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I agree that there's a difference, but it's not necessarily one that the primal part of my brain cares about, regardless of what I know at a conscious/intellect

I agree that there's a difference, but it's not necessarily one that the primal part of my brain cares about, regardless of what I know at a conscious/intellectual level. Furthermore, data that a machine knows is just one step away from becoming data that a human knows given sufficient curiosity or happenstance; a step into which you usually have no insight into whether or if it will occur.

robbrown451 7y ago
Yeah, I hear ya, I guess my primal brain is different than yours. For instance, sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed by what I purchase at a store. (even if it's just that I'm buying a lot of junky, easy-to-prepare food at the grocery store) I've never once felt that way checking out at Amazon. Not even a teensy tiny bit. And that would remain true even if I suspected (or knew) that some human at Amazon was looking closely at the orders.
- not_kurt_godel 7y ago
  Buying something at a store isn't a good analogy. Uninterested members of the public being able to casually observe you buy something at the store is a perfectly normal part of society. A better analogy for today's internet is if you walked to the store holding a big sign with your credit card bill, texts to your friends, and a list of places you went today printed on it, and the street on the way was packed with people who were there for the sole purpose of taking pictures of that sign and selling them to whoever will buy. Targeted advertising would be the people who bought those pictures knocking on your door.
  - robbrown451 7y ago
    Seems like a pretty extreme analogy, but ok. Having someone knock on my door is kind of a pain, since I have to get up and answer it. I'm not sure it is comparable to seeing ads on web sites that I am on by choice. I guess I have enough concerns in my life that actually have measurable impacts on me that such things seem pretty trivial.

robbrown451 7y ago

Yeah, I hear ya, I guess my primal brain is different than yours. For instance, sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed by what I purchase at a store. (even if it's just that I'm buying a lot of junky, easy-to-prepare food at the grocery store) I've never once felt that way checking out at Amazon. Not even a teensy tiny bit. And that would remain true even if I suspected (or knew) that some human at Amazon was looking closely at the orders.

not_kurt_godel 7y ago
Buying something at a store isn't a good analogy. Uninterested members of the public being able to casually observe you buy something at the store is a perfectly normal part of society. A better analogy for today's internet is if you walked to the store holding a big sign with your credit card bill, texts to your friends, and a list of places you went today printed on it, and the street on the way was packed with people who were there for the sole purpose of taking pictures of that sign and selling them to whoever will buy. Targeted advertising would be the people who bought those pictures knocking on your door.
- robbrown451 7y ago
  Seems like a pretty extreme analogy, but ok. Having someone knock on my door is kind of a pain, since I have to get up and answer it. I'm not sure it is comparable to seeing ads on web sites that I am on by choice. I guess I have enough concerns in my life that actually have measurable impacts on me that such things seem pretty trivial.