9 ms·

I wonder, how many people will give themselves RF burns or permanent laser damage to their eyesight trying to replicate stuff they see in these click-baity vide

by avian 5y ago

I wonder, how many people will give themselves RF burns or permanent laser damage to their eyesight trying to replicate stuff they see in these click-baity videos? YouTube is full of content that tries to give the impression of a random, edgy, not-quite-knowing-what-they're-doing guy just messing around with stuff in their parent's garage, woefully ignoring all safety concerns on camera. I'm sure many of their viewers don't realize that in reality they are highly skilled, do in fact take care of safety behind the scene and basically run a successful business off videos attacting millions of views. Seems unethical to me.

pengaru 5y ago
> Seems unethical to me. Wait, wait, hold on, let me get this straight; are you suggesting YouTubers act unethically?
asddubs 5y ago
I mean, that video was so light on actual information, you would have a hard time attempting to replicate any of this without already knowing how to do it. That's what usually bugs me about youtube videos like this, it's a lot of showboating and gags, but the interesting part of how the build actually goes together is barely worth a mention. (Of course, you'd be greatly limiting your potential target audience if you really went into the weeds of things, so here we are) He does mention laser safety in the video though
- Rastonbury 5y ago
  If he mentioned how to do it the people who commented would be even more upset.
  - asddubs 5y ago
    Well yeah, I agree they probably would, I'm just saying that as it stands that complaint kind of falls flat (not that I'd agree with it if the video was more detailed, as long as there was some kind of warning). Although to be honest I think that danger is higher for relatively simple yet very dangerous projects like a microwave oven transformer jacobs ladder, rather than something that involves a fair bit of modification and equipment.
junon 5y ago
This isn't a clickbaitey video. This is styropyro, one of the most knowledgeable YouTubers when it comes to lasers and the related engineering. He's not just some dude who hooks up lasers to a wall outlet. He knows very well what he's doing. He always makes a point about proper laser safety. Another one is Photonicinduction, an electrical engineer that plays with insane voltages in his attic basically. I'd never want to replicate anything he does because I would surely kill myself doing it. That doesn't mean we should censor such channels. They're insanely educational, insightful, and fun. If some idiot thinks they're god and wants to emulate something they're clearly not capable of doing safely, that's not the fault of all of the rational viewers who know better.
- avianlyric 5y ago
  > If some idiot thinks they're god and wants to emulate something they're clearly not capable of doing safely It can be difficult to know if you’re capable of doing something safely. Unfortunately you only find out that you’re not capable when it goes wrong. There’s a reason why labs and engineering firms force people through long detailed safety training courses. There’s a lot of things out there that can kill or serious maim you, which look completely innocuous at first sight. Additionally there are many naive safety protocols that create the appearance of safety, without actually protecting people. Normally people only recognise poor safety setups because they’ve either been shown why it’s bad (plus accompanying horror story), or they’ve suffered the failure personally. Simply opening up the side of a microwave while it off and disconnected exposes you to a shock risk capable of killing. Unless you take specific steps to make the microwave safe, it’s not hard to imagine someone taking the side of a microwave off after watching this video, without realising the danger within.
  - junon 5y ago
    > It can be difficult to know if you’re capable of doing something safely Not really. Opening up electronics, fiddling with them, and then plugging them in, is pretty typically considered dangerous. It's such a ridiculous argument to say we should be censoring this stuff because it's dangerous to the untrained. Should we censor professional cooking videos where they chop food really fast with sharp knives? Someone could cut themselves! Should we censor videos of people who free climb large mountains? Someone could fall and die! It's this sort of collective dumbing down of people that results in us having warning labels on hair dryers that say "do not use while sleeping". Censoring instead of educating is directly part of the problem.
avianlyric 5y ago
This YouTuber really seems to be taking the piss. Most of the others usually make it clear that they’re taking safety precautions far beyond what’s obvious in the video. Do the experiments in the video safely requires strong knowledge in RF safety, laser safety, and high voltage electronics/power safety. And hopefully good knowledge of the underlying fields of work as well. It’s easy to get wrong with terrifying consequences, and takes time to get right and properly test your safety processes. Having worked with high voltage systems, and laser systems (separately) it terrifies me seeing someone take such a casual approach. I spot all the safety precautions he's taking because I have the experience needed to look for it, but he’s blends it so well into the chaos that you wouldn’t notice them if you weren’t looking.
sandworm101 5y ago
If you think these laser vids a bad, don't look at the chemistry ones. A laser might blind you or give you a nasty burn, but it won't kill you. Chemistry will see you, and potentially some of your neighbors, dead on the floor very quickly. And those skydiving wingsuits channels. That is very dangerous. And the skiing ones. And don't even talk about all the crazy drifting/stunting/driving channels. I once saw a kid on a snowboard break his arm attempting a trick on that he had seen one youtube ... or was that the olympics coverage? Either way, such stuff is far far too dangerous to be allowed on the internet.
- lgvld 5y ago
  ;-)
- vnchr 5y ago
  Forget it. No more Internet for anybody. Far too dangerous.
joe-collins 5y ago
Circa the one minute mark: > Oh yeah, and I should warn you that all the crazy stuff you're about to see was done completely for educational purposes. I mean if you were to try any of this stuff at home you'd probably die, so yeah, please don't try this at home. This guy is a extremely casual in his attitude, but he never fails to talk about the danger of the devices he builds or of the relevant components.
mrfusion 5y ago
Personal responsibility. We don’t need to baby proof life, brother.
petermcneeley 5y ago
I have an issue with your accounting. Educational videos like this lead to interest in science and technology. Some of those people will then become scientist/engineers/innovators. They may make contributions directly related to these topics. For example microwave beaming of energy that would eliminate our dependence on coal. These innovations will save hundreds of thousands of lives and create a better world. Yet you choose to focus on the extremely tiny (and of yet no statistically provided citation) number of people that might be harmed by playing with the power of science that is simply beyond them. So taking the total accounting into consideration; it would be unethical not to promote this content.
ravi-delia 5y ago
See that's why I love Electroboom. No one could possibly walk away from one of his videos thinking they should repeat an experiment without knowing what they're doing and expect not to get shocked. Slapstick showmanship might be the most ethical way to teach electronics.
reddog 5y ago
Agree. I found it interesting but incredibly irresponsible. Grown up me knows enough to stay away from this kind of project but 14yo me would have been sourcing laser LEDs and junked microwaves minutes after viewing. Don't understand how something like this can stand while other videos are pulled and the creators banned for life for simply expressing a politically incorrect opinion. Where is that editorial control when its really needed?
oceanghost 5y ago
Honestly, he convinced me to take lasers much more seriously, and I purchased a set of proper laser goggles specifically because he said the cheap ones that come with Chinese lasers often don't work. Which I otherwise would have simply used.
- oceanghost 5y ago
  I can't edit my post anymore so I'm replying to myself. Styropyro also did a review of a laser system I was planning on purchasing. Not only did he show me it was half price at another vendor but then admonished the watcher for doing something absolutely stupid.
stevespang 5y ago
I reported this video for it danger / safety issues - - - but YouTube is making tons of money off this "pretty boy" video with almost 2 million views - - at the expense of peoples lives. We need more smart people to report this video - - put the heat on YouTube.

