David Weinberger

05/06/2025 itdf

Summary

David Weinberger (born 1950) is an American author, technologist, and speaker whose work explores how technology, particularly the internet and machine learning, shapes our ideas.

Trained as a philosopher with a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Weinberger’s career has spanned academia, technology consulting, and writing. He taught philosophy before transitioning to the tech industry, where he held marketing and executive roles.

He is perhaps best known as a co-author of the influential Cluetrain Manifesto (2000), which offered early insights into the social nature of the internet.

Weinberger has been affiliated with Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society since 2004, holding positions as a Fellow, Senior Researcher, and member of the Fellows Advisory Board. He has also been involved with the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy.

More recently, his work has focused on the philosophical and ethical implications of machine learning, resulting in his 2019 book, Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility

 

Source: Gemini

OnAir Post: David Weinberger

About

Key Themes in his Work

  • The impact of the internet on knowledge and organization: This is explored in books like Small Pieces Loosely Joined (2002) and Everything is Miscellaneous (2007).
  • Rethinking knowledge in the digital age: His book Too Big to Know (2012) examines how the nature of facts and expertise changes when the smartest person in the room becomes the room itself (the network).
  • The philosophical implications of artificial intelligence: His more recent work, including Everyday Chaos, delves into how AI and the internet are changing our understanding of predictability and complexity.

Weinberger has also been involved in political advising, having served on technology policy advisory councils for several presidential campaigns. He is a frequent commentator on technology and its societal impact in various publications and on NPR’s All Things Considered.

In summary, David Weinberger is a prominent thinker who bridges technology and philosophy, offering insightful perspectives on how the digital world is transforming our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Source: Gemini

Web Links

ITDF Essay, April 2025

AIs Can Help Humans Really See the World, Teach Us About Ourselves, Help Us Discover New Truths and – Ideally – Inspire Us to Explore in New Ways

Source: ITDF Webpage

“I choose to spell out a positive vision about the possible impact of AI on humans because there is already a lot of negative commentary – much of which I agree with. Still, I think we can hope that the changed way AI helps humans see the world will be in valuing the particulars and the truths that AI and machine learning unearth. That will stand in contrast to humans’ longstanding efforts to try to create general truths, laws and principles.

“General ‘laws’ humans have theorized about the universe teach us a lot. But they can be imprecise and inaccurate because they don’t account for the wild mass of particulars that also point to truth. We humans don’t have the capacity to ‘see’ all the particulars, but AI does.

AI/machine learning tools are better equipped than humans to discover previously hidden aspects of the way the world works. … They ‘see’ things that we cannot. … That is a powerful new way to discover truth. The question is whether these new AI tools of discovery will galvanize humans or demoralize them. Some of the things I think will be in play because of the rise of AI: our understanding of free will, creativity, knowledge, fairness and larger issues of morality, the nature of causality, and, ultimately, reality itself.

“Here’s an example: In 2022, researchers discovered we have the ability to predict heart attacks amazingly accurately after they ran a small data set of retinal scans through an AI analysis system. It turns out the power of simple retinal tests to predict heart attacks was unexpected and often better than other tests had demonstrated.

“We don’t know exactly why that is, but the correlations are strong. A machine system designed to look for patterns figured it out without being told to hunt for a specific thing about the causes of heart attacks. This use of artificial intelligence turns out to be much more capable than humans at discovering previously hidden aspects of the way the world works. In short, there is truth in the particulars and AI/machine learning tools are better equipped than we humans are to discover that reality. AI tools let the particulars speak. They ‘see’ things that we cannot and do so in a way that generalizations don’t. That is a huge insight and a powerful new way to discover truth.

“Now, the question is whether these new AI tools of discovery will galvanize humans or demoralize them. The answer is probably both. But I’m going to focus on the positive possibilities. I’m convinced this new method of learning from particulars offers us a chance to rethink some of the fundamental ways we understand ourselves. Here are some of the things I think will be in play because of the rise of AI: our understanding of free will, creativity, knowledge, fairness and larger issues of morality, the nature of causality, and, ultimately, reality itself.

“Why can we reimagine all those aspects of life? Because our prior understanding of them is tied to the limits of our brains. Humans can only think about things in a small number of dimensions before problems get too complex. On the other hand, AI can effectively function in countless multidimensional ways with an insane number of variables. That means they can retain particulars in ways we can’t in order to gain insights.

