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A comment on Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms about the power of tech. Parent comment

Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by amelius on Monday January 01, 2018 @11:33AM (#16046664)
The (disruptive) power of Silicon Valley stems mainly from investors. Make a pile of money high enough, and you can disrupt anything; that's the premise, basically.

It is not really the power of tech that we should be worried about, but instead the power of investment without regard for anything other than shareholder returns. Google and Facebook could be better companies if they didn't have to sell their users to their real customers.

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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by potluckyears on Monday January 01, 2018 @03:35PM (#16047892)
Yeah! The rise of addictive, short-term reward technologies seems deeply tied to the fact that Silicon Valley companies make money based on showing growth numbers to investors.

Business models shape the space of architectures that companies are incentivized and disincentivized to make. For people that don't like the current landscape of addictive free technologies, I'd say Silicon Valley has a business model problem, not a technology problem.

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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by dwaltrip on Monday January 01, 2018 @11:43AM (#16046715)
The money doesn't do it alone. You can't have technological disruption without technology.
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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by rhizome on Monday January 01, 2018 @04:11PM (#16048061)
What technology has Facebook given us besides React, a PHP compiler and low-power server racks? For that matter, what does Facebook even disrupt?

I venture that the technology is usually already there, but the business exploitation is what's different in the dominant companies.

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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by dwaltrip on Monday January 01, 2018 @04:21PM (#16048121)
Facebook operates mostly in the realm of social communication/organization and general information sharing, so that is where the "disruption" would take place.

I'm rather skeptical of Facebook though. I think there are major issues with its current incarnation.

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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by rhizome on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @08:38PM (#16057591)
Facebook operates mostly in the realm of social communication/organization and general information sharing, so that is where the "disruption" would take place.

Sure, but GP was talking about technological disruption.

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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by dwaltrip on Wednesday January 03, 2018 @03:05AM (#16059347)
Facebook uses technology to carry out its core operations, so would not they be performing technological disruption of the social domain?
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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by rhizome on Wednesday January 03, 2018 @01:18PM (#16063474)
If they meant social they would have said social.
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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by fourthark on Monday January 01, 2018 @07:58PM (#16049030)
It disrupts social interaction.
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Re:Former Google and Facebook execs are sounding alarms abou... by moretai on Monday January 01, 2018 @11:38AM (#16046688)
I'm sorry, but this comment is just beautiful
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