Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
This happens over and over. We are only building and consuming the narratives we want. We publish these in the nation's great newspapers. This is a very dangerous time in history. It will lead to either war, or disco. Good luck to everyone.
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I agree 100%. I see it happen all the time.
I see this method being used by people I don't agree with, to promote things I believe are harmful for society. And when I see the people whom I
agree with use the same method to promote things that I believe are
beneficial to society I recognize that as the same problem.
When I see Trump decrying "Fake News" I know that there is a kernel of truth people can identify with --the
facts aren't fake, the
narratives may not even be fake, they're just
not news. He should call it "Not News" but of course he'd have to pay royalties to Undertoad.
It's easy to make a bunch of grand-standing monologues about what's wrong with society--generally "the ignorant masses" or a "failure of the education system" or "being manipulated by Koch Brothers/Soros"--but it's
all of us, participating in this new system of information distribution and not knowing how to use it ethically or to promote healthy goals--because changes in technology are happening so fast.
It's easy to say if we could just slow things down and listen to the distress signals from the nerds and intellectuals, we could concentrate more on substance, less on packaging, and make more thoughtful decisions. But that's never really going to happen, is it?
They said this about newspapers, they said this about television, but aren't AI-driven algorithms that have database access to every detail of every person's life--and use it to target us on personal devices--something different than just a new media format?