Re:Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will
by anigbrowl on Monday November 20, 2017 @04:25PM
(#15743439)
there aren't that many people who have their health, shelter, or food directly affected by this race for the attention economy
That seems highly questionable to me. Large numbers of people in retail and service industries disrupted or threatened by technological change are arguably impacted by it.
Re:Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will
by jerf on Monday November 20, 2017 @08:54PM
(#15744958)
Tone: Honest. How does attention economy abuse impact people in retail and service especially?
(I get that the internet at large is impacting them immensely, and the list of such people and professions hardly stops there, but I don't immediately see the connection between them and attention abuse specifically.)
Re:Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will
by anigbrowl on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @09:25PM
(#15753709)
I'm probably casting ym net a bit too wide, so as to encompass all non-specialist internet-driven retail. Amazon uses these techniques a lot, I feel, albeit in a more subtle way. But I agree that's outside the scope of the original article's journalistic focus.
Re:Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will
by TFYS on Tuesday November 21, 2017 @06:57AM
(#15747272)
I believe concentration of power and the lack of transparency is what causes the problems in both systems. A "centralized" government that works for the people is possible, as long as we avoid those things. Make the democratic process as direct as possible, don't create any positions of great power. Have all decision-making be completely transparent, so the little power that people have, they are unable to abuse without getting caught. If no one has a lot of power (be it in the form of political power, or money), no one has the power to control people.
You seem to have disproved your own thesis, then, since there aren't that many people who have their health, shelter, or food directly affected by this race for the attention economy. (Yes, I said "aren't that many" and not "zero", but it's still not that many.)
What basis do you have for believing a centralized government with the definition of all morality and power adhering within it wouldn't simply turn the full force of this engineering on its citizens? After all, isn't it just that important for us to use these tools to maintain proper consciousness? If you don't believe that, don't you think the leadership will? And don't we actually have historical (USSR, to the extent it was technologically possible) and modern regimes (China, do an internet search on "china citizen score") doing just that right now? Before walking down that trail, you ought to make very, very, very sure it leads where you think it does, because several hundred million people who have walked it before you have discovered it doesn't.