Merge pull request #957 from techxorcist/jmw-plurality_typos

Copyedits

contents/english/2-0-information-technology-and-democracy-a-widening-gulf.md

@@ -122,11 +122,11 @@ How did we end up here? Are these conflicts the natural course of technology and
 
 A range of work suggests that technology and democracy could co-evolve in a diversity of ways and that the path most democracies are on is a result of collective choices they have made through policies, attitudes, expectations, and culture.  The range of possibilities can be seen through a variety of lenses, from science fiction to real-world cases.  
 
-Science fiction shows the astonishing range of futures the human mind is capable of imagining.  In many cases, these imaginings are the foundation of many of the technologies that researchers and entrepreneurs end up developing.  Some of these correspond to the directions we have seen technology take recently.  In his 1992 classic, [Snow Crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash), Neal Stephenson imagines a future where most people have retreated to live much of their lives in an immersive “metaverse”.[^Crash]  In the process they undermine the engagement necessary to support real-world communities, governments, and the like, making space for mafias and cult leaders to rule and develop weapons of mass destruction.  This future closely corresponds to elements of the “antisocial” threats to democracy from technology we discussed above. Stephenson and other writers further extend these possibilities, which have had a profound effect in shaping technology development; for example, Meta Platforms is named after Stephenson’s metaverse.  Similar examples are possible for the tendency of technology to concentrate power through creating “superintelligences” as in the fiction of [Isaac Asimov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics) and [Ian Banks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series), the predictive futurism of [Ray Kurzweil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Spiritual_Machines) and [Nicholas Bostrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superintelligence:_Paths,_Dangers,_Strategies), and films like [Terminator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superintelligence:_Paths,_Dangers,_Strategies) and [Her](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_(film)).[^AISciFi]
+Science fiction shows the astonishing range of futures the human mind is capable of imagining.  In many cases, these imaginings are the foundation of many of the technologies that researchers and entrepreneurs end up developing.  Some of these correspond to the directions we have seen technology take recently.  In his 1992 classic, [Snow Crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash), Neal Stephenson imagines a future where most people have retreated to live much of their lives in an immersive “metaverse”.[^Crash]  In the process they undermine the engagement necessary to support real-world communities, governments, and the like, making space for mafias and cult leaders to rule and develop weapons of mass destruction.  This future closely corresponds to elements of the “antisocial” threats to democracy from technology we discussed above. Stephenson and other writers further extend these possibilities, which have had a profound effect in shaping technology development; for example, Meta Platforms is named after Stephenson’s metaverse.  Similar examples are possible for the tendency of technology to concentrate power through creating “superintelligences” as in the fiction of [Isaac Asimov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics) and [Iain M. Banks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series), the predictive futurism of [Ray Kurzweil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Spiritual_Machines) and [Nicholas Bostrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superintelligence:_Paths,_Dangers,_Strategies), and films like [Terminator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superintelligence:_Paths,_Dangers,_Strategies) and [Her](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_(film)).[^AISciFi]
 
 [^Crash]: Neal Stephenson, *Snow Crash* (New York: Bantam, 1992).
 
-[^AISciFi]: Isaac Asimov, *I, Robot* (New York: Gnome Press: 1950). Ian Banks, *Consider Phlebas* (London: Macmillan, 1987). Ray Kurzweil, *The Age of Spiritual Machines* (New York: Viking, 1999). Nicholas Bostrom, *Superintelligence* (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014).
+[^AISciFi]: Isaac Asimov, *I, Robot* (New York: Gnome Press: 1950). Iain M. Banks, *Consider Phlebas* (London: Macmillan, 1987). Ray Kurzweil, *The Age of Spiritual Machines* (New York: Viking, 1999). Nicholas Bostrom, *Superintelligence* (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014).
 
 But these possibilities are both very different from each other and are far from the only visions of the technological future to be found in sci-fi.  In fact, some of the most prominent science fiction shows very different possibilities. Two of the most popular sci-fi television shows of all time, *The Jetsons* and *Star Trek*, show futures where, respectively, technology has largely reinforced the culture and institutions of 1950s America and one where it has enabled a post-capitalist world of diverse intersecting alien intelligences (on which more below).  But these are two among thousands of examples, from the post-gender and post-state imagination of Ursula Le Guin to the post-colonial futurism of Octavia Butler.  All suggest a dizzying range of ways technology could coevolve with society[^ScienceFiction].  
 

contents/english/2-1-a-view-from-yushan.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 [^TROC]: This is an alternate interpretation of 中華民國 (lit. "amidst" "cultures" "citizens" "nation"), usually translated as "Republic of China".
 
