe, who do you call?" The US now says the EU has fairly well solved that problem. Now the EU is leading in ensuring digital rights and protections. Who do they call when they need to work with the #fediverse on ensuring protections for their citizens? 3/3 #mastodon #digitalGovernance

@natematias @owasow My concern is the opposite. We have essential infrastructure we haven't identified as such or governed as utilities because since we "won the cold war" we stopped enforcing antitrust. #Inequality has skyrocketed, and with it (like usual) #polarisation #polarization & volatility. We need government intervention to secure this resource, in fact transnational multi-government involvement.

#essentialInfrastructure #digitalGovernance #techPolicy