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Literally every single HN thread these days mentioning big companies the top comment is some cynical conspiratorial nonsense. Say Big Tech is out to get you in
by Anon1096 15d ago
Literally every single HN thread these days mentioning big companies the top comment is some cynical conspiratorial nonsense. Say Big Tech is out to get you in any way possible no matter how outlandish and people eat it up. Nothing can just happen for good or neutral reasons it's always tied to some master plan.
- FpUser 15d agothere is no smoke without fire
- brookst 15d ago“Suspicion is the same as fact”
- afpx 15d agoSome people are just better pattern matchers
- brookst 15d agoThat’s pretty much the heart of conspiracy theories and paranoia, yes. See apophenia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia
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- dns_snek 15d agoYes, except these kinds of fears related to big tech/surveillance end up being true more often than not. Unsurprising given the profit incentives and the total lack of ethics in the industry. 10+ years ago you were considered a lunatic if you told people that putting internet-connected cameras and microphones everywhere is a bad idea because their TV would be used to spy on them, that their cameras would be accessed by the police without their consent for surveillance, or that car company employees would watch them walk around naked through the cameras on their car.
- brookst 15d ago> more often than not Any data on that? Because to me it sounds like “because they are sometimes true, we should assume they are always true” But I’m open to data.
- dns_snek 14d agoIs anyone tracking every prediction ever made in a spreadsheet that you could use to verify that the rate is literally >50%? No, not that I'm aware of. The only anecdata I can give is "look around you", how all major (and many smaller) companies are implementing invasive spying tech into their products, harvesting our personal information, selling it, or abusing it any way they can. They sell the products as one thing then shaft their customers and change the terms overnight at their earliest convenience. What you call "a conspiracy theory" is just "following clear market incentives". There's a clear motive for doing everything with a clear track record of doing so in the past. If someone made a derivative financial product that roughly equated to the prediction "Big tech will use any means to expand their access, to invade and abuse our privacy, and generally be willing to do anything in pursuit of profit" I would be willing to invest my life savings into it.
- ithkuil 15d agoBeing good at matching patterns doesn't mean the patterns you found have the causal relationships you think they have Superstition in pigeons: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1948-04299-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1948-04299-001
- afpx 15d agobut the pigeon doesn't have the benefit of using bayesian priors nor collaboration
- anon1097 15d agoHah, if anything does happen outside of expected conspiracy, it happens because two conspiracies just happenened to nullify each other's outcomes. Some of the people here even made some of the ridiculous choices that shape our lives today:D Just sayin'
- imjonse 15d agoIt is not conspiracy theory. Optimizing for profit (which includes not crossing regulators/governments) is a good enough explanation usually. Big (and most small) companies put profit above anything else, so this is usually the right angle to approach anything they do.
- embedding-shape 15d agoJust as a curiosity, have you ever worked in big tech yourself, spoken "off-the-record" with managers or executives at these places or know closely people who do/have worked there?
- Anon1096 15d agoYes multiple companies in people's favorite acronyms.
- e584 15d ago[dead]
- ImPostingOnHN 15d agoI guess you could call capitalism a conspiracy theory if you want, but it doesn't change the fact that, yes, it exists.
- mdp2021 15d ago> for good or neutral reasons Are you capable of identifying dystopian movements the single moves of which get justified as "for people's good"?
- ozgung 14d agoHumans DO conspire. Interest groups and politicians DO conspire. Governments DO conspire. Big corporations DO conspire. When you have the mix of everything above, they definitely conspire. “Theory” part is only about finding out WHAT the actual conspiracy is. That can be reasonable, or outlandish, facts based or fantasy.