Index

 

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• Aaronsohn, Sarah, 6, 8–9, 40

• Abkhazia, 26

• academia, 52, 128

  • See also science

• Acts of Paul and Thecla, 88, 198

• Adams, John Quincy, 149–51, 152

• AI

  • agency as hallmark of, 199–200

  • automation and, 316–22, 373–74

  • canonization of, 399–400

  • culture and, 212–13

  • data analysis and, 235

  • development of, 366–70, 469n8

  • digital anarchy and, 342

  • end of history and, 211–12

  • existential threats and, xxii, 300–301, 305, 361–62, 403

  • go (game) and, 331–32, 368–69

  • holy books and, 82

  • infallibility and, 71

  • intelligence vs. consciousness and, 201–2, 204, 321–22

  • intimacy and, 210–11, 214–15, 320–22, 342

  • language and, 207–8, 210, 211, 213

  • legal personhood and, 288–89, 381

  • naive view of information on, xx–xxi

  • political conversations and, 209–10

  • political influence and, 211–12, 342, 344–45

  • political positions on, 224–25

  • religion and, 209

  • societal benefits of, 305–6

  • stories and, 214

  • terminology and, 217–18

  • training of, 222, 293–97, 349, 350, 366, 367–68

  • See also algorithms; alignment problem; computer-based network; computers as independent agents; global impacts; regulation

• Akiva, Rabbi, 77

• Alexander VI (pope), 107

• AlexNet, 367–68, 469n8

• algorithms

  • computers as independent agents and, 198, 199–200, 202–3, 224

  • criminal justice system and, 329–31

  • cryptocurrency and, 288

  • data analysis and, 235–37

  • doublespeak and, 353

  • facial recognition, 243–44, 245–46, 293–94, 295–96, 368

  • Google ranks and, 286–87

  • multiple data points and, 334–37

  • political influence and, 198, 344–45

  • regulation of, 344–45

  • as self-correcting mechanisms, 36–38

  • societal benefits of, 266

  • suspected terrorists and, 235–36

  • terminology and, 217, 218

  • See also AI; computer-based network; computer network goals; computers as independent agents; social media

