The utopian promise of social media connecting the globe on the basis of common understanding of human worth was a noble and enchanting proposition.  If “sunlight is the best disinfectant”, then having more engagement should have allowed the truth to rise to the top.  But we’re painfully realizing that the more appropriate quote describing our situation is “a lie can run half-way around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”.  As long as algorithms don’t perfectly align with the ideals of human flourishing, consumers and creators alike will fall deeper into the feedback loop of audience capture until we reach critical mass, causing our civil societies to erupt, then collapse.  There is still time to course correct, but we must learn from our mistakes before we become totally distracted by the looming revolution in A.I.

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