Technology is neutral, the outcome is disastrous

The founder of a new unicorn, a short video sharing platform, just told the media that its mission is not to change the world, but to record the world. This is a humble statement.

Without this platform, that boy wouldn't always light firecrackers and put them in his crotch, rolling on the ground and screaming, attracting the attention of hundreds of thousands of people. That other aunt or brother wouldn't always eat worms, live snakes, and guzzle Erguotou. Millions of people would also lose some of the "fun" they feel when they see others self-abuse. They may be rewarding the "courage" of the self-abuse, or they may be nourishing the dark side of their own psychology.

So many modern people enjoy the same enjoyment as the ancient Roman aristocrats, when slaves and wild beasts killed each other in the Colosseum while the aristocrats watched and screamed.

It can be seen that such an online platform has indeed changed the world. Through recording and connection, the world has changed.

Perhaps, the founder's original intention was that self-abuse and appreciation of self-abuse have always existed, and the Colosseum is very old. These programmers and entrepreneurs did not create all of this from scratch. There is nothing new in the world. They have not changed the nature of the world, and they have no ability to change human nature itself. However, self-abuse and appreciation of self-abuse have indeed fermented and multiplied, and some people and some platforms have become amplifiers and accelerators.

The founder's concept represents the general position of programmers and entrepreneurs. Technology is neutral, platforms are neutral, connections are neutral, atomic bombs are neutral, and tools are neutral. If you chop someone with a knife, don't blame the person who sold the knife.

Those who happen to have the most advanced technology, the people in power, may naturally like this position. This position is conducive to the rapid popularization of technology and to winning in the competition. In fact, if you do not hold this position, you will almost certainly lose in the competition in those morally corrupt societies.

If people with certain complexes or compassion add moral judgments to their tools or platforms and block these self-abuse behaviors, then those people will flock to other more "neutral" platforms. These more "neutral" platforms are more likely to have more users and greater venture capital.

If you want to win, whether you really believe so or not, you'd better express that you believe that technology is neutral, and you also believe that this position is fair, so you are also exempt from moral accountability. Otherwise, you will expose your greed and weakness. Some people will accuse you of being a hypocrite, and public opinion will make you feel even more guilty.

However, technology is neutral and cannot be an omnipotent amulet. It is flawed.

Technology is neutral. But in a soil that is not neutral, technology will combine with the characteristics of the soil to produce a one-sided effect. It seems that it is no longer neutral, but has a moral tendency. Everyone can own a gun. In the United States, this will make everyone more able to protect themselves, but in Afghanistan, this will make everyone nervous and unable to sleep or eat. In one country, guns bring a sense of security, while in another country, guns are the source of panic.

The Internet is far more powerful than a gun.

It seems like a neutral act for hackers who are proficient in Internet technology to expose the privacy of celebrities, but the real villains with relatively less privacy are not very afraid, while the hypocrites with relatively more privacy will be hurt. The just-concluded US election confirmed this. The existence of hackers rewards the real villains and punishes the hypocrites.

Zuckerberg said that social networks record everyone's whereabouts, which tends to make people honest. It is more difficult to disguise, and the cost of hypocrisy can be very high. This is the moral tendency of the Internet as a tool in the soil of hypocrisy.

In some ways, the Internet can show a tendency to degenerate. For example, the Internet can make people addicted to people who lack self-control, such as game addicts, people who are addicted to their phones, people who shop online, and keyboard warriors. Zhang Zhidong said that digital technology can magnify people's weaknesses many times over.

Some people use short video sharing platforms to showcase their talents and gain fans and tips. But for those young people who have no special skills but are anxious to become famous and rich, they seem to be bound to self-abuse. Apart from throwing firecrackers into their crotches, eating worms and snakes raw, and drinking Erguotou, what else can they do?

The amplifying effect of tools can polarize people. People with self-control use it to constantly strengthen themselves, hone their skills and become the foundation of their careers. The weak without self-control will degenerate, drift with the wind, and sink day by day. Such stories are not only played out on short video platforms, but also on Weibo and WeChat all the time. Information is flooding and evil is everywhere. Some people can distinguish, digest and absorb it. More people have no ability to distinguish, so they are brainwashed and become extreme, arrogant, and even crazy.

For the weak, programmers, product managers, and founders who master technology and create tools seem powerless. They always say that technology is neutral. Allowing the powerless to degenerate is the powerlessness of these people in power. Maybe they have thought about alerting the powerless and motivating the degenerate to avoid degeneration, but they are worried about losing the secular power they have already obtained.

A venture capitalist who is widely admired in the industry just told the media that if artificial intelligence continues to develop and automation continues, people may be divided into two groups: 20% of "useful" people and 80% of "useless" people. Because technology is developing too fast, the people who are eliminated may not have the ability and speed to re-learn and transfer to new industries. In the future, these 80% of people may wear helmets to vent their energy in the virtual world, living a life of drunkenness and dreams.

The investor said, "Although I am investing and making this happen, it doesn't mean I am happy to see it happen." According to the media, the investor stopped smiling with his usual narrowed eyes and became serious.

This investor is a courageous man. He admitted his powerlessness. We rarely see such disclosures.

Don't think that those in power are strong. Those who can inspire humanity to improve are strong. Those who have become powerful by relying on the position that technology is neutral have kept silent about the plasticity of human nature. They can do nothing to stop the degenerates and may even help them to degenerate.

What's even more regrettable is that these 20% of "useful" people may not be able to take good care of themselves. They hide under the amulet that technology is neutral, but they may also be harmed by it in the end. Hawking said that humans have mastered the technology to destroy the earth, but they do not have the ability to escape from the earth.

Since some people can throw firecrackers into their trouser pockets, eat snakes raw, and watch these self-abuses with great interest, then what is so strange about an arrogant and angry person pressing the nuclear button on a whim, or a genius making super bacteria in his own laboratory and spreading it? The difference between these 20% of "useful" people and the 80% of "useless" people seems to be in IQ and ability, not in morality and humanity. If the "useful" people are unable or unwilling to inspire the "useless" people to be good, how can they take care of their own humanity?

I asked two entrepreneurs the same question many years ago. Now they are in charge of a company with a market value of 10 billion US dollars and a company with a market value of 4 billion US dollars respectively, and their answers are almost exactly the same.

Question: Do you think that the development of technology and commerce will eventually lead to the extinction of human civilization?

Answer: Maybe.

Again, even so, you have to jump into this torrent. Since it is difficult to change, then participate and promote its occurrence.

After a brief silence, the answer was yes.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.