The Semantic Press
Reimagining Tocqueville's remedy to tutelary power in the age of AI
Submitted to an essay prize by the Cosmos Institute. The prompt: Tocqueville warned of a “tutelary power” that would keep citizens in perpetual childhood. How have Tocqueville’s concerns migrated from institutions to algorithms, and does AI fulfill or transform this fear?
"Equality isolates and weakens men, but the press places at the side of each[...] a very powerful arm that [...they...] can make use of. [... It] permits him to call to his aid all[...] fellow citizens and all who are like him. Printing hastened the progress of equality, and it is one of its best…
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