Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

vox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#31

Post by anticensor »

CallocRoast wrote: post #5
quotemstr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how alienating it must be to have no common cultural touchstones to share with other people. We're already there when it comes to music. We have a lot of virtuoso musicianship today. You want top-tier jazz? You can find it. Bossa Nova? Yep. Orchestral arrangements? Those too. Blues and old-school rock? Still being made. But we no longer have music as a common cultural touchstone: everything's been atomized to…

History ended, now culture, what to do...

Computer archeology comes to rescue them all.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#32

Post by aidenn0 »

huffmsa wrote: post #12
pjc50 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can see China trying to create a hegemonic Han monoculture: that's what the suppression of Tibet and Uighurs is directed towards.

It's what they've always done. > Mastery of 1 set of texts > Dogmatic adherence to a single school > Promotion of those who regurgitate the above the best It's yet to work for more than a few hundred years.

Has any power managed to rule for more than a few hundred years?

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#33

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

quotemstr wrote: post #4
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #2

I hope it does not. Imagine how isolating it might feel to be the one person who does not like watching Game of Thrones.

Imagine how alienating it must be to have no common cultural touchstones to share with other people. We're already there when it comes to music. We have a lot of virtuoso musicianship today. You want top-tier jazz? You can find it. Bossa Nova? Yep. Orchestral arrangements? Those too. Blues and old-school rock? Still being made. But we no longer have music as a common cultural touchstone: everything's been atomized to…

I just don't agree. What's Old Town Road if not a common cultural touchstone?

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#34

Post by naringas »

aidenn0 wrote: post #32
huffmsa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's what they've always done. > Mastery of 1 set of texts > Dogmatic adherence to a single school > Promotion of those who regurgitate the above the best It's yet to work for more than a few hundred years.

Has any power managed to rule for more than a few hundred years?

rome?

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#36

Post by ggggtez »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #35
naringas wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

rome?

Especially if you include the Eastern Roman Empire which fell in 1453.

That's a bit of a broad generalization. As with all history it doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

In the 1200s, the empire split into 3 warring countries. The one that took Constantinople was considered the continuation of the Byzantine empire, but maybe it's more correct to think of it as a spiritual successor, than an actual unbroken reign of a single nation.

Which would put it at less than 1000 years of rule. So "a few hundred years" would still be an accurate upper bound.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#37

Post by someone7x »

aaron695 wrote: post #15

Normal drivel from Vox. Friends had a black version, Living Single (which came first) that rated huge for African Americans but non existent for whites, and vice versa. Game of Thrones is a HBO flagship as they have always done. Marvel on the other hand is designed for the Chinese audience. But I have no idea what that means in their markov chain of conflicting thought. I'll go back to watching Netfix's The Witcher,…

Based on a 1960s albino warrior mage (Elric of Melnibone) which is based on a 1920s albino pulp villain (Monsieur Zenith) who is really just based on Holmes' Moriarty.

The Witcher's DNA is very interesting.

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#38

Post by Vi0 »

aidenn0 wrote: post #32
huffmsa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's what they've always done. > Mastery of 1 set of texts > Dogmatic adherence to a single school > Promotion of those who regurgitate the above the best It's yet to work for more than a few hundred years.

Has any power managed to rule for more than a few hundred years?

Several Chinese dynasties depending on where one draws the line on "a few"

Re: Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

#39

Post by uxp100 »

pjc50 wrote: post #11
wildduck wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Returning to a monoculture will require both propaganda and suppression Great firewall of China seems to be doing that.

You can see China trying to create a hegemonic Han monoculture: that's what the suppression of Tibet and Uighurs is directed towards.

I really don’t know much about it, but I think the Han identity is similar to whiteness in the US, right? A coalition of groups that not that long ago would not have considered themselves the “same.” The Chinese govt seems to consider constructing a unified Chinese identity pretty important, maybe anticipating that once they start failing to make the standard of living gains they’ve made over the past decades ethnic tensions could be destabilizing?
Post reply on HN