Spotlight — How might a long-term stock market transform tech?

At Center for Humane Technology, we often talk about
multipolar traps — which arise when individuals have an
incentive to act in ways that are beneficial to them in the short
term, but detrimental to the group in the long term. Think of
social media companies that compete for our attention, so that
when TikTok introduces an even-more addictive feature, Facebook
and Twitter have to mimic it in order to keep up, sending us all
on a race to the bottom of our brainstems.


Intervening at the level of multipolar traps has extraordinary
leverage. One such intervention is the Long Term Stock Exchange —
a U.S. national securities exchange serving companies and
investors who share a long-term vision. Instead of asking public
companies to pollute less or be less addictive while holding them
accountable to short-term shareholder value, the Long-Term Stock
Exchange creates a new playing field, which incentivizes the
creation of long-term stakeholder value.


This week on Your Undivided Attention, we’re airing an
episode of a podcast called ZigZag — a fellow member of the TED
Audio Collective. In an exploration of how technology companies
might transcend multipolar traps, we're sharing with you ZigZag’s
conversation with Long Term Stock Exchange founder Eric Ries.


CORRECTION: In the episode, we say that TikTok has outcompeted
Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. In fact, TikTok has outcompeted
Facebook, but not yet YouTube or Instagram — TikTok has 1 billion
monthly users, while YouTube has 2.6 billion and Instagram has 2
billion. However, we can say that TikTok is on a path toward
outcompeting YouTube and Instagram.


RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES


An Alternative to Silicon Valley Unicorns with Mara Zepeda &
Kate “Sassy” Sassoon:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/54-an-alternative-to-silicon-valley-unicorns


A Problem Well-Stated Is Half-Solved with Daniel
Schmachtenberger:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved


Here’s Our Plan And We Don’t Know with Tristan Harris, Aza
Raskin, and Stephanie Lepp:
https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/46-heres-our-plan-and-we-dont-know