• Alibaba, 219, 368

• alignment problem, 267–77

  • computer network goals and, 274–77

  • military theory and, 267–71, 275–76

  • mythology and, 285

  • paper-clip thought experiment and, 271–72, 274

  • totalitarian computer politics and, 352

• AlphaGo, 331–32, 368–69

• Altman, Sam, xxi

• Amazon, 219, 296–97, 373

• Amini, Mahsa, 245, 247

• Amodei, Dario, 273

• ancient world

  • autocracy vs. totalitarianism and, 154–56

  • centralization of power, 118–19, 140–41, 356–58, 372–73

  • democracy and, 136–41, 142, 143–44

  • media and, 152

  • money, 250

  • religious institutions, 73

  • totalitarian experiments, 156–60

  • written documents, 45–46, 47–48

  • See also Roman Empire; Stone Age humans

• Andreessen, Marc, xx, 305

• animals

  • biological dramas and, 59, 60, 61–62

  • cooperation and, 18, 19

  • stories and, 30

• Annan, Kofi, 396

• antisemitism, 65–67, 183

  • See also bias; Nazism

• anti-vax movement, xxiv

• Apple, 227

• Aquinas, Thomas, 91

• archives, 49, 64–65, 74, 78, 98

  • See also written documents

• Ariosto, Ludovico, 63–64

• Aristotle, 144

• Armenian Church, 87

• art, 58–59, 62–63

• Arthashastra, 411n21

• Artificial Intelligence Act (European Union), 340, 466n47

• astrology, 11

• Athanasius of Alexandria, 85–86, 87

• Athens, 138–39, 152

  • See also Greece, ancient

• atom bomb, 32, 33

• Augustine, Saint, 22, 70, 91

• Augustus Caesar (Roman emperor), 140, 141, 356

• authoritarian regimes. See autocracies; totalitarianism

• authority. See power

• autocracies

  • absence of self-correcting mechanisms in, 117, 119, 179–80, 358–60

  • ancient world, 139–40, 154

  • centralization of power and, 118–19, 121

  • computer-based network and, 224

  • elections and, 122–23, 134, 141, 144–45

  • evaluating, 134–36

  • local democracy within, 144–46, 160

  • majority rule and, 123–24

  • overthrow threat and, 155, 354

  • populism and, 133–34

  • simplicity and, 129

  • surveillance and, 241

  • vs. totalitarianism, 118–19, 154–56

  • unfathomability and, 326

  • See also totalitarianism

• automation, 316–22, 373–74

B

• Baidu, 219, 368

• Baining people, 71–73

• Balfour Declaration (1917), 9

• Benedict XII (pope) (Jacques Fournier), 89–90, 91, 112

• benevolence, 311–12

• Bengio, Yoshua, xxi

• Bentham, Jeremy, 281, 282

• Berkeley, George, 102

• Bernstein, Eduard, 149

• Bialik, Hayim Nahman, 40

• bias

  • computer-based network and, 292–98, 329

  • data analysis and, 236

  • intersubjective realities and, 290–91

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 111, 115, 128

  • See also antisemitism; errors; racism

• Bible

  • biological dramas and, 60

  • connection and, 16

  • definitions of information and, 4–5, 14–15

  • enslavement and, 328

  • interpretation of, 89–91, 328

  • misinformation/disinformation and, 15–16, 414n15

  • Protestant Reformation and, 91

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 35–36

  • Zionism and, 42

  • See also Hebrew Bible; New Testament; religion

• Biden, Joe, 376

• Big Short, The, 63

• biological dramas, 58–62, 63, 216, 327–28

• biometric surveillance, 238–40, 241–42, 291, 451n19

• bitcoin, 25–26, 288

• Black Mirror, 339, 340

• Blazich, Frank, 21–22

• Bletchley Declaration on AI (2023), xxi

• blockchain technology, 350–51

• Boguet, Henri, 96

• Bolshevik Revolution (1917), 161, 323

• Bolsonaro, Jair, xxiv, xxv–xxvi, xxvii, 122, 259

  • See also Brazil

• Bondarenko, Aleksandr, 115

• books, 74

  • See also holy books

• Borges, Jorge Luis, 10, 13

• Bostrom, Nick, 271–72, 412–13n1

• bots, 218, 287, 341–42, 344, 352

  • See also algorithms

• Boyle, Robert, 102

• Bradley, Ann Walsh, 330

• Brahe, Tycho, 102

• Brandeis, Louis D., 11

• brands, 20–21, 22

• Brazil, 263, 272

  • See also Bolsonaro, Jair

• Brown v. Board of Education, 327, 328–29

• Buddhism, 213

• Bukharin, Nikolai, 351

• Buolamwini, Joy, 293, 295

• bureaucracy, 49–58

  • alignment problem and, 271

  • antipathy to, 56–57, 63–64

  • art and, 58–59, 62–63

  • benevolence and, 311

  • biological dramas and, 58–59, 62–63, 338

  • centralization of power and, 58

  • compartmentalization and, 50–54

  • computer-based network and, 68, 305

  • dangers of, 65–67, 68

  • democracy and, 129

  • errors and, 70

  • goals of, 51, 284–85

  • human basis of, 327–28

  • intersubjective realities and, 50, 291

  • societal benefits of, 54–56, 68

  • surveillance and, 230–31

  • totalitarianism and, 169, 170

  • truth-order balance and, 49–50, 51, 68

  • unfathomability and, 56–57, 62, 63, 129, 326–27

  • witch hunts and, 98–99

  • See also written documents

• Burke, Edmund, 323, 324

• Bush, George H. W., 126, 269

• Byzantine empire, 174

C

• Cain and Abel story, 60

• California Homebrew Computer Club, 227

• Camillus, Marcus, 143

• Canon Episcopi, 93, 428n68

• Cantor, Georg, 114–15

• Capitol attack (Jan. 6, 2021), 209, 242–43, 324

• CAPTCHA puzzles, 203–4

• Caracalla (Roman emperor), 140, 351

• caste system, 61, 314

• Catch-22 (Heller), 62

• Catholic Church

  • apologies by, 107–8

  • Bible interpretation and, 89–91

  • centralization of power and, 90, 102, 175–76

  • Investiture Controversy, 173

  • mind-body problem and, 379

  • network size of, 18

  • New Testament canonization and, 88

  • papal infallibility, 107

  • print revolution and, 92

  • schisms in, 89

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 105–6, 107–8

  • stories and, 19

  • totalitarianism and, 173

  • witch hunts and, 93, 94

• CCTV cameras, 242

• Ceauşescu, Nicolae, 232–33

• centralization of power

  • ancient world, 118–19, 140–41, 356–58, 372–73

  • autocracies and, 118–19, 121

  • bureaucracy and, 58

  • disadvantages of, 177–78

  • global impacts and, 364, 366

  • holy books and, 90

  • imperialism/colonialism and, 372–73

