4 ms·

Cute, but your analogy is somewhat flawed as fentanyl is like heroin on steroids. (As long as we’re mixing metaphors...) What the world really needs is the nal

Cute, but your analogy is somewhat flawed as fentanyl is like heroin on steroids. (As long as we’re mixing metaphors...) What the world really needs is the naloxone of social networks.

MrLeap 8y ago
You misinterpret me, I'm not asking what the world needs, I'm asking what it's possible to give them for profit. If wondering if we could create a social network that offers 50x the social validation (fentanyl is like 50x the potency of heroin). Maybe machine learning can find the right combination of color flashes to cause people to have a social bliss seizure. Maybe while simultaneously reading their rapid eye movements to extract their credit card information from their short circuiting brains. Catch me at YC2019
- Cyph0n 8y ago
  If something like this was possible, wouldn't Facebook have already discovered it?
  - MrLeap 8y ago
    I sort of assumed that's why the bought oculus, but no, not necessarily. To believe otherwise is to fall into the trap the economist does in the following folksy anecdote. An economist and his friend were walking down the street when the friend spots a 100$ bill on the ground. "Hey look, a 100$ bill!" he exclaims. The economist keeps his eyes locked forward, saying "Can't be, if there were - someone would have already picked it up." Believe in yourself and your dreams, Cyph0n.
- mindgam3 8y ago
  See, your attitude is exactly what is wrong with Silicon Valley culture. You’re joking about technology to give people social bliss seizures for profit, hahaha hilarious. Meanwhile millions of people are actually dying from addiction, and not just heroin. A member of my immediate family died by suicide recently. She suffered from massive self esteem issues as a result of chronic childhood abuse. She turned to Facebook for social validation, as one does, but was more prone to serious addiction due to her trauma. I’m not saying Facebook killed her, but it certainly added rocket fuel to the fire of her downward spiral. I encourage you to reconsider your glib attitude towards dangerous addictions. It’s not so funny when people you love die from this stuff.
  - MrLeap 8y ago
    Please accept my sincerest condolences for the death of your family member. In some ways I followed a similar path to that of your relative, in part because I often obtain validation by publicly satirizing elements of society I think are wrong. I've found satire the best tool in my toolbox at sparking conversation and even changing minds. I've considered your proposal, and respectfully choose to continue the path I'm on. Whether or not you agree with it, I hope you'll believe that my motive is to cast a negative light on the victimizers and not the victims. Best regards to you and yours
    - mindgam3 8y ago
      Wait, now you’re claiming that your original post was satire? Perhaps you should clarify that to the multiple people who have responded with comments in earnest. Regarding your claimed motive to cast a negative light on the victimizers, uhhh... yeah. That might be believable, except that you’re doing the exact opposite in this thread. I hate to break it to you, but leaving insensitive comments about addiction which you later claim are satire isn’t really helping the situation. You are also pretending to be respectful with your choice of language, but you’re not actually showing any respect at all. At this point the only logical conclusion is that you’re trolling. In my experience, behind every troll is someone who is suffering and needs psychological help. Whether or not you believe it, I know there’s a “true self” of yours underneath the facade you’re showing here on HN that actually knows how to help people and not hurt them. Whatever happened to you to make you this way, I wish you all the best in working through it.
      - MrLeap 8y ago
        Yikes! I get that you don't believe me, but I sincerely was trying to be respectful of your opinion and your grief. I've had quite a lot of death in my family, so I empathize with the grief people experience during similar times. A lifetime of things, good and bad made me this way. I don't agree that I have any particular pathos I need to nail down, but being better is always the goal, right? This whole thing just turned into a whirlwind of Poe's law.
- DenisM 8y ago
  The answer is sort of yes, digital fentanyl is in our future. It’s a simple ML model that tells you what you want to hear based on your previous reactions and cross-person prior training data. Whatever your hidden insecurities are, that’s where it will bind. Once it becomes variative enough to keep you on your toes and precise enough to strike in yout heart you will no longer care that’s it obviously failing the Turing test. Otherwise fully functional adults often succumb to sexual advances of sweet-taking suitors even if they rationally know the sweet-talk is bunk. And so it will be with this - humanity will fall to an AI before the AI can even develop consciousness.
  - aswanson 8y ago
    Sounds like the basis for a good novel/movie. Even suggests a title:"Turing Incomplete".
    - jdietrich 8y ago
      https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/
- chongli 8y ago
  Eventually someone is going to invent wireheading and none of this will matter. Most people will hook themselves up and never return.

Cute, but your analogy is somewhat flawed as fentanyl is like heroin on steroids. (As long as we’re mixing metaphors...) What the world really needs is the naloxone of social networks.

MrLeap 8y ago

You misinterpret me, I'm not asking what the world needs, I'm asking what it's possible to give them for profit. If wondering if we could create a social network that offers 50x the social validation (fentanyl is like 50x the potency of heroin). Maybe machine learning can find the right combination of color flashes to cause people to have a social bliss seizure. Maybe while simultaneously reading their rapid eye movements to extract their credit card information from their short circuiting brains. Catch me at YC2019

Cyph0n 8y ago
If something like this was possible, wouldn't Facebook have already discovered it?
- MrLeap 8y ago
  I sort of assumed that's why the bought oculus, but no, not necessarily. To believe otherwise is to fall into the trap the economist does in the following folksy anecdote. An economist and his friend were walking down the street when the friend spots a 100$ bill on the ground. "Hey look, a 100$ bill!" he exclaims. The economist keeps his eyes locked forward, saying "Can't be, if there were - someone would have already picked it up." Believe in yourself and your dreams, Cyph0n.
mindgam3 8y ago
See, your attitude is exactly what is wrong with Silicon Valley culture. You’re joking about technology to give people social bliss seizures for profit, hahaha hilarious. Meanwhile millions of people are actually dying from addiction, and not just heroin. A member of my immediate family died by suicide recently. She suffered from massive self esteem issues as a result of chronic childhood abuse. She turned to Facebook for social validation, as one does, but was more prone to serious addiction due to her trauma. I’m not saying Facebook killed her, but it certainly added rocket fuel to the fire of her downward spiral. I encourage you to reconsider your glib attitude towards dangerous addictions. It’s not so funny when people you love die from this stuff.
- MrLeap 8y ago
  Please accept my sincerest condolences for the death of your family member. In some ways I followed a similar path to that of your relative, in part because I often obtain validation by publicly satirizing elements of society I think are wrong. I've found satire the best tool in my toolbox at sparking conversation and even changing minds. I've considered your proposal, and respectfully choose to continue the path I'm on. Whether or not you agree with it, I hope you'll believe that my motive is to cast a negative light on the victimizers and not the victims. Best regards to you and yours
  - mindgam3 8y ago
    Wait, now you’re claiming that your original post was satire? Perhaps you should clarify that to the multiple people who have responded with comments in earnest. Regarding your claimed motive to cast a negative light on the victimizers, uhhh... yeah. That might be believable, except that you’re doing the exact opposite in this thread. I hate to break it to you, but leaving insensitive comments about addiction which you later claim are satire isn’t really helping the situation. You are also pretending to be respectful with your choice of language, but you’re not actually showing any respect at all. At this point the only logical conclusion is that you’re trolling. In my experience, behind every troll is someone who is suffering and needs psychological help. Whether or not you believe it, I know there’s a “true self” of yours underneath the facade you’re showing here on HN that actually knows how to help people and not hurt them. Whatever happened to you to make you this way, I wish you all the best in working through it.
    - MrLeap 8y ago
      Yikes! I get that you don't believe me, but I sincerely was trying to be respectful of your opinion and your grief. I've had quite a lot of death in my family, so I empathize with the grief people experience during similar times. A lifetime of things, good and bad made me this way. I don't agree that I have any particular pathos I need to nail down, but being better is always the goal, right? This whole thing just turned into a whirlwind of Poe's law.
DenisM 8y ago
The answer is sort of yes, digital fentanyl is in our future. It’s a simple ML model that tells you what you want to hear based on your previous reactions and cross-person prior training data. Whatever your hidden insecurities are, that’s where it will bind. Once it becomes variative enough to keep you on your toes and precise enough to strike in yout heart you will no longer care that’s it obviously failing the Turing test. Otherwise fully functional adults often succumb to sexual advances of sweet-taking suitors even if they rationally know the sweet-talk is bunk. And so it will be with this - humanity will fall to an AI before the AI can even develop consciousness.
- aswanson 8y ago
  Sounds like the basis for a good novel/movie. Even suggests a title:"Turing Incomplete".
  - jdietrich 8y ago
    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/
chongli 8y ago
Eventually someone is going to invent wireheading and none of this will matter. Most people will hook themselves up and never return.