Claims

The Institute for Advanced Study has been thinking about questions of computation and AI for nearly a century—beginning with John von Neumann's design of the programmable computer and the von Neumann architecture that became the standard for computing well into the 21st century.

The Myanmar Rohingya ethnic cleansing (2016-2018) was fueled by Facebook algorithms that spread conspiracy theories and hate speech against the Rohingya minority; Facebook executives were unaware of the harm because they had only a handful of humans to monitor millions of users, none of whom spoke Burmese, so the algorithms' promotion of hateful content operated completely invisibly to corporate leadership

Communist regimes historically tried to use computer technology (mainframes, PCs, etc.) as their breakthrough moment for making central planning work, always believing the next technology would finally make Soviet-style economic management viable.

The 'Read' era (Web 1, 1990s) was dominated by open protocols like HTTP and SMTP where network effects accrued to communities rather than companies, allowing millions of profitable businesses to be built on top without competing for the network's core.

In the 'Write' era (Web 2, 2000s onward), companies like Zuckerberg and Dorsey created services that democratized information publishing (not just consumption), but this required users to hand over control of their data and audiences to centralized platforms that captured the network effects.

RSS (Rich Site Syndicate) was an open protocol for social networking in the mid-2000s that competed with proprietary social networks, but lost because Web 2 companies built proprietary alternatives that users preferred, demonstrating the competitive power of centralized platforms over open protocols.

China identified semiconductors as a technological priority in 1956 and developed its first integrated circuit in 1965, but due to the cultural revolution, political instability, and poverty fell far behind its East Asian neighbors in developing a competitive semiconductor industry.