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People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

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Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#121
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a catch-22, isn't it? The common definition of "winning the social media war" is to get a lot of users. That is inherently contradictory to "cultivating" a "selective group". Just as water flows downhill, there will inevitably be a few most popular social networks, which will inevitably be driven by clickbait and moral panic and targeted by all bad actors. I already saw that happen with atheism. When I was yo…

> Now about a hundred million Americans are effectively athiests and we're no more rational than before. The US has approximately 330 million people. Asserting more than 1/3 of all adults (330 million includes children) in the US are atheist is a bold and, in your comment, unsubstantiated claim.

This is a weird tangent, and "effectively atheist" is an ill-defined umbrella, but if we take that to mean "no religion / unaffiliated / atheist / agnostic" then it doesn't seem too far off.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_the_United_Sta...

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#122

The worst thing about widespread fake information is the ease with which you can convince yourself that everything you don't like is fake. We don't really have a defense against it that allows for people with opposing perspectives to coexist. I wonder if it's possible to somehow create a "consistency checker" that can check to see what claims are compatible with what other claims. Not a truth checker; that's far too…

My solution is to just hang out in meatspace, and assume everything I can't physically observe doesn't exist. This has been a surprisingly effective solution.

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#123

Did anyone stop and consider these aren’t fake people but people who value anonymity? I have 20 friends who use such tools and tech to hide their identities. Yes they lean right, slightly but they do. They all do this to avoid being found by employers and other. One of my friends is a prominent person in a legal field, another one is a member of a three letter group. Other than my real name - My Facebook profile has…

I've heard that using fake names is also popular with the youth, though I'm not sure if they're doing it on facebook or some other platform.

I promise you... they’re not doing it on pornhub.... :eyes:

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#124
post #108

Facebook won the social media war by cultivating a smaller, more selective group of users (college students). It meant sharing had some more definitive meaning, and provided some added safety for marketplace and message board functions. It was their secret weapon against the MySpaces and CraigsLists, and yet they completely abandoned it. If they really wanted to further their company mission, their Manhattan Project…

That is a catch-22, isn't it? The common definition of "winning the social media war" is to get a lot of users. That is inherently contradictory to "cultivating" a "selective group". Just as water flows downhill, there will inevitably be a few most popular social networks, which will inevitably be driven by clickbait and moral panic and targeted by all bad actors. I already saw that happen with atheism. When I was yo…

Also, I'm not so certain about your atheism argument. The decline of religion in the world has people thinking more rationally about some problems (LGBT Rights, a woman's right to choose, censorship based on lewd/unfit behavior, etc.). We may not be a utopia, but I wouldn't say "people stayed the same".

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#125
post #117
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you were already downvoted after zero minutes supports your thesis. That could have been your employment being downvoted instead of HN points. In China, critics of the political enforcement systems are also more likely to try to remain anonymous or completely silent, while those who proclaim their support (and their lack of tolerance for dissidents) usually want their identities known. And the Chinese m…

> The fact that you were already downvoted after zero minutes supports your thesis. Alternative theory: multiple dissenting comments explain how GP is possibly oversimplifying the situation, and some downvoters have similar takes.

To be clear - I’m not saying that misinformation bots and such exist. I absolutely think they do. They probably use this tactic as well.

But I’m trying to offer an alternative viewpoint. Just like bots who spread misinformation exist and try to blend in with actual people. Actual people who don’t want to be found try to blend in with the noise.

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#126
post #3

Fake people reading and writing fake news on fake websites? If this keeps up, we'll end up with a fake President. Don't give me negative points, for this is a fake reply.

The world has gone full Philip K Dick

Do you mean the President Rudy Kalbfleisch simulacrum who keeps breaking down in "The Simulacra", or the President Abraham Lincoln simulacrum who doesn't want to be sold in "We Can Build You"? Or do you mean the world has gone full blown "Faith of our Fathers" where the government is putting hallucinogenic drugs in the water supply to keep us from discovering the truth about our glorious leader(s)? Or some other book written by the fake Philip K Dick simulacrum built by Hanson Robotics, who was was ostensibly lost on a flight from Dallas to San Francisco in late 2005, and is rumored to have absconded to an undisclosed location and rebooted his writing career on the Dark Web?

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/226460.The_Simulacra

The Simulacra, by Philip K. Dick.

Set in the middle of the twenty-first century, The Simulacra is the story of an America where the whole government is a fraud and the President is an android. Against this backdrop Dr. Superb, the sole remaining psychotherapist, is struggling to practice in a world full of the maladjusted. Ian Duncan is desperately in love with the first lady, Nicole Thibideaux, who he has never met. Richard Kongrosian refuses to see anyone because he is convinced his body odor is lethal. And the fascistic Bertold Goltz is trying to overthrow the government. With wonderful aplomb, Philip K. Dick brings this story to a crashing conclusion and in classic fashion shows there is always another layer of conspiracy beneath the one we see.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/400270.We_Can_Build_You

We Can Build You, by Philip K. Dick.

Louis Rosen and his partners sell people--ingeniously designed, historically authentic simulacra of personages such as Edwin M. Stanton and Abraham Lincoln. The problem is that the only prospective buyer is a rapacious billionaire whose plans for the simulacra could land Louis in jail. Then there's the added complication that someone--or something--like Abraham Lincoln may not want to be sold.

Is an electronic Lincoln any less alive than his creators? Is a machine that cares and suffers inferior to the woman Louis loves--a borderline psychopath who does neither? With irresistible momentum, intelligence, and wit, Philip K. Dick creates an arresting techno-thriller that suggests a marriage of Bladerunner and Barbarians at the Gate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_of_Our_Fathers_(short_st...

Faith of Our Fathers, by Philip K Dick.

Tung Chien is a Vietnamese bureaucrat in a world that has been conquered by Chinese-style atheist communism, where the population is kept docile with hallucinogenic drugs. When a street vendor gives Tung an illegal anti-hallucinogen, he discovers that the Party leader has a horrible secret.

https://www.hansonrobotics.com/philip-k-dick/

Philip K Dick, Research Robot.

Activated in 2005, Hanson Robotics debuted Philip K. Dick (aka Philip K. Dick Android) at Wired Nextfest. Designed by David Hanson as a robotic paean to the sci-fi writer of the same name, it was initially created using thousands of pages of the author’s journals, letters and published writings.

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#128
In somewhat-related news, a group of Washington Post reporters tweeted a party photo labeled 'Merry Impeachmas'.

There is no impartial source of media today. Not traditional media, not social media. You have to go out and talk to people around you to know what people really think.

"If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed, if you do read it, you’re misinformed." - Denzel Washington

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#129

Did anyone stop and consider these aren’t fake people but people who value anonymity? I have 20 friends who use such tools and tech to hide their identities. Yes they lean right, slightly but they do. They all do this to avoid being found by employers and other. One of my friends is a prominent person in a legal field, another one is a member of a three letter group. Other than my real name - My Facebook profile has…

So you're saying there are hundreds of people who all create accounts at the same time, all use the same type of profile picture, all join together to be admins of political groups, and then all spend all day spamming links to thebl.com ? That's beyond belief. It's very unrealistic to think so many people would behave so identically.

Re: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook

#130
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are they all, in unison, spreading political bs? Don't be naive. These are not accounts for privacy minded people, this is orchestrated bad-faith people attempting to sabotage elections.

> Why are they all, in unison, spreading political bs? People enjoy participating in discussions about their interests. Many people are interested in politics. It seems natural that people would enjoy discussing politics. This is common place. Anybody who has ever been on Reddit knows that people enjoy discussing politics via pseudonym. It seems natural that people would do so on facebook as well.

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