Teaching Computers Shows Us How Little We Understand About Ourselves

Cory Doctorow:

A quote variously attributed to Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein has it that ''If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't really understand it.'' Most of us have encountered this in our lives: you think you really know something and understand it, and then you try to teach it and realize that you never understood it in the first place.

Computers are the children of the human race's mind, and as they become intimately involved in new aspects of our lives, we keep stumbling into semantic minefields, where commonly understood terms turn out to have no single, well-agreed-upon meaning across all parts of society. These conflicts all have a quiet drama, because on the definition of these ''commonly understood'' terms turns questions of social control with profound implications for our human lives.

Take names. When Google rolled out its Facebook-a-like service Google Plus in 2011, it stirred up controversy by declaring that it would adopt Facebook's ''real name'' policy, meaning that its users would be expected to use their real, legal names in their online interactions. Google offered a lot of explanations for this policy - mostly revolving around reducing cruel behavior and spamming - and opponents of the idea offered their own arguments in response. Some pointed out that they were widely known by a name other than the one on their legal documents; others wanted the ability to socialize without making their real identities visible to violent stalkers; refugees from oppressive regimes raised the spectre of retaliation against their in-country relatives if they participated in visible online debates under their real names.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 6, 2013 12:42 AM
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