The Matrix vs Ghostbusters

[craner]

I suppose I do think that the manipulation of information on search engines is interesting and dangerous.

 

[Clinamenic]

Also being able to think like those doing the “manipulating” may help.

Ultimately the future I anticipate is not nearly as dystopian as much of this may suggest.

 

[catalog]

Well, there's some stuff that's a bit embarrassing, but I don't know about incriminating.

yeah, true, it's more embarassment factor. i don't want anyone at work to know about treeshagging...

 

[craner]

Well, Google manipulates in the direction of liberalism at the moment, although that's hardly the point

 

[catalog]

i would like to get rid of all that smartphone stuff as well but it would simply mean i would have no contact with my friends any more.

this is the bind. i deleted whatsapp and everoyne moans at me about it

 

[version]

I guess I know exactly what I want from the internet: out of print books, Italian films on blu-ray, Instagram, Dissensus and a platform to offer my amazing essays to the public. Beyond that, nothing. So in that sense I don't feel vulnerable or open to manipulation.

Yeah, but this is the problem. You don't really have the choice to restrict it to that. You can manage your own internet usage to a degree, but we're in the process of hooking everything up to it. If you want to travel, purchase things, apply for a driving license and so on, it all gets fed into this ever-growing machine that very few of us really understand or have any influence over.

 

[craner]

this is the bind. i deleted whatsapp and everoyne moans at me about it

You really upset your friend when you did that

 

[catalog]

You really upset your friend when you did that

?

annoyed loads of people and some don't bother to stay in contact with me but all the groups were doing my head in. i've got signal now but turned the notifications off.

 

[craner]

Yeah, but this is the problem. You don't really have the choice to restrict it to that. You can manage your own internet usage to a degree, but we're in the process of hooking everything up to it. If you want to travel, purchase things, apply for a driving license and so on, it all gets fed into this ever-growing machine that very few of us really understand or have any influence over.

That's true, I did think, immediately after I posted that, so when did you last use a travel agent, Craner?

The point with that though is it's a tool to facilitate a decision independently made.

The driving license point is taken, but for me (and this is something I am researching for my job) that's as much about digital exclusion as data harvesting.

 

[craner]

?

annoyed loads of people and some don't bother to stay in contact with me but all the groups were doing my head in. i've got signal now but turned the notifications off.

Sorry, it was a joke

 

[catalog]

how many people have had the experience of talking about somethin gand then getting ads? happened to us on holiday, when we we retelling people about having this mushroom tincture and then lo and behold, my wife is getting ads for growkits.

 

[craner]

The spectrum for this goes:

Droid, version = invisible ultra-paranoiacs

Jack Law, me = dangerously naive attention seekers

 

[version]

I think, for me, it ultimately comes down to having so little trust in the people and institutions in power that the thought of them being able to have the sort of access to people's lives that tech's promising is horrifying.

There's also the question of AI. Do you want to be reduced to a set of data points and shoved around by an algorithm? It's bad enough trying to deal with a human being through things like customer support. Imagine that sort of situation, but with something even less flexible.

 

[craner]

I think, for me, it ultimately comes down to having so little trust in the people and institutions in power that the thought of them being able to have the sort of access to people's lives that tech's promising is horrifying.

There's also the question of AI. Do you want to be reduced to a set of data points and shoved around by an algorithm? It's bad enough trying to deal with a human being through things like customer support. Imagine that sort of situation, but with something even less flexible.

So do you still use a travel agent?

 

[craner]

Imagine what the Nazis could have done with algorithms

 

[version]

So do you still use a travel agent?

I haven't been abroad since the early 2000s, but that isn't really down to this. I only started thinking about this stuff seriously a few years ago. I would be somewhat hesitant nowadays though.

 

[catalog]

the nazis were technologically so astute weren't they. and very media literate. that harness of propaganda, no-one had done it before. are google and facebook nazis though? must be so weird being in either google or facebook. all the people i know in tech are obsessed with these issues of surveillance capitalism

 

[version]

There's a constant back and forth. If you completely go over into this sort of paranoia then you can drive yourself mad and may as well go off and live in a cave somewhere, but I think people should be more aware, curious and skeptical of things too.

 

[yyaldrin]

most people that work in tech are nazis

 

[catalog]

the few i know want to have their cake (ie money) and eat it too (ie without any indigestion) which just doesn't seem possible.