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Our smartphones are YOU NEWS
as addictive as slot
machines – and they ground with our fellow humans. achieve a form of stealth supremacy by
We can try to resist, but it’s not a fair hacking our all-too-human weaknesses.
i
king us nasty
are mak i t fight. Whenever you open Facebook, These are vulnerabilities such as vanity,
k
Instagram or YouTube, you switch on social insecurity and our susceptibility
and stupid. That’s whatHarriscalls“avoodoodoll-likever- to information that affirms our existing
sion of you in a supercomputer”. This prejudices rather than contradicting
the grim verdict of consistsofnearlyeverythingyou’veever them. Technology doesn’t have to be
clicked on, liked or watched. That’s how nearly so advanced to penetrate this soft
industry whizzkid the companies keep you ensnared: they underbelly. We’re there already.
“The first crossing point was when it
Tristan Harris who’s knowyoubetterthanyouknowyourself. overloaded our mental limits, which we
Harris’ conclusions are controversial
on a mission to make but his influence is unmistakable. He’s feel as information overload,” he says.
That probably happened in the early
briefed world leaders and is a confidant
us aware of the tricks of some of the most powerful figures in Noughties, he adds, around the time that
thetechnologyindustry.He’stestifiedto
the tabbed browser was invented, so we
Big Tech firms use to the US congress. His two Ted Talks have could keep multiple pages open more
been viewed more than four million easily on our computers.
keep us hooked to times. Then smartphones arrived and be-
Moreisatstakeherethanjustchildren came a portal through which apps such
our devices spending too much time staring at as Facebook and LinkedIn could reach
screens, companies selling our data or “and grab the puppet string of your
BY BEN HOYLE Russianhackersinterferin e and social validations”. You
Harrisargues.Thoseseeminglyseparate know the kind of thing, he says: “Oh,
EPORTINGcanbeascary problems are real but they’re also diver- these three people endorsed you on
job. I’ve had nervous mo- sions from tackling the bigger picture. LinkedIn. Don’t you feel like you should
ments with warlords, What’s actually happening is a funda- endorse them back?”
gangsters and neo-Nazis. mental rewiring of the human brain, Since then, our relationship with tech-
I have been shot at and leadingtobehaviourthat’stearingapart nology has had profound real-world
threatened. But if Tristan our social fabric, he says. effects. These appear like outriders from
Harrisisrightaboutwhat I’msittingwithhiminasmallroomin the book of Revelation in Harris’ pres-
he’s telling me, then the SanFrancisco’sbusinessdistrict,upstairs entation. “You get shortening of atten-
presentation playing now on his phone from the rented offices of the Centre for tion spans, addiction, disinformation,
is themost frightening thingI’ve seen in Humane Technology (CHT), the non- narcissism, outrage, polarisation.”
my life. profitorganisationHarriscofoundedlast This is measurable. Half of teenagers
It’saroadmapfortheerosionofcivili- year.He’sslightlybuilt,withvigilanteyes and more than a quarter of parents feel
sation as we know it. that are almost the same copper-brown “addicted” to their mobile devices, a 2016
Harris (35) is a former Google insider colour as his neat hair and beard. He study for the charity Common Sense Me-
who’s been called “the closest thing Sili- wears dark jeans, a grey shirt and grey dia found. Research at Yale University in-
con Valley has to a conscience”. He be- fleece with an old-school digital watch dicates that each word of moral outrage
lieves we’re in the midst of an “invisible on his left wrist. The watch is both a added to a tweet increases the amount
climate change of culture” caused by means of freeing himself from checking of retweets by 17%. A 2018 study by Mas-
technology companies that view the his phone and a sign to other refuseniks sachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
world’s 2,7 billionsmartphoneusersasa that he’s on their side. showed that fake news spreads six times
resource whose attention faster than accurate news.
they can mine for prof- S HARRIS launches into his Last year a program called FaceApp
it. The resulting com- pitch he gleams with evan- went viral by offering users a chance to
petition has a very gelicalpurpose.Tenminutes generate plausibly aged images of them-
unfortunate in, he leaps to his feet and selves and share them with their friends.
side-effect: “at- sketchesagraphonawhite- Thus, simply by exploiting their vanity,
tention capital- board to show the moment Russian-based designers persuaded 150
ism” is making inthefuturewhentechnologywillover- million people to hand over private
us nastier, stu- whelm humankind’s strengths: when images of their faces, paired with their
pider and artificial intelligence can do everything names.
much less better than we can and the machines The most damaging development is
likely to takeourjobs.Itlooksreassuringlyfaroff. the most recent, what Harris calls “the
find Butthenheopensupthepresentation checkmate”. This is when technology
com- onhisphone(whichissettogreyscaleto “ attacks the foundation of what we trust”
mon makeitlessaddictive).Hehomesinona via fake news, bots and deep fake videos.
much earlier watershed. This, he says, is You can’t opt out: even if you boycott the
whenthealgorithmsthatchurnawayin internet, you’re still living in a world
the background of our everyday lives (Turn over)
you.co.za 6 FEBRUARY 2020 | 81
