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> 'Attacking' people who post ill-conceived content anonymously on the internet has most definitely grown tired (case in point), but is not really a problem. It

> 'Attacking' people who post ill-conceived content anonymously on the internet has most definitely grown tired (case in point), but is not really a problem. It's not a person, it's just an internet account. It doesn't matter. If your internet account is a fictional identity it doesn't matter, but you're posting as you but just behind a pseudonym and someone attacks you it can be very upsetting.

randomdata 2y ago
Your so-called internet account, pseudonym or otherwise, is always a fictional identity – which is to say not an identity that is related to any real person. While our understanding of the technology no doubt assumes there is a real person pulling knobs and levers behind the scenes, that's just an implementation detail. If the software was updated so that the human lever pulling was replaced with a suitably advanced generative AI, nobody would notice. Nothing about the experience would change. It is not about people. In that kind of venue, it is all about the software. There is no attack on you, a person. For all intents and purposes, you don't exist. Therein lies the challenge, though. Some people, especially people who didn't grow up before the likes of Reddit, fail to understand that people and software are not the same thing. The things that fly online don't fly the same way in person, but there is a prevailing shift, particularly with the younger generation, towards treating the in-person experience the same as the online experience; to see them as the same thing. That's where we see problems emerge.
- circlefavshape 2y ago
  > If the software was updated so that the human lever pulling was replaced with a suitably advanced generative AI, nobody would notice. Nothing about the experience would change. The experience would change for the person pulling the lever. My "so-called internet account" absolutely is related to a real person, and that person is me. Attacks on the account are experienced by me as attacks on me
  - randomdata 2y ago
    > Attacks on the account are experienced by me as attacks on me Right. This is the 'Redditization' of the world spoken of earlier, where an increasing number of people are unable to distinguish the difference between software and people, thereby treating them as if they are one and the same. Which, as it relates to the broader topic, is problematic as they are not the same and that introduces all kinds of social issues out in the real world. Logically, you know that the LLM behind the arbitrary forum account that attacked you is little more than a fancy random number generator, which is no more significant than a squirrel giving you the side-eye, but as you have anthropomorphized it as being human then you start to see it differently and experience it as if it were a person. But to anthropomorphize it is flawed. Like seeing Google Maps as being the world[1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39993030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39993030

randomdata 2y ago

Your so-called internet account, pseudonym or otherwise, is always a fictional identity – which is to say not an identity that is related to any real person. While our understanding of the technology no doubt assumes there is a real person pulling knobs and levers behind the scenes, that's just an implementation detail. If the software was updated so that the human lever pulling was replaced with a suitably advanced generative AI, nobody would notice. Nothing about the experience would change. It is not about people. In that kind of venue, it is all about the software. There is no attack on you, a person. For all intents and purposes, you don't exist. Therein lies the challenge, though. Some people, especially people who didn't grow up before the likes of Reddit, fail to understand that people and software are not the same thing. The things that fly online don't fly the same way in person, but there is a prevailing shift, particularly with the younger generation, towards treating the in-person experience the same as the online experience; to see them as the same thing. That's where we see problems emerge.

circlefavshape 2y ago
> If the software was updated so that the human lever pulling was replaced with a suitably advanced generative AI, nobody would notice. Nothing about the experience would change. The experience would change for the person pulling the lever. My "so-called internet account" absolutely is related to a real person, and that person is me. Attacks on the account are experienced by me as attacks on me
- randomdata 2y ago
  > Attacks on the account are experienced by me as attacks on me Right. This is the 'Redditization' of the world spoken of earlier, where an increasing number of people are unable to distinguish the difference between software and people, thereby treating them as if they are one and the same. Which, as it relates to the broader topic, is problematic as they are not the same and that introduces all kinds of social issues out in the real world. Logically, you know that the LLM behind the arbitrary forum account that attacked you is little more than a fancy random number generator, which is no more significant than a squirrel giving you the side-eye, but as you have anthropomorphized it as being human then you start to see it differently and experience it as if it were a person. But to anthropomorphize it is flawed. Like seeing Google Maps as being the world[1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39993030 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39993030