# How do we avoid a Brave New World, reverse dystopic trends? **URL:** \ **Category:** Society\ **Tags:** action, awareness, participation, activism\ **Created:** [April 11, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/how-do-we-avoid-a-brave-new-world-reverse-dystopic-trends/1811 "2018-04-11T16:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 15
**Author:** ![aschrijver](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/community.humanetech.com/aschrijver/32/1498_2.png) [@aschrijver](https://community.humanetech.com/u/aschrijver)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/how-do-we-avoid-a-brave-new-world-reverse-dystopic-trends/1811/15 "2018-11-10T11:34:58Z")
Some (very popular) TED talks to share, that should be part of this topic (thank you, Hans Haakman). One by [Zeynep Tufekci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeynep_Tufekci) · Techno-sociologist (already [mentioned as link](http://community.humanetech.com/t/what-are-your-most-important-resources-that-relate-to-technology-social-norms-and-political-movements/2534) by @khkey and the other by [Cathy O’Neil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_O'Neil) · Mathematician, data scientist… > **[We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads](https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_we_re_building_a_dystopia_just_to_make_people_click_on_ads)** > > We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on... > _“We’re building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information. And the machines aren’t even the real threat. What we need to understand is how the powerful might use AI to control us – and what we can do in response.”_ And some interesting [discussions on Hacker News about this TED Talk](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=building%20dystopia%20ads&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story). * * * > **[The era of blind faith in big data must end](https://www.ted.com/talks/cathy_o_neil_the_era_of_blind_faith_in_big_data_must_end)** > > Algorithms decide who gets a loan, who gets a job interview, who gets insurance and much more -- but they don't automatically make things fair. Mathematician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil coined a term for algorithms that are secret, important and... > _“Algorithms decide who gets a loan, who gets a job interview, who gets insurance and much more – but they don’t automatically make things fair. Mathematician and data scientist Cathy O’Neil coined a term for algorithms that are secret, important and harmful: “weapons of math destruction.” Learn more about the hidden agendas behind the formulas.”_ Cathy was interviewed on her popular book "[Weapons of Math Destruction"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_Math_Destruction) in this [podcast by EconTalk](http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2016/10/cathy_oneil_on_1.html) and discussed on HN too: [Cathy O’Neil on Weapons of Math Destruction | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12642432) --- _[View the full topic](https://community.humanetech.com/t/how-do-we-avoid-a-brave-new-world-reverse-dystopic-trends/1811)._