  • overthrow threat and, 356–58, 357

  • religion and, 90, 102

  • totalitarianism and, 118–19, 157, 176–77, 348–50, 354–58, 357

• Chail, Jaswant Singh, 211

• Chalmers, David, 412–13n1

• Chaos Machine, The (Fisher), 259–61

• charismatic leadership

  • absence of self-correcting mechanisms and, 179–80, 358

  • brands and, 20–21

  • majority rule and, 127

  • populism and, xxvii, xxviii, 134

  • stories and, 19–21

• ChatGPT, 319–20, 342

• Chávez, Hugo, 131

• Cher Ami, 4, 21–22

• Chernobyl disaster (1986), 177–78, 179

• child mortality, xix–xx

• chimpanzees. See animals

• China

  • AI development and, 369

  • network size of, 18

  • Qin dynasty, 157–60

  • Silicon Curtain and, 375–76

  • social media banning, 371

  • social order and, 36

  • stories and, 19

• cholera, 55–56

• Christianity

  • biological dramas and, 59

  • errors and, 70

  • Hebrew Bible and, 84–85, 86

  • intersubjective realities and, 27

  • mind-body problem and, 378–79, 382

  • stories and, 22–23

  • See also Catholic Church

• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 288

• city-states, 138, 143, 144, 156–57

• civil rights, democracy and, 124–26

• Clarke, Arthur C., 194

• Clausewitz, Carl von, 267–68, 270–71, 275–76

• climate change, 127, 229

• Coca-Cola, 20

• Cold War, xiv, xvii–xviii, 117, 308, 382–83

• colonialism. See imperialism/colonialism

• Coming Wave, The (Suleyman), 332

• Communist Manifesto, The (Marx), xxv

• communist parties, 130

• Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), 130

• compartmentalization, 50–54

• COMPAS, 329–30, 335, 336–38

• computer-based network

  • autocracies and, 224

  • bias and, 292–98, 329

  • bureaucracy and, 68, 305

  • as comprehensive nexus, 235

  • continuous operation of, 254–55

  • counterfeiting and, 344

  • data analysis and, 235–36

  • fallibility of, 255, 261, 299, 300–301, 329, 400

  • finance and, 215, 220–21

  • as infallible, 298–99

  • inter-computer realities and, 285–89

  • power of, 272

  • revolutionary nature of, 219

  • societal benefits of, 289

  • surveillance and, 234–35, 237, 238–40

  • taxation and, 221–24

  • unprecedented nature of, 205–6, 206, 215–16

  • See also computer network goals; democratic computer politics; global impacts; totalitarian computer politics

• computer network goals, 202–4, 274–84

  • AI training and, 295–96

  • bureaucracy and, 51, 284–85

  • deontology and, 278–80, 284

  • history and, 396

  • intelligence vs. consciousness and, 201, 204

  • mythology and, 284–85

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 274–75

  • totalitarian computer politics and, 355

  • utilitarianism and, 281–84

  • See also alignment problem; user engagement

• computer politics, 211–12

  • truth-order balance and, 229

  • unfathomability of, 224–25

  • See also democratic computer politics; totalitarian computer politics

• computers

  • capabilities of, 207–8

  • early development of, 188, 226–28

  • evolution of, 193, 216–17, 218–19

  • history of, 193

  • physical basis of, 218

  • Soviet industry and, 188, 226–27

  • terminology for, 217

  • written documents as forerunners of, 46

  • See also AI; algorithms; computer-based network; computers as independent agents

• computers as independent agents, xxiii–xxiv

  • blame on human nature and, 261–62

  • computer politics and, 224

  • digital anarchy and, 342–43

  • fallibility and, 261, 299

  • political influence and, 197, 198–200, 260–61, 263, 272, 344–45, 371

  • regulation and, 344–45

  • tech company culpability and, 219–20, 261–64

  • tech company pushback on, 261–62

  • totalitarian computer politics and, 354–56

  • as unprecedented, 194–95, 399

  • See also computer network goals

• confirmation bias, 104

• Confucianism, 159, 160

• connection, 12, 13–14, 16–17, 19

• conspiracy theories

  • AI and, 200

  • biometric surveillance and, 240

  • QAnon, xxiv, 95, 208–9

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 104

  • social media and, 196, 259, 260

  • Stalinism and, 168, 180, 183, 184, 290

  • unfathomability and, 334

  • witch hunts and, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100

• Constantine V (Byzantine emperor), 174

• cooperation

  • global possibilities, 384–86

  • vs. personal bonds, 18–19

  • property rights and, 46–47

  • Stone Age humans and, 19, 32, 388–89

  • stories and, 18–19, 28–29, 384–85, 416n19

• Copernicus, Nicolaus, 101, 102

• corporations. See tech companies

• Council of Carthage (397), 86, 88

• Council of Hieria (754), 174

• Council of Hippo (393), 86, 88

• counterspeech doctrine, 10–11

• COVID-19 pandemic, 16, 51–52, 241, 282–83, 385

• creativity, 318

• Crown, The, 63

• cryptocurrency, 25–26, 288

• cyber warfare, 383

D

• damnatio memoriae, 351

• Daoism, 159

• data mining, 221, 311–12, 313, 372

• Dead Sea Scrolls, 75–76

• decentralization, 146–48, 149, 151, 312–13, 340, 362–64, 435nn36–37

• democracy

  • ancient world and, 136–41, 142, 143–44

  • as autocratic tool, 122–23

  • bureaucracy and, 129

  • complexity of, 129

  • as continuum, 135, 146–47, 151

  • decentralization and, 146–48, 149, 151, 312–13, 340, 435nn36–37

  • disadvantages of, 186

  • distributed information networks and, 119–20, 176, 177–78, 186, 189

  • education and, 142

  • elections and, 123–24, 150–51

  • evaluating, 134–36

  • freedom of the press and, 152–53, 154

  • human and civil rights and, 124–26, 147

  • information technology and, 185–86, 345–46

  • local, 144–45, 160

  • majority rule and, 120, 122, 124–25, 126–27

  • media and, 142, 146, 148–53

  • misinformation/disinformation and, 126–27

  • 1960s cultural conflicts and, 186–87, 345

  • populism as threat to, 131–32

  • power of the people and, 129

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 117, 119, 120–22, 123, 124–25, 128, 147, 151

