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>Ubiquitous computing, what will it bring us? Ads, propaganda and surveillance.
by npteljes 5y ago
>Ubiquitous computing, what will it bring us?
Ads, propaganda and surveillance.
- teekert 5y agoI'm sorry you had to go through your childhood without Star Trek ;)
- numpad0 5y agoThe concept of digital advertisement was unknown to Humans in ST universe until Ferengis brought an example to Federation Starbase Deep Space 9 in 2372, so that’s one divergence between our universe and Star Trek version of it.
- lanerobertlane 5y agoOff topic, but Deep Space 9 was not a federation starbase. It was a Bajorian Republic station under Federation administration following the Cardassian withdrawal.
- SyzygistSix 5y agoSao Paulo did away with public advertising for a couple decades. I believe it is creeping back in now. But it can be done.
- sn41 5y agoThere's an idea for a series: a space opera with a cutting edge analytics-enhanced Ferengi ship where "it's continuing mission is to explore strange new ad streams, to fleece out new life and new civilisations, to boldly trade where no one has gone before". The main adversary will be the cookie monster.
- adrianN 5y agoNot too far off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(Star_Trek%3A_The_Next_Generation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(Star_Trek%3A_The_Nex...
- Sohcahtoa82 5y agoI just lost the game.
- npteljes 5y agoI really did go without Star Trek! I had some small exposure to Star Wars, but what really grabbed my attention was the Neuromancer novel, and later the Matrix film series. Of course I'm cherry-picking my experience but it's a valid observation of yours that while I'm a technologist through and through, I often focus at its ugly side.
- teekert 5y agoYeah I really enjoy optimistic sci-fi :) I do enjoy Dark sci-fi also every now and then but I generally like my heroes to be scientists, explorers, to solve ethical questions.
- Andrex 5y agoSuch a shame the current writers of the franchise apparently didn't, either. Which is depriving current and recent generations of kids of that optimistic ideal. (Yes, Discovery season 3 is a thing I know about.)
- selfhoster11 5y agoStar Trek was always a spherical cow as far as futures go. I'm not saying that it's not useful as an inspiration (socially, technologically and as emotional support), but realistically humans will pursue profit until we get a UBI system in place.
- TheOtherHobbes 5y agoOptimistic. It's a small step from those to compulsory "social credit" - like money, but worse - and other more or less overt forms of thought control and behaviour modification.
- nickpp 5y agoI think we already have those, even without Ubiquitous computing. Hell, we had them even before we had any computing whatsoever. Sure they are more efficient now (what isn't) but they always existed...
- selfhoster11 5y agoOlder ads were far less powerful. They also couldn't embed themselves into your everyday life so much. "Hey Google, ..."/"Alexa, ..."/"Siri, ..." is an exercise in brand reinforcement every time you want to ask your smart assistant about something. At one point, I creeped myself out by realising that my first instinct is to call out "Hey Google" when I need something, even if I'm away from my Google Home.
- SyzygistSix 5y agoConsidering how much computing power is available and how much of it is used to deceive, misinform, or manipulate people, this sounds likely. The only thing more disturbing and sad about this is how much consumer demand there is and will be for deception, misinformation, and manipulation.