3 ms·

I've had similar experiences. I have a few browser extensions and other similar tidbits that I've built, and every now and then I get an email with an offer to

I've had similar experiences. I have a few browser extensions and other similar tidbits that I've built, and every now and then I get an email with an offer to sell it for a hundred bucks or so. Sell full scripting access to every user who installed something I made over the years? It makes me sad that that's the kind of world we're in, and sadder still knowing that surely there are people somewhere out there who do accept these bids.

odo1242 2y ago
Keep in mind, this is what happened to The Great Suspender lol
- arcanemachiner 2y ago
  I hope they got more than $105 to sell out their userbase.
nox101 2y ago
Makes me sad there are people making the offer. It's pretty clear we're screwed as a civilization. As tech gets more powerful, the same people making these offers as well as the same people doing cyberlockers, etc will do the same with bio-tech, nano-tech and anything else then can extort others with. They'll infect you with virus to which only they have the antidote, etc....
- hhejrkrn 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - kibwen 2y ago
    An intelligent species would extrapolate forward and realize that the ruthless pursuit of infinite resource expenditure is a guaranteed path to annihilation. If the game is self-destruction, then the winning move is not to play.
    - daedrdev 2y ago
      We aren't going to run out of efficiency gains anytime soon. And with a declining population projected, the whole infinite resources argument is less important since we can grow per person with less people
    - hhejrkrn 2y ago
      How do you get an intelligent species??
      - rapind 2y ago
        We should ask them when we meet them.
  - Grimblewald 2y ago
    It is most certainly not the only way to evolve and more importantly, while it can be cost effective short term, it is destructive long term. Long term everyone loses, and a concious intelligent being taking control of an evolutionary process should know not to partake in selfish destructive behaviour, otherwise is it really intelligent?
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - MichaelZuo 2y ago
      How do you know there is any ‘way to evolve’ ? Let alone multiple… It’s possible for all promising pathways to last for hundreds of millions of years and then hit a dead end… just because a really big comet came by or some other random event.
      - Grimblewald 2y ago
        Anything that ensures you have higher success in reproduction than others causes your traits to be over-expressed in the next generation, where if these traits are passed onto your offspring somehow, be it because they are genetically encoded, socially encoded and you have social contact with your offspring to a degree where you pass these behavioural traits on etc. then any of those things will count as an avenue through which your lineage, and therefor your species, can evolve. Now, the traditional evolutionary pressures, coming from environmental stressors have largely not impacted our species in quite some time. Don't like the climate? do we evolve because some people are better sutied and therefore reproduce more readily? no. We built climate control. We have some pathogen, where some folks are less susceptible to the pathogen? no. We develop medication to fight the disease. However, we do have socio-economic pressures which are not being dealt with through technology like we deal with environmental pressures, so these still exist, and are complicated. Arguably more complicated than ever before. There's your economic strategy, social strategy, migratory strategy etc. all of which impact your and your offspring's reproductive success, in turn creating evolutionary pressures that lead to entrenching certain traits. Evolution stops only when the current average is the best suited to the current environment, or when the current environment removes all selective pressure.
  - tomrod 2y ago
    Eusociality is a counterexample to your assertion.
    - hhejrkrn 2y ago
      No? That is an evolved adaption to a world with adversaries and a need to survive.
dataflow 2y ago
What kinds of contracts do these come with? I imagine they also expect you to keep quiet about it?
taberiand 2y ago
At that price, Google, Microsoft et al should get ahead of the game and pay the developers the pittance to ensure stability of their plugin ecosystem
- simfree 2y ago
  "Google offered me a pittance to take over and then kill my extension" doesn't make for a good headline. They'd rather just nuke the malicious extension when they get notified of its sketchy behaviour.

odo1242 2y ago

Keep in mind, this is what happened to The Great Suspender lol

arcanemachiner 2y ago
I hope they got more than $105 to sell out their userbase.

nox101 2y ago

Makes me sad there are people making the offer. It's pretty clear we're screwed as a civilization. As tech gets more powerful, the same people making these offers as well as the same people doing cyberlockers, etc will do the same with bio-tech, nano-tech and anything else then can extort others with. They'll infect you with virus to which only they have the antidote, etc....

hhejrkrn 2y ago
[flagged]
- kibwen 2y ago
  An intelligent species would extrapolate forward and realize that the ruthless pursuit of infinite resource expenditure is a guaranteed path to annihilation. If the game is self-destruction, then the winning move is not to play.
  - daedrdev 2y ago
    We aren't going to run out of efficiency gains anytime soon. And with a declining population projected, the whole infinite resources argument is less important since we can grow per person with less people
  - hhejrkrn 2y ago
    How do you get an intelligent species??
    - rapind 2y ago
      We should ask them when we meet them.
- Grimblewald 2y ago
  It is most certainly not the only way to evolve and more importantly, while it can be cost effective short term, it is destructive long term. Long term everyone loses, and a concious intelligent being taking control of an evolutionary process should know not to partake in selfish destructive behaviour, otherwise is it really intelligent?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - MichaelZuo 2y ago
    How do you know there is any ‘way to evolve’ ? Let alone multiple… It’s possible for all promising pathways to last for hundreds of millions of years and then hit a dead end… just because a really big comet came by or some other random event.
    - Grimblewald 2y ago
      Anything that ensures you have higher success in reproduction than others causes your traits to be over-expressed in the next generation, where if these traits are passed onto your offspring somehow, be it because they are genetically encoded, socially encoded and you have social contact with your offspring to a degree where you pass these behavioural traits on etc. then any of those things will count as an avenue through which your lineage, and therefor your species, can evolve. Now, the traditional evolutionary pressures, coming from environmental stressors have largely not impacted our species in quite some time. Don't like the climate? do we evolve because some people are better sutied and therefore reproduce more readily? no. We built climate control. We have some pathogen, where some folks are less susceptible to the pathogen? no. We develop medication to fight the disease. However, we do have socio-economic pressures which are not being dealt with through technology like we deal with environmental pressures, so these still exist, and are complicated. Arguably more complicated than ever before. There's your economic strategy, social strategy, migratory strategy etc. all of which impact your and your offspring's reproductive success, in turn creating evolutionary pressures that lead to entrenching certain traits. Evolution stops only when the current average is the best suited to the current environment, or when the current environment removes all selective pressure.
- tomrod 2y ago
  Eusociality is a counterexample to your assertion.
  - hhejrkrn 2y ago
    No? That is an evolved adaption to a world with adversaries and a need to survive.

dataflow 2y ago

What kinds of contracts do these come with? I imagine they also expect you to keep quiet about it?

taberiand 2y ago

At that price, Google, Microsoft et al should get ahead of the game and pay the developers the pittance to ensure stability of their plugin ecosystem

simfree 2y ago
"Google offered me a pittance to take over and then kill my extension" doesn't make for a good headline. They'd rather just nuke the malicious extension when they get notified of its sketchy behaviour.