I guess that a hint is probably in the abstract, "people are fascinated by this" (I am speculating) in a similar way to how they're fascinated by political stuf

I guess that a hint is probably in the abstract, "people are fascinated by this" (I am speculating) in a similar way to how they're fascinated by political stuff, that speaks directly to a currently important ideological point. That fascination, in HN-clickstream behaviour form... it looks like a "flag" to HN's flag classification system, human or machine, because the last time people were so fascinated a nasty flame ware emerged.