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Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

wired.com

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Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#251

Post by imagiko »

jlokier wrote: post #208
reillyse wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think he is saying that encrypted communication should be illegal. He's saying that spreading lies through encrypted channels should be stopped. It would not be hard for WhatsApp to prevent people from spreading bogus videos, because they have access to the unencrypted information before and after sending. So either preventing people from sharing misinformation or preventing people from reading the misinforma…

What an interesting idea! Several commenters point out end-to-end encryption would prevent filtering or tagging messages. But that's not true. The message analysis could be done at either endpoint without violating privacy. Tagging (or removing) a message before you send/forward it, or after you receive it, with "the central message of this comment has been tagged as "probably a hoax" by hoaxtracker.com; check out th…

Whoa wait what..is it really E2E if they can analyse the content before putting it through their network?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#252

Post by jryle70 »

blocked_again wrote: post #97
Upvoter33 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is misleading at best. Sure, his dad was a lawyer and he was raised in a well-off househould. But he made something -- Microsoft -- through his own ingenuity, effort, and business acumen. I didn't agree with his business ethics, but to pretend he just fell into MS because of his connected family is fairly ridiculous. Amazingly, he has since turned his fortune into one of the most successful philanthropy projects…

Gates mother introduced Microsoft to IBM for the contract by speaking with the then Chairman of IBM, who she was an acquaintance of. How many of your parents can do something like that? Sure, Bill is a very smart person. But it's kind of impossible to say for sure whether he could have been as sucessful, if he was born in a different family. Parents play a major role in shaping the mind of children. For what we know…

Think of it this way: how many people were as well off and well connected, and lucky as Bill Gates when he started out? let's say 100,000 people, conservatively? How many of those are as successful as he is?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#253

Post by bitcurious »

spaetzleesser wrote: post #73
mehrdadn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget he gave a TED talk warning the world about the next pandemic. And obviously he knows a thing or two about high-level issues dealing with epidemics (which extend beyond just the medicine). Why would they just ignore him?

But why listen to him either? You could have talked to any disease expert over the last few decades and they would have told you that a pandemic will be coming and that we aren't prepared.

One reason is incentives. He is an expert who is spending money. Most experts are asking for money. Thus, he is incentivized to find the most effective solutions.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#254

Post by schemy »

asalahli wrote: post #90
codebolt wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, he's become a highly controversial figure for a large fraction of the population, particularly within the societies that his foundation works. In my opinion, they'd do good to pick a figure whose name is less tarnished if they want the message to be more broadly accepted.

That's an interesting claim. Pretty much every piece of negative opinion of Gates I've seen have either been 1. About his work at Microsoft 2. Or some conspiracy theory about world domination, population control etc I'd be interested to read more on how societies he's directly worked with think of him, if you have any links

I'm not interested in digging up the information on this because it was over 10 years ago, so take it with a huge grain of salt.

He had this huge presentation about a laser zapping mosquitoes. The patent was fed to a patent troll, the whole board was stacked with his friends, the company produced nothing and was set up to sue anyone who did try and produce anything. 10 years later they still haven't produced more than the one prototype. The 'charitable' donations were literally just tax write offs that paid for his friends salary.

Since then I really don't take him seriously at all. His charities are just a way to reduce his tax bill and look like he cares, while he's just paying his friends to work on projects they find interesting regardless of the chance of success.

In short: hubris, corruption, white collar rico and tax evasion.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#255

Post by ChrisLomont »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #76
Closi wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean we have other unelected experts leading the pandemic response (eg Fauci) so does he need to go? Or is it just about the wealth? Bill Gates is there because his foundation is responsible for helping to eradicate diseases and coordinate pandemic responses, so without his wealth he certainly has experience in this field.

Fauci was appointed by an elected representitive. Who appointed Bill Gates? He purchased his position of influence/ Nothing against the man. I'm distrustful generally in the richest people in the world wielding control that can make their friends even richer. I really doubt I'm alone.

Fauci was not appointed by an elected official. His position as head of NIAID is selected by the agency. This position makes him sought by Presidents. He was not put there by Presidents.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#256

Post by dredmorbius »

the-dude wrote: post #96

The irony of Gates battling a virus is un.... un-something. Help me out.

I give Gates considerable credit for being out in front of this issue for years, and for talking about it now without a heavy dose of "I told you so". I'd likely not be able to resist.

I still strongly resent his company's business practices from the 1980s through the 2000s, and arguably to the present.

And yes, the irony of the world's leading enabler of electronic viruses being a leading authority and defender against biological viruses ... is not lost on me.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#257

Post by [deleted] »

ani-ani wrote: post #93

He is easily one of the least bullshit-y sources when it comes to handling of COVID. But then there's this right in the middle of the interview: " And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger] ". Quite literally, encrypted comm…

[deleted]

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#258

Post by dharma1 »

I would love to see someone let Bill talk about covid, the implications of economic damage and increased debt over the next 1-2 years, the inequality which covid magnifies, and future methods of prevention - for an hour or two, with a good host.

This interview is good but barely scratches the surface.

edit: I've just found a recent interview - while still high level, it's a bit more detailed. However, the comments section reads like 4chan, all of the top comments are trolls. What's going on? When/how did it become a thing to hate on Gates for his efforts to eradicate diseases?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF752acTijY

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#259

Post by jpsalm »

imagiko wrote: post #251
jlokier wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an interesting idea! Several commenters point out end-to-end encryption would prevent filtering or tagging messages. But that's not true. The message analysis could be done at either endpoint without violating privacy. Tagging (or removing) a message before you send/forward it, or after you receive it, with "the central message of this comment has been tagged as "probably a hoax" by hoaxtracker.com; check out th…

Whoa wait what..is it really E2E if they can analyse the content before putting it through their network?

Of course the party that is doing the encryption can see the original content...

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#260

Post by pengaru »

I strongly recommend watching the impromptu interview Bill Gates gave back in the 90s while visiting the Wired office, for gaining some valuable perspective on his thinking, and how comically wrong he's been before.

My internet is too flaky here at the moment to verify, but I believe this is the URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFFlO7yBIBM

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