LogFAQs > #954911480

LurkerFAQs, Active DB, DB1, DB2, DB3, DB4, DB5, DB6, DB7, Database 8 ( 02.18.2021-09-28-2021 ), DB9, DB10, DB11, DB12, Clear

Topic List	Page List: 1
Topic	What happens if Facebook, reddit Google one day gets bought over by the Chinese?
joe40001 06/12/21 4:14:36 AM #31:	Guide posted... Huh, I would've taken you for a free market capitalist type. Free market capitalism is great... ...at producing capital. But whenever the production of wealth is not tied to the production of value (aka rent seeking), or worse when it is tied to the production of suffering. It's fucking horrible. I can agree with quite a bit of this. Most of it, actually. The facebook algorithm is designed to target user interests, demonstrated or predicted, which is a way for misinfo to spread, as with your "organic moms". But it's not about "interests" it's about "engagement". They literally research how the brain works and try to take as many shortcuts as possible. The way you tell it you are acting like "it's just giving the people what they want". But it's only doing that in the same way a slot machine is giving a person what they want. It's hijacking the dopamine system of the brain but not providing value. People want value more than they want addiction, BUT if you want to optimize for "engagement" it's easier and more effective to provide addiction than value. Actually, most of my disagreements come from how you tie into this topic. Algorithm manipulation to avert info, false or otherwise, is also censorship. Your solution is still fundamentally people who "think they know better" corralling people who apparently do not, just in a different way. If it is censorship (which I'm not convinced it is), it is a much less aggressive and punitive form. It's no longer "fuck Bob and ban him because he believes in lab leak" it's "I'm not going to funnel people towards the most shallow shit, and today bob is saying stuff that only engages people in a shallow manner and shallowness/rage is no longer what I support by my algorithm". There's just no way to see it as worse. Because it's not people "knowing better" about truth. It's about people designing a better algorithm to optimize better things. Even if I concede all the things you are saying, (which I wouldn't fully, but to save time I will for the sake of argument), which do you think facebook is better at: Optimizing an algorithm around a given parameter? Deciding important scientific/political truths about the world? Well, that, and I don't believe people are getting dumber. Dumb people have always been around, just now they can form mobs more easily. You are letting social media off the hook way too much. It's farming our dumbness for money. People are more dumb now because the most money is made that way. Social media literally makes more money the more predictable people are, and the more dumb a person is the more manipulatable a person is, and the more manipulatable a person is the more predictable a person is. So social media's arguably biggest financial incentive is to make it's user base as dumb as possible, so long as they want to optimize for engagement. --- "joe is attractive and quite the brilliant poster" - Seiichi Omori https://imgur.com/TheGsZ9 <cite>joe40001 posted [p:954911480] in What happe... [t:79504605]...</cite> <quote>Guide posted... </cite> <quote>Huh, I would've taken you for a free market capitalist type.</quote> Free market capitalism is great... ...at producing capital. But whenever the production of wealth is not tied to the production of value (aka rent seeking), or worse when it is tied to the production of suffering. It's fucking horrible. <quote>I can agree with quite a bit of this. Most of it, actually. The facebook algorithm is designed to target user interests, demonstrated or predicted, which is a way for misinfo to spread, as with your "organic moms".</quote> But it's not about "interests" it's about "engagement". They literally research how the brain works and try to take as many shortcuts as possible. The way you tell it you are acting like "it's just giving the people what they want". But it's only doing that in the same way a slot machine is giving a person what they want. It's hijacking the dopamine system of the brain but not providing value. People want value more than they want addiction, BUT if you want to optimize for "engagement" it's easier and more effective to provide addiction than value. <quote>Actually, most of my disagreements come from how you tie into this topic. Algorithm manipulation to avert info, false or otherwise, is also censorship. Your solution is still fundamentally people who "think they know better" corralling people who apparently do not, just in a different way.</quote> If it is censorship (which I'm not convinced it is), it is a much less aggressive and punitive form. It's no longer "fuck Bob and ban him because he believes in lab leak" it's "I'm not going to funnel people towards the most shallow shit, and today bob is saying stuff that only engages people in a shallow manner and shallowness/rage is no longer what I support by my algorithm". There's just no way to see it as worse. Because it's not people "knowing better" about truth. It's about people designing a better algorithm to optimize better things. Even if I concede all the things you are saying, (which I wouldn't fully, but to save time I will for the sake of argument), which do you think facebook is better at: Optimizing an algorithm around a given parameter? Deciding important scientific/political truths about the world? <quote>Well, that, and I don't believe people are getting dumber. Dumb people have always been around, just now they can form mobs more easily.</quote> You are letting social media off the hook way too much. It's farming our dumbness for money. People are more dumb now because the most money is made that way. Social media literally makes more money the more predictable people are, and the more dumb a person is the more manipulatable a person is, and the more manipulatable a person is the more predictable a person is. So social media's arguably biggest financial incentive is to make it's user base as dumb as possible, so long as they want to optimize for engagement. --- "joe is attractive and quite the brilliant poster" - Seiichi Omori https://imgur.com/TheGsZ9</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Topic List	Page List: 1