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'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

theguardian.com

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Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#141

Post by dreeves »

jmcgough wrote: post #139
dreeves wrote: post #137

This seems like a good excuse to plug Beeminder but I'll try to be at least slightly less self-promotional and point to our collection of all our competitors who offer commitment device apps of various kinds: http://blog.beeminder.com/competitors We call this the granddaddy of first-world problems.

looks like aherk on your list might be dead?

Correct. We have them listed in the graveyard section. (Thanks for pointing out that it looked like a dead link. I shall edit the post more carefully to make that clearer!)

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#143

Post by kyledrake »

dreeves wrote: post #137

This seems like a good excuse to plug Beeminder but I'll try to be at least slightly less self-promotional and point to our collection of all our competitors who offer commitment device apps of various kinds: http://blog.beeminder.com/competitors We call this the granddaddy of first-world problems.

> We call this the granddaddy of first-world problems.

I think you're right, Dan. It seems like a pretty existential problem at this point.

What is the alternative here? Is there such a thing as an ethical "news feed", and how would I make one ethical?

(PS: HN: Beeminder is awesome and you should try it).

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#144

Post by hodgesrm »

I don't buy the idea that smartphones are extinguishing the life of the mind.

Sure, smartphones provide access to almost unlimited trash. But they also provide access to Wikipedia, perhaps the most successful encyclopedia ever developed by humans. They can show you newspapers from across the planet. They let you read Latin histories of the Norman conquest of Southern Italy in the middle ages. [0] C'mon folks, this is stuff you might otherwise seek for years in bookstores or never even hear of. Thanks to the Internet and powerful phones you can pop up the link below and read it in bed. The information is within reach of anyone with a decent cell phone.

The effects of the Internet on human society have been profound but the ultimate outcome is not foreordained. Humans have survived some pretty nasty stuff over the millennia and we'll no doubt get through this as well. It's time to stop the hand-wringing and focus on making the Internet help humans in the way many of its original founders conceived. [1]

[0] Gaufredus Malaterra, http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/malaterra.html

[1] https://webfoundation.org/2014/12/recognise-the-internet-as-...

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#145

Post by hydrox24 »

pls2halp wrote: post #138
vinceguidry wrote: post #131

These guys clearly weren't around for the introduction of television. If ever there was a technology tailor-made to hijack our minds with, it was TV. It wasn't the end of the world.

There’s a very solid argument for TV as stunting people’s development. There’s lack of reading, albeit not necessarily due to television ( https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-dec... ) There’s a direct link between television and obesity ( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/75/5/807 ) And more general health dangers ( http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/newsplus/prolonged-tel... ) Etc…

One substantial benefit of Television was that everyone was simultaneously watching the same thing. This increased political homogeneity by providing a shared belief system, or at least some more common ground. Such homogeneity is correlated strongly with stability and prosperity on a nation-state level.

This was particularly true from 1950 until 1970 or so, before cable television exploded (it remained true for longer in smaller nations without wide cable TV adoption). I think it matches up with a comparatively bi-partisan period in (mainstream) politics around the western world.

Of course, there are disadvantages too, but homogeneity is looking increasingly valuable as legislatures around the Western world succumb to polarisation.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#147

Post by eradicatethots »

hodgesrm wrote: post #144

I don't buy the idea that smartphones are extinguishing the life of the mind. Sure, smartphones provide access to almost unlimited trash. But they also provide access to Wikipedia, perhaps the most successful encyclopedia ever developed by humans. They can show you newspapers from across the planet. They let you read Latin histories of the Norman conquest of Southern Italy in the middle ages. [0] C'mon folks, this is…

The human species has survived, but not all of us are among the lucky.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#148

Post by aszantu »

our minds can be hijacked by all kinds of things... for some it's tv, for others it's alcohol. Louis CK and someone else, Simon Sinek talked about smartphones and hiss few words instantly got me unhooked when I'm in the presence of other people. I believe that can be done for everyone.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#149

Post by apatters »

hodgesrm wrote: post #144

I don't buy the idea that smartphones are extinguishing the life of the mind. Sure, smartphones provide access to almost unlimited trash. But they also provide access to Wikipedia, perhaps the most successful encyclopedia ever developed by humans. They can show you newspapers from across the planet. They let you read Latin histories of the Norman conquest of Southern Italy in the middle ages. [0] C'mon folks, this is…

Well, it's not the smartphone that's the problem. The smartphone is just the delivery system.

It's remarkable how well some of Richard Stallman's quotes have aged. "With software, either the users control the program, or the program controls the users..."

The idea of a program controlling its users must have seemed very esoteric when that quote was first penned in 1985, at a time when home PCs (let alone ones with GUIs) were exotic: the first Mac had launched only a year ago. By the time I first heard of Stallman's ideas in the '90s, I was surrounded by PCs with GUIs, but still didn't get it.

Now here we are, 30 years later. The first thing most of us do when we wake up is roll over, grab our phone, and look at some software. The existential costs of the non-free software are so high that we read new stories about them in the media every week, and the tech revolution's architects are banning the products they built from their own homes.

For the less frequently cited ending to Stallman's quote is this: "...If the program controls the users, and the developer controls the program, then the program is an instrument of unjust power."

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#150

Post by alexbx1988 »

hi5eyes wrote: post #112
chubot wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is another part to the analogy: we've all woken up to the fact that corporations re-engineered the food supply after World War II. They were hacking the human body. I think I didn't get this say in the year 2000, but I really get it now. Think about what your grandparents ate vs. what your parents ate (assuming you grew up in the U.S. and are in the 20's-30's age range. Anecdotally the effect seems to have been…

guess what tobacco companies bought after the public started seeing dramatic health complications? you guessed it!

I didn't. What did they buy?
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