Delete Your Account Now: A Conversation with Jaron Lanier

Post by tangental » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 4:57 PM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #40

decasia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought about the article is that basically the author has gotten too negative. He is so distracted with attacking the ad-supported social software we have that he gave up thinking about the software we need.

He's one of two really relevant critical thinkers on tech and is critical of some of the aspects since literally decades. The other, arguably, being Evgeny Morozov (for a shorter time). Lanier certainly has the chops, the background and the deliverables to be taken seriously. I think those guys are super important as a counterweight to the fawning and gushing (in general) tech press and I for one wish that they have…

Post by MattJ100 » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 5:07 PM UTC

sizzle wrote: post #128

athenot wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all summed up in one word: friction. What the big platforms have done is eliminate friction at all the critical parts, to make it easy for users to onboard, easy to share, easy to grow within the platform, and of course hard to leave. I've been thinking about a low cost but not free platform too. If it ever happens, it will have to be AT LEAST as frictionless and enticing as the existing platforms. The table…

I'm curious, can anyone estimate the developer hours it would take to clone WhatsApp's UX, features and functionality? Would it be doable since it's already developed and they solved the hard problems for syncing messages across timezones and it may be feasible to follow their tech stack as a blueprint/starting point? Facebook and Instagram had no trouble stealing the concept of 'stories' from Snapchat and Facebook a…

Post by jonjacky » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 5:12 PM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #40

decasia wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought about the article is that basically the author has gotten too negative. He is so distracted with attacking the ad-supported social software we have that he gave up thinking about the software we need.

He's one of two really relevant critical thinkers on tech and is critical of some of the aspects since literally decades. The other, arguably, being Evgeny Morozov (for a shorter time). Lanier certainly has the chops, the background and the deliverables to be taken seriously. I think those guys are super important as a counterweight to the fawning and gushing (in general) tech press and I for one wish that they have…

Post by devmunchies » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 5:19 PM UTC

unstuckdev wrote: post #94

devmunchies wrote: post #78

I’m not totally convinced this guy has quit his social media accounts, with his unoriginal opinions on Trump, MeToo, BLM, etc. I haven’t been on FB, Insta, Twitter in years, or Reddit in months and I don’t even think about those things anymore. But I guess he could just hang around people who are still deep into social media.

>> "I haven’t been on FB, Insta, Twitter in years, or Reddit in months and I don’t even think about those things anymore." The terms used to talk about those things today might have their origins on social media, but the issues existed before someone coined a term. You might want to re-evaluate your associations if no one talks about sexual assault and harassment or the over-policing of black people.

Post by ams6110 » Thu, Oct 11, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

Maximus9000 wrote: post #30

decasia wrote: post #7

The thing I keep thinking is that I want to have social software built on a co-operative model (like a food co-op): you all pay some nominal membership fee (could you fund servers and developers on $5/year/user?), and the software would then be developed to fit the agreed-upon needs of the community, without dark patterns or behavior modification projects, openly, and with some kind of community governance (which nee…

> $5/year/user I think facebook has each user valued at about $200USD/year. A 2016 article from the Guardian puts it at $60/year... so I'm not sure which number to believe. https://www.kqed.org/news/11661387/heres-how-much-you-are-wo... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/how-much-...