The Framework of Our Minds

By Skylar Weiss

In The Circle by Dave Eggers, the environment and members of The Circle constantly encourage people to document and share every aspect of their lives online. “Circlers” reinforce these expectations by advocating for full transparency and pressuring those on the outside to conform. We see this in several parts of the story, such as when Mae is a new hire and Gina insists that she catch Mae up on her “socials.” When Mae tells Gina that she’s been too busy working to update her social account, Gina appears unimpressed and responds with, “‘We actually see your profile, and the activity on it, as integral to your participation here. This is how your coworkers, even those on the other side of campus, know who you are. Communication is certainly not extracurricular right?’” (p. 94). Gina then goes on a sort of tangent to fully justify her points, as if the nail hadn’t already been fully hammered in: “‘You realize that community and communication come from the same root word, communis. Latin for common, public, shared by all or many?’” (p. 95). Gina’s tone is an accurate example of the general communication style from authority within The Circle. She sounds unimpressed and condescending, which leads Mae to feel as if she has to respond with answers that Gina considers perfect. Gina also sounds as if she wants the best for Mae, backing up her ideas with logical arguments that sound highly intellectual and philosophical at surface level, or when isolated from their contexts. This type of persuasion is utilized frequently in The Circle: authority figures such as Bailey and Stenton use logical argument to justify ideas, which is why their services seem so irresistible at first glance. They spread these ideas by taking advantage of short and easily digestible phrases or anecdotes that sound like business slogans and life philosophies at the same time. Some examples of these, including ones that Mae came up with herself, are “secrets are lies," "the idealist's ideal," and "going transparent."

This argument style reminded me of podcast episode 8, “Making up our minds: how AI is rewiring our brains with Professor De Kai.” Professor De Kai mentions framing bias, which has to do with the multitudes of unconscious biases that we use to describe a situation. De Kai points out that we have the ability to come up with infinite metaphors or lessons to describe a single situation, and how the framework we choose hugely influences the structure of the logical chain of arguments we use. When people use logic in arguments, they automatically appear more knowledgeable or convincing on the surface. When isolated, our logical arguments appear flawless; but as De Kai pointed out, our unconscious bias lies in the way that we choose our predicates or theories and the arguments that make up those predicates. The Circle is an example of a world in which framing bias went undetected for too long. Bailey, Stenton, Mae, and other Circlers always use logic to back up their new ideas and “forward-thinking” progress, but are never forced to examine their inherent biases that led them to choose those logical arguments, such as a want for status, financial success, or to secure a good job for their families. De Kai is very correct in saying that we must be aware of framing biases in artificial intelligence, but also when considering ethical arguments about technology.