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I would rather see my books get pirated than this

janefriedman.com

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

#441

Post by fellowmartian »

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…

Ah yes, another classic apocalypse prediction! Goes something like this:

- Identify a problematic trend

- Extrapolate into infinity

- Assume nothing will be done to correct it

- Apocalypse!

It’s very popular among journalists and experts, despite the fact that this literally never happens, because it turns out people don’t just stand still and drown if they see a wave coming for them.

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

#442

Post by JohnFen »

kubanczyk wrote: post #377
spicyusername wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people have a lower tolerance for this than that, and will just go back to relying on personal recommendations and other reliable forms of curation.

> relying on personal recommendations Taking things off the net would be a huge step back for economy. LLMs will cause a total collapse of trust online. This problem will be solved by a brand new online trust model (instead of the old one "has gained some followers by formulating text messages and forwarding gifs"). The trustees (bots/humans/orgs mixed) would probably need to sacrifice much more of their privacy. Not…

> The trustees (bots/humans/orgs mixed) would probably need to sacrifice much more of their privacy.

I'll just ignore the internet instead. The internet cannot be trusted when it comes to privacy, so I'm not going to give up any in the first place.

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

#443

Post by FireBeyond »

cycomanic wrote: post #88
imgabe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Amazon wouldn't say they didn't know, but that it's not their responsibility. For example if Random House published a book that libeled someone, and Amazon sold it, you would sue Random House and the author for libel, not Amazon. Likewise, Amazon would tell you to go sue the publisher, who is probably judgement-proof in some way.

The better example is a store that sells counterfeit goods (and continues to sell it even after being made aware). In most countries if they are a small shop they get closed down very quickly, now if they are Amazon ... crickets.

> The better example is a store that sells counterfeit goods (and continues to sell it even after being made aware).

The (frustrating) argument Amazon would make here is that they weren't "aware", there was just an "accusation", and since the accuser didn't supply evidence...

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

#444

Post by JohnFen »

dylan604 wrote: post #117
userbinator wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, "personal recommendations" seems to mean "influencers" these days.

that's the part that I love love love. society has gotten to this ridiculous follower stage that people seem to think it is a personal connection. maybe i've just spent too much time too close to the ad agency world to see how nasty they are, but anytime i see some random person on the internet that i do not personally know recommending anything, i immediately assume they are paid for that "recommendation". too much…

> anytime i see some random person on the internet that i do not personally know recommending anything, i immediately assume they are paid for that "recommendation"

Yes, and doubly so if they say something like "this is not sponsored".

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

#445

Post by maximinus_thrax »

Tao3300 wrote: post #412
brewdad wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s such a ridiculous idea that most people think it can’t possibly be true. Until they find out it is.

So what do they see that finally convinces them?

There's tons of corroborating evidence online, it's hard not to be convinced.

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

#446

Post by wpietri »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #140
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, but also in the professional space. My coworkers much be 200% faster now, but I’m going to spend 80% of my time unfucking their work.

But also good luck next time you google health symptoms - sure it’s bad, but everybody does it, and we’re going to move further and further away from accurate.

I think health care might be one of the areas where I'm least worried. This will drive people back to expertise, though. I might google symptoms to start, but I'm not going to take anything seriously unless it's from a reputable health-care organization like the Mayo Clinic.

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

#447

Post by [deleted] »

stevage wrote: post #62
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…

I imagine everything constantly hovering on the threshold of what is tolerable enough for most people. If you could never buy anything useful on the internet, the system would collapse and people would do something different. But instead, the quality etc will just decline to a point where it is still marginally better than alternatives like shopping in person etc.

[deleted]

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

#448

Post by JohnFen »

coliveira wrote: post #73
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…

This is already happening: whatever you ask Google, they have some crazy AI algorithm running in the back trying to discover what you want to see as result, so as to maximize the profit from your clicks.

I think that this is a larger factor as to why Google search sucks these days than SEO is.

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

#449

Post by manicennui »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #253
VincentEvans wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet I can buy entire contents of the amazon using the Amazon shopping app. Or Walmart app. Or Target app. Or Best Buy app. Opening amazon.com via Safari on an iphone is a throwback and a very odd experience - I haven’t needed to use a mobile version of amazon.com in ages - i use the app for all my Amazon shopping. And one other thing - I can’t stand Musk, but given my experience with Amazon in a world where WeCha…

Presumably that's because if you're buying groceries or whatever it doesn't compete with Apple. You can actual buy physical books in the app, it's just ebooks that it freaks out about. I'm curious if giving books for free (eg Libby) is allowed, or if they've gotten a special exemption

The Hoopla app works well.

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

#450

Post by JohnFen »

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…

> but might be necessary if we want to maintain some semblance of sanity on the internet

A requirement like that would be the final death knell for the few remaining parts of the web that are actually good.

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