Important Information - analysing the world through information
Curiously poking information systems, company culture/handbooks, (personal) data, AI, startups, progress, and science.
Welcome to Important Information by moi, Michael Jelly (@michaeljelly).
ThE mOdErN wOrLd iS All aBoUt InFoRmAtIoN!
Novel, surprising truths (i.e. information) let founders discover the billion-dollar problems we didn’t know we had. Hence @peterthiel's question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”.
The discovery of new information drives the technological development necessary for humanity to become interplanetary.
Our democracies are information processing systems, vulnerable to attack by malicious information (Putin pls stop), and vulnerable to the censoring of information (Xi pls stop).
This thing (blog?newsletter?) is going to be digging deep into how information affects our world. I’ll be curiously poking
information systems within companies and societies
company culture/handbooks
(personal) data
AI
startups, progress, and science.
the key truths behind the category-defining products
the crucial scientific discoveries that lead to massive social change
Who tf am I?
I’m a technology, politics, economics and philosophy geek with one ultimate life aim: to make the impacts of AI and automation good for society.
You like AI? But you studied philosophy, politics and economics at university..! That might seem strange, however - I think our biggest threat from technology is that people (philosophy), democracies (politics) and economies (…) are unprepared to deal with what’s coming. In the next few decades, AI and automation will cause:
Massive job losses across economies rich and poor
The creation of smarter beings than us
Huge concentration of wealth and power (already happening)
I was pretty sure we’d make good progress on technological fronts to tackle the problem, so my 18 year old self wanted to study how society solves and fails to solve problems, so I could learn how to solve the problems that AI and automation will cause.
What do I do these days?
Funnily enough, things have come full circle. I’m now working on technology to speed society’s progress to solving the problems of an AI driven future.
I’m a founding shill (a.k.a. co-founder) of Ethi (@EthiData). Ethi’s mission is to put individuals in control of their personal data, and help them use that data to transform their lives and the world. If we as individuals don’t control our personal data, we might unknowingly giving up too much of our autonomy to AI systems such as News Feeds and loan algorithms. We want individuals to be able to control the information they allow AI systems to have access to, and to use AI products without compromising their privacy.
So why Important Information (the blog/newsletter you’re reading)?
I've been thinking about information overload, intellectual property, information encoded in cultures, and information processing, production and control since I was 17 years old (7 years ago), so it’s about time I get some thoughts down in hypertext.
Philosophy, politics, economics, and technology are all different perspectives through which you can analyse and study how the world works, but they all are essentially different ways to analyse information and make decisions.
Our minds, democracies, economies, computers, startups and research institutions are all ultimately information-processing and decision-making systems.
What will you get here?
I’m hoping to uncover and study the Important Information that leads to human progress. Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.
Tweet me your thoughts at @michaeljelly. As always, thanks for reading.
In the meantime, tell your friends! <3