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Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

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Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#81

Post by godelski »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #39

Internet usage starts with users querying information they want, and services learning/adapting to deliver information in a format/context based on their activity. This has created some stellar search tools, a personalized network of services and communities available to people, and made the internet a paradise for new content from all over the world. Despite that all the information in the world is available to us,…

> We wanted it.

I'm not entirely convinced this is accurate. It definitely is in part, but not in whole. We wanted these better search tools and we like recommendation systems. But I know a lot of people are frustrated with algorithms like YouTube's recommendation system trapping them. (e.g. watch one Joe Rogan video and you get firehosed with more JRE videos). The thing is we also don't notice that this reinforcement also pushes us away from one another. But the solution sounds very similar to the solution to the complaint. People are complaining about being walled in by the algorithm (I for one am one of those people). People are asking for new suggestions. As in new topics, not just other youtubers doing the same thing. I think the difference is that it has become so obvious now that we're noticing and saying "wait, that'd too far."

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#82

Post by godelski »

imoverclocked wrote: post #41

Noise. Auditory: I can't tell you how accustomed to hearing stuff constantly everyone is. Cars (even just the tires on a busy street), Air Handling, Refrigerators, Beeping timers (ovens/microwaves/calendar reminders). Visual: Web notifications, web advertisements, billboards, "news," spam phone calls/texts. Social: Many people have an expectation that sending a message entitles them to an immediate response. In the a…

> Visual

Or just the light pollution. I definitely think this has an affect on people. I used to live in AZ for awhile and the nights were so beautiful. I'd spend hours looking at the night sky. Now I'm in the PNW and almost never look up (something I've done pretty much my whole life). I'd think light pollution has similar effects as cloudy skies. I used to do some of my most creative thinking late at night staring at the stars. But maybe that's just a change in me. Maybe both.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#84

Post by djbrigidope »

willj wrote: post #12

Everyone is oblivious to their surroundings. Whether it’s because they’re looking down at their smartphone or listening to a podcast or music on their AirPods, people aren’t paying attention to what’s happening around them, and they are walking out into streets without looking for cars, assuming no one is coming. I bike most places, and the number of pedestrians (and other bicyclists!) who can’t hear my bike bell is…

you are supposed to slow down before running over people. bicycles are still vehicles.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#86

Post by maest »

amiga_500 wrote: post #17

Computers have made tracking huge quantities of debt feasible which itself is sold as collateral which exists only electronically, allowing private banks to issue usd credit irrespective of the fed. This has made land prices track productivity, leaving most on the breadline forever.

Im sorry, can you expand on how your first assertion leads to your second?

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#87

Post by HankB99 »

I have a small device in my pocket that provides access to nearly the sum total of human knowledge. I use it to get into pointless arguments with people I don't know and look at pictures of cats. (I wish I could claim that as original but it is something I read on the Internet. Between cats. :-/ )

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#88

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

'I'm being tracked' paranoia.

I have to force myself to stop thinking about the ways may daily activities can be tracked. I find myself feeling increasingly paranoid, especially when reminded that my actions are available to faceless people and how they help to train systems that then exploit my 'humanness'. In fact, I imagine they will get so good that they not only exploit me, but use that very humanness to veil the fact they are exploiting me!

Now, back to re-watching Silicon Valley before the season premier.

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#89

Post by 11thEarlOfMar »

HankB99 wrote: post #87

I have a small device in my pocket that provides access to nearly the sum total of human knowledge. I use it to get into pointless arguments with people I don't know and look at pictures of cats. (I wish I could claim that as original but it is something I read on the Internet. Between cats. :-/ )

Lol, I've been telling my kids for years, "I hold in my hand the accumulated knowledge of mankind."

Re: Ask HN: What are unintended consequences of new tech you've noticed?

#90

Post by maest »

logicalmonster wrote: post #64

The biggest societal altering impacts may be in terms of dating and reproduction. This has major cultural consequences. * There’s more than 1 reason for this, but approach patterns have changed. Men approaching women in real life is now rarer than it was in favor of online meeting through Apps. * Many relationships now happen based on online dating. In a sense, a series of algorithms are already dictating human repro…

> Average or subpar men are essentially invisible in the dating market as evidenced by declining rates of sex by most people

That sounds circumstantial at best and in no way definitive proof.

> Dating Apps are part of the reason that birth rates are generally dropping in first world countries

That definitely requires some study before being considered true.

> Women while away their younger years in careers and chasing after unrealistic men before settling at an older age and maybe having 1 kid.

I'm not sure how career factors into all of this; I don't want to strawman you, but your phrasing implies that you dissaprove of the trend. Then, is the implication of what you say that women should focus less on career and dating when they're young and instead focus on getting married early and having multiple children?

Separately, how is only having one child necessarily a bad thing?

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