4 ms·

The process designed to optimize for attracting our attention has done what it was designed to do: optimized for attracting our attention, at the cost of all ot

The process designed to optimize for attracting our attention has done what it was designed to do: optimized for attracting our attention, at the cost of all other incentives. The image of a throbbing, mutating, dark spiral is conjured in my mind. The more it is watched, the more it begins to grow into a twisted visage of the viewer as it attempts to recreate all of their desires and fears within itself. It is meaningless yet becomes all meaning.

TremendousJudge 4mo ago
this stuff always reminds me of There is no antimemetis division [0] From Case Hate Red: > With some minutes to kill, he checks the headlines on his phone. Yet again, something dreadful and new which he doesn't understand is going viral. Today's fad is, you paint a black vertical rectangle on the wall, or on a mirror, or over the top of a picture. And then you chant something. Wheeler can't quite pick out the words of the chant. They're in a language he's not familiar with. He's no singer, but he's performed pieces with lyrics in Latin, German, Greek, French… whereas this language has a bizarre manufactured sense to it, as if it were simply English with the vowels and consonants all switched around. [0] https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub
- isoprophlex 4mo ago
  That indeed, and The Entertainment or the samizdat from Infinite Jest. A film so entertaining to its viewers that they become lifeless, losing all interest in anything other than endless viewings of the film.
  - crdrost 4mo ago
    Back when people would read blog posts about the erosion of ownership in the face of intellectual property law, I used to blog about something similar... Of course the MPAA is against copying, I would say -- the ideal situation for the MPAA would be if when you left the theater, they could just wipe your brain of the memory of the film you just watched. You just remember that you had a fun time with your friends and it was a good movie, but you don't remember any of what happened there. "but those are MY memories" -- no no no we didn't touch YOUR memories, we left your memories just fine -- we only removed a copy of OUR copyrighted content from the world, consistent with our terms of service for the theater. But if you want to experience it again, by all means, come back to watch it again. "That sounds like it would stifle all cinematic innovation" -- no you don't understand! Our artists are suffering because they don't get the full amount of money they are due because of all of these unlicensed copies moving about the world in peoples' heads. When people are discussing how amazing that movie was, our artists deserve to have them in a controlled cafe attached to the theater where they can control that experience and fully profit off of it. Don't you get it? Bigger financial incentives, bigger payoffs for successful artists -- therefore more artists, and more cinematic innovation! When you play back these unlicensed copies in your "memory" and pirate our works, you're really just contributing to monoculture by not rewarding the people who made your favorite things.
    - fragmede 4mo ago
      that's pretty interesting. Ever consider writing a book?
scotty79 4mo ago
> process designed to optimize for attracting our attention namely: "social" media
kiba 4mo ago
It's time to let people choose their own algorithm and force upon the platforms a marketplace for algorithms.
- majani 4mo ago
  Pointless. 95% would stick to the default
- munk-a 4mo ago
  This is a case of psychological exploitation - in a free market of algorithms the current dominant flavor on platforms would win for the majority of people. As unpopular as it may be in this forum the real solution here is government regulation as we need to work as a society to protect our brains from these exploits.
  - daymanstep 4mo ago
    "Winning" in this context doesn't matter because people have the freedom to choose which algorithms they want to use. Like in the same way that windows has "won" in that it has 99% of desktop market share yet I can still use Linux happily. I don't want government regulation here for the same reason I don't want the gov to step in and tell Linux what regulations it has to follow
- sunandsurf 4mo ago
  There needs to be regulation so algorithms are turned off by DEFAULT for every user - with the option to turn on for those that want a dose of brainrot
  - pibaker 4mo ago
    Do you browse HN only with https://news.ycombinator.com/newest https://news.ycombinator.com/newest ? Or is the HN algorithm kosher in a way other algorithms aren't?
    - stratos123 4mo ago

TremendousJudge 4mo ago

this stuff always reminds me of There is no antimemetis division [0] From Case Hate Red: > With some minutes to kill, he checks the headlines on his phone. Yet again, something dreadful and new which he doesn't understand is going viral. Today's fad is, you paint a black vertical rectangle on the wall, or on a mirror, or over the top of a picture. And then you chant something. Wheeler can't quite pick out the words of the chant. They're in a language he's not familiar with. He's no singer, but he's performed pieces with lyrics in Latin, German, Greek, French… whereas this language has a bizarre manufactured sense to it, as if it were simply English with the vowels and consonants all switched around. [0] https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub

isoprophlex 4mo ago
That indeed, and The Entertainment or the samizdat from Infinite Jest. A film so entertaining to its viewers that they become lifeless, losing all interest in anything other than endless viewings of the film.
- crdrost 4mo ago
  Back when people would read blog posts about the erosion of ownership in the face of intellectual property law, I used to blog about something similar... Of course the MPAA is against copying, I would say -- the ideal situation for the MPAA would be if when you left the theater, they could just wipe your brain of the memory of the film you just watched. You just remember that you had a fun time with your friends and it was a good movie, but you don't remember any of what happened there. "but those are MY memories" -- no no no we didn't touch YOUR memories, we left your memories just fine -- we only removed a copy of OUR copyrighted content from the world, consistent with our terms of service for the theater. But if you want to experience it again, by all means, come back to watch it again. "That sounds like it would stifle all cinematic innovation" -- no you don't understand! Our artists are suffering because they don't get the full amount of money they are due because of all of these unlicensed copies moving about the world in peoples' heads. When people are discussing how amazing that movie was, our artists deserve to have them in a controlled cafe attached to the theater where they can control that experience and fully profit off of it. Don't you get it? Bigger financial incentives, bigger payoffs for successful artists -- therefore more artists, and more cinematic innovation! When you play back these unlicensed copies in your "memory" and pirate our works, you're really just contributing to monoculture by not rewarding the people who made your favorite things.
  - fragmede 4mo ago
    that's pretty interesting. Ever consider writing a book?

scotty79 4mo ago

> process designed to optimize for attracting our attention namely: "social" media

kiba 4mo ago

It's time to let people choose their own algorithm and force upon the platforms a marketplace for algorithms.

majani 4mo ago
Pointless. 95% would stick to the default
munk-a 4mo ago
This is a case of psychological exploitation - in a free market of algorithms the current dominant flavor on platforms would win for the majority of people. As unpopular as it may be in this forum the real solution here is government regulation as we need to work as a society to protect our brains from these exploits.
- daymanstep 4mo ago
  "Winning" in this context doesn't matter because people have the freedom to choose which algorithms they want to use. Like in the same way that windows has "won" in that it has 99% of desktop market share yet I can still use Linux happily. I don't want government regulation here for the same reason I don't want the gov to step in and tell Linux what regulations it has to follow
sunandsurf 4mo ago
There needs to be regulation so algorithms are turned off by DEFAULT for every user - with the option to turn on for those that want a dose of brainrot
- pibaker 4mo ago
  Do you browse HN only with https://news.ycombinator.com/newest https://news.ycombinator.com/newest ? Or is the HN algorithm kosher in a way other algorithms aren't?
  - stratos123 4mo ago