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Tinker @tinker

Your daily dose of dystopia...

Google's thought experiment of the "Selfish Ledger."

Understanding the user so completely as to change the behavior of that user, then applying that at scale to change the behavior of entire populations.

theverge.com/2018/5/17/1734425

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@starbreaker - That’ll only happen when AI turns on it’s creators and developers. As long as that control remains no Butlerian Jihad will happen.

AI in this sense provides soma to the masses. More “Brave New World” complicity than “1984” beatdown.

@tinker @starbreaker The Silicon Valley technorati are a class of ideological Sardukar, to continue the Dune allusion. The California Ideology is basically the same indoctrination of heroic fluff needed by any regime to maintain control of jannisary classes. But eventually the owners will allow the AI to obsolete the creators/devs when they can be sure of direct turn-key control. Unless the boffins end their traditional complicity, their future is no better.

@Shufei @starbreaker @tinker I honestly believe that the grand majority of the computer-geek class have no idea what they're in for in ten or twenty years. all their jobs are going to disappear, and the illusion that they're masters of the universe because they know how to play with computers will evaporate.

@mona @tinker @starbreaker @Shufei That's pretty accurate. A lot of the folks out here haven't thought any farther ahead than the end of the year.

@drwho @Shufei @starbreaker @tinker I think there's still a lot of clinging to the illusion that crafting software is some kind of art form, and that programmers will continue to be valued for the artistry of their work when in fact the people with money don't give a rat's ass as long as they can cobble together something that sort of gets the job done well enough that they can continue to collect rent on it

@mona @tinker @Shufei @drwho I don't know where they're working but there's no artistry in making web pages talk to databases.

@starbreaker @mona @tinker @Shufei There's no artistry in writing single-threaded code that will be running on a 32 core server, either. And they wonder why there are so many layers of caching and abstraction to make things run fast...

@mona @tinker @starbreaker @Shufei This. Very much this. With a side order of "They think somebody who isn't themselves actually read their code."

It gets committed. It gets pushed. It goes into prod.

@drwho @Shufei @starbreaker @tinker @thegibson yep! or, more to the point about how computer jobs are going to disappear, consider Twitter and Facebook's gawdawful attempt to moderate themselves by "algorithm". the mere fact that it does not work hasn't slowed down the trend one bit, they just claim that some more magic will make it work properly eventually

@tinker if you didn't believe in the need for Open Source software before, that would convince you it is paramount. Could you imagine if something like that was proprietary and ad supported?

@ted - makes me scream for time to work on my projects. Gotta live though and little spare time. Fuck.

@tinker understand, totally with you there. You find that spare time, you tell me where to get it!

@ted - With older kids and less commute time.

@tinker I find as they get older their activities get more intensive. Probably depends on the kid. I need a book worm.

@tinker I like this concept:

"Understanding the user so completely as to change the behavior of that user".

If given the power, rather than training the user to react correctly to the existing environmental signals, I could just customize the environmental signals until I find the preferred natural reaction.

The reason my kids computer only has 2GB of RAM and an underpowered supply is because after a few minutes the lag encourages them to make the correct decision to go outside.

@tinker wha! *hides in a bush and waves a broom* keep outGoogle.

@tinker
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.