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Paperclip maximizer is the wrong word. Let's call it the "engagement maximizer" and you have a pretty accurate statement about how our civilization will be ende
by throwway120385 3y ago
Paperclip maximizer is the wrong word. Let's call it the "engagement maximizer" and you have a pretty accurate statement about how our civilization will be ended by use of algorithms and eventually AI to blow up our shared sense of culture.
If you watched the conversation around Meta with Facebook and Instagram, and then later the conversation around TikTok, almost nobody cut to the heart of the issue, which is that "algorithms" are being used to make decisions about what to show people, and that the algorithms themselves have been changed subtly hundreds or thousands of times over the years to maximize engagement, until the type of engagement being maximized has made people basically crazy. The same engagement-maximizing work will proceed with AI, and it will allow the software engineers and managers responsible for developing the "algorithm" abdicate even more responsibility for genocides and for mass hysteria because they can pretend like they have no control over the algorithm.
The same irresponsible people will pocket a bunch of money for all this work and they will maximize engagement until it blows up our entire culture. And because nobody understands it except the techno-cultists, nobody will hold them accountable.
- akomtu 3y ago"Engagement maximizer" also aligns with descriptions of the anti-religion of the future I've seen. What does engage people the most? Romans knew it's bread and circuses, where circuses are bloody cruel shows on public stadiums. Today the most engaging activity is onlyfans and the like: the other dark side of human nature. Dial both to 11, add an all seeing AI with merciless thought police and you'll get an accurate picture of 2450 AD. The only variable is how long that grim stage of society will last before the tech breaking down.
- nmfisher 3y agoI don't 100% disagree with you, but I'm still uncomfortable with this line of thinking. It smacks of "the plebs don't know what's bad for them, but I do". I find it hard to fault someone who just gives the crowd what it wants.
- Tanoc 3y agoI don't think it's so much "the plebs don't know what's bad for them, but I do" as it is "These people know something's wrong but haven't been given the vocabulary, tools, and education necessary to spot the danger as easily." Many ordinary people have lapsed into willful ignorance or apathy because the burden of learning the dangers is too high for them with so many other common problems going around these days.
- throwway120385 3y agoYeah for me it's more like this. I'm totally fine if people make the conscious decision to trade engagement for stimulation. But what I'm very concerned about is just how many people are forced into this situation because the network has captured their friends. One of the most concerning things for me is that in studies of how damaging social networks are for teenage girls, girls who were off the social network were markedly better off except if all of their friends were on the social network, in which case they were worse off. Companies like Meta are exploiting these network effects, which are harmful, to make people dependent on their platform in a very "addiction-like" way.