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I don't think it's bots, I see these sort of people in real life, it's most people in some circles. They are playing a little social game where you bet on a wh

I don't think it's bots, I see these sort of people in real life, it's most people in some circles. They are playing a little social game where you bet on a what a socially acceptable opinion is and if you guess right you get dopamine in the form of likes. This concensus seeking feedback loop results predictably in a hivemind.

rightbyte 3y ago
Maybe, it is hard to prove the "dead internet theory". But I mean look at you. That is how it used to feel like on Reddit. Write stuff. Someone disagrees. Etc. Reddit gives me sect vibes nowadays.
- hftthw 3y ago
  [flagged]
pixl97 3y ago
Why not both? Because of Reddit's api changes it's harder to track this, but at one point it was pretty easy to find accounts that only posted comments that had already been posted in the past. Now, it's difficult to trace most comments under 7 or 8 words, but there were accounts that only had ever posted replies from other users. Just watching some threads in popular subs for replies that were exactly the same as others. Then trace both accounts. Sometimes one is a legitimate human, and one is a bot. Other times both accounts where pretty much every post in their account is something that had been previously posted.
- lazystar 3y ago
  what if every post in the thread above me is from an ai bot... what if im the only human on hackernews? ive never met anyone irl whos been on this site. honk if youre human.
seneca 3y ago
Yes, exactly this. It's a form of a Keynesian beauty contest. That essentially means to make your comment based not on what you think, but on what you think will be popular with others. It's the heart of modern social media. It abdicates opinion to the masses and drives the hive mind.
- bitwize 3y ago
  It's called "social proof". You see this a lot in Japanese culture, it seems that all of Japan goes nuts for one thing or another that sweeps the entire nation like falling cherry blossoms in spring. When I was in Japan in 2011, young Japanese women were pretty eager to make smalltalk with me (most likely to practice their English, I'm not gonna lie about how much of a stud I am), and they tended to ask me similar smalltalky questions like "Who's your favorite musician?" I would try to explain as best I could who the KLF is, and then I would turn it around and ask "who's yours?" Every single girl had the exact same answer: Lady Gaga. Every. Single. Girl. Born This Way had just dropped in Japan, so there was a lot of promotion and Lady Gaga was everywhere in Japanese media, so Lady Gaga was the safe favorite artist to have at that moment in time; because everybody else apparently likes her, you won't be thought of as weird or an outcast for doing so, or be put in my unfortunate position of having to explain who the artist is and why their peculiar work is so captivating. That's social proof in a nutshell. Similar things that literally all of Japan was fond of at the time included One Piece (which is evergreen) and the cartoon character Stitch of Lilo & Stitch fame (an anime featuring him was running at the time). I saw Stitch and his girlfriend Angel crop up in some weird places, including on a poster in an elderly gentleman's ramen shop which was otherwise free of pop culture; just a grotty CRT TV with a Hanshin Tigers game on.
wolverine876 3y ago
> They are playing a little social game where you bet on a what a socially acceptable opinion is and if you guess right you get dopamine in the form of likes. I think that may be basic human social norm-following.

rightbyte 3y ago

Maybe, it is hard to prove the "dead internet theory". But I mean look at you. That is how it used to feel like on Reddit. Write stuff. Someone disagrees. Etc. Reddit gives me sect vibes nowadays.

hftthw 3y ago
[flagged]

pixl97 3y ago

Why not both? Because of Reddit's api changes it's harder to track this, but at one point it was pretty easy to find accounts that only posted comments that had already been posted in the past. Now, it's difficult to trace most comments under 7 or 8 words, but there were accounts that only had ever posted replies from other users. Just watching some threads in popular subs for replies that were exactly the same as others. Then trace both accounts. Sometimes one is a legitimate human, and one is a bot. Other times both accounts where pretty much every post in their account is something that had been previously posted.

lazystar 3y ago
what if every post in the thread above me is from an ai bot... what if im the only human on hackernews? ive never met anyone irl whos been on this site. honk if youre human.

seneca 3y ago

Yes, exactly this. It's a form of a Keynesian beauty contest. That essentially means to make your comment based not on what you think, but on what you think will be popular with others. It's the heart of modern social media. It abdicates opinion to the masses and drives the hive mind.

bitwize 3y ago
It's called "social proof". You see this a lot in Japanese culture, it seems that all of Japan goes nuts for one thing or another that sweeps the entire nation like falling cherry blossoms in spring. When I was in Japan in 2011, young Japanese women were pretty eager to make smalltalk with me (most likely to practice their English, I'm not gonna lie about how much of a stud I am), and they tended to ask me similar smalltalky questions like "Who's your favorite musician?" I would try to explain as best I could who the KLF is, and then I would turn it around and ask "who's yours?" Every single girl had the exact same answer: Lady Gaga. Every. Single. Girl. Born This Way had just dropped in Japan, so there was a lot of promotion and Lady Gaga was everywhere in Japanese media, so Lady Gaga was the safe favorite artist to have at that moment in time; because everybody else apparently likes her, you won't be thought of as weird or an outcast for doing so, or be put in my unfortunate position of having to explain who the artist is and why their peculiar work is so captivating. That's social proof in a nutshell. Similar things that literally all of Japan was fond of at the time included One Piece (which is evergreen) and the cartoon character Stitch of Lilo & Stitch fame (an anime featuring him was running at the time). I saw Stitch and his girlfriend Angel crop up in some weird places, including on a poster in an elderly gentleman's ramen shop which was otherwise free of pop culture; just a grotty CRT TV with a Hanshin Tigers game on.

wolverine876 3y ago

> They are playing a little social game where you bet on a what a socially acceptable opinion is and if you guess right you get dopamine in the form of likes. I think that may be basic human social norm-following.