A great write-up after Google’s jaw-dropping I/O 2018 keynote, about two different approaches that will lead our future tech in two very different ways.
The Google and Facebook Philosophy (the computer does your work for you)
vs.
The Microsoft and Apple’s (the computer enables you to do your work better and more efficient)
Tech’s Yin and Yang
That there are two philosophies does not necessarily mean that one is right and one is wrong: the reality is we need both. Some problems are best solved by human ingenuity, enabled by the likes of Microsoft and Apple; others by collective action. That, though, gets at why Google and Facebook are fundamentally more dangerous: collective action is traditionally the domain of governments, the best form of which is bounded by the popular will. Google and Facebook, on the other hand, are accountable to no one. Both deserve all of the recent scrutiny they have attracted, and arguably deserve more.