by avian 5y ago

pengaru 5y ago

> Seems unethical to me. Wait, wait, hold on, let me get this straight; are you suggesting YouTubers act unethically?

asddubs 5y ago

I mean, that video was so light on actual information, you would have a hard time attempting to replicate any of this without already knowing how to do it. That's what usually bugs me about youtube videos like this, it's a lot of showboating and gags, but the interesting part of how the build actually goes together is barely worth a mention. (Of course, you'd be greatly limiting your potential target audience if you really went into the weeds of things, so here we are) He does mention laser safety in the video though

Rastonbury 5y ago
If he mentioned how to do it the people who commented would be even more upset.
- asddubs 5y ago
  Well yeah, I agree they probably would, I'm just saying that as it stands that complaint kind of falls flat (not that I'd agree with it if the video was more detailed, as long as there was some kind of warning). Although to be honest I think that danger is higher for relatively simple yet very dangerous projects like a microwave oven transformer jacobs ladder, rather than something that involves a fair bit of modification and equipment.

junon 5y ago

This isn't a clickbaitey video. This is styropyro, one of the most knowledgeable YouTubers when it comes to lasers and the related engineering. He's not just some dude who hooks up lasers to a wall outlet. He knows very well what he's doing. He always makes a point about proper laser safety. Another one is Photonicinduction, an electrical engineer that plays with insane voltages in his attic basically. I'd never want to replicate anything he does because I would surely kill myself doing it. That doesn't mean we should censor such channels. They're insanely educational, insightful, and fun. If some idiot thinks they're god and wants to emulate something they're clearly not capable of doing safely, that's not the fault of all of the rational viewers who know better.

