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How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

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Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#31

Post by exergy »

nealabq wrote: post #23
mosselman wrote: post #17

All you ruined was the fun of photoshopping his face into things. Let me draw a parallel with a story of my grandfather, whom I never knew: Apparently a great hobby of his used to be to collect sayings from people. Whenever he'd meet anyone, let it be new or already known, he'd ask them if they knew any new sayings. He wrote all of them down in his little book of sayings. My father started picking up the hobby and th…

So you're saying social-bonding hacks/disruptions sometimes ruin the fun. What about other situations? Will gatherings be less fun when Alexa becomes the life of the party, cracking jokes and proposing toasts? Will Siri join in the dinner conversation (parent, friend or good-listener mode, with wit, personality and intelligence sliders). Will fans be turned off when self-driving cars start winning the Indy 500? How a…

> social-bonding hacks/disruptions

First, honest question: is there some secret lease that needs to be signed before posting on HN that requires that every real-world phenomenon be framed using 1337 h4x0r terminology? For some reason, it really rubs me the wrong way, people trying to shoebox anything and everything into a faux-technological perspective.

Also, the reason Vinyls still sell is that there is a sense of occassion about taking a record out of it's cover, carefully placing the needle on it, sitting back to focus on the music and nothing else. Same reason the physical joy of playing a piano will always have a place despite being able to get nearly the same sounds out of a computer. I'd hate to watch two self driving cars competing against each other to see which has the best code. That sounds tedious as all hell. I'm not sure about the others, but fuck yeah I categorically do NOT want an AI cracking jokes at a party.

Somethings are better when they are lower tech.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#32

Post by yayitswei »

exergy wrote: post #31
nealabq wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying social-bonding hacks/disruptions sometimes ruin the fun. What about other situations? Will gatherings be less fun when Alexa becomes the life of the party, cracking jokes and proposing toasts? Will Siri join in the dinner conversation (parent, friend or good-listener mode, with wit, personality and intelligence sliders). Will fans be turned off when self-driving cars start winning the Indy 500? How a…

> social-bonding hacks/disruptions First, honest question: is there some secret lease that needs to be signed before posting on HN that requires that every real-world phenomenon be framed using 1337 h4x0r terminology? For some reason, it really rubs me the wrong way, people trying to shoebox anything and everything into a faux-technological perspective. Also, the reason Vinyls still sell is that there is a sense of o…

Well the site is called Hacker News.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#33

Post by grzm »

yayitswei wrote: post #32
exergy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> social-bonding hacks/disruptions First, honest question: is there some secret lease that needs to be signed before posting on HN that requires that every real-world phenomenon be framed using 1337 h4x0r terminology? For some reason, it really rubs me the wrong way, people trying to shoebox anything and everything into a faux-technological perspective. Also, the reason Vinyls still sell is that there is a sense of o…

Well the site is called Hacker News.

True, though neither word in that name is used to limit topic or language.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#34

Post by addled »

About 15 years ago, I remember Zikes offering to let me borrow a web development book he had finished reading.

I turned down the offer, thinking I had little use for such things.

Fast forward 10 years and I end up going back to school for programming and slapping myself for not getting into it back then.

Can definitely see the difference that experience makes.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#36

Post by anigbrowl »

nealabq wrote: post #23
mosselman wrote: post #17

All you ruined was the fun of photoshopping his face into things. Let me draw a parallel with a story of my grandfather, whom I never knew: Apparently a great hobby of his used to be to collect sayings from people. Whenever he'd meet anyone, let it be new or already known, he'd ask them if they knew any new sayings. He wrote all of them down in his little book of sayings. My father started picking up the hobby and th…

So you're saying social-bonding hacks/disruptions sometimes ruin the fun. What about other situations? Will gatherings be less fun when Alexa becomes the life of the party, cracking jokes and proposing toasts? Will Siri join in the dinner conversation (parent, friend or good-listener mode, with wit, personality and intelligence sliders). Will fans be turned off when self-driving cars start winning the Indy 500? How a…

Yes to all of those questions. If people can't imaginatively project themselves into winning circumstances, then they become despondent because their escapist fantasies (which some people take seriously enough to make into real accomplishments) are now dashed forever.

This is something technologists and scientists largely don't get. People are always 'look at how many material comforts and and entertainment options you have now, are you not entertained?' Likewise scientists are often 'I spent years of my life and a small fortune learning to be expert about this obscure thing that you'll never be able to experience directly, isn't it awesome?' And people are entertained and they are awed - to an extent.

But they're also sad because the more the world is codified and quantified and parceled out for ownership. there are no new countries to discover, no more large exotic fauna to find, we're constantly reminded that religion and magic are illusory and that the economics of capitalism are inevitable, so there's nothing to look forward to in life beyond being ground up in the gears of the consumerist machine.

That's why there are so many movies about superheroes and rebellious people with psychic powers and so on. People need something to believe in other than the ultimately extremely boring prospect of working, raising a family, and retiring. They want 'adventure and excitement and really wild things.' This is why we now have an administration whose stated Big Idea is the construction of a giant wall* because at least that sounds like a project you could get absorbed in for its own sake, whereas preserving the earth for future generations feels nice but is never really done and so can't deliver any sense of adventure or accomplishment for more than a few people with the resources to get a PhD.

