The Coming Authoritarianism.

Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
tech bros occasionally make positive contributions to society but are mostly evil fuckers. it's all about collecting data, and they don't care what gets done with that data as long as someone wants to pay them for it.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
The companies that succeed are the ones that use data collection. I personally worked for bright-eyed, idealistic, amazing startups with amazing teams trying to sell people on $4 memberships: no ads, you own all your own data, etc. Despite having an amazing product, they couldn't make it work, they poured life energy and libido for half a decade into this incredible platform out of passion and a desire to change the world.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
Internet users have been very clear about what they want, about the kind of consumption tradeoffs they think are worth it and not worth it. Now they have to live with it. @Linebaugh you mention all the tech companies collecting data: you're looking at the business models that have succeeded. You're looking at companies that are trying to figure out how to monetize. Personalized ads mean less ads; they're almost definitionally less intrusive and have higher returns for providers of ad space; they're a highly elegant solution to a real problem which is that someone's gotta pay for the servers to run, dammit.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
Don't hate the players; hate the game.

No one's denying there's bad eggs in the Valley. No one's denying that there's real instances of hubris. But hubris and ambition go together; we shouldn't be shocked to see they do. It's up to regulators and consumers to keep these ambitions in check, and to draw lines with their consumption.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
apps are business ventures. They might make a few people richer. That's all. They won't save the world.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
Also as a side note, having personally known several people interviewed by the Times, I wouldn't trust their profiles one bit. There's a strong anti-tech sentiment, and it shouldn't be surprising given ludditism is a signal of the upperclasses (see Paul Fussell's work on class structure in New England). Optimism isn't cool for the same reason that the worst thing you can be, in a cosmopolitan city, is naive/provincial/doe-eyed. Latour talks about this; Wallace talks about it. Jaded cynicism is the currency of the day, and people love cashing in. Besides, human beings need scapegoats! The arrogant, "evil" tech bro is an easy stereotype to play to. Boring! I expect more of this forum.
 
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