Keep the faith

June 10, 2026 [Tech]

This is mainly a message to myself. I have spent the last few weeks feeling more and more depressed about "the tech industry". I am sad that social media companies are manipulating us, making us angry and ignorant. I am sad that AI is becoming more pervasive when I feel it is fundamentally unethical. I am worried that I may lose my job if I don't use AI, or feel pressured to use it. I am worried that the craft to which I have dedicated my life, and which I love, (programming) is going to die.

Post-truth and the social contract

Much of what is happening is so-called "post-truth". It seems that it doesn't matter what you do any more, so long as you appear to be confident and aggressive about it. I see this in the political discourse in the UK and the US, but I also see it elsewhere - for example in the "quiet quitting" phenomenon: people giving up on the social contract and choosing to take what they can get from an economy they consider fundamentally opposed to their interests.

AI is the natural extension of post-truth: it confidently spouts opinions, making no distinction between truth and lies. It also massively enables faking of all kinds, making it easier to lie. The companies selling this technology take no responsibility for either of these problems, instead filling the air with bluster about how important and dangerous it is.

I have always been interested in free and open source software, and my interest is rooted in the good that it can do: the idea that we can build a better society by working together. For this to make sense, I need to believe in the social contract: that others are acting in good faith. I don't think I need to believe that everyone is acting in good faith, but that some critical mass is doing so.

I realised yesterday that there are some reasons for hope. I hope and trust that our society will make its way out of the post-truth world into something better. Here are my reasons for that hope.

This has happened before

When new information technologies were developed in the past, waves of disinformation often followed: pamphlets full of lies became very popular after the printing press, and some have even suggested that the wars of the 20th century were exacerbated by the availability of mass media like radio.

Our societies went through awful convulsions, but we found a way back to a shared understanding of ourselves, and a basic trust in each other.

People hate being lied to

Just this. People really hate being lied to. So I hope and trust that when lies and corruption are exposed, such as when we find out about all the powerful people linked to Epstein's people trafficking and rape business, we will eventually (eventually) react by changing our rules and punishing the guilty. I know there is not a lot of evidence for this claim, specifically in the Epstein example, but I still believe that liars are unpopular - people just need time to admit that they were fooled.

All the nasty social media influencers and hateful politicians collapse under the weight of their own lies. It just takes time.

You can't deny gravity

Bubbles eventually burst: Enron managed to survive for a long time, but in the end, the law of gravity won, and the truth became clear.

Invading a country, claiming victory, and then claiming every week that a peace has been agreed, eventually gets tired. The evidence just mounts up that you are telling lies. Very soon, most people will settle on the consensus that the US-Israel war on Iran was a terrible, morally bankrupt, mistake.

Sometimes the truth is surprising: it turns out there was a group of elite paedophiles preying on our children, despite how crazy that sounded, and despite the details of the conspiracy theory being totally wrong. But the point is that it was exposed.

The parts of the AI revolution that are simply lies will also be exposed: the worst of these is the idea that computers can replace humans as friends, but there are many others.

I keep "early 2027" in my mind, because that is when influential bloggers Scott Alexander and Daniel Kokotajlo predicted an intelligence explosion that would be undeniable. So far, I see little sign of that, and I look forward to asking the question at the time.

Social media bubbles make us less empathic and worse informed: I hope and trust that the truth of this will become obvious, and we will find a better way, though I can't imagine what it will look like.

Keep the faith

We are still people, and the overwhelming majority of us want to live a world where we can trust each other. We will work it out. There may be horrible convulsions, but we will work it out1.

Keep the faith. My evidence is admittedly pretty shaky, but that's why they call it faith.

Keep the faith. Don't give up.

1

Yes, climate disaster is the shadow behind everything I'm saying. I am certainly not claiming that we will survive climate disaster, or that it will be good - I'm just claiming that we will rebuild some sense of trust and co-operation, assuming we have time.

Comments

Benedikt 2026-07-10

Thanks for this, it's hard to keep hoping for a better future despite seemingly overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Maybe we just have to play the long game.

Anyway, I really appreciate this.

dapr 2026-07-11

<3

Bill McMellon 2026-07-17

Thanks for this, Andy (your dad has forwarded it to me, or else I would not have been aware). I am a Quaker, and we are committed to truth. I don't think we have any choice about that in this world, Quaker or not. However deep the lies, and however much people wish to believe in them, truth will out. There will always be problems of interpretation (how I express my truth may be different to how you express yours) but as I say, we have no choice but to honestly work towards the truth as best we can. We can take no responsibility for other people's lies except to try to expose them. The technology and the billionaires make no difference except to make the job harder. But here we are, working day to day to live in the actual world without allowing ourselves to be distracted by the virtual, imaginary one, except where it coincides with truth. Best Wishes and Good Luck, Bill.