The Ending Platform Monopolies Act is Dangerously Misinformed

How Politicos' Low Tech Understanding Threatens High Tech Harm

I see folks on both sides of the aisle getting way to excited about a massive interference in Big Tech by Big Government. In this piece, I discuss some of the issues that are inevitable with it while also noting the real Big Tech problems we need to deal with:

Probably all of us have some frustration with one or more of the Tech Giants who are being targeted by Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s “Ending Platform Monopolies Act.” It is tempting to cheer on efforts to offer a cure to common Big Tech disease, checking their power over us. But, like a layperson coming up with the wrong treatment for a serious illness, this and other similar proposals, dangerously operate on oversimplification that threatens to make our technology much worse while ignoring the genuine Big Tech problems staring us down.

Oh, The Wells Fargo Wagon... Brought Books!

I needed to order some books for my Contemporary Moral Theory course and while I was at it, I ordered some books I just wanted to read as well. Here's what came today via the Wells Fargo Wagon UPS:

• Already Purchased Elsewhere: Writings on an Ethical Life by Peter Singer. I bought this one a few weeks ago. I've read most of the selections required for the course already. Singer is probably the best known living philosopher, the professor of bio-ethics at Princeton, and a general nut case. I mean that in the most respectful way possible. While he advocates policies such as infanticide and euthanasia, I respect the fact that he reaches these policies by taking the philosophy that many secularist people claim to adhere to (which is really just a form of utilitarianism) and following it where it goes without a lot of bias. I don't like his conclusions, but I agree with him that if you accept actions such as abortion, it is hard to argue against more controversial ideas such as infanticide.
• A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. This book is going to represent Kantian Morality in the course.
• After Virtue by Alasdair McIntyre: This book will be the champion of Aristotelian philosophy for the course. (In other words, he's the Good Guy!)
• Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek by Bruce Metzger: I've managed without it so far, but my Greek instructor advised me that now would be a good time to pick up a copy of this, so I piggy-backed it on the philosophy order.

• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Trans. John Ciardi): This translation of the Comedy got good marks from a number of highly respectable poets, such as Archibald MacLeish. I've never read all of Purgatorio and Paradiso so now is my chance. This edition looks to have very nice, extensive notes. T.S. Eliot said that there were not three literary greats — that Shakespeare and Dante are too far above the rest. I'm not sure I'd go that far, there are others, like Aeschylus and Homer that ought not be forgotten, but his point is well taken.
• Babylon Rising: The Secret on Ararat by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips: I read the first book in this series last year and I want to know what happens next. It might not be the best written series in the world, but it is good enough to read a bit more.
• Impeachable Offense (Left Behind: End of State) by Neesa Hart: I can't say I respect the Left Behind machine any more for releasing spin off series, but here's another book I read the first one of, which was fairly decent, and now I want to see what happens next.
• The Rising: Before They Were Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins: The first prequel to Left Behind. Yeah, the series has gone on too long, but I understand the prequel is suppose to be pretty good, and I've gone this far, I might as well finish what I started.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: I've never read the whole book, but I've read parts long ago. It did not do anything for me, but a good friend of mine was telling me how this was surely the best book in English literature, so I thought it was well past time I read the whole thing and gave it a fair chance. I respect the said friend's taste very much, although I remain skeptical until proven wrong on this one.

And, for now, that is that. I have a few more philosophy books I'll need to order within a few weeks, but those listed in the first section should keep me on track through October, I believe.