Elon Musk and Socrates: A Dialogue on Free Speech and Twitter
And Saturday Links: Using Principles from Sun Tzu's Art of War to win, Meta's Cicero beats humans at Diplomacy and Google stock takes a dive after Bard demo.
Happy Saturday! Hope your weekend is going swimmingly.
Elon Musk and Socrates discuss free speech and Twitter
Below is an article I wrote for an Antigone Journal competition. Antigone Journal is “a new and open forum for Classics in the twenty-first century.”
The article did not win but was a runner-up. All the @elonmusk quotes used are actual tweets Musk has posted in the past. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
@socrates: @elonmusk You speak often of “free speech” on Twitter and its importance. What is so important about free speech?
@elonmusk: This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.
@socrates: Some say Athens lost its way when they executed me for just asking questions, so there may be some sympathy for your view. Is trying to save free speech why you bought Twitter?
@elonmusk: Twitter was Wormtongue to the World.
@socrates: I see you feel strongly about this! Let us explore, then, the idea of “free speech”. How do you define it?
@elonmusk: By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
@socrates: Yet you have said, “Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission.” How so?
@elonmusk: More and more over time, as we hew closer to the truth, Twitter will earn the trust of the people.
@socrates: We know some speech will always be inaccurate and not the truth. How will you ensure only that which is true is posted on Twitter?
@elonmusk: Community Notes aka @birdwatch.
@socrates: The people will decide what is true and what is not? Remember, it was the people, the polis, that gave me poison to drink. How will they know if what is posted is true?
@elonmusk: Truth resonates…
@socrates: How will you measure Twitter’s ability to tell the truth?
@elonmusk: A social media platform’s policies are good if the most extreme 10% on left and right are equally unhappy.
@socrates: There is some wisdom in that view, however,I’m unsure that metric illustrates Twitter’s accuracy. Let us continue. Since you allow all free speech, I assume you will allow what people call “hate speech”?
@elonmusk: New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach. Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter. You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet.
@socrates: I see. Twitter will allow hate speech but somewhat silence it. How is that different than cancel culture?
@elonmusk: Cancel culture needs to be canceled!!
@socrates: I admit cancel culture is its own kind of mania. Yet you banned some journalists from Twitter because they tweeted your private jet’s location. Is that not cancelling them?
@elonmusk: Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.
@socrates: But that speech is not illegal. It is free speech, is it not?
@elonmusk: My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.
@socrates: True. You banned the journalists but then you reinstated them.
@elonmusk: The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now.
@socrates: Again, you say it is the people on Twitter that decide what speech is allowed. I ask once more, how can the people judge who gets to speak and who does not? I thought you were going to allow all legally free speech. Is that or is that not your policy?
@elonmusk: Vox Populi, Vox Dei.
@socrates: So far in this conversation, all I know is that I know nothing…at least of Twitter’s free speech policy. If the people instead of you as Twitter’s CEO decide what speech is allowed on Twitter, then what is your role as CEO?
@elonmusk: I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!
@socrates: Why are you thinking of leaving? Was not running Twitter your great wish?
@elonmusk: As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.
@socrates: Wise words indeed! Yet I thought the goal was not only to protect free speech but also turn Twitter into a money-making venture to add to your fortune.
@elonmusk: How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one.
@socrates: There is also truth in that.
If the Delphic Oracle had not told me I am the wisest man in the world, I would consider asking for the Twitter CEO job. I could be the gadfly of all the people, not just of Athens. The idea must be tempting to those that think themselves wise.
@elonmusk: Who controls the memes, controls the Universe.
@socrates: Yet I think anyone wise enough to be fit to run a social media firm is too wise to wish to do so.
@elonmusk: Those who want power are the ones who least deserve it.
@socrates: Well said. Given our dialogue, perhaps giving a company or mobs of people the power to decide what can be said and who must be punished is no better than allowing the polis to decide the same. Do you think there is a solution to this problem?
@elonmusk: Technically, alcohol is a solution.
@socrates: So far as drinking is concerned, you have my hearty approval; for wine does of a truth moisten the soul and lull our griefs to sleep…
Perhaps what we have learned from our dialogue is that no man nor body of men is worthy of deciding who may speak and what they may say. Perhaps true wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
If you wish to read other entries in the competition, here you go.
Saturday Links
Fighting Your Business Battles: 6 Lasting Lessons From Sun Tzu’s Art Of War
This is an article I wrote a while back for Fast Company, taking the six principles I used in my book, Sun Tzu and the Art of Business: Six Strategic Principles for Managers.
The article elaborates on all six, which include the likes of Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness and Using Speed to Overcome the Competition.
Meta’s AI Agent, Cicero, Wins at Diplomacy
Meta, parent company of Facebook, has created an AI system that is a superpower in the game of Diplomacy. Diplomacy is a complex game that can be played online or as a board game. It takes strategic skills, negotiation abilities, social skills and the capability to use language to win, all of which are challenging to bundle together into an AI system.
Meta claims Cicero is the first AI system to be able to compete at the same level as humans. According to Popular Science, Cicero “can play the game Diplomacy better than many human players. CICERO more than doubled the average score of its human opponents and placed in the top 10 percent of players across 40 games in an online league.”
You can learn more from Meta here.
Google Stock Takes a Dive After Bard Demo Bust
Last week Google announced Bard, its competitor to ChatGPT. In its announcement, Google states,
“Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world’s knowledge with the power, intelligence and creativity of our large language models. It draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses. Bard can be an outlet for creativity, and a launchpad for curiosity, helping you to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.”
Ironically, during a demo of Bard, a person asked it, “What discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9 year old about?” Bard’s answer, “JWST took the very first pictures of a planet outside of our own solar system.”
Unfortunately, that’s incorrect. That picture was first taken by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.
It’s estimated that ChatGPT “hallucinates” (confidently gives the wrong answer) about 15%-20% of the time. We will have to see what Bard’s error rate is.
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