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Is HN sort of the same phenomenon but for tech? As I was reading your comment I found myself realizing the same description (as a "panic fetish tool") applies t

Is HN sort of the same phenomenon but for tech? As I was reading your comment I found myself realizing the same description (as a "panic fetish tool") applies to a type of HN thread that's fairly typical. Take this exact response to the tech that you had: I don't know anything about Citizen, nor anyone who uses it, but based on the article title and your comment I find myself getting anxious, my pulse is elevating slightly, I'm now more worried about the world and what tech is doing to it. All this despite the fact that I have no hard info other than a suspicion based on my biases and can do absolutely nothing about it. Perhaps some users do use it in the unhealthy way you mentioned, but perhaps the vast majority don't. In any case the article and exchange are fueling a need that HNers obviously have for reading about dystopian tech, and clearly it goes beyond what is materially useful to them and into what is perversely entertaining.

smoldesu 4y ago
Part of it comes down to the fact that Citizen has a pretty comically bad track record. It hasn't even been a week since they texted Billie Eilish's home address to a few hundred thousand people, and many haven't forgotten about their previous app "Vigilante" (most well-known for falsely accusing random strangers of various crimes). On some level, I might agree with you. If Citizen was a crowdsourced non-profit, maybe it would be a healthy relationship. As a business, they directly profit from your fear and insecurity.
troutwine 4y ago
By panic fetish tool I mean something of marginal utility — not no utility, mind — that panics the afflicted into a mailable state. So, for Citizen, that’s meant to make you pay them money. For, say, fascist politics that’s meant to make you rely on the comfort provided by Dear Leader. I don’t think it’s clear at all that HN follows the same model. For one the website is free and if they’re trying to make anything happen it’s promote their VC fund, which strikes me as benign. Oh, maybe lisp too in the old days. Additionally, being aware that the utopian vaguely libertarian mindset around tech — everything is better with computers, especially if you can make money at it — is false is not a bad thing. Personally I don’t feel at all powerless to counter that trend, that mindless Utopianism, or to play my part with my neighbors and community in countering it, I should say, since I’m just one person.

smoldesu 4y ago

Part of it comes down to the fact that Citizen has a pretty comically bad track record. It hasn't even been a week since they texted Billie Eilish's home address to a few hundred thousand people, and many haven't forgotten about their previous app "Vigilante" (most well-known for falsely accusing random strangers of various crimes). On some level, I might agree with you. If Citizen was a crowdsourced non-profit, maybe it would be a healthy relationship. As a business, they directly profit from your fear and insecurity.

troutwine 4y ago

By panic fetish tool I mean something of marginal utility — not no utility, mind — that panics the afflicted into a mailable state. So, for Citizen, that’s meant to make you pay them money. For, say, fascist politics that’s meant to make you rely on the comfort provided by Dear Leader. I don’t think it’s clear at all that HN follows the same model. For one the website is free and if they’re trying to make anything happen it’s promote their VC fund, which strikes me as benign. Oh, maybe lisp too in the old days. Additionally, being aware that the utopian vaguely libertarian mindset around tech — everything is better with computers, especially if you can make money at it — is false is not a bad thing. Personally I don’t feel at all powerless to counter that trend, that mindless Utopianism, or to play my part with my neighbors and community in countering it, I should say, since I’m just one person.