An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine

Re:An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine by chillee on Sunday February 10, 2019 @03:19PM (#19129751)

Interesting article on why this is a problem, some effects that this "attention sapping" has had on the labor force and how it alters the traditional labor-supply curve, and a somewhat fun proposal to "tax media companies for the hours of human attention they consume".

> One view of the status quo is that media companies are aggregating human attention and selling it at a discount–far below minimum wage–to advertisers in a massive arbitrage on human capital.

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Re:An ex-YouTube whistleblower on their recommendation engine by Nasrudith on Sunday February 10, 2019 @04:03PM (#19130014)

That sounds like reheated fallacies of the Victorians about the dangers of 'idleness'. The fact of the matter is that huamn attention isn't theirs to own in the first place no matter what they think on the matter. Despite the expectations and social pressure it isn't a continuous 'commodity' to be produced upon demand and it doesn't even map in a strictly increasing way to productivity.

It brings to mind the greed and stupidity of a lord thinking that anything his subjects do which isn't earning him money is stealing from him.

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