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Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

nytimes.com

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Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#31

Post by nothrabannosir »

Amen, hallelujah, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc

With that out of the way:

> Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft can help solve the problem, because keeping people hooked to the screen isn’t their business model.

Isn't it? "How often do I use my phone, and how much does the price work out to in $/minute used?" is a real metric I consciously use to determine how expensive a phone I can buy. If I only used my phone for calling, texting, maps and e-mail, I would buy the cheapest phone possible. But the more apps I use, the more sense it makes to get a more expensive phone.

I assume most people would act the same way, in the end, no? That sounds like a pretty significant issue with this position they're taking. Or is it not relevant?

Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#32

Post by gowld »

yaacov wrote: post #18

> “The largest supercomputers in the world are inside of two companies — Google and Facebook — and where are we pointing them?” Mr. Harris said. “We’re pointing them at people’s brains, at children.” I'm not sure if I should be concerned that the leader of this initiative is wrong about something so trivial. https://www.top500.org/lists/2017/11/

You should be considered that you are intentionally missing the point by using an overly narrow and domain-irrelevant interpretation of "supercomputer".

Do you think that the users of any of those supercomputers would turn down an offer to run their projects on Google or Facebook's fleet instead of their "one" supercomputer (given some time to adapt their software)

Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#33

Post by whatisausername »

yaacov wrote: post #18

> “The largest supercomputers in the world are inside of two companies — Google and Facebook — and where are we pointing them?” Mr. Harris said. “We’re pointing them at people’s brains, at children.” I'm not sure if I should be concerned that the leader of this initiative is wrong about something so trivial. https://www.top500.org/lists/2017/11/

I think it's a metaphor tbh.

Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#34

Post by moretai »

andrepd wrote: post #16
mstank wrote: post #8

Facebook and other social media platforms might be heading for the type of reckoning the fast food industry had in the late 90s and early 2000s. http://marko.la/facebook-is-mcdonalds/

Absolutely. When will governments (EU?) step the hell up and regulate this huge part of our lives?

Why don't you regulate yourselves?

Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#35

Post by gowld »

fma wrote: post #28

With smartphones being ubiquitous, and we all have a few minutes here and there to spare...we just need to come up with a better and productive way to kill those time where you are idle. Any suggestions? Right now I'm waiting on my wife to get ready before we head out and spending it here on HN, but still, it's not productive.

Install a chess app?

Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#36

Post by smnscu »

gowld wrote: post #32
yaacov wrote: post #18

> “The largest supercomputers in the world are inside of two companies — Google and Facebook — and where are we pointing them?” Mr. Harris said. “We’re pointing them at people’s brains, at children.” I'm not sure if I should be concerned that the leader of this initiative is wrong about something so trivial. https://www.top500.org/lists/2017/11/

You should be considered that you are intentionally missing the point by using an overly narrow and domain-irrelevant interpretation of "supercomputer". Do you think that the users of any of those supercomputers would turn down an offer to run their projects on Google or Facebook's fleet instead of their "one" supercomputer (given some time to adapt their software)

This brings me back to something I discussed here in the past - are there scientific problems that are simply not compatible with running in the cloud, and require a supercomputer? I can't, off the top of my head, think of anything where the performance would degrade enough with the increase in communication latency between components, that the increase in available (on-demand!) resources wouldn't keep up.

Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#39

Post by dang »

gowld wrote: post #37

Title is misleading. Harris's job at Google was the same thing he is doing now (but obviously he realized he could do it better from outside), so he's not "fighting what he built".

If you or anyone can suggest a better title, we can change it. A good title is accurate, neutral, and uses representative language from the article.

Edit: I took a crack at it above.

Re: Early Facebook and Google Employees Form a Center for Humane Technology

#40

Post by rock_hard »

fma wrote: post #28

With smartphones being ubiquitous, and we all have a few minutes here and there to spare...we just need to come up with a better and productive way to kill those time where you are idle. Any suggestions? Right now I'm waiting on my wife to get ready before we head out and spending it here on HN, but still, it's not productive.

Maybe I missed the bulletpoint when I was born that said “you shall be productive every single second of your existence”

Procrastination is a healthy part of live! Whether you do that on Facebook, poking your nose or playing chess...it’s all fair game!

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