One idea that could come back in this age of AI is the notion of causal pluralism. Machine learning can do a better job predicting some causal incidents because it doesn’t think it’s looking for causes. It’s looking for correlations and relationships. This can help us think of things more often in complex, multidimensional ways. … I am opting for a very optimistic view that machine learning can reveal things that we have not seen during the millennia we have been looking upwards for eternal universals. I hope they will inspire us to look down for particulars that can be equally, maybe even more, enlightening.

“Let’s look at how that might change the way we think about causality. Philosophers have argued for millennia about this. But most people have a common idea of causality. It’s easy to explain cause and effect when a cue ball hits an eight ball.

“For lots of things, though, there really can be multiple, reasonable explanations of the ‘cause’ for something to happen. One idea that could come back in this age of AI is the notion of causal pluralism. Machine learning can do a better job predicting some causal incidents because it doesn’t think it’s looking for causes. It’s looking for correlations and relationships. This can help us think of things more often in complex, multidimensional ways.

“Another example can be seen in the ways AI and machine learning might help humans advance creativity and teach us about it. Many creative people will tell you that when they are creating they are in a flow state. They did not start the creative process with a perfectly clear idea of where they’re going. They take an action –  play a note, write a word or phrase, apply a paint brush or … my favorite example … chip away at the rock because the figure to be sculped is already in the stone and just ‘waiting to be released.’ Every time they take that next step they open up a new field of possibility for the next word or the next brush stroke. Each step changes the state of the thing.

“That’s pretty much exactly how AI systems operate and try to improve themselves. AI systems are able to do this kind of ‘creative work’ because they have a multi-dimensional map – a model of how words go together statistically. The AI doesn’t know sadness or beauty or joy. But if you ask it to write lyrics, it will probably do a pretty good job. It reflects our culture and also expands the field of possibility for us.

“Ultimately, I am especially interested in ways in which this new technology lights up the world and gives us insights that are enriching and true. Of course, there’s no great reason to think that will happen. Computers have lit the world in ways that are both beautifully true and also demeaning. But I am opting for a very optimistic view that machine learning can reveal things that we have not seen during the millennia we have been looking upwards for eternal universals.

“I hope they will inspire us to look down for particulars that can be equally, maybe even more, enlightening.”

This essay was written in January 2025 in reply to the question: Over the next decade, what is likely to be the impact of AI advances on the experience of being human? How might the expanding interactions between humans and AI affect what many people view today as ‘core human traits and behaviors’? This and nearly 200 additional essay responses are included in the 2025 report “Being Human in 2035.”

More Information

Wikipedia

David Weinberger (born 1950) is an American author, technologist, and speaker. Trained as a philosopher, Weinberger’s work focuses on how technology — particularly the internet and machine learning — is changing our ideas, with books about the effect of machine learning’s complex models on business strategy and sense of meaning; order and organization in the digital age; the networking of knowledge; the Net’s effect on core concepts of self and place; and the shifts in relationships between businesses and their markets.

Career

Weinberger holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto[1] and taught college from 1980-1986 primarily at Stockton University (then known as Stockton State College).[2] From 1986 until the early 2000s he wrote about technology, and became a marketing consultant and executive at several high-tech companies, including Interleaf and Open Text.[3] His best-known book is 2000’s Cluetrain Manifesto (co-authored), a work noted for its early awareness of the Net as social medium.[4] From 1997 through 2003 he was a frequent commentator on National Public Radio‘s All Things Considered, with about three dozen contributions.[5] In addition, he was a gag writer for the comic strip “Inside Woody Allen” from 1976 to 1983.[6]

In 2002, Weinberger published Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web (ISBN 0-7382-0543-5), where he argued that the World Wide Web has significantly altered humanity‘s understanding or perception of the concepts of space, matter, time, perfection, public, knowledge, and morality.

In 2004 he became a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society[7] and as of 2023 serves as an affiliation of the center.[8] In 2008 he served as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School and co-taught a course on “The Web Difference” with John Palfrey.[9] From 2010 to 2014 he was Co-Director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab.[10] In 2015, he was a fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.[11] He is an advisor to Harvard’s MetaLAB metaLAB, and the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative,[12] and other non-commercial and commercial organizations. He continues to teach courses at Harvard Extension School on the effect of technology on ideas.

