3 ms·

I over post this, and am turning into a broken record, but this is my favorite of all time article about predictive ai dystopia. https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ad

by basch 7y ago

I over post this, and am turning into a broken record, but this is my favorite of all time article about predictive ai dystopia. https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/78691781-c9b7-30a0-9a0a-3ff76e8bfe58 https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/78691781-c9b7... my fear of everything being decided by algorithms that exist to please us, is us being trapped in the past and creativity being extinguished. if netflix makes shows based on what it knows will be popular, what happens to visionaries that have an idea nobody else can comprehend. risk, exploration, adventure, new, is replaced by nostalgia, familiarity, comfort. we can debate fighting google and facebook, or we can come up with a "Human Best Practices" behavior guide for how to best consume content, and spread it. There will always be temptation, moderation is either taught or learned. If not facebook, there will be another mind drug to over indulge. Spend effort countering the concept of unlimited "picked-just-for-me feed" or "whats popular with everyone today" intake, not attacking this specific villain. We need new ways to surface and propagate novel, intelligent, thought provoking content, AND we need to teach people to resist human hedonistic urges and impulses, and offer social support and encouragement to deviate from consuming new and fresh news. Watching the news (on tv anyway) is, and shouldnt be, looked up to. If I were making a tldr of guide v.01, it would start: "Supplant your facebook, google, and reddit intake with https://aldaily.com/ https://aldaily.com/ https://redef.com/ https://redef.com/ https://longform.org/ https://longform.org/ https://longreads.com/ https://longreads.com/ " and here i am now moving on to the next n.yc post.

ripsawridge 7y ago
It is not possible to over-post Adam Curtis. The range of ideas in his videos is fantastic.
MiracleUser 7y ago
I believe it's an economic problem. There is no reason all of these comfort services cant exist to help keep the peace among people uninterested in anything else. If they make up the majority of the economy, then we have other problems to solve though. After all, we do need comfort for sleep - so it could be .. maybe the role of BIG companies should be comfort focused. Visionaries can still exist - we would only need to improve their discoverability and ensure they are not at risk of financial crisis as a result of going outside the line
- basch 7y ago
  discoverability is the end issue. facebook, reddit, google amplify what is popular, not necessarily ideas with depth. they in particular incentive things that can be consumed quickly and moved on from. a person consuming 100 links per hour upvotes at 10x the rate of someone consuming 10 links per hour. those shorter posts, bits, soundbytes, images, memes then gain 10x the amplification of longform content.
  - MiracleUser 7y ago
    what is popular is not necessarily without depth either. Also consider propagation of danger alerts. the longer time it takes to consume the average piece of media, the longer it takes for people to become aware of dangers. There are, of course, shortcuts for authorities to spread information about dangers already identified, but danger is a gradient. Maybe there is an inherent trade-off between quick, scanning behavior being good for safety and deep, thoughtful consumption being good for progress

by basch 7y ago

ripsawridge 7y ago

It is not possible to over-post Adam Curtis. The range of ideas in his videos is fantastic.

MiracleUser 7y ago

I believe it's an economic problem. There is no reason all of these comfort services cant exist to help keep the peace among people uninterested in anything else. If they make up the majority of the economy, then we have other problems to solve though. After all, we do need comfort for sleep - so it could be .. maybe the role of BIG companies should be comfort focused. Visionaries can still exist - we would only need to improve their discoverability and ensure they are not at risk of financial crisis as a result of going outside the line

basch 7y ago
discoverability is the end issue. facebook, reddit, google amplify what is popular, not necessarily ideas with depth. they in particular incentive things that can be consumed quickly and moved on from. a person consuming 100 links per hour upvotes at 10x the rate of someone consuming 10 links per hour. those shorter posts, bits, soundbytes, images, memes then gain 10x the amplification of longform content.
- MiracleUser 7y ago
  what is popular is not necessarily without depth either. Also consider propagation of danger alerts. the longer time it takes to consume the average piece of media, the longer it takes for people to become aware of dangers. There are, of course, shortcuts for authorities to spread information about dangers already identified, but danger is a gradient. Maybe there is an inherent trade-off between quick, scanning behavior being good for safety and deep, thoughtful consumption being good for progress