  • Silicon Curtain and, 375

  • social order and, 188–89

  • Stone Age humans and, 136–38

  • success of, 309, 310

  • truth and, 127–28

  • truth-order balance and, 186–87

  • undermining of, 122–23, 133–34

  • See also democratic computer politics; political conversations

• democratic computer politics, 309–47

  • automation and, 316–22

  • conservative party self-destruction and, 322–26

  • data mining and, 311–12

  • decentralization and, 312–13

  • digital anarchy and, 340–43

  • flexibility and, 325–26

  • regulation and, 340, 343–45

  • right to explanation and, 331, 333

  • stories and, 338–40

  • surveillance and, 309–16

  • See also unfathomability

• Demosthenes, 152

• Dennett, Daniel, 343, 344

• deontology, 278–80, 284

• Descartes, René, 102, 213

• de Staël, Madame, 140

• Deuteronomy, 76

• de Waal, Frans, 388

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), 111

• dictatorships. See autocracies

• Diderot, Denis, 102

• digital anarchy, 340–43

• disease, 16, 51–52, 55–56, 61, 385–86

  • See also COVID-19 pandemic

• disinformation. See misinformation/disinformation

• distributed information networks, 119–20, 176, 177–78, 186, 189

  • See also decentralization

• DNA, 12–13

• Dreyfus, Hubert, 317

• Dum Diversas, 108

• Dutch Republic, 146, 147–48, 149

• Duterte, Rodrigo, 122

E

• Eager, Sherman, 21–22

• East Germany, 228

• Edelin, Guillaume, 97–98

• education, 142

• effective altruism movement, 281

• Eichmann, Adolf, 279

• Einstein, Albert, 359–60

• elections

  • autocracies and, 122–23, 134, 141, 144–45

  • democracy and, 123–24, 150–51

  • local, 144–45

  • populism and, 129–30, 134

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 121–22, 126

  • truth-order balance and, 126

  • See also majority rule

• emotional intelligence, 318–21

• empires, 138–39

  • See also imperialism/colonialism

• empiricism, xxvi–xxvii

• Encyclopédie, 103

• Enoch, 75–76, 77

• enslavement, 151, 170, 328

• epidemics. See disease

• Erdogan, Recep Tayyip, 122, 123, 131

• error-enhancing mechanisms, 265

• errors

  • centralization of power and, 349

  • denial of, 109

  • in holy books, 79

  • naive view of information on, 91–92

  • new technologies and, 305–9

  • stories and, 31

  • truth-order balance and, 68–69

  • written documents and, 46

  • See also infallibility; misinformation/disinformation; self-correcting mechanisms

• Ethiopian Church, 87

• European Union, 340, 375, 466n47

• evolution

  • biological dramas and, 59–60, 62

  • compartmentalization and, 52–53

  • cooperation and, 19

  • definitions of information and, 13

  • memory and, 49

  • stories and, 44

  • truth-order balance and, 38

• existential threats, xxii, 300–301, 305, 361–62, 403

• extinction, 54

• eye-movement tracking, 238–39

F

• Facebook

  • AI development and, 368

  • culpability of, 204, 219, 220, 262–63, 264

  • error-enhancing mechanisms, 265

  • political influence and, 195–99, 259

  • QAnon and, 208–9

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 264

  • See also social media; tech companies

• facial recognition, 243–44, 245–47, 293–94, 295–96, 368

• fake news. See misinformation/disinformation

• fallibility. See errors; infallibility

• false consciousness, 130, 131

• family, 23, 24, 171–72

• fiduciary duty, 311–12

• finance

  • computer-based network and, 215, 220–21

  • computer power and, 207

  • inter-computer realities and, 288

  • money, 250–52

  • regulation and, 343–44

  • unfathomability and, 333–34

• financial crisis (2007–2008), 63, 288, 334

• Fisher, Max, 259–61

• Flood myth, 4–5, 414n15

• Foucault, Michel, xxv

• Fournier, Jacques (Pope Benedict XII), 89–90, 92, 112

• Francis (pope), 108, 109

• freedom of the press, 152–53, 154

• freedom of speech, 136, 289, 344, 354

• French Académie des Sciences, 102

• French Revolution, 65, 324

G

• game theory, 384

• Game of Thrones, 63

• Genesis, 15, 75, 76, 77, 414n15

• Gettysburg Address (Lincoln), 152–53

• Ghazanfarabadi, Mousa, 245

• global impacts, 361–93

  • automation and, 373–74

  • centralization of power and, 364, 366

  • cooperation and, 384–86

  • cultural divisions, 378–82

  • current international decentralization and, 362–64

  • data colonialism and, 370–74

  • existential threats, xxii, 300–301, 305, 361–62, 403

  • international system and, 387–93

  • mind-body problem and, 377–82

  • regulation and, 387

  • Silicon Curtain divisions, xxi–xxii, 190, 364, 374–77, 381–82, 384

  • warfare, 382–84

• global trade network, 18, 19

• go (game), 331–32, 368–69

• God, Human, Animal, Machine (O’Gieblyn), 298

• Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, xii–xiii, xviii, xix, xxviii, 271, 272

