I would rather see my books get pirated than this • Hacker News Board

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#361

Post by worldsayshi » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:33 AM UTC

nomat wrote: post #199

Pxtl wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I have conspiracy theories about the conspiracy theories about digital IDs. I don't see any escape from a hellscape of AI-generated-sludge unless we have a real way to say "somebody has signed their real government-confirmed reputation on this". The paranoid disinfo peddlers are the ones who benefit most from the untraceability of the horsecrap they put online. Otherwise it's all downhill until the singul…

Free speech should only apply to verified humans. We could use the blockchain to assign keys to babies as they are born. Only half kidding, about both statements. Corporations also have rights. How terrible it will be when we have "companies" that are just AI programs. All human weakness, eliminated. South Korea requires you to register with your national id if you want to access the internet there, which sounds like…

There has to be some neat tricks you can use to allow verifying a human, using your id, without actually exposing your id though?

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#362

Post by dsr_ » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:34 AM UTC

worldsayshi wrote: post #359

nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

Many aspects of this problem doesn't sound hard to solve. But you need to involve cryptographic signing and reliable eIDs. Any content from a known author needs to be verified to be from that author by letting that author sign the content.

Right, just solve the Oracle problem.

/s

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#363

Post by prmoustache » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:39 AM UTC

labster wrote: post #94

opportune wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there? If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.

We’re in a race to the bottom. There’s no way a company selling legitimate products will be able to compete or grow a customer base in the AI future, because we’ll be swimming in garbage.

People might revert to buy in person.

I mean you get scammed maybe twice by a company, then buy somewhere else. You quickly realize that it is better spending 3-4 times the amount of money for something that will last 10 years than buying stuff that do not work or keep breaking after a few months/years.

I am too poor to be able to afford buying cheap stuff.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#364

Post by phpisthebest » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:41 AM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #309

opportune wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there? If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.

> If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers That slide has already started. I can't buy stuff on Amazon anymore, because I don't trust the quality or that I'm not scammed. Unless I trust the author I'd question buying self published books. There's a number of Chinese website, like Wish, that I don't understand. Why bot…

>>Why even bother sending the tree? Why produce shitty products that break after first use, why not just straight up rob people,

Could be the same reasons Scam Contractors do "some work" if you hire someone to redo your bathroom, and they take the money and run, that is clear criminal fraud. If they take the money, so some amount of work, then run it becomes a civil contract dispute.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#365

Post by codpiece » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:41 AM UTC

bsenftner wrote: post #356

soerxpso wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes that the only ways people have to find companies are search engines and other mediums that are prone to AI takeover. If everyone starts to realize that most of the surface internet is garbage, they would start communicating with humans they know about which places are not garbage. It was possible to find good businesses to interact with before Google existed. Obviously in a world where every online retai…

And the few, lone, honest online retailers get early discovered by online scammers who turn that honest retailer inside out, destroy them financially, and then take over their URL. I've seen it happen, and it nearly happened to me but I shut down rather than spiral down, unable to wage war on so many fronts.

Could you please elaborate? This is fascinating.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#366

Post by phpisthebest » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:44 AM UTC

prmoustache wrote: post #363

labster wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re in a race to the bottom. There’s no way a company selling legitimate products will be able to compete or grow a customer base in the AI future, because we’ll be swimming in garbage.

People might revert to buy in person. I mean you get scammed maybe twice by a company, then buy somewhere else. You quickly realize that it is better spending 3-4 times the amount of money for something that will last 10 years than buying stuff that do not work or keep breaking after a few months/years. I am too poor to be able to afford buying cheap stuff.

If that was going to happen, it already would have.

Most people still just buy the cheapest version of an item they are looking for.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#367

Post by jimhefferon » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:45 AM UTC

eloisant wrote: post #351

opportune wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there? If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.

I have already stopped using Amazon for specialized products. I buy board games on sites that only sell board games. I buy electronics/computer parts on sites that only sell that.

I also try to do that. However, the more sites that hold my information ...

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#368

Post by ben_w » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:49 AM UTC

phpisthebest wrote: post #366

prmoustache wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People might revert to buy in person. I mean you get scammed maybe twice by a company, then buy somewhere else. You quickly realize that it is better spending 3-4 times the amount of money for something that will last 10 years than buying stuff that do not work or keep breaking after a few months/years. I am too poor to be able to afford buying cheap stuff.

If that was going to happen, it already would have. Most people still just buy the cheapest version of an item they are looking for.

I'm already switching to buying in person, though in my case because of the delivery service usually redirecting to depots further away than the shops selling the same items.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#369

Post by martin_a » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:51 AM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #309

opportune wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there? If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.

> If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers That slide has already started. I can't buy stuff on Amazon anymore, because I don't trust the quality or that I'm not scammed. Unless I trust the author I'd question buying self published books. There's a number of Chinese website, like Wish, that I don't understand. Why bot…

> Why bother shipping an item to a customer if you're running a scam?

Plausible deniability.

"There seems to have been some..." looks up excuse for the day "... unfortunate mix-up with your order."

Lots of people will just not react, because it's not worth their money and at least they received something.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#370

Post by brigandish » Tue, Aug 08, 2023, 10:52 AM UTC

chii wrote: post #277

brigandish wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carrying those books wasn't arduous, except when I travelled around Asia and decided my main bag should be books. Big books. Almost ruined my back. Words have meaning. Arduous it ain't.

Tiresome doesn't necessarily mean physically tired. Words do have meaning, and you would know if you read those meaning to understand the idea being presented.

Arduous never means "something that is slightly inconvenient" unless one is prone to exaggeration and has the forbearance of a child.

> Tiresome doesn't necessarily mean physically tired.

Not necessarily, no, not at all. I suggest a dictionary. Back in the day, people who cared about reading and the meaning of words would keep one handy, often next to the bed.