21–30 of 85 posts
Well that's just going to fuel more conspiracy theories. Sigh. It was amazing when states like PA were counting and clearly said results will change by the morning, and when that happened and people woke up to a different result they started crying conspiracy. The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022…
Inane "AI" regurgitating what it is parsing from social media echo chambers as the epitome of "progress". You cant blame algorithms. People will get the digital society they deserve. Unless they do something about it. A sane online world will not materialize as a god-given present. It will the result of informed, enlightened and passionate people banging about the cause for as long as it takes. The challenge is comme…
Why can't I blame algorithms? These are heuristics that often misinform people. In my view someone, maybe Biden or the DNC or the FEC or the people asking Alexa, should have a claim to sue Amazon for something like defamation. Amazon has a reckless disregard for the truth and publishes lies through Alexa. (Assuming all this is true, no opinion on that). If Amazon gets sued enough they'll either make their service bet…
Even if the best solution were to make these types of algorithms & code illegal, it still wouldn't exactly be "blaming" the algorithms - the same as when people call for gun control they're still blaming the shooters of guns for the actual crimes committed, not the guns, but banning the guns is seen (by gun control advocates) as a way of preventing those bad actors from doing what they'd otherwise do.
Inane "AI" regurgitating what it is parsing from social media echo chambers as the epitome of "progress". You cant blame algorithms. People will get the digital society they deserve. Unless they do something about it. A sane online world will not materialize as a god-given present. It will the result of informed, enlightened and passionate people banging about the cause for as long as it takes. The challenge is comme…
Why can't I blame algorithms? These are heuristics that often misinform people. In my view someone, maybe Biden or the DNC or the FEC or the people asking Alexa, should have a claim to sue Amazon for something like defamation. Amazon has a reckless disregard for the truth and publishes lies through Alexa. (Assuming all this is true, no opinion on that). If Amazon gets sued enough they'll either make their service bet…
Algorithms don't misinform people, people choose to use algorithms beyond what is deemed acceptable or safe (where these are moving, socially defined attributes).
There is nothing new here. A person can misinform other people using linear regression. The old saying "lies, damn lies and statistics" captures precisely that reality.
We can't escape the difficult debates. Our societies produce alot of information and keeps producing more. How that is processed, dissemniated and acted upon is a vital question and imho people haven't quite woken up to this new reality.
Maybe the large amount of links to this article fed into that. When I searched for this article the first page of results was pointing to lots of sites that pointed to it; in fact I couldn't find the time.com URL directly....
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the FCC has to respect the first amendment
You think Alexa has 1st amendment rights, which apply to misinformation? It's a point still under discussion, nothing like settled law.
Misinformation is the same.
Well that's just going to fuel more conspiracy theories. Sigh. It was amazing when states like PA were counting and clearly said results will change by the morning, and when that happened and people woke up to a different result they started crying conspiracy. The election definitely wasn't rigged, but if it had been necessary to do so I would have supported it. Can't ever repeat the disaster we had from 2016 - 2022…
[flagged]
Evidence: Trust me, bro.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
George Washington in his transfer of power farewell speech warned Americans to avoid factionalism, right? But never mind that. Our party base (true speaking for either franchise that extracts rents from the need for electoral viability now) are more patriotic than that dude. Or we only have to outrun the slower party in order to successfully outrun the grizzly bear of being less best for the country. No other account…
The problem is you have half the country severely lacking in education and their thoughts and ideas about what is best for the country don't correspond to reality.
Have you lived outside the US? Socialites in expensive lavish cities are the minority in the world by far. The majority is what you just described, poverty, and lack of education to start.
To them you are like Maria Antoinette telling them just eat cake from your cushy little San Fran bubble.
Inane "AI" regurgitating what it is parsing from social media echo chambers as the epitome of "progress". You cant blame algorithms. People will get the digital society they deserve. Unless they do something about it. A sane online world will not materialize as a god-given present. It will the result of informed, enlightened and passionate people banging about the cause for as long as it takes. The challenge is comme…
Another heading on the front page of hacker news right now...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If people can't be trusted to vote responsibly (i.e. not voting in someone openly talking about being a dictator, openly racist, openly bigoted), then I'm fine with bypassing the vote. It's a flawed system anyway. Ridiculous that everyone should have a say.
> "Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time..." - Winston Churchill (Since it's the second quote of his I've used in this thread, I'd like to actively clarify that despite being British I am a long way from being a fan of Churchill, but he does have some good quotes attributed to him!) So when you say "It's a flawed…
First I should point out how utterly ridiculous it is that with all the data we have access too, all our analytical capability and ability to model and simulation, there are not many people working on alternate systems, and anything people come up with is not taken seriously. People would rather poke holes in anything new, even if it has less problems than our current system.
I do have a rough idea for a system, it's based on a lot of research, but only exists as a lot of rough notes - I haven't taken the time yet to properly organize and write everything out, it's a big project.
Basically though, it tries to solve some of the problems of representative democracy like we have in the US. Some example differences (which I'm not sure if I can devote time to defending in this thread, I just list them as examples) by:
- Removing elections for many positions, having them appointed or offered to people from a qualified pool - possibly even assigning them the duty of serving in such a position, not unlike jury duty.
- Giving people in positions of power more power to act unilaterally, while still having their actions subject to review, a cross between SCOTUS and a jury of qualified individuals randomly selected.
- Ensuring leaders must act based on current science and knowledge, not personal feeling or intuition - these are not things the general population should be voting on, even indirectly.
- Many more referendums for big issues, rather than just having elected representatives make the decision, or worse, fail to make the decision.
Basically, many more elements of a meritocracy, much less influence and say from the population, while still ensuring they have a voice. It would be a much less democratic representative democracy in the best way possible, although I suppose it could still fall under that same umbrella.