avianlyric 5y ago
> If some idiot thinks they're god and wants to emulate something they're clearly not capable of doing safely It can be difficult to know if you’re capable of doing something safely. Unfortunately you only find out that you’re not capable when it goes wrong. There’s a reason why labs and engineering firms force people through long detailed safety training courses. There’s a lot of things out there that can kill or serious maim you, which look completely innocuous at first sight. Additionally there are many naive safety protocols that create the appearance of safety, without actually protecting people. Normally people only recognise poor safety setups because they’ve either been shown why it’s bad (plus accompanying horror story), or they’ve suffered the failure personally. Simply opening up the side of a microwave while it off and disconnected exposes you to a shock risk capable of killing. Unless you take specific steps to make the microwave safe, it’s not hard to imagine someone taking the side of a microwave off after watching this video, without realising the danger within.
- junon 5y ago
  > It can be difficult to know if you’re capable of doing something safely Not really. Opening up electronics, fiddling with them, and then plugging them in, is pretty typically considered dangerous. It's such a ridiculous argument to say we should be censoring this stuff because it's dangerous to the untrained. Should we censor professional cooking videos where they chop food really fast with sharp knives? Someone could cut themselves! Should we censor videos of people who free climb large mountains? Someone could fall and die! It's this sort of collective dumbing down of people that results in us having warning labels on hair dryers that say "do not use while sleeping". Censoring instead of educating is directly part of the problem.

avianlyric 5y ago

This YouTuber really seems to be taking the piss. Most of the others usually make it clear that they’re taking safety precautions far beyond what’s obvious in the video. Do the experiments in the video safely requires strong knowledge in RF safety, laser safety, and high voltage electronics/power safety. And hopefully good knowledge of the underlying fields of work as well. It’s easy to get wrong with terrifying consequences, and takes time to get right and properly test your safety processes. Having worked with high voltage systems, and laser systems (separately) it terrifies me seeing someone take such a casual approach. I spot all the safety precautions he's taking because I have the experience needed to look for it, but he’s blends it so well into the chaos that you wouldn’t notice them if you weren’t looking.

sandworm101 5y ago

If you think these laser vids a bad, don't look at the chemistry ones. A laser might blind you or give you a nasty burn, but it won't kill you. Chemistry will see you, and potentially some of your neighbors, dead on the floor very quickly. And those skydiving wingsuits channels. That is very dangerous. And the skiing ones. And don't even talk about all the crazy drifting/stunting/driving channels. I once saw a kid on a snowboard break his arm attempting a trick on that he had seen one youtube ... or was that the olympics coverage? Either way, such stuff is far far too dangerous to be allowed on the internet.

lgvld 5y ago
;-)
vnchr 5y ago
Forget it. No more Internet for anybody. Far too dangerous.

joe-collins 5y ago

Circa the one minute mark: > Oh yeah, and I should warn you that all the crazy stuff you're about to see was done completely for educational purposes. I mean if you were to try any of this stuff at home you'd probably die, so yeah, please don't try this at home. This guy is a extremely casual in his attitude, but he never fails to talk about the danger of the devices he builds or of the relevant components.

mrfusion 5y ago

Personal responsibility. We don’t need to baby proof life, brother.

petermcneeley 5y ago

I have an issue with your accounting. Educational videos like this lead to interest in science and technology. Some of those people will then become scientist/engineers/innovators. They may make contributions directly related to these topics. For example microwave beaming of energy that would eliminate our dependence on coal. These innovations will save hundreds of thousands of lives and create a better world. Yet you choose to focus on the extremely tiny (and of yet no statistically provided citation) number of people that might be harmed by playing with the power of science that is simply beyond them. So taking the total accounting into consideration; it would be unethical not to promote this content.

ravi-delia 5y ago

See that's why I love Electroboom. No one could possibly walk away from one of his videos thinking they should repeat an experiment without knowing what they're doing and expect not to get shocked. Slapstick showmanship might be the most ethical way to teach electronics.

reddog 5y ago

Agree. I found it interesting but incredibly irresponsible. Grown up me knows enough to stay away from this kind of project but 14yo me would have been sourcing laser LEDs and junked microwaves minutes after viewing. Don't understand how something like this can stand while other videos are pulled and the creators banned for life for simply expressing a politically incorrect opinion. Where is that editorial control when its really needed?

oceanghost 5y ago

Honestly, he convinced me to take lasers much more seriously, and I purchased a set of proper laser goggles specifically because he said the cheap ones that come with Chinese lasers often don't work. Which I otherwise would have simply used.

oceanghost 5y ago
I can't edit my post anymore so I'm replying to myself. Styropyro also did a review of a laser system I was planning on purchasing. Not only did he show me it was half price at another vendor but then admonished the watcher for doing something absolutely stupid.

stevespang 5y ago

I reported this video for it danger / safety issues - - - but YouTube is making tons of money off this "pretty boy" video with almost 2 million views - - at the expense of peoples lives. We need more smart people to report this video - - put the heat on YouTube.