• Goga, Octavian, 65, 66

• Golovina, Antonina, 171

• Good Soldier Švejk (Hašek), 177

• Google

  • AI development and, 366, 368–69

  • inter-computer realities and, 286–87

  • naive view of information and, xviii

  • size of, 349–50

  • societal benefits and, 266

  • See also tech companies

• GPT-4, 202–4, 210

• Great Jewish Revolt (66 CE), 65

• Greece, ancient, 73, 138–39, 152, 213

• Greek Septuagint, 76

• Greene, Marjorie Taylor, 209

• Gregory VII (pope), 173

• Gui Hao, 243–44

• Gulag Archipelago, The (Solzhenitsyn), 256

H

• Han dynasty (China), 160

• Han Fei, 411n21

• Hanyecz, Laszlo, 25

• Hao Chen, 244

• Hašek, Jaroslav, 177

• Haugen, Frances, 262

• Haven, Kendall, 44–45

• health care. See medicine

• Hebrew Bible, 75–83

  • canonization of, 76–77, 81, 84

  • Dead Sea Scrolls and, 75–76

  • dissemination of, 78–79

  • interpretation of, 79–80, 81–83

  • origins of Christianity and, 84–85, 86

• Heisenberg, Werner, 33

• Heller, Joseph, 62

• Henry IV (Holy Roman Emperor), 173

• Henry VI, Part 2 (Shakespeare), 64

• Herodotus, 73

• Herzl, Theodor, 40, 41–42

• Himmler, Heinrich, 162

• Hinduism

  • biological dramas and, 58, 59, 61

  • caste system, 61, 314

  • on illusion, 213

  • institutions and, 73

  • memory and, 44

  • skeptical view of of information and, 411n21

• Hinton, Geoffrey, xxi

• Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, 103

• history

  • AI as unprecedented in, 397

  • deontology and, 278–79, 284

  • end of, 211–12

  • impossibility of predicting, 403

  • international system in, 387–92

  • intersubjective realities and, 30–31

  • materialist views of, 29–30

  • new militarism and, 392–93

  • political goals of, 396–97

  • role of information in, xxiii, 3, 12

  • as study of change, xxx

  • totalitarian erasure of, 351, 353–54

  • utilitarianism and, 281–84

  • See also specific events

• Hitler, Adolf. See Nazism

• Hobbes, Thomas, 411n21

• Holocaust, 66, 67, 279, 281, 282, 424n52

• holy books, 73–91

  • canonization of, 74–75, 76–77, 81, 84, 85–88, 198, 399–400

  • dissemination of, 78–79, 90

  • informational universe and, 83

  • interpretation of, 79–80, 81–83, 89–91, 209

  • origins of, 74, 75–76

  • power of, 198

  • Protestant Reformation and, 91

  • religious institutions and, 76–77, 80, 81, 88

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 35–36

  • See also Bible

• Homo Deus (Harari), xxiii, 395

• homosexuality, 109, 111, 282

  • See also LGBTQ people

• horizontal gene transfer, 53

• hubris, xii–xiii

• human rights, 124, 125–26

• hunter-gatherer economies, 136–37

  • See also Stone Age humans; tribal networks

• Hutton, Ronald, 112–13

I

• IBM, 226

• iconoclasm, 174

• Ijma, 106–7

• Ilahita, 416n19

• ImageNet, 367

• imperialism/colonialism

  • Catholic Church and, 108

  • centralization of power and, 372–73

  • data colonialism, 370–74

  • Industrial Revolution and, 306–7, 365–66

• “In the City of Slaughter” (Bialik), 40–41

• India, 56, 61, 371

• indigenous peoples, 108, 137–38

• Industrial Revolution, 305, 306, 317, 365–66, 373, 397

• infallibility, 69, 71–73, 103

  • autocracies and, 119

  • computer-based network and, 298–99

  • religion and, 69, 71–73, 103, 106–7

  • vs. self-correcting mechanisms, 105–7, 109

  • totalitarianism and, 161, 358–60

  • See also holy books

• information

  • connection and, 12, 13–14

  • defining, 3–17

  • holy book interpretation and, 83

  • increase in, xx

  • secret police and, 162–63

  • simulation hypothesis and, 412–13n1

  • skeptical view of, xxiv–xxv, xxiv, 37, 400–401, 410–11n21

  • See also naive view of information

• information-for-information deals, 223, 224

• information technology, 398–99

  • choice and, 226–29

  • democracy and, 185–86, 345–46

  • fallibility of, 46, 80

  • new wave of, 189–90, 193

  • political conversations and, 142, 143, 144, 148, 152–53, 344–45

  • print revolution, 92, 94–96, 101, 146, 197

  • Silicon Curtain and, 377

  • totalitarianism and, 153–54, 157, 159, 160, 169, 185–86, 227, 348–49

  • See also computers; holy books; mass media; media; naive view of information; print revolution; self-correcting mechanisms; social media; stories; written documents