Beginning in 2015, Weinberger turned much of his attention to the philosophical and ethical implications of machine learning, resulting in a series of articles, talks and workshops, and his 2019 book Everyday Chaos. From June 2018 to June 2020, he was embedded in Google’s People + AI Research (PAIR), a machine learning research group located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a part-time writer-in-residence.

Weinberger has been involved in Internet policy and advocacy. He had the title Senior Internet Advisor to Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign,[13] and was on technology policy advisory councils for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. From 2010-12 he was a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, working with the e-Diplomacy Group.[14] He has written and spoken frequently in favor of policies that favor a more open Internet, including in Salon,[15] NPR,[16] We Are the Internet[17] and in a series of video interviews with the Federal Communications Commission.

Honors

  • In 2007, The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council named him Mover & Shaker of the Year [18]
  • 2012, Too Big to Know won both the World Technology Award as best technology book of the year[19] and the GetAbstract International Book Award
  • In 2014, Simmons College made him an honorary Doctor of Letters.[20]
  • Axiom named “Everyday Chaos“ the “Best Business Commentary of 2019”,[21] and Inc. magazine listed it as one of 2019’s “11 Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs”[22]

Books

Other works

References

  1. ^ “Harvard Berkman Klein Center Fellows Advisory Board”. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  2. ^ Weinberger, David (1984). “Austin’s Flying Arrow: A Missing Metaphysics of Language and World”. Man and World. 17 (2): 175–195. doi:10.1007/BF01248675. S2CID 170741064. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
  3. ^ “Fear and loathing on the Web: “Gonzo” marketing thrives”. CNN.com. 16 July 1998. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  4. ^ “…the guiding principles of social media years before Facebook and Twitter existed.”Baker, Stephen (2009-12-03). “Beware Social Media Snake Oil”. BloombergView. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
  5. ^ Weinberger, David. “David Weinberger NPR Commentary”. Weinberger home page. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  6. ^ Hample, Stewart (2009-10-28). “How I Turned Woody Allen into a Comic Strip”. The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-06-20.
  7. ^ “The newest Berkman Fellow: David Weinberger”. McGee’s Musings. 27 February 2004. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  8. ^ “David Weinberger”. Berkman Klein Center. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  9. ^ “Berkman Teaching”. Berkman Klein Center. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  10. ^ “The Harvard Library Innovation Lab”. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  11. ^ “Past Fellows”. Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  12. ^ “About Us”. HBS Digital Initiative. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  13. ^ Lunenfeld, Peter (2007-06-24). “Welcome to Web 2.0”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  14. ^ “Franklin Fellows Alumni”. U.S. State Department. Archived from the original on 2017-03-01. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  15. ^ Weinberger, David (2003-03-12). “The Myth of Interference”. Salon. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  16. ^ Weinberger, David (2009-09-21). “Net Neutrality and Beyond”. NPR. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  17. ^ Weinberger, David (2015). “Getting Straight about Common Carriers and Title II”. We Are the Internet. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  18. ^ “Mass. Technology Leadership Council recognizes area companies”. Boston Business Journal. 19 October 2007. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  19. ^ Holloway, James (24 October 2012). “Revealed: World Technology Network’s innovators of 2012”. GizMag. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  20. ^ “Past Commencements”. Simmons College. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  21. ^ “Axiom Business Book Awards 2020 Results”. Axiom Business Book Awards. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  22. ^ Buchanan, Leigh (14 November 2019). “his Year’s 11 Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs”. Inc. Magazine. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  23. ^ Weinberger, David; Locke, Christopher; Doc Searls (2000). The Cluetrain Manifesto. ft com. ISBN 0-273-65023-8.
  24. ^ Weinberger, David (2002). Small pieces loosely joined: a unified theory of the Web. Cambridge, Mass: Perseus. ISBN 0-7382-0543-5.
  25. ^ Weinberger, David (2007). Everything is miscellaneous: the power of the new digital disorder. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-8043-8.
  26. ^ Weinberger, David (2012). Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02142-0.
  27. ^ Weinberger, David (2019). Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Review Press. p. 241. ISBN 9781633693951.


source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weinberger

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