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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

#81

Post by wu-ikkyu »

rock_hard wrote: post #40
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!

I am reminded of an old zen saying:

"Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows by itself."

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

#82

Post by vanilla_nut »

blawson wrote: post #21
gaius wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonalds is still a viable business. When Facebook goes, it will evaporate like MySpace did. And not a moment too soon.

I'm not too sure. I think there's a lot of value in a centralized identity management system. Facebook seems to have filled that role. I can see a near future where it acts as a sort of SSO for the web. That doesn't necessarily sound like a $550B company, but could still be worth quite a bit.

I wonder if their rampant quest for click-money (annoying users with constant emails, useless spammy notifications, ads, sponsored content) is going to poison that well, though. I anecdotally know a lot of people in their early-mid twenties who have already deleted their accounts. If too many people start doing that, Facebook loses its one trump card.

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

#83

Post by stryk »

walshemj wrote: post #67
Chathamization wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much the push back against McDonald's is class based. It's not healthy, but the same can be said for a lot of the food we eat. A lot of fast casual burgers, which seem to hold a higher position in the public perception, have more calories. Of course, overall health is more complicated than just calories, but it's worth pointing out since that's one of the main complaints against McDonald's (including in…

I though that too "oh no look at those chavs" at MacDonald's Supersize me also did not see what happened to you if you eat a full xmass dinner every day for a month did it.

It might be a mistake asking this, but what the heck is a 'chav' ?

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

#84

Post by twothamendment »

IntronExon wrote: post #79
skybrian wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect Google could get a lot of people to pay for a "Google Prime" subscription if they had to.

Sub to what? Their search engine? I’d rather use DDG most days without Google trying to charge me. To something like YouTube? How is YouTube Red going?

YouTube what?

I guess I just made your point.

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

#85

Post by intopieces »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #80
intopieces wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it’s rather un-ironic. The central thesis is not that the technology itself is flawed, but that it needs to be done in a way that is more adaptive to the needs of humans. The best way to reach people is where they are, and people are overwhelmingly on Facebook.

>people are overwhelmingly on Facebook Is hypercentralization not a major problem of tech at the momemt, both in terms of security and freedom of thought?

Hypercentralization is a contributing factor (and indeed an enabler) of the main problem, which its the exploitation of attention. It is, in itself, not bad, and not in itself a problem. The same issue that this organization is fighting could also occur in an attention economy dominated by no major player.

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

#86

Post by metavrsl »

stryk wrote: post #83
walshemj wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I though that too "oh no look at those chavs" at MacDonald's Supersize me also did not see what happened to you if you eat a full xmass dinner every day for a month did it.

It might be a mistake asking this, but what the heck is a 'chav' ?

It’s an English word for rougher lower class young men. People look down on them, it’s partially a class thing and partially how they dress and how they’re just boisterous. Don’t know what the equivalent word in the USA is but in Australia we say Bogan which is similar.

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

#87

Post by ppbutt »

intopieces wrote: post #51
rco8786 wrote: post #20

Cool, I'm in. That said, using a Facebook group as a way to "get involved" is on a whole new level of ironic.

I think it’s rather un-ironic. The central thesis is not that the technology itself is flawed, but that it needs to be done in a way that is more adaptive to the needs of humans. The best way to reach people is where they are, and people are overwhelmingly on Facebook.

Younger generations are increasingly not on Facebook. They're on other various social platforms.

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

#88

Post by confounded »

staunch wrote: post #57

If the current technology services are like cigarettes, then the solution is to solve the disease and addiction problems, so people can smoke in a safe way. That's kind of what vaporizer technology is attempting. Facebook and Google are built on old technology, and it's technology that we now know to have fundamental flaws. The answer to out-dated bad technology is next-generation good technology. Technology is suppo…

> No amount of warnings or education is going to solve the problem

The most effective solutions (the closest we've got to "solving the problem") to habitual cigarette smoking so far seem to be regulation; increasing prices, making things socially arduous.

> The answer to out-dated bad technology is next-generation good technology.

The problem is not technology, and neither is the solution. There's nothing that technologically innovative about aggregating and re-ordering images/hyperlinks via a PHP app.

The problem is one of power, control, informed-consent, and incentives.

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

#89

Post by Impossible »

metavrsl wrote: post #86
stryk wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be a mistake asking this, but what the heck is a 'chav' ?

It’s an English word for rougher lower class young men. People look down on them, it’s partially a class thing and partially how they dress and how they’re just boisterous. Don’t know what the equivalent word in the USA is but in Australia we say Bogan which is similar.

Equivalent words for lower class people in the USA often have a racial slur component involved so you don't see them used in the same context. I thought the word "bro" might be close but bro has a upper or middle class connotation, being derived from frat brother, rather than lower class.

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

#90

Post by gt_ »

metavrsl wrote: post #86
stryk wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be a mistake asking this, but what the heck is a 'chav' ?

It’s an English word for rougher lower class young men. People look down on them, it’s partially a class thing and partially how they dress and how they’re just boisterous. Don’t know what the equivalent word in the USA is but in Australia we say Bogan which is similar.

There is no American counterpart for euro chavs, and it’s too late for that now. Euro chav fashion has been very influential in America over the last decade. A lot of Americans think chavs were hip as a result.
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