Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People

Frisco Uplink tweeted this super interesting thread inspired by the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 9, Measure of a Man, which got him thinking about our current society and Silicon Valley’s algorithmically disposable people. It’s a really interesting episode which you will most likely remember if you’re a Star Trek fan. It’s the one where they hold a trial to determine whether or not Data is a sentient being with rights. Anyway, this leads us to our current society where rather than building artificial laborers, the tech industry invented artificial supervisors in the form of algorithms. So we’re left with “algorithmically disposable people” and the inversion of the future Star Trek imagined. This all makes for a really interesting discussion about automation and the ethics of algorithmic decision making:

Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People

Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People

Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People
Star Trek: TNG and Algorithmically Disposable People

Source: Frisco Uplink

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