It's also why countries (soo to include the US) are apprehensive of war but develop tremendous enthusiasm for it once it's declared, because it provides a massive uncertainty that offers the possibility for drastic change, heroism, betrayal, defeat, victory and so on. I don't know how to articulate this better than by saying that capitalism is boring for most people, in the same way that if you are playing Monopoly there's a point at which you realize who's going to win and all the fun goes out of the game for everyone else in direct proportion to their declining odds of success.

* If you don't mind losing 2 hours on a bad movie. go watch Pacific Rim, a stupid science-fiction romp about giant robots vs giant aliens. It's stupid in the sense of not really caring about the science at all to the point o making jokes about how stupid it is - at one critical moment, someone 'solves' the problem of The System collapsing due to 3v1l h4x0rs but remembering that they have a nuclear-powered robot and exclaiming 'It's not digital! It's nuclear- it's analog!!'. The very badness of this movie makes it worth studying because the psychological symbolism is so thinly disguised. Almost all alien invasion movies are vehicles for conservative ideology, and it's not an accident that a political campaign for building a giant wall was anticipated by various movies involving the construction of giant walls.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#37

Post by autokad »

mosselman wrote: post #17

All you ruined was the fun of photoshopping his face into things. Let me draw a parallel with a story of my grandfather, whom I never knew: Apparently a great hobby of his used to be to collect sayings from people. Whenever he'd meet anyone, let it be new or already known, he'd ask them if they knew any new sayings. He wrote all of them down in his little book of sayings. My father started picking up the hobby and th…

before the internet, there was real capital in knowing jokes, and the same for unusual facts. you wanted to know who was in that movie? you called your friend who knew those things. now just IMDB it.

i suppose that is part of the reason for the appeal in the seemingly recent interest in bar trivia nights. i think we are still working out the kinks in the things we lost due to the internet.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#38

Post by webkike »

exergy wrote: post #31
nealabq wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying social-bonding hacks/disruptions sometimes ruin the fun. What about other situations? Will gatherings be less fun when Alexa becomes the life of the party, cracking jokes and proposing toasts? Will Siri join in the dinner conversation (parent, friend or good-listener mode, with wit, personality and intelligence sliders). Will fans be turned off when self-driving cars start winning the Indy 500? How a…

> social-bonding hacks/disruptions First, honest question: is there some secret lease that needs to be signed before posting on HN that requires that every real-world phenomenon be framed using 1337 h4x0r terminology? For some reason, it really rubs me the wrong way, people trying to shoebox anything and everything into a faux-technological perspective. Also, the reason Vinyls still sell is that there is a sense of o…

Vinyls also still exist because some people prefer analog sound. There might not be any substantive reason for this other than random bias.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#39

Post by autokad »

anigbrowl wrote: post #36
nealabq wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're saying social-bonding hacks/disruptions sometimes ruin the fun. What about other situations? Will gatherings be less fun when Alexa becomes the life of the party, cracking jokes and proposing toasts? Will Siri join in the dinner conversation (parent, friend or good-listener mode, with wit, personality and intelligence sliders). Will fans be turned off when self-driving cars start winning the Indy 500? How a…

Yes to all of those questions. If people can't imaginatively project themselves into winning circumstances, then they become despondent because their escapist fantasies (which some people take seriously enough to make into real accomplishments) are now dashed forever. This is something technologists and scientists largely don't get. People are always 'look at how many material comforts and and entertainment options y…

pacific rim was a good movie (a stable 7 on a 4 year old movie). from what i can remember, most alien movies are liberal if not apolitical. the PHD, philosopher, or scientist somehow has keen insights on how to stop the alien juggernaut if it weren't for those stupid military people getting in the way. a bit ironic that you choose pacific rim and moved onto the topic of pro-walls, when that movie was very apposed to the idea of building a wall ;)

if you think capitalism is boring, try going back to pre-1990s russia. I bet you'd have an absolute ball! well they did have bears playing hockey, thats actually pretty exciting. but i digress, usually the quickest way to lose is to start comparing your odds because you'll quit before you begin. life is far too complex, dynamic, and full of resources to declare game over as if you were in a 4 sided monopoly game.

Re: How I Ruined Office Productivity with a Face-Replacing Slack Bot

#40

Post by gdilla »

webkike wrote: post #38
exergy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> social-bonding hacks/disruptions First, honest question: is there some secret lease that needs to be signed before posting on HN that requires that every real-world phenomenon be framed using 1337 h4x0r terminology? For some reason, it really rubs me the wrong way, people trying to shoebox anything and everything into a faux-technological perspective. Also, the reason Vinyls still sell is that there is a sense of o…

Vinyls also still exist because some people prefer analog sound. There might not be any substantive reason for this other than random bias.

Also people who dj. In fact, the most popular digital dj interface is serato which let's you use vinyl as an interface.
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