• inter-computer realities, 285–89, 299, 305

• intersubjective realities

  • acknowledgment of fictive nature and, 35, 37

  • alignment problem and, 276

  • bureaucracy and, 50, 291

  • compartmentalization and, 51, 53–54

  • connection and, 12, 14

  • context dependence of, 27–28

  • deontology and, 279–80

  • history and, 30–31

  • human and civil rights as, 125–26

  • imposition of, 289–92

  • nations and, 26–27, 33, 34–35

  • racism as, 290–91

  • religion and, 22, 27, 287

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 35–36

  • Soviet collectivization and, 171

  • Soviet kulak liquidation campaign and, 290

  • stories and, 25–28, 33, 34–35

  • witch hunts as, 98–101, 289–90

  • written documents and, 46–48, 291

  • See also bias; inter-computer realities; mythology

• intimacy, 210–11, 214–15, 320–22, 342

• Iosifescu, Gheorghe, 231–32, 234

• Iran, 33, 134, 245–47, 292, 368

• Iraq War, 121, 126–27, 269, 270, 283–84

• Isaiah, 84

• Islam, 106–7

• Israel

  • creation of, 9, 40–41

  • history and, 396–97

  • See also Israeli-Palestinian conflict

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict

  • facial recognition and, 368

  • intersubjective realities and, 26, 287

  • stories and, 41, 418n3

  • uncomfortable truths and, 33–34

  • World War I and, 9

J

• Jack Cade’s Rebellion (1450), 64

• Jackson, Andrew, 150

• Jerusalem, 287

• Jesus, stories and, 22

• Jewish State, The (Herzl), 41–42

• Jobs, Steve, 227

• John Chrysostom, Saint, 86–87

• John Paul II (pope), 107, 175–76

• Jordy, Carlos, 260

• journalism. See media

• Judaism

  • biological dramas and, 60

  • infallibility and, 106

  • intersubjective realities and, 27

  • mind-body problem and, 378, 379

  • origins of Christianity and, 84, 86

  • stories and, 23–24

  • See also Hebrew Bible

• judiciary, 128, 133, 328–31

K

• Kafka, Franz, 62, 63

• Kalapalo tribe, 73

• Kammerer, Paul, 432n111

• Kant, Immanuel, 278–80, 282

• Karpechenko, Georgii, 115

• Kataguiri, Kim, 260, 261

• Keitel, Wilhelm, 162

• Kelly, Kevin, 366

• Keynes, John Maynard, 285

• Khameini, Ayatollah Ruhollah, 112

• Khruschev, Nikita, 153

• Kim Jong Un, 135–36

  • See also North Korea

• King Lear (Shakespeare), 60

• 1 Kings, 82–83

• Kinstler, Linda, 250

• Kishinev Pogrom (1903), 40–41

• Koestler, Arthur, 101

• Kolibin, Pronia, 172

• Kosovo, 26

• Köthenbürger, Marko, 222

• Kramer, Heinrich, 94–96, 101, 168, 208

• Kronecker, Leopold, 115

• Kubrick, Stanley, 194

• Kurchatov, Igor, 33

• Kurzweil, Ray, xviii, xx–xxi, 305

L

• LaMDA, 210

• language, 207–8, 210, 211, 213

• Last Supper, 23

• Lau, David, 112

• Legalism, 158–59, 160

• Leibnez, Gottfried Wilhelm, 102

• Lemoine, Blake, 210

• Lenin, V. I., 149

• Leofric (bishop of Exeter), 90

• Le Pen, Marine, 385

• Lewis, Michael, 63

• LGBTQ people, 267

• libertarianism, 284

• Library of Alexandria, xx, 410n13

• lies. See misinformation/disinformation

• Lincoln, Abraham, 152–53

• Linnaeus, Carl, 52

• Li Si, 159

• lists, 42–44, 45

• literacy. See written documents

• Litvak, Salvador, 24

• Loch Ness Monster, 26

• Locke, John, 102

• Loomis v. Wisconsin, 329–30, 336–38

• Lost Battalion, 4, 21–22

• Luddites, 305, 306

• Lugal-Zagesi of Umma, 138

• Luther, Martin, 22, 380–81

• Luttinger, Bruno, 65, 66–67

• Lysenko, Trofim, 115, 180

M

• Machiavelli, Niccolo, 411n21

• machine learning, 294

• Macro, Naevius Sutorius, 357

• Madison, James, 120–21

• majority rule, 120, 122, 123–25, 126–28

• Malleus Maleficarum—The Hammer of the Witches (Kramer), 94–96, 101, 168, 208

• Manhattan Project, 32

• Marat, Jean-Paul, 149

• Marcion of Sinope, 86, 87

• Marx, Karl. See Marxism

• Marxism

  • Bolshevik Revolution and, 161

  • errors and, 70

  • on international system, 388

  • populism and, xxv–xxvi

  • Soviet collectivization and, 168

  • on stories, 29, 30

• mass media, 146, 148–54

  • See also media

• materialist history, 29–30

• Matrix, The, 213

• McLuhan, Marshall, 6

• Mearsheimer, John, 387–88

• media

  • democracy and, 142, 146, 148–53

  • populism on, 133

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 128, 148

  • skeptical views of, xxvi, xxvii

  • totalitarianism and, 153–54

  • See also social media

• medicine, xix–xx, 311, 314–15, 318, 350

• memory

  • fake, 24, 99

  • religion and, 23–24, 43, 44

  • retrieval and, 48–49

  • stories and, 43–45, 46

• Mesopotamia, 45–46, 47–48, 138, 250

• Metaverse, 13–14

• Mickiewicz, Adam, 42

• military espionage, 5–6, 7, 8–9

• military theory, 267–71, 275–76

• Miller, Chris, 188

• mind-body problem, 378–81

• Mishnah, 81, 84, 86, 106

• misinformation/disinformation

  • Bible and, 15–16, 414n15

  • computers as independent agents and, 200

  • conflict and, 195, 196

  • connection and, 13, 16–17

  • counterspeech doctrine on, 10–11

  • definitions of information and, 11–12

  • democracy and, 126–27

  • digital anarchy and, 342

  • disintegration and, 13

  • majority rule and, 126, 127–28

  • naive view of information and, 10–11, 16–17

  • social order and, 37

  • stories and, 21

  • witch hunts and, 93–94

  • written documents and, 65–66

  • See also conspiracy theories

• misogyny, 87–88, 293–94, 296–97

• mnemonic devices, 45

• Modi, Narendra, 56, 369

• moon walk (1969), 14

• Morgenthau, Hans, 387

• Morozov, Pavlik, 172

• Mudde, Cas, xxvi

• Müller, Jan-Werner, 131

• music, connection and, 12

• Musk, Elon, xxi, 71, 239, 240

• Muslim caliphs, 36

• Mussolini, Benito, 149

• mutuality, 313–14

• mutually assured destruction, 383–84

• Myanmar, 11, 396, 397

  • See also Rohingya massacre

• mythology

  • biological dramas and, 60–61, 62

  • computer network goals and, 284–85

  • deontology and, 280

  • inter-computer realities and, 285, 299–300, 305

  • nations and, 42

  • populism and, 134

  • racism and, 314

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 116, 300

  • utilitarianism and, 284

  • See also intersubjective realities; stories

N

• naive view of information, xv–xxi, xvi, 400

  • on AI, xx–xxi

  • definitions of information and, 6–7, 11, 12, 14

  • on errors, xv, 91–92

  • misinformation/disinformation and, 10–11, 16–17

  • on power, 31–32

  • on print revolution, 92

  • on regulation, 345

  • on stories, 31–32

  • tech company belief in, xviii, 39

  • tech company culpability and, 263–64

  • truth-order balance and, 37, 39

  • on wisdom, xvi–xvii

  • witch hunts and, 101

• Napoleon Bonaparte, 268–69, 275–76

• Narâmtani, 48

• nations

  • biological dramas and, 60–61

  • current international decentralization and, 362–64

  • international system and, 387–88, 389

  • intersubjective realities and, 26–27, 33, 34–35

  • lists and, 42–43

  • military spending and, 390–91

  • stories and, 33, 34, 41–42

  • uncomfortable truths and, 33–34

• Nazism

  • biological dramas and, 60–61

  • centralization of power and, 118

  • connection and, 17

  • control and, 164

  • cooperation and, 33

  • elections and, 122

  • human abuse of power and, xii

  • Industrial Revolution and, 307

  • intersubjective realities and, 291

  • mythology and, 285

  • populism and, 130–31

  • power of, xiv

  • science and, 38

  • stories and, 30–31

  • totalitarian system under, 162

  • truth-order balance and, 402

  • unemployment and, 316, 325

  • See also Holocaust

• Neanderthals, 19, 28, 53

• Nell, John, 4

• Nero (Roman emperor), 118–19, 154–55

• Netanyahu, Benjamin, 122–23, 396–97

• Neuralink, 239

• newspapers, 148–50, 152–53

  • See also media

• New Testament, canonization of, 85–88, 198, 399–400

• Newton, Isaac, 110

• nexus, 222

• Nicholas V (pope), 108

• NILI spy network, 5–6, 7, 8–9, 40

• 1960s cultural conflicts, 186–87, 188–89, 227, 345

• Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell), 352–53

• Noah, 4–5

• noble lie, 34

• North Korea, 134, 135–36, 141

• nuclear physics, 32, 33

• Numbers, 82

• Nusseibeh, Sari, 287

O

• Obama, Barack, xviii, 397

• objective reality, 24–25

• O’Gieblyn, Meghan, 298

• Old Assyrian dialect, 47–48

• Old New Land, The (Herzl), 42

• Old Testament. See Hebrew Bible; Judaism

• “On Exactitude in Science” (Borges), 10

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Copernicus), 101, 102

• On War (Clausewitz), 268, 270–71, 275–76

• Oppenheimer, Robert, 32, 33

• Orbán, Viktor, 122

• original sin, 70

• Orwell, George, xiv, 352–53

• Ottoman Empire, 390

• Owen, Wilfred, 8

• ownership. See property rights

P

• Pacepa, Ion Mihai, 233

• Page, Larry, 366

• Paoli, Pasquale, 277

• paper-clip thought experiment, 271–72, 274

• parental neglect, 59

