Maybe the first sign of AI running full amok will be Meta canceling all its accounts in a runaway state of algorithm-induced internal paranoia
Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
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Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#122I believe I have accumulated two moderation strikes on my Facebook account for (relatively politely) calling out posts for being racist/xenophobic. Both cases my comments were flagged as promoting hate, ironically. The appeal mechanism is a joke: you press a button, and two seconds later you get a notification saying your appeal was reviewed and denied.
Had this happen to me on Reddit.
After I reported a post, nothing happened, then I messaged the mods, and they agreed with me that the post should be taken down and they did.
A day after it was taken down, I got a warning message from Reddit that my report has been rejected, and I should stop falsely reporting content, or else.
Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#123For people missing the irony here, the term “metaverse,” that Meta is named after, was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 book “Snow Crash.” In the book, the metaverse is a VR version of the internet with an emphasis on accurate sword fights and realistic facial expressions.
I was really hoping for a Snow Crash movie. That project has been in development hell for years. Instead, we got Ready Player One, which is like Snow Crash for dummies. There's a trailer for a low-budget version of Snow Crash.[1] It's awful. I don't hold out much hope for that project. Snow Crash is about a conspiracy between a media baron and a televangelist to take over the world. That would upset a lot more people…
I love Snow Crash too, for what it is, and I'm sure someone could make a worthwhile movie out of exploring the concepts, but then I'm not really sure it's worthwhile, as it wouldn't need to be strictly based on that work.
But if someone is hoping for a scene accurate depiction I'm equally unsure it's possible, or that anyone would want to see it, between everything from the "radical"(/Rule of Cool) Carmageddon pizza delivery for the mafia and variable rollerskate wheel sizes to the main character literally being named Hiro Protagonist.
It's a great nostalgic time capsule for me, which also spawned a lot of other great works, but I'm fine with leaving it as that.
Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Mark Zuckerberg didn't exist, we'd still have Facebook. Someone else would have done it. But if Neal Stephenson didn't exist, we'd not necessarily have what he created. That's how unique his ideas are. And Meta, billions of dollars later, is still no Metaverse...
> If Mark Zuckerberg didn't exist, we'd still have Facebook. Yes, because multi-trillion dollar companies are completely natural and spawn almost at random to whatever nerd happens to be working on a particular problem at any given time
facebook is just a glorified blogpost website
Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
A few years back Chris Hedges did a showshow/podcast or something and he was forced to finally read in depth a lot more Rand. I love his defeated responded of "It is amazing just how pedestrian those books are. There is nothing interesting in them.". Hedges is always worth listening to even if you won't always agree but he does make doomers look like utopian optimists.
I think anyone who says there is nothing interesting in Rand either didn’t read it or is acting in bad faith. Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead are uniquely fascinating even