5 ms·

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The current state of things appears to be that internet and media/ad revenue AI machine seem to have come together

by tjr225 5y ago

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The current state of things appears to be that internet and media/ad revenue AI machine seem to have come together to put us in an sort of shepard tone of fear and impending doom. Pandemic, war, inflation, division, shortages, crypto, every storm has a name, everything is record breaking. I have more to be grateful for than I've ever had before, in spite of all of this somehow- but I can see the inequality growing around me. To me it seems like chaos has gone "viral." I don't know when or how it ends and we come out better for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzNzgsAE4F0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzNzgsAE4F0

bserge 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
perihelions 5y ago
Simply abolish advertising and everything should revert to normalcy. Most of these humanity-corroding AI's were built to link eyeball attention to ad clicks; they won't exist in a world without ads. It's likely I'm wrong about this, but it's still worth trying this experiment. The potential upsides are too great to leave on the table.
- lamontcg 5y ago
  Yeah I'd like to see a ban on intrusive advertising, so that (for example) to see advertisements I'd have to go to specific websites when i was actually looking for something I'd like to purchase. End direct mail advertisements completely, end e-mail spam. We'd also probably be a politer and less defensive society if we weren't bombarded with constant arguments demanding we spend money on crap.
taftster 5y ago
I wish I had something insightful to say, but this is so spot on. You have put to words something that I have been struggling finding words for. I wish we could all "see" this issue and somehow get out of the weird algorithms that are plaguing our society. I think that's why I like Hacker News right now. Among other reasons, out of any news sources, the comments here continue to be mostly grounded and reasonable, not hyperbolic and dramatic.
- ratsmack 5y ago
  >out of any news sources, the comments here continue to be mostly grounded and reasonable, not hyperbolic and dramatic. Unfortunately, somber and stoic news does not have the monetary return from advertising revenue that most news organizations seek. News has become more of an entertainment endeavor rather than one for disseminating information on the state of current affairs. It also seems that the NPR and BBC have gone off the rails in this respect.
  - taftster 5y ago
    I agree, as others have said in this post/thread, advertising seems to be at least some of the cause of the problem. But it doesn't seem any other economic model works, sadly. I'm curious about your comment about NPR and BBC. Granted, it seems like they have moved more towards the stupidity that we're describing. But not as much as the traditional news networks, in my opinion.
    - ratsmack 5y ago
      Yes, the BBC and NPR are not as bad, but you can see the creep in that direction.
    - joshspankit 5y ago
      I genuinely feel that CNN’s choice to go for 24hr ad-supported news was the majority of the reason they can no longer be trusted to be objective. When your news runs on ads you’ll optimize for ad watch time and not integrity.
  - tjr225 5y ago
    I've noticed this too. I can't listen to NPR anymore without fearing for my blood pressure or at the very least having the urge to roll my eyes.
penjelly 5y ago
This makes me think of 1984 and how the world was in a state of perpetual victory while simultaneously at war (danger) at the same time. fwiw in the book it was a means of controlling the populace.
JPKab 5y ago
Agreed. I think we also have to come to grips with the fact that there is a significant portion of the population of first-world nations who desperately WANT a crisis so that they don't have to acknowledge that their lives are miserable for reasons well within their control. Most political radicals on both ends of the spectrum fall into this category. The quantity of blue-checked Twitter personalities who appear to have this belief regarding the pandemic is pretty shocking.
bradgessler 5y ago
I had this revelation a few years ago and built https://legiblenews.com/ https://legiblenews.com/. There’s no “breaking news”, no images. It’s just boring black text on a white background that’s updated once per day and links to encyclopedia articles for context. More of the “why” at https://legiblenews.com/about https://legiblenews.com/about. It’s just insane to me that I had to build this in the first place.

by tjr225 5y ago

bserge 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

perihelions 5y ago

Simply abolish advertising and everything should revert to normalcy. Most of these humanity-corroding AI's were built to link eyeball attention to ad clicks; they won't exist in a world without ads. It's likely I'm wrong about this, but it's still worth trying this experiment. The potential upsides are too great to leave on the table.

lamontcg 5y ago
Yeah I'd like to see a ban on intrusive advertising, so that (for example) to see advertisements I'd have to go to specific websites when i was actually looking for something I'd like to purchase. End direct mail advertisements completely, end e-mail spam. We'd also probably be a politer and less defensive society if we weren't bombarded with constant arguments demanding we spend money on crap.

taftster 5y ago

I wish I had something insightful to say, but this is so spot on. You have put to words something that I have been struggling finding words for. I wish we could all "see" this issue and somehow get out of the weird algorithms that are plaguing our society. I think that's why I like Hacker News right now. Among other reasons, out of any news sources, the comments here continue to be mostly grounded and reasonable, not hyperbolic and dramatic.

ratsmack 5y ago
>out of any news sources, the comments here continue to be mostly grounded and reasonable, not hyperbolic and dramatic. Unfortunately, somber and stoic news does not have the monetary return from advertising revenue that most news organizations seek. News has become more of an entertainment endeavor rather than one for disseminating information on the state of current affairs. It also seems that the NPR and BBC have gone off the rails in this respect.
- taftster 5y ago
  I agree, as others have said in this post/thread, advertising seems to be at least some of the cause of the problem. But it doesn't seem any other economic model works, sadly. I'm curious about your comment about NPR and BBC. Granted, it seems like they have moved more towards the stupidity that we're describing. But not as much as the traditional news networks, in my opinion.
  - ratsmack 5y ago
    Yes, the BBC and NPR are not as bad, but you can see the creep in that direction.
  - joshspankit 5y ago
    I genuinely feel that CNN’s choice to go for 24hr ad-supported news was the majority of the reason they can no longer be trusted to be objective. When your news runs on ads you’ll optimize for ad watch time and not integrity.
- tjr225 5y ago
  I've noticed this too. I can't listen to NPR anymore without fearing for my blood pressure or at the very least having the urge to roll my eyes.

penjelly 5y ago

This makes me think of 1984 and how the world was in a state of perpetual victory while simultaneously at war (danger) at the same time. fwiw in the book it was a means of controlling the populace.

JPKab 5y ago

Agreed. I think we also have to come to grips with the fact that there is a significant portion of the population of first-world nations who desperately WANT a crisis so that they don't have to acknowledge that their lives are miserable for reasons well within their control. Most political radicals on both ends of the spectrum fall into this category. The quantity of blue-checked Twitter personalities who appear to have this belief regarding the pandemic is pretty shocking.

bradgessler 5y ago

I had this revelation a few years ago and built https://legiblenews.com/ https://legiblenews.com/. There’s no “breaking news”, no images. It’s just boring black text on a white background that’s updated once per day and links to encyclopedia articles for context. More of the “why” at https://legiblenews.com/about https://legiblenews.com/about. It’s just insane to me that I had to build this in the first place.