• Passover, 23–24

• pattern recognition, 235–37, 295, 318–19

• Paul, Saint, 22, 87, 91, 379

• Pauling, Linus, 114

• Peasants’ Revolt (1381), 64

• peer-to-peer surveillance, 248–50

• Peloponnesian War, 156–57

• Petofi, Sándor, 42

• Phaethon myth, xii, xxviii

• Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 103

• Pisistratus, 138

• Plato, 34, 144, 213, 410–11n21

• Poincaré, Henri, 115

• Pokémon Go, 286

• Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 146–47, 151, 435nn36–37

• political conversations

  • AI and, 209–10

  • decentralization and, 147

  • democracy/autocracy continuum and, 135–36

  • digital anarchy and, 340, 342–43

  • vs. elections, 141–42

  • information technology as necessary for, 142, 143, 144, 148, 152–53, 344–45

  • local democracy and, 145–46

  • 1960s cultural conflicts and, 187, 188–89

  • population size and, 141–44

  • regulation and, 345

• Pompeii, 144–46

• populism, xxiv–xxvi, 129–34

  • charismatic leadership and, xxvii, xxviii, 134

  • cooperation and, 385

  • incoherence of, xxvi

  • on information as weapon, xxiv–xxv, xxiv, xxvi, 400–401

  • Marxism and, xxv–xxvi

  • religion and, xxvii, xxviii

  • simplicity and, 133

  • skeptical empiricism and, xxvi–xxvii

  • social media and, 259–60

  • as threat to democracy, 131–32

  • on truth, xxiv

  • unfathomability and, 334

• power

  • alignment problem and, 272

  • cooperation and, 32

  • curation institutions and, 90, 102

  • human abuse of, xi–xiv, xx, xxiii, xxvii, 401–2

  • information as weapon and, xxiv–xxv, 400–401

  • international system and, 387–88, 389

  • naive view of information on, 31–32

  • populism and, xxiv–xxv, 129, 132–33, 134

  • societal benefits of, 402

  • totalitarianism and, 158–59

  • truth and, 31–32

  • truth-order balance and, 402

  • written documents and, 57–58

  • See also centralization of power

• print revolution, 92, 94–96, 101, 146, 197

• privacy. See surveillance

• propaganda, 21

• property rights, 46–47

• Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 183

• Psalms, 76

• psychiatry, 111

• purity/impurity, 60–61

• Putin, Vladimir. See Russia

• Pwint Htun, 264, 265

• Pythia, 73

Q

• QAnon, xxiv, 95, 208–9

• Qatar, 363

• Qin dynasty (China), 157–60

• Qin Shi Huang (Chinese emperor), 157, 159

R

• rabbinate, 80, 81, 106

• racism

  • algorithmic bias and, 293–94

  • biological dramas, 327–28

  • as intersubjective reality, 290–91

  • naive view of information on, xvii

  • rigidity/pliability and, 314

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 110

  • See also bias

• radio, 197, 228

  • See also information technology

• Ramayana, 44, 58, 59, 60, 61–62

• rationality, alignment problem and, 270–71, 275–76, 277

• Reagan, Ronald, xvii–xviii

• realism, 388, 396

• reality

  • holy book interpretation and, 83

  • illusion and, 213

  • objective vs. subjective, 24–25

  • vs. truth, 7–10

  • virtual, 13–14

  • See also intersubjective realities

• regulation, 219–20, 340, 343–45

• religion

  • AI and, 209

  • automation and, 320

  • biological dramas and, 60–61

  • brands and, 22

  • democracy and, 147

  • enslavement and, 328

• errors and, 70

• human abuse of power and, xiii

• incentive structures and, 111–12

• inconsistency and, 71–72

• infallibility and, 69, 71–73, 103, 106–7

• intersubjective realities and, 22, 27, 287

• memory and, 23–24, 43, 44

• nations and, 33

• personal revelations and, 71–72

• populism and, xxvii, xxviii

• self-correcting mechanisms and, 35–36, 104, 106–7, 108–9

• social credit systems and, 291–92

• social order and, 36, 71

• stories and, 19, 22–24, 38, 416n19

• totalitarianism and, 173–76

• truth-order balance and, 38

• utilitarianism and, 283, 284

• See also Christianity; holy books; Judaism; religious institutions

• religious institutions, 72–73, 76–77, 80, 81, 88, 91, 173–76

  • See also Catholic Church

• Replika, 211

• Republic (Plato), 34, 410–11n21

• reputation market, 251–52, 253

• rigidity/pliability, 314–16

• robots, 218, 316–17

• Rohingya massacre (Myanmar), 195–200

  • alignment problem and, 272

  • alternative views and, 197–98

  • computer network goals and, 199, 259, 265

  • computers as independent agents and, 197, 198–200

  • culpability for, 199–200

  • deontology and, 278–79

  • error-enhancing mechanisms and, 265

  • misinformation/disinformation and, 195, 196

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 264

  • tech company culpability and, 199, 200, 219, 220, 263

• Roman Empire

  • autocracy vs. totalitarianism and, 154–55, 156

  • centralization of power and, 118–19, 356–58, 372–73

  • damnatio memoriae, 351

  • democracy and, 139, 141, 142, 143–44

  • infallibility and, 119

  • military spending, 390

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 151–52

• Romania, 65–67, 231–33, 234, 236, 424n52

• romantic triangles, 60

• Roosevelt, Franklin D., 33, 325

• Rousseau, Jean-Jacque, 102

• Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, 102

• Russell, Bertrand, 359–60

• Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955), 359–60

• Russia

  • AI development and, 369

  • democracy as autocratic tool and, 122, 123, 134

  • doublespeak and, 352–53

  • Silicon Curtain and, 375

  • social media banning, 371

  • Ukraine invasion, 353, 392–93

  • See also Tsarist Russia

• Rwanda genocide (1994), 60, 197

• Rychagov, Pavel, 180–81

S

• Said, Edward, xxv

• Salazar Frías, Alonso de, 101

• Sayadaw U Vithuddha, 197–98

• science

  • bureaucracy and, 51–52

  • collaboration and, xxvii

  • compartmentalization and, 51–54

  • cooperation and, 32, 33

  • dissent and, 113–15, 180

  • majority rule and, 127

  • Nazism and, 38

  • populism on, 133

  • religion and, 16

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 103–5, 110–15

  • skeptical empiricism and, xxvi–xxvii

  • skeptical views of, xxv, xxvi

  • Soviet collectivization and, 166, 168

• scientific revolution, 92, 101, 102–3

• Second Council of Lyon (1274), 379

• Sedol, Lee, 332, 333, 368

• Sejanus, Lucius Aelius, 356–58

• self-correcting mechanisms, 103–17

  • absence in autocracies, 117, 119, 179–80, 358–60

  • algorithms as, 336–38

  • ancient world, 156

  • civil rights and, 124

  • computer-based network fallibility and, 301

  • computer network goals and, 274–75

  • decentralization and, 312–13

  • democracy and, 117, 119, 120–22, 123, 124–25, 128, 147, 151

  • denial of, 109

  • dissent and, 113–16, 432n111

  • elections and, 121–22, 126

  • as essential, 402–4

  • vs. external correction, 104

  • incentive structures and, 111–12

  • vs. infallibility, 105–7, 109

  • infallibility and, 70

  • majority rule and, 124–25

  • media and, 128, 148

  • natural occurrence, 105

  • neutralization of, 123, 133–34, 140, 403

  • populism on, 133

  • regulation, 219–20, 340, 343–45

  • religion and, 35–36, 104, 106–7, 108–9

  • rigidity/pliability and, 316

  • science and, 103–5, 110–15

  • truth-order balance and, 68, 116

• Septimius Severus (Roman emperor), 140, 351

• Sermon on the Mount, 89

• Shakespeare, William, 60, 64

• Shang Yang, 411n21

• Shechtman, Dan, 113–14

• Shevchenko, Taras, 42

• Shulgi (king of Ur), 45

• sibling rivalry, 59–60

• Silicon Curtain, xxi–xxii, 190, 364, 374–77, 381–82, 384

• Silicon Valley. See tech companies

• Simeon, Saint, 380

• simulation hypothesis, 412–13n1

• Singularity Is Nearer, The (Kurzweil), xviii, xx–xxi

• Skynet, 236

• smartphones, 234, 240, 248, 286

• Snow, John, 55–56

• social credit systems, 250–54, 291–92, 299, 329, 339–40, 371, 375

• social media

  • alignment problem and, 272, 274

  • banning of, 271

  • bots and, 287, 341–42, 344

  • charismatic leadership and, 20

  • culpability of, 199–200, 261–64

  • error-enhancing mechanisms, 265

  • as independent agent, 198, 199–200

  • misinformation/disinformation and, 14, 195, 196

  • political influence and, 195–99, 258–61, 263, 272, 371

  • populism and, 259–60

  • QAnon and, 208–9

  • regulation of, 344–45

  • societal benefits of, 266–67

• social order

  • acknowledgment of fictive nature and, 35

  • democracy and, 188–89

  • political conversations and, 188, 340

  • power and, 32, 33

  • religion and, 36, 71

  • stories and, 33, 34–35, 37

  • totalitarianism and, 176, 177, 184–85

  • U.S. 1960s activism and, 186–87

  • See also truth-order balance

• Socrates, 300

• Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr, 256–57

• Song of Songs, 76–77

• “Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The” (Goethe), xii–xiii, xviii, xxviii, 271, 272

• South Korea, 141

• Soviet Union

  • Afghanistan invasion, 117

  • Chernobyl disaster (1986), 177–78, 179

  • Cold War and, 117

  • collapse of, 187–88

  • computer industry, 188, 226–27

  • doctors’ plot, 183–84

  • mass media and, 153–54

  • military spending, 391

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 117

  • totalitarian system, 161–62

  • See also Stalinism

• Sparta, 156

• Spinoza, Baruch, 102

• Stalin, Joseph. See Stalinism

• Stalinism

  • centralization of power and, 118, 358

  • collectivization and, 165–71, 184–85, 402, 440n90, 441nn95–96

  • connection and, 17

  • control and, 164–67

  • cooperation and, 33

  • death of Stalin, 183–84

  • dissent and, 115–16

  • erasure of past and, 351

  • family and, 171–72

  • Great Terror, 162–63, 185, 256–57, 351

  • human abuse of power and, xii

  • Industrial Revolution and, 307

  • infallibility and, 119

  • kulak liquidation campaign, 167–71, 290, 441nn95–96

  • mass media and, 153

  • power of, xiv–xv

  • state-party cooperation and, 173–74

  • stories and, 20

  • surveillance and, 233, 234, 256–58

  • terror and, 155, 162–63, 180–81, 182, 183, 185

  • totalitarian system under, 161–62

  • truth-order balance and, 185

  • utilitarianism and, 284

  • World War II and, 181–82, 184, 185

• stalkerware technology, 248

• states. See nations

• Stock, Kathleen, 432n111

• Stone Age humans

  • cooperation and, 19, 32, 388–89

  • democracy and, 136–38

  • evolution of, 19, 52–53

  • political conversations and, 143

  • stories and, 28–29

• stories, 18–39

  • AI and, 214

  • biological dramas, 58–62, 63, 216, 327–28

  • vs. books, 74

  • brands and, 20

  • charismatic leadership and, 19–21

  • computer-based network and, 68

  • conflicts and, 30

  • cooperation and, 18–19, 28–29, 384–85, 416n19

  • democratic computer politics and, 338–40

  • errors and, 31

  • existential threats and, 362

  • family and, 23, 24

  • fear of illusions and, 213

  • intersubjective realities and, 25–28, 33, 34–35

  • limitations of, 41–42, 43, 418n3

  • materialist views of, 29

  • memory and, 43–45, 46

  • naive view of information on, 31–32

  • Nazism and, 30–31

  • power and, 57

  • propaganda and, 21–22

  • religion and, 19, 22–24, 38, 416n19

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 116

  • tribal networks and, 416n19

  • truth-order balance and, 37–39, 37

• Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story (Haven), 43–45

• Streletsky, Dmitry, 170

• subjective reality, 25

• Succession, 60, 63

• Suleyman, Mustafa, xxi, 331–32

• Sunflower Student Movement, 225

• Superintelligence (Bostrom), 271–72

• surveillance

  • behavioral impact of, 257–58

  • biometric, 238–40, 241–42, 291, 451n19

  • bureaucracy and, 230–31

  • computer-based network and, 234–35, 237, 238–40

  • democratic computer politics and, 309–16

  • of employees, 248

  • end of privacy and, 241–42, 249–50, 253, 254

  • facial recognition, 243–44, 245–47, 293–94, 295–96, 368

  • mutuality and, 313–14

  • peer-to-peer, 248–50

  • reputation market, 251–52, 253–54

  • rigidity/pliability and, 314–16

  • societal benefits of, 230–31, 242–44, 252–53, 310

  • stalkerware technology and, 248

  • totalitarianism and, 162, 231–34, 239, 245, 247, 256–58, 350

  • truth-order balance and, 257–58

  • See also social credit systems

• symbols, 4–5

T

• Tacitus, 155, 356

• Talmud, 81, 84, 86, 106

• Tang, Audrey, 225

• taxation, 221–24

• Tay chatbot, 293, 295

• tech companies

  • AI development and, 368–69

  • centralization of power and, 373

  • on computers as independent agents, 261–62

  • conflict exascerbation and, 371

  • culpability of, 199, 200, 204, 219–20, 261–64

  • data mining and, 311

  • early computer development and, 226

  • effective altruism movement and, 281

  • information asymmetry and, 225

  • naive view of information, xviii

  • optimistic predictions and, 237

  • regulation and, 219–20

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 264

  • size of, 349–50

  • societal benefits and, 266

  • taxation and, 221–23

• technological determinism, 226, 310

• television, 153

• Ten Commandments, 35–36

• Terminator, The, 213

• terror, 155, 162–63, 180–81, 182, 183, 185, 352

• terrorism, 235–36

• Tertullian, 22, 379

• Than Shwe, 396, 397

• Thecla, Saint, 88

• Thirty Years’ War, 382

• Three Mile Island accident (1979), 177–78

• Tiberius (Roman emperor), 356–58

• TikTok, 371

• 1 Timothy, 87, 88, 94, 198

• totalitarian computer politics, 348–60

  • algorithmic takeover threat and, 354–58

  • alignment problem and, 352

  • blockchain technology and, 350–51

  • bots and, 352

  • centralization of power and, 348–50, 354–58

  • computers as independent agents and, 354–56

  • doublespeak and, 352–53

  • erasure of past and, 353–54

  • infallibility and, 358–60

  • surveillance and, 350

• totalitarianism

  • absence of self-correcting mechanisms in, 119, 179–80

  • ancient experiments, 156–60

  • vs. autocracies, 118–19, 154–56

  • bureaucracy and, 169, 170

  • centralization of power and, 118–19, 157, 176–77, 348–50, 354–58

  • control and, 164–67

  • current extent of, 348, 467n2

  • disadvantages of, 177–78, 180–85, 187–89

  • family and, 171–72

  • human abuse of power and, xii

  • Industrial Revolution and, 307

  • information technology and, 153–54, 157, 159, 160, 169, 185–86, 227, 348–49

  • naive view of information on, xvii

  • populism and, 129, 132

  • power of, xiv–xv

  • religious institutions and, 173–76

  • resistance to, 166–67

  • revolutionary purpose of, 174, 175, 314

  • secret police under, 161, 162, 163

  • Silicon Curtain and, 375

  • state-party cooperation and, 173–74

  • surveillance and, 162, 231–34, 239, 245, 247, 256–58, 350

  • systems of, 161–63

  • truth-order balance and, 185, 186

  • See also Nazism; Stalinism; totalitarian computer politics

• Tower of Babel, 15, 414n15

• Trial (Kafka), 62, 63

• tribal networks, 19, 28–29

• Tripadvisor, 248–50, 252

• Trotsky, Leon, 351

• Trudeau, Justin, 209

• Trump, Donald, xxiv, xxv–xxvi, xxvii, 209, 324, 369, 376, 385

• truth

  • democracy and, 127–28

  • infallibility and, 71

  • misinformation/disinformation and, 16–17

  • naive view of information on, xv, xvi, xvii, 6–7, 11

  • vs. reality, 7–10

  • rigidity/pliability and, 314–15

  • skeptical view of, xxiv, xxv, 37, 132–33, 410–11n21

  • stories and, 31–32

  • uncomfortable facets of, 33–34

  • See also errors; self-correcting mechanisms; truth-order balance

• truth-order balance

  • algorithmic bias and, 297–98

  • bureaucracy and, 49–50, 51, 68

  • computer-based network fallibility and, 299

  • computer politics and, 229

  • curation institutions and, 102

  • democracy and, 186–87

  • elections and, 126

  • majority rule and, 126–27

  • mechanisms for, 68

  • power and, 402

  • religion and, 38

  • scientific institutions and, 102–3

  • self-correcting mechanisms and, 68, 116

  • stories and, 37–39, 37

  • surveillance and, 257–58

  • totalitarianism and, 185, 186

• Tsarist Russia, 36, 145

• Tukhachevsky, Mikhail, 351

• Turing, Alan, 194

• Twitter, 293, 295, 341–42

• 2001: A Space Odyssey, 194

U

• Ukraine invasion, 353, 392–93

• unemployment, 316, 325

• unfathomability, 326–38

  • autocracies and, 326

  • bureaucracy and, 56–57, 62, 63, 129, 326–27

  • computer politics and, 224–25

  • cyber warfare and, 383

  • go and, 332

  • numerous data points and, 335–37

  • political polarization and, 345

  • populism and, 334

  • right to explanation and, 331, 333, 336–38

  • terminology and, 217

• United States

  • AI development and, 369–70

  • Capitol attack (Jan. 6, 2021), 209

  • Cold War and, 117

  • Constitution, 34–35, 36, 37, 300, 328

  • disenfranchisement and, 122

  • early republic, 135, 149–52

  • Great Depression and, 325

  • human rights and, 125

  • independence, 27

  • 1960s cultural conflicts, 186–87, 227, 345

  • political conversations in, 136, 187, 188–89

• political polarization, 345

• Republican Party, 324

• self-correcting mechanisms, 151–52

• Silicon Curtain and, 375–76

• social media banning and, 371

• See also Trump, Donald

• U.S. Constitution, 34–35, 36, 37, 300, 328

• user engagement goal

  • alignment problem and, 267, 272, 273

  • error-enhancing mechanisms and, 265

  • intelligence vs. consciousness and, 201, 202

  • political influence and, 260–61

  • Rohingya massacre and, 199, 259, 265

  • tech company culpability and, 204, 262–63

• U.S. Telecommunications Act (1996), 220

• utilitarianism, 281–84

V

• values, xvii

• Vavilov, Nikolai, 115

• veneer theory, 388

• Vietnam War, 117

• virtual reality, 13–14

• viruses, 53–54

• Voltaire, 102

W

• Walsingham, Thomas, 64

• warfare

  • decline of, 390–93

  • global impacts and, 382–84

• Weimar Republic, 316, 325

• What Computers Can’t Do (Dreyfus), 317

• Whitehouse, Harvey, 71–72

• Whitney v. California, 11

• Whittlesey, Charles, 4, 21

• “Why AI Will Save the World” (Andreessen), xx

• Wirathu, 196, 197, 198, 199, 278–79

• wisdom

  • naive view of information on, xvi–xvii

  • stories and and, 31

  • truth-order balance and, 38–39

• Witch, The: A History of Fear (Hutton), 112–13

• witch hunts, 92–101, 428n68

  • as intersubjective realities, 98–101, 289–90

  • print revolution and, 94–96, 101, 197

  • Soviet kulak liquidation campaign and, 167–68, 169, 170

• Wojcicki, Susan, 261–62

• women, 87

  • See also misogyny

• World War I

  • Industrial Revolution and, 307

  • military espionage, 5–6, 7, 8–9

  • military spending and, 391

  • Romanian Jews and, 66

  • stories and, 4, 21–22

• World War II

  • Industrial Revolution and, 307–8

  • military spending and, 391

  • Romanian Jews and, 67

  • Stalinism and, 181–82, 184, 185

  • totalitarian power and, xiv

• Wozniak, Steve, 227

• written documents, 45–49

  • ancient world, 45–46, 47–48

  • antipathy to, 64

  • books, 74

  • importance of, 67

  • intersubjective realities and, 46–48, 291

  • misinformation/disinformation and, 65–66

  • power and, 57–58

  • retrieval and, 48–49

  • See also bureaucracy; holy books

Y

• Yagoda, Genrikh, 163

• Yes, Prime Minister, 62–63

• Yes Minister, 62

• Yezhov, Nikolai, 163

• Yishmael, Rabbi, 79

• YouTube, 259, 260, 261–62

• Yuechuan Lei, 244

Z

• Zinovyev, Aleksandr, 258

• Zionism, 41–42

• Zuboff, Shoshana, 248

• Zuckerberg, Mark, xviii, 13

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z