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Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

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Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#431

Post by akiselev »

artellectual wrote: post #424
flocial wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

COVID will eventually pass even with unnecessary fatalities in its wake. E2e encryption and loss of rights will stay around much longer.

That in and of itself is a testament to how problematic our man-made legal system is. Compare a nature made system to a man made system. Nature changes over time. Our laws and regulations however do not get updated to reflect the times. That is the reason why human progress is slow. It's because humans don't change. That is the root cause of all evil. Humans like the comfort of not having to change.

> Nature changes over time. Our laws and regulations however do not get updated to reflect the times. That is the reason why human progress is slow. It's because humans don't change. That is the root cause of all evil. Humans like the comfort of not having to change.

That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard today. It took a billion plus years for nature to come up with humans and about ten thousand years for us to go from written language to causing a mass extinction. To call such a comparison "hyperbolic" would be an understatement.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#432

Post by blocked_again »

jryle70 wrote: post #252
blocked_again wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Think of how many people were as smart and hard working as he started out? How many of them are sucessful as he is?

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#433

Post by harry8 »

mdoms wrote: post #71
refurb wrote: post #36

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it odd that Gates is the go to source for public health issues. His biggest contribution is money, which pays for really smart people to tackle these issues. So why not talk to the really smart people he hired?

Bill Gates is a public health expert. He has been working on these problems with some of the smartest minds in the field for decades now. How long does someone need to be working on a problem before they're worthy of being a "go to source", in your opinion?

Well anyone who has extensively published novel research that has altered best practise in the field for the better and has a track record of being sensible, well-reasoned, logical, has an understanding of how humans organise not just the natural world and has wonderful command of spoken and written expression would be near the top of the wish-list.

It's not how long it took that person to demonstrate this. It's that Gates kinda hasn't really done it.

He's far from terrible but he gets pretty low scores on most of those attributes. He's not going to be listened to if he didn't bring the money. His experience in making microsoft a juggernaut in the 80s and 90s is not super-relevant here but that's why he's being held up as an "authority." That position of authority is one he seems very happy to hold and use as a pulpit.

Is it deserved at all? Maybe it is. He did bring the money to a lot of programs and I believe he is even bankrolling the WHO nowadays (worthwhile after their multiple screwups that continue? I don't know. Maybe it is and a vital service he's performed there). Gates an expert? Hmm. Don't think he's really demonstrated that conclusively. He'd use his position to get advice from one or more, one would think.

To be clear. More power to him giving his vast wealth away to try and make the world better in tangible ways. You can't possibly spend more than $100m in your life on consumption even if you're totally nuts. Go for immortality. Do it in a way that's kinda good. Go Bill! I pray your good intentions don't pave a road you don't want built as I do everyone's good intentions, including my own.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#434

Post by harry8 »

sukilot wrote: post #237
refurb wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I’ll buy the visibility thing. When Gates talks about anything people will listen. Maybe it’s just the cynic in me, but it comes across as a bit of “billionaire worship”. “He’s made lots of money, so he must be brilliant and I want to hear what brilliant people think about Covid.”

Zuckerberg and Musk and Trump are billionaires and no one wants to hear their ramblings. Gates has run a huge public health organization for over a decade.

Zuckerberg grants an interview to opine, he can get that in any newspaper or magazine and it's on the front page here.

Musk's ramblings are always covered and he's used them to build a brand in Tesla the equal of Mercedess without spending a single dollar on advertising.

President Trump is the actual president of the USA. God bless us all.

I see the point you're trying to make and I wish were true, but it just isn't as supported by the precise examples you've given.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#435

Post by on_and_off »

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

there is also

3 : he wants to use his money for philanthropic cause. I can't overstate how great it is. The way he uses his money though, has been pretty controversial. From pushing a pro patent agenda in countries that are too poor to afford medicine made under that system to accusations of straight up using his money so his ideas are applied, even when they go against actual experts with data (and actual expertise) to back their positions.

For the lazy, there was a recent video on the topic : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fqcFaZKHQ

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#436

Post by philliphaydon »

cranekam wrote: post #402
philliphaydon wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. So my current apartment is on the 28th floor. It's common to have gates/grills on the windows here in Singapore. But this apartment, AFAIK the family didn't have kids so they never got it done. So I messaged my agent and said "i love the apartment but the windows don't have any gates or safety catches, my understanding is gates are pretty expensive, would it be possible to atleast get safety catches on the wind…

Are you sure you haven’t previously searched for window gates? Searching for things is so second nature by now that half the time we don’t even know we’re doing it. Also, WhatsApp is definitely e2e encrypted. I worked there and saw the implementation (and the difficulties it causes for things like blocking spam/nasties) myself.

Positive that I didn't search. I viewed the apartment, and several others, while my wife was in Taiwan with our baby. After I got home (existing apartment in SG) I text (on whatsapp) the agent about this specific apartment. I had not even raise the issue of the lack of gates with my wife yet. The ad's began about an hour after I messaged my agent.

This was 1 year ago.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#437

Post by jillesvangurp »

blub wrote: post #426
jillesvangurp wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he's not just randomly throwing money around and has a well earned reputation for getting a decent return on his investments: he tends to spend money on things that work. So given that he's actively spending money and getting results, his perspective on what things need to be invested in and why is very interesting. There are plenty of rich philanthropists but very few with Gates's level of understanding and…

Managing the foundation as a business with the goal of maximizing return on investment is precisely one of the criticism leveled at Gates. Note that return on investment refers to financial return, not some abstract notion about improving the world.

I think there's nothing with focusing on ROI in a foundation that presumably does not enrich shareholders (which a foundation does not have) and instead puts any savings to good use doing more of whatever they want to do.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#438

Post by teddyh »

another_day wrote: post #124
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…

If we extend this line of thinking, where does it lead? The goal seems to be removing easy access to communications where governments can't listen for signs of dangerous behavior. But individuals can write custom software. Is there a stage in this arms race where one would need company/nation-state level resources to communicate in private? Is there a potential future in which every piece of end-user software can't r…

> But individuals can write custom software.

Not for walled garden platforms. See also The Digital Imprimatur:

https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#439

Post by paganel »

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…

> But that's not true. The message analysis could be done at either endpoint without violating privacy.

This is stupid. Lots of naked baby photos get sent in my culture (Eastern-European country) in a most non-harmful way, i.e. from parents to the kids' grand-parents or even to the parents' close friends (especially from the mother to her friends). Your supposed filter will most probably block that social-sharing process (because it will see photos of naked children => very, very bad), not realising the above mentioned context.

Re: Interview with Bill Gates on Covid, social media

#440

Post by paganel »

bobsil1 wrote: post #349
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…

Those dependent on federal gov biz cannot afford to openly oppose fed talking points (MS, SpaceX, telecoms).

Because they know what awaits them if they try to leave the "chosen path" (a path that also helps them remain billionaires, so not that difficult a moral compromise to make). See Joseph Nacchio [1]:

> Joseph P. Nacchio is an American executive who was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Qwest Communications International from 1997 to 2002. Nacchio was convicted of insider trading during his time heading Qwest. He claimed in court, with documentation, that his was the only company to demand legal authority for surreptitious mass surveillance demanded by the NSA which began prior to the 11 September 2001 attacks.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

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