4 ms·

Is it unethical to create an automated system that maximizes global unhappiness for profit?

• erik_seaberg 5y ago
  When a movie makes the audience sad, it wins Oscars, we don't censor it. Why should the rules be different for Facebook?
  • pizza 5y ago
    It's hard to get a lot of positive reinforcement by interacting with like-minded others at scale through a movie. Facebook's original stated intent was to study contagion of emotion, which seems to me to suggest a multiplayer, interactive effect.
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  • tobr 5y ago
    That is a banal comparison. When a film makes you sad, you are aware of what is going on. If you are unusually sensitive to these types of emotions, you can read about the film ahead of time to see if you might want to avoid it.
    • emodendroket 5y ago
      Do you typically go read a synopsis of the entire plot of a film, including any surprise developments, before watching it?
      • tobr 5y ago
        No?
        • emodendroket 5y ago
          Ok. Then what you’re saying doesn’t make sense.
          • tobr 5y ago
            Why?
            • emodendroket 5y ago
              Because films’ promotions may deliberately conceal information about tragic events in the story to achieve maximum impact and nobody thinks that is unethical.
              • tobr 5y ago
                This feels a lot like talking to Eliza. Your replies very vaguely connect to what’s being discussed in this thread, but there’s just no substance or coherency to the argument.
                • emodendroket 5y ago
                  "When a film makes you sad you are aware of what's going on" is your claim, but I don't see how that applies to something like, say, Terminator 2, whose entire goal, according to Cameron, was "making the audience cry for the Terminator," yet was not promoted as a sad film. It's hard to come up with a principled difference here.
                  • tobr 5y ago
                    The Terminator 2 audience knows the film is an authored fictional story. It can make someone cry when they didn’t expect it, but they understand that the filmmakers are intentionally trying to provoke certain emotions. If you can’t see the myriad principled differences between that situation, and logging onto Facebook expecting to see an unfiltered selection of posts, I really can’t believe you are trying hard.
• emodendroket 5y ago
  Well, if so the problem goes a bit deeper than Facebook.