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

Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

sciencemag.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 329 posts

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#151

Post by mycologos »

southerntofu wrote: post #126
lordnacho wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is there's a finer line between persuasion and coercion than people appreciate. Use guys with guns to sell white powder and you're a bad guy. Place chocolate at kid height at checkout and you're a business guru.

Such ethical standards can only be altered on a big scale through relentless struggles. Abolish competition and advertisement, and suddenly a lot of things will start to be ok in society. Yes a lot of people will loose their useless job, but that won't be a requirement to have a place to live anymore, and both individuals and society will be better off.

What does it mean to "abolish competition and advertisement"? If I come up with a new idea, I can't tell anybody about it?

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#152

Post by hypertele-Xii »

Tycho wrote: post #87
Red_Tarsius wrote: post #17

They are kind of doing it already e.g. I hate when ads exploit classical music for trivial purposes. Whenever I hear Libiamo ne' lieti calici now my mind instantly fills with pizza ads. And once an association is made, it doesn't go away. Ads attach themselves to positive memories like parasites. Whenever you think back to your first kiss, a nice family moment, a cherished memory of going out with friends – here they…

Advertisers pay for a moment of your attention and get a lifetime of brand presence in your memory.

What they don't know, is I've prepared a special space in my memory for brands I'll never buy, and every brand I see in an ad goes there.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#153

Post by kenjackson »

filchermcurr wrote: post #59

On the bright side, smart speakers aren't even a little bit essential, so it's easy enough to just not buy them if this starts happening. I don't think the value proposition of an always-on device connected to a vast advertising network is very high to begin with. Throw in subliminal advertising and you'd have to be very... dedicated... to want such a device. If it succeeds even a little, though, they'll bake it into…

I think for most people, myself included, the risk just isn’t very high. And ads just don’t bother me either. I’m not pro advertising, but I’m fine dealing with them in many contexts.

Once subliminal ads start then I’d probably turn the devices off. But for now this ranks so low on my list of concerns to be a non factor.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#154

Post by tssva »

mycologos wrote: post #151
southerntofu wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such ethical standards can only be altered on a big scale through relentless struggles. Abolish competition and advertisement, and suddenly a lot of things will start to be ok in society. Yes a lot of people will loose their useless job, but that won't be a requirement to have a place to live anymore, and both individuals and society will be better off.

What does it mean to "abolish competition and advertisement"? If I come up with a new idea, I can't tell anybody about it?

You won't have a need to because your new idea won't be allowed anyways because it will compete with an old idea.

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#155

Post by permo-w »

streamofdigits wrote: post #105
aerique wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Economic growth is not the solution: it is the problem." -- one single political party in the Netherlands that does not get enough votes

its the defining issue of our times and there is some of nuance: First, there is room (imho) for conventional growth in many parts of the world. Its insane that people go starving, without shelter or water while others throw away truckloads of food - because of "xyz". Then there is the branch of "personal growth" that is decoupled from material consumption. Getting every functioning brain to fully develop its faculti…

I totally agree. Economic growth in the developed world need not be more than population growth plus a little bit extra for genuine quality of life improvements

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#156

Post by mycologos »

johnchristopher wrote: post #43
Red_Tarsius wrote: post #17

They are kind of doing it already e.g. I hate when ads exploit classical music for trivial purposes. Whenever I hear Libiamo ne' lieti calici now my mind instantly fills with pizza ads. And once an association is made, it doesn't go away. Ads attach themselves to positive memories like parasites. Whenever you think back to your first kiss, a nice family moment, a cherished memory of going out with friends – here they…

This is something that I had been venting about for years to anybody I met. There's that (Coca-Cola I think) ad that ends up with teenagers watching the sunrise after a party night, they sit on a roof in what I remember could be suburban California. The ad was in the style of All I need from Air. These are very delicate and precious moments when you are a teenager. But now it's Coca-cola telling people how to feel. F…

I don't get this. Sure, what you describe sounds like a precious moment. But why is it "stolen" if some company films an ad featuring a similar moment? I assume you wouldn't have the same reaction if you saw two real teenagers doing this, or even saw it fictionalized in a movie financed by some production company hoping to make money. What is it about seeing it in an ad that crosses a line?

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#157

Post by canadianfella »

hangonhn wrote: post #50
IvyMike wrote: post #18

Leela : Didn't you have ads in the 21st century? Fry : Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.

I never appreciated Futurama when I was younger. At the time it felt like worse Simpsons but in the future. But later on I realized it’s a really good critique of our contemporary society disguised as the future looking back on us with Fry standing in for the audience. Some of the jokes are funny because they’re so biting.

Biting?

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#158

Post by ryan-allen »

streamofdigits wrote: post #90

We have gotten to the point where the simple (and arguably essential) task of individuals learning about what the economy is producing is degenerating into a societal gangrene. No, this is not all the handywork of Zuck and the "don't be evil" company. All the conditions for their "success" have been engineered in the previous decades of the adoption and scaling of TV tech: The captive population of couch potato, over…

It's been in motion for quite a while, according to Adam Curtis [0] at least.

[0] https://thoughtmaybe.com/the-century-of-the-self/

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#159

Post by deepserket »

bartread wrote: post #96
filchermcurr wrote: post #59

On the bright side, smart speakers aren't even a little bit essential, so it's easy enough to just not buy them if this starts happening. I don't think the value proposition of an always-on device connected to a vast advertising network is very high to begin with. Throw in subliminal advertising and you'd have to be very... dedicated... to want such a device. If it succeeds even a little, though, they'll bake it into…

> If it succeeds even a little, though, they'll bake it into our TVs and phones that are plugged in at night. Those are much harder for people to give up. Well, yeah, but having a TV in your bedroom isn't necessarily the best idea for quality sleep anyway so get rid of that. Then you can always plug your phone in to charge somewhere else in the house, or stick it inside a Faraday box[0] with just enough of a hole to…

you can build a faraday box with some aluminum foil, 2-4 layers are enough (you can test it by trying to call the phone inside it, if it rings you need more layers).

inb4 companies start putting LTE/WiFi antennas inside wall chargers, if this happens buy an "usb condom"

Re: Researchers fear a scenario in which smart speakers feed sleepers subliminal ads

#160

Post by deepserket »

rapnie wrote: post #70
kzrdude wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On an Android phone you can use firefox, ublock origin and youtube in the browser, too. It also supports playing in a floating window (fullscreen the video and then switch app from firefox to something else).

I noticed this is starting to be less effective. Now and then an ad creeps through the protection barrier. First time it happened to me was exactly at the moment I was demonstrating someone that I really do have an ad-free internet experience :/

i'm using vanced and it works really great, the only ads that i rarely see are the "recommended promoted video"
Post reply on HN