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Noise generation is the only answer the common person has against the giant corporate machine. You need a personal "AI" that just does random searches unconnec

Noise generation is the only answer the common person has against the giant corporate machine. You need a personal "AI" that just does random searches unconnected with your life, constantly, in the background, and then injects this data into all the portals that are watching you. Ultimately, their data will become dominated by noise, and ultimately useless to the point of severely destroying the value of the entire enterprise and data collection mechanisms in the first place. No matter how many tools you make "local only" you're only a forgotten "send telemetry back to the mothership" checkbox away from being right where you started.

cj 3y ago
This might work at an individual level, but it isn’t scalable to the general population. It’s hard to imagine any population-scale solution that doesn’t involve regulation. The biggest problem with regulation (in my eyes) is that it thwarts competition between countries. E.g. if the US imposes restrictions on technology, innovation is incentivized to happen elsewhere. The EU has been bold on the privacy regulatory front with GDPR and the like, and has probably lost out on immeasurable monetary gains as a result. There’s a huge cost to regulation, but it works.
- akira2501 3y ago
  Why isn't it scalable? This could be a $19.95 device that you buy and just plug into your router. Instead of "Totally not the FBI VPN" why not "Noisy Gateway Service?" I don't believe there's any worthwhile way to regulate this technology nor is there any particular reason to. The imbalance comes about because of spare electricity, which is truly the crux here, that we have so much to waste on dippy language models while also having so little to spare that some people have none... or possibly worse... electricity with random availability. This you could actually regulate. I think the game is clear.
abound 3y ago
> Ultimately, their data will become dominated by noise This was a plot point in a Neal Stephenson novel, "Fall [...]". It's been a while so I'm fuzzy on the details, but one of main characters floods the Internet with constant AI-generated content, but I can't remember if it was to drown out bad PR or break the anonymous identification mechanism ubiquitous in the book's world.
pests 3y ago
Until the noise you generate gets you on legitimate watch lists. One day it's going to search for a random product or compound that your neighbor two houses over just murdered their baby sister with and now you are an active suspect and get your electronics seized for a full search.
- akira2501 3y ago
  This argument boils down to "the government is too powerful and you shouldn't provoke it" while attempting to vouchsafe the legitimacy of metadata driven watch lists in the first place. In my eyes this just strengthens the case.

cj 3y ago

This might work at an individual level, but it isn’t scalable to the general population. It’s hard to imagine any population-scale solution that doesn’t involve regulation. The biggest problem with regulation (in my eyes) is that it thwarts competition between countries. E.g. if the US imposes restrictions on technology, innovation is incentivized to happen elsewhere. The EU has been bold on the privacy regulatory front with GDPR and the like, and has probably lost out on immeasurable monetary gains as a result. There’s a huge cost to regulation, but it works.

akira2501 3y ago
Why isn't it scalable? This could be a $19.95 device that you buy and just plug into your router. Instead of "Totally not the FBI VPN" why not "Noisy Gateway Service?" I don't believe there's any worthwhile way to regulate this technology nor is there any particular reason to. The imbalance comes about because of spare electricity, which is truly the crux here, that we have so much to waste on dippy language models while also having so little to spare that some people have none... or possibly worse... electricity with random availability. This you could actually regulate. I think the game is clear.

abound 3y ago

> Ultimately, their data will become dominated by noise This was a plot point in a Neal Stephenson novel, "Fall [...]". It's been a while so I'm fuzzy on the details, but one of main characters floods the Internet with constant AI-generated content, but I can't remember if it was to drown out bad PR or break the anonymous identification mechanism ubiquitous in the book's world.

pests 3y ago

Until the noise you generate gets you on legitimate watch lists. One day it's going to search for a random product or compound that your neighbor two houses over just murdered their baby sister with and now you are an active suspect and get your electronics seized for a full search.

akira2501 3y ago
This argument boils down to "the government is too powerful and you shouldn't provoke it" while attempting to vouchsafe the legitimacy of metadata driven watch lists in the first place. In my eyes this just strengthens the case.