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Not gonna happen. Social networks just tap into and amplify what’s already going on: humanity.

by bmitc 6y ago

hezag 6y ago
"[...] Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature. Yet, how can any one speak of it today, with every soul in a prison, with every heart fettered, wounded, and maimed? John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities? Freedom, expansion, opportunity, and, above all, peace and repose, alone can teach us the real dominant factors of human nature and all its wonderful possibilities." - Emma Goldman, "Anarchism: What it Really Stands for" (1917);
- optimalsolver 6y ago
  Funny she wrote that while Europeans were slaughtering each other by the millions. And what does an un-caged human actually look like?As a social species, we're always going to be in some form of bonded existence.
Fricken 6y ago
All mediums of exchange will amplify certain kinds of information, and suppress others, hence the phrase "The Medium is the message". Marshall McLuhan, using his theory of media, was effective at diagnosing the downsides of social media decades long before it became the dominant medium through which our worldviews are shaped. I don't think Tim, nor anybody else in the tech industry* was listening when McLuhan claimed "peer to peer electronic media" would bring out our tribal impulses, but here we are. The internet is a bunch of identity groups, each working with distinct sets of facts, all of them suspicious and distrustful of the others, who enjoy beating on one another for sport. Of course, humans are inherently tribal, and civilization is a hack. For it work we have to suppress, and find safe outlets for our basic tribal impulses. *Zuckerberg has claimed to be a McLuhan fan, but if he actually understands what McLuhan was saying, then he's straight up evil.
- pixl97 6y ago
  Zuck likely understands McLuhan very well, and it has made him billions to the point that he cares not for your trifle notions of good or evil.

Not gonna happen. Social networks just tap into and amplify what’s already going on: humanity.

by bmitc 6y ago

Not gonna happen. Social networks just tap into and amplify what’s already going on: humanity.

"[...] Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature. Yet, how can any one speak of it today, with every soul in a prison, with every heart fettered, wounded, and maimed? John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities? Freedom, expansion, opportunity, and, above all, peace and repose, alone can teach us the real dominant factors of human nature and all its wonderful possibilities." - Emma Goldman, "Anarchism: What it Really Stands for" (1917);

optimalsolver 6y ago
Funny she wrote that while Europeans were slaughtering each other by the millions. And what does an un-caged human actually look like?As a social species, we're always going to be in some form of bonded existence.

Fricken 6y ago

All mediums of exchange will amplify certain kinds of information, and suppress others, hence the phrase "The Medium is the message". Marshall McLuhan, using his theory of media, was effective at diagnosing the downsides of social media decades long before it became the dominant medium through which our worldviews are shaped. I don't think Tim, nor anybody else in the tech industry* was listening when McLuhan claimed "peer to peer electronic media" would bring out our tribal impulses, but here we are. The internet is a bunch of identity groups, each working with distinct sets of facts, all of them suspicious and distrustful of the others, who enjoy beating on one another for sport. Of course, humans are inherently tribal, and civilization is a hack. For it work we have to suppress, and find safe outlets for our basic tribal impulses. *Zuckerberg has claimed to be a McLuhan fan, but if he actually understands what McLuhan was saying, then he's straight up evil.

pixl97 6y ago
Zuck likely understands McLuhan very well, and it has made him billions to the point that he cares not for your trifle notions of good or evil.