-Standing at the summit of East Asia's highest peak, [Yushan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Shan) (Jade Mountain), one can not only look down on Taiwan, but also feel how this small, mountainous island nation is a global crossroad. Located at the junction of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates, Taiwan's geological fault line yearly pushes it up, even as it also regularly causes earthquakes against which rigorous building code protect inhabitants. In the same way, the clash of Taiwan's diverse culture, history and values has built a prosperous and innovative society, while pro-social digital innovation has managed to protect it from polarization.
+Standing at the summit of East Asia's highest peak, [Yushan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Shan) (Jade Mountain), one can not only look down on Taiwan, but also feel how this small, mountainous island nation is a global crossroad. Located at the junction of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates, Taiwan's geological fault line yearly pushes it up, even as it also regularly causes earthquakes against which rigorous building codes protect inhabitants. In the same way, the clash of Taiwan's diverse culture, history and values has built a prosperous and innovative society, while pro-social digital innovation has managed to protect it from polarization.
 
 Today, with a voter turnout rate over 70%[^twelectionv], second-highest religious diversity in the world[^ReligiousDiversityIndex], and 90% of global supply capacity for advanced chips, Taiwan has broken through geographic constraints and demonstrated the resilience of a democratic society to collaborate with its region and the world.
 
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Two dramatic personal experiences of the lead authors of this book illustrate th
 
 Perhaps most importantly, the movement led to a deeper and more lasting shift in politics, as the government at the time gained respect for the movement and ministers invited younger "reverse mentors" to help them learn from youth and civil society. One particularly proactive such minister, one of the world's first ministers in charge of digital participation, Jaclyn Tsai recruited one of us to begin our journey of public service. Eventually this led to her taking that role in 2016 and in 2022 becoming the first Minister of Digital Affairs.
 
-Almost a decade after these events, the other primary author of this book visited to witness the general election held January 13, 2024, which launched a "year of elections" in which more people than in any previous year will vote and followed hot on the heels of the "year of AI", when generative models like GPT burst into the public consciousness. Many expect these models to turbocharge information manipulation and interference by authoritarian actors. This election seemed a test case, with a more concerted, better-funded adversary focused on a small population than anywhere in the world.[^VDemInfo] Walking the streets of Taipei on the eve of that election, he saw no shortage of divisions for such attacks to exploit. At the rally of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) he found not a single official flag, only placards of the island, the party's signature green color and occasional rainbow flags 🏳️‍🌈. At the rally of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist) party, he saw only the flag of the Republic of China (ROC) 🇹🇼. It made him imagine how much more extreme the divisions of his American home would be if Democrats waved a historical British flag and Republicans the stars and stripes.
+Almost a decade after these events, the other primary author of this book visited to witness the general election held January 13, 2024, which launched a "year of elections" in which more people than in any previous year will vote and followed hot on the heels of the "year of AI", when generative models like GPT burst into the public consciousness. Many expect these models to turbocharge information manipulation and interference by authoritarian actors. This election seemed a test case, with a more concerted, better-funded adversary focused on a considerably smaller population.[^VDemInfo] Walking the streets of Taipei on the eve of that election, he saw no shortage of divisions for such attacks to exploit. At the rally of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) he found not a single official flag, only placards of the island, the party's signature green color and occasional rainbow flags 🏳️‍🌈. At the rally of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist) party, he saw only the flag of the Republic of China (ROC) 🇹🇼. It made him imagine how much more extreme the divisions of his American home would be if Democrats waved a historical British flag and Republicans the stars and stripes.
 
 [^VDemInfo]: “Disinformation in Taiwan: International versus Domestic Perpetrators,” V-Dem, 2020. https://v-dem.net/weekly_graph/disinformation-in-taiwan-international-versus
 
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ The 1960s, parallel to the American Civil Rights movement, saw an outburst of de
 
 The United Nations was central to the ROC's early identity under the White Terror as it was not only one of the founding members of the UN, but also the only Asian permanent member of the Security Council. This prominent international role was the leading irritant to the People's Republic of China (PRC) regime, preventing it from participating in international affairs and leading the CCP to change its position from initially supporting Taiwanese independence to an ideological focus on conquering Taiwan. However, as the US sought to contain its failures in Vietnam, President Richard Nixon secretly pursued accommodation with the PRC, including supporting an Albanian-sponsored Resolution 2758 by the General Assembly on October 25, 1971 that transferred recognition of "China" from the ROC to the PRC, finally culminating in Nixon's visit to PRC in 1972. As a result, the ROC "withdrew" from the UN, transforming its identity and international standing.
 
-On the one hand, this withdrawal internationally greatly limited the scope of Taiwan's international activities and its ability to engage in economic and trade activities. It also led the US and much of the non-Communist world to shift from a position of unconditional alliance with the ROC to one of careful balancing of interests and ambiguity, seeking to prevent PRC's violence over Taiwan while also supporting a policy of acknowledging its "One China" position.
+On the one hand, this withdrawal internationally greatly limited the scope of Taiwan's international activities and its ability to engage in economic and trade activities. It also led the US and much of the non-Communist world to shift from a position of unconditional alliance with the ROC to one of careful balancing of interests and ambiguity, seeking to prevent PRC violence over Taiwan while also supporting a policy of acknowledging its "One China" position.
 
 Internally, this change in identity undermined much of the rationale for the White Terror, as the prospect of global support for a war to suppress the "Communist rebellion" withered and undermined the aspirational identity of "free China". The contradictions between the increasingly egalitarian, Third Sector-driven and highly progressively educated population, on the one hand, and an authoritarian repressive state on the other thus became increasingly overwhelming, especially with the development of labor unions and political civic associations and the death of Chiang all before the end of the 1970s. The lives of the parents of one of the authors of this book are a perfect illustration of these trends: as pioneers of community college and consumer cooperative movements, they benefited from the cooperative support in the ROC constitution. Yet, as journalists, they covered and helped support those repressed by the state, such as in the Kaohsiung Incident of 1979 when leaders of the political opposition were imprisoned, building the foundation for democratization.
 

contents/english/3-2-connected-society.md

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ Prior to modernity, individuals were born into families rooted within kin-based
 
 [^universalreg]: It is worth noting, however, that universal birth registration is a very recent phenomenon and only was achieved in the US in 1940. Universal registration for Social Security Numbers did not even begin until 1987 when Enumeration at Birth was instituted at the federal level in collaboration with county level governments where births are registered. 
 
-This helped circumvent the reliance on personal relationships, building the foundation of identity in a relationship to a state, which in turn served as a trust anchors for many other types of institutions ranging from children's sports teams to medical care providers. These abstract representations enabled people to navigate the world not based on "who they know" or "where they fit" in a tight social world but as who they are in an abstracted universal sense relative to the state.  This "WEIRD" (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic) universalism thus broke with the social embedding of identity while thereby "freeing" people to travel and interact much more broadly using modern forms of identification issued by governments like passports and national identity cards. While other critical credentials, such as  educational attainment are more diverse, they almost uniformly conform to a limited structure, implying one of a small number of "degrees" derived from courses with a particular "Carnegie unit" structure (in theory, 120 hours spent with an instructor), in contrast to the broad range of potential recognition that could be given to learning attainment as illustrated in Figure A.  In short, just as modernity abstracted ownership private property, removing it from its many social entanglements, it also abstracted personal identity from the social anchoring that limited travel and the formation of new relationships.
+This helped circumvent the reliance on personal relationships, building the foundation of identity in a relationship to a state, which in turn served as a trust anchors for many other types of institutions ranging from children's sports teams to medical care providers. These abstract representations enabled people to navigate the world not based on "who they know" or "where they fit" in a tight social world but as who they are in an abstracted universal sense relative to the state.  This "WEIRD" (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic) universalism thus broke with the social embedding of identity while thereby "freeing" people to travel and interact much more broadly using modern forms of identification issued by governments like passports and national identity cards. While other critical credentials such as educational attainment are more diverse, they almost uniformly conform to a limited structure, implying one of a small number of "degrees" derived from courses with a particular "Carnegie unit" structure (in theory, 120 hours spent with an instructor), in contrast to the broad range of potential recognition that could be given to learning attainment as illustrated in Figure A.  In short, just as modernity abstracted ownership private property, removing it from its many social entanglements, it also abstracted personal identity from the social anchoring that limited travel and the formation of new relationships.