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Where in the World Is Larry Page?

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Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#101

Post by oihoaihsfoiahsf »

chooseaname wrote: post #94
oihoaihsfoiahsf wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to guess. You can look at the treatment Jack and Sheryl received. A bunch of ignorant, annoyed blowhards basically talked at them for a few hours, accomplishing nothing and expanding the pool of useful knowledge exactly zero.

> A bunch of ignorant, annoyed blowhards... The very ones that the citizens _voted_ for.

The citizens might be idiots, or the human social system might be so broken such that no matter who you vote for they are game-theoretically forced to behave this way. Whatever the case may be, I don't blame Page for declining to inflict that experience on himself.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#102

Post by 394549 »

CodeSheikh wrote: post #75

It is interesting they had "GOOGLE" printed on the reserved seat. Where in reality Sundar Pichai is the ceo of Google and Larry Page is the ceo of Alphabet. So the Senate committee was actually expecting Mr. Pichai and Bloomberg got it wrong.

> It is interesting they had "GOOGLE" printed on the reserved seat. Where in reality Sundar Pichai is the ceo of Google and Larry Page is the ceo of Alphabet. So the Senate committee was actually expecting Mr. Pichai and Bloomberg got it wrong.

But only technically. Google is Alphabet and Alphabet is Google, just like Blackwater is still Blackwater no matter what obfuscating name they're using this week.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#103

Post by Retric »

wybiral wrote: post #96
Retric wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On C-SPAN those jabs don't seem like much, but they are mostly what's included on regular news coverage. Making them the main point of the exercise.

The main point of the "exercise" is to discuss the issues and a few politicians hijack a few minutes of time to make political jabs for the media. The rest of it is still important. They're asking questions and forming their perception of the situation which they use to shape policy.

If they simply want fact finding they could do that over a phone call.* The circus is very much the point.

* Granted, phone calls don't have the weight of purgery to keep people honest. But, that only goes so far.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#104

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

georgiecasey wrote: post #88
l9k wrote: post #81

At this point, though, such a public-relations strategy feels dated. On balance, the celebrity of even the most caricatured CEO (Zuckerberg) appears to be a net positive for his company. I disagree totally with that point. The "superstar CEO" Zuckerberg is now ridiculed, hated, and negatively "meme-ed". He is now the face of censorship (for some) and a laissezfaire strategy threatening democracies (for others). Even…

i agree, in this time of outrage culture, i don't know why anybody at the centre of any controversy gives it oxygen. anything you say is another story. some would say you need to get your point of view across but i'd say people have made up their mind anyway. say nothing and the media and public move on to the next story.

The point of political discourse is never to change your opponent's mind, it's to sway the undecided people to align with you instead of them.

That's why it's so adversarial.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#105

Post by deusofnull »

DFHippie wrote: post #72
deusofnull wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they only wanted the senior flesh. I'm not trying to dunk on Congress too hard, but so much of their public hearings are about the spectacle of gov officials holding "someone" accountable. And it's bipartisan too, the spectacle. The Dems were looking to further the Russia election manipulation spectacle, and I'd guess Repubs were hoping to advance their narratives of "shadowbanning" and ideological search r…

To be fair to Congress, their job is really to shape events in the public interest. Considering these hearings to be pure fact-finding is a category error. If they browbeat a celebrity, this shapes events in multiple ways: it affects fundraising, it affects the behavior of the individual browbeaten and those in this individual's orbit, it affects the public narrative, and if affects actions at the voting booth. And t…

Certainly. One name for that for that entire phenomenon you're describing the functioning of is 'The Spectacle'.

I don't mean just the dictionary definition of spectacle, rather I'm referencing the Situationist + Critical Theory concept of The Spectacle. Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" is a wild piece of thought.

It's an absolute tome, but essentially society is now mediated by social relations of spectacle which are symbols / signs / abstractions of actual material relations. And like you're saying, politicians play a huge role in wielding spectacle towards their material goals. Some of this might seem strangely familiar / redundant but that just speaks to the impact Situationist thinking has had on our conception of society and culture.

Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle (Paris, 1967). http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/1.htm

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#106

Post by kyrra »

dahdum wrote: post #78
notsofastbuddy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did seem to find Sandberg acceptable.

Sandberg is COO, on the board, and with Facebook for over 10 years. She's most definitely top level. Google offered Walker, who was just promoted to the position back in July, and has no operational control over the company.

Kent Walker has been at Google since 2006, has testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee before[0], and just knows a lot about Google.

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/01/fo...

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#107

Post by wybiral »

kyledrake wrote: post #99

> Alphabet said in a statement that it had offered its head of global affairs for the hearing and that “enabling Larry to focus on the other bets and long-term technical problems is exactly what Alphabet was set up for.” So basically they had offered someone of authority here, but the politicians wanted to have their show trial with the celebrities instead.

In the domain of information warfare and propaganda campaigns public awareness and attention is a large part of the counter strategy. So even if it were just to attract eyeballs to the issue that doesn't mean it was a "show trial".

If you watch these Intelligence Committee hearings I think you'll find them to be focused on strategy, partnerships, and actions rather than some form of "trial".

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#108

Post by wybiral »

Retric wrote: post #103
wybiral wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main point of the "exercise" is to discuss the issues and a few politicians hijack a few minutes of time to make political jabs for the media. The rest of it is still important. They're asking questions and forming their perception of the situation which they use to shape policy.

If they simply want fact finding they could do that over a phone call.* The circus is very much the point. * Granted, phone calls don't have the weight of purgery to keep people honest. But, that only goes so far.

In this case it isn't a "circus". Watch these hearings, they aren't as sensational as you seem to think [1].

When it comes to information warfare and propaganda, you'll see them come to the same type of conclusion on multiple panels, which is that public awareness is a key component in any effective counter measure. Giving the leaders of these industries a mic to educate the public seems in all of our best interest. Not all of these committees are some kind of "circus". It's just a normal part of how these things work.

[1] Recent example: https://www.c-span.org/video/?449088-1/senate-intelligence-c...

PS: If our politicians did all of these behind closed doors and on private phones you'd be on here complaining about that too. I prefer that some of this happens in the public eye.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#109

Post by RIMR »

l9k wrote: post #81

At this point, though, such a public-relations strategy feels dated. On balance, the celebrity of even the most caricatured CEO (Zuckerberg) appears to be a net positive for his company. I disagree totally with that point. The "superstar CEO" Zuckerberg is now ridiculed, hated, and negatively "meme-ed". He is now the face of censorship (for some) and a laissezfaire strategy threatening democracies (for others). Even…

The real loss is Senators no longer trusting Alphabet/Google after this snub.

You really don't want to turn the government against you.

Re: Where in the World Is Larry Page?

#110

Post by RIMR »

Retric wrote: post #89
wybiral wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Senate Intelligence Committee hearings are usually pretty facts-first unlike the other random hearings and sessions. I watch them on C-SPAN whenever they happen (which isn't that frequent). Edit: I strongly recommend watching these directly from C-SPAN rather than the summarized spin-version from random news companies. You might be surprised how little of their time is wasted on grandstanding. Yeah, some politici…

On C-SPAN those jabs don't seem like much, but they are mostly what's included on regular news coverage. Making them the main point of the exercise.

The point of the exercise was never to make the news, it's about governing.

The news just doesn't like reporting on the boring stuff.

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