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The thing about the slippery slope is that it is far more often a logical fallacy than it is a real danger.
by cwyers 12y ago
The thing about the slippery slope is that it is far more often a logical fallacy than it is a real danger.
- walterbell 12y agohttp://pando.com/2014/06/28/facebooks-science-experiment-on-users-shows-the-company-is-more-even-powerful-and-unethical-than-we-thought/ http://pando.com/2014/06/28/facebooks-science-experiment-on-... "Facebook itself could target certain users, whether they be corporate rivals or current/former employees. Having such strong psychological control over your workforce would certainly have its benefits. And if Facebook ever gets caught? Why, the company could claim it’s all part of a social experiment, one that users tacitly agreed to when they signed up. With over one-tenth of the world’s population signing into Facebook every day, and now with evidence to back the emotional power of the company’s algorithmic manipulation, the possibilities for widespread social engineering are staggering and unlike anything the world has seen. Granted, Facebook’s motives probably are simply to convince people to buy more stuff in order to please advertisers, but the potential uses of that power to impact elections or global trade could be enticing to all sorts of powerful interest groups."
- zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 12y agoThe thing about fallacies is that you can't claim one just because it's common. The thing about this case is that network effects of communication services make for very strong path dependence, thus making it extremely hard to get back up the slope a bit if you notice you've been slipping down a bit too much.