111–120 of 135 posts
Even before generative AI, this was painfully true. Google doesn't care about its SERPs if they can push an advert at you.
Author is bang-on. We aren't ready for the next evolution of search shittification. Without search, we're blind.
Every other form of organic discovery (reviews, directories, forums) seems just as prone to the damage of spam.
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> I fear that participating online with other humans will require "proof of self" I fear something worse: that it WON'T require proof of self, because the LLMs will be able to tell if you're human... and your age, wants, needs, everything else; that's the nightmare scenario for me: LLMs integrating all the little bits and pieces of yourself you shed online, all the information you leak, from the speed your mouse move…
This is already happening and has almost nothing to do with llm, this is Google and Facebook business model because these are the marketable details.
Google and Facebook care only about shoving monetizable garbage in your face, be it through tainted search results, mindless "recommended" IG Reels/YT Shorts or FB Pages. That has driven people away from these platforms. Maybe not at the levels where their bottom line is being hit, but that is a lagging indicator anyway.
One thing that makes me kind of happy - I am no longer scared of "AI singularity". Looking at the bullshit LLMs generate, I don't think they will take over world and start to upload our minds to torture chambers or whatever.
Fair point. Let's cut through the fluff: thinking LLMs won't lead to AI singularity because they occasionally spit out nonsense is like dismissing the potential of the internet because you once got a 404 error. These blunders aren't the endgame; they're stepping stones. Technology evolves. What's a joke today could be the entity outsmarting us tomorrow. Don't worry about sci-fi scenarios of digital torture chambers j…
AI still hasn't delivered something of that magnitude for the average consumer. Netscape launched in '94; the dotcom boom didn't happen until '98. Several years passed before the mania hit the markets. AI is in the opposite cycle: there is more corporate-driven hype about its benefits than anything concrete that's flowing down to the average consumer.
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When you run a program under almost any operating system, the operating system assumes you trust it. The code can open any file you've got permission to access, open network ports, etc. The code is you as far the operating system is concerned, and carries with it all of your authority. The assumption that code can just do whatever it wants is baked into everything. There are permission flags on your Smartphone and ot…
This is only really true of Windows and Linux. As you admit, mobile operating systems don't work that way, web browsers (practically an OS) don't work that way, even macOS doesn't work that way (all apps are lightly sandboxed on macOS even if they don't opt in to it). Sandboxing doesn't change the nature of the web, though. People use hosted services because they don't want to run things themselves, people build host…
AI is just one facet of the issue, and it only exacerbates the real problem. Algorithmification, enshitification, etc. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/why-the-in... The old guards of Amazon and Google are gone - no one is there to nurture the product . The new business school jocks are there to juice it, juice it to the max, bro! Quarter to quarter, so that the vaunted SHAREHOLDER does not get all m…
The SLT are corporate stooges who are doing Wall St's bidding to pump the stock. Blaming 'business school types' belies a fundamental misunderstanding of who holds the reigns.
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Maybe we ought to just be heading to Venus ("and still we stand tall"), as in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants ?
Or even Venus, as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons (Text here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51233/51233-h/51233-h.htm ) Both involved Cyril Kornbluth, what a great talent, taken far too soon. Interestingly, Pohl wrote a sequel to The Space Merchants decades later, and I picked it up, fully expecting it to be terrible, and it was brilliant, and made me cry at the end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
[0] as many would-be racing breeders have discovered, it's easy to breed the best to the best, but the number of trials incurred while hoping for the best takes deep pockets.
[1] or were the story's names a nod to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_hybrid -isation?
Gods of he internets: tell me how I'm reading a text that declares it's was hidden. I don't even English.
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GP> Private spaces might be a big net win. I am old enough to remember the pre-Internet geek world; things like cons and zines were way more important than now, but they existed, and we definitely didn't expect for there to be, let alone rely on, mainstream channels providing our social contact. > there are a lot more non-tecchies, and they are the ultimate arbiters of what succeeds or dies. Succeeds, yes. Dies? I th…
Well, "dies" happens, when the Eloi don't use/buy something. Morlocks like to be paid. If they don't get paid, they might not do it.
As Morlocks provide all the infra for the Eloi, we can certainly provision it also for ourselves. (how many days of HN could fit in an average TikTok video?)
It['s Morlocks'] care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the [Eloi "members"] by land and main.Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you aware that nothing is stopping you from only visiting websites made by individuals, and medium-sized businesses? In fact, you can also choose to use cool things like Google Earth, AND choose not to use shit things like Twitter, Facebook, Google Search etc.
> Are you aware Few sentences that start with this clause are emitted in good faith, and yours is certainly not one of them.