Free Speech

The notion that speech is free is noble but proven wrong daily. Social media capitalizes on the different forms of speech and has been since the traveling minstrels of the dark ages. Censorship and defamation of character trials have been part of the cost of speaking freely.

In today’s highly charged social interactions, activism’s agendas, and cultural change is the evidence that the bigot gene is out and Pandora’s box is open. They won’t be put back in no matter how many biased editors are hired, prejudiced algorithms coded, or bigoted shadow bans imposToday I can give a thumbs up or down, love or not. Ads are analytically tailored. The same thing will be true in the future for political, bigoted, and biased speech. The challenge will be to develop an interface which promotes and facilitates communication and a willingness to allow, even seek, dialogue.

An interesting development is the advent of AI in the moderation of information calls. I’m no longer sure whether it is a real person when I connect to any chat feature. This is only going to become more robust over time. Whether it’s customer service, educational classes, or physiological evaluations AI facilitated sessions will be the become the norm.

The issue is algorithmic mischief. Will the programmers be innocuous or obnoxious? The intriguing future is AI enabled education with human augmented performance at every intellectual level. The world is not fair, equitable, or understanding. Humanity is not common, equal, or sympathetic. Technology will enable understanding, prioritizing, and facilitating such that every individual will succeed at their level of competence. Hopefully, humanity will supply the empathy, sympathy, and creativity.

Speech will no longer need to be protected and the made up rules enforced by imperfect humans because our AI bubbles or proprietary zones will intervene, not by shielding us but preparing us to hears, evaluate, and respond to any idea and not necessarily in identical fashion or conflict prone gatherings. The old world problem of managing speech will be replaced by the ancient world paradigm of human motivation. Because learning is no longer constrained by human foibles but by programmed patience and calculated probabilities plus individualistic pedagogy and psychologically appropriate methods of learning and developing.

We become individuals capable of negotiating a crowded world of biased, prejudiced, and bigoted people finding those of like mind and dealing with peacefully or judiciously not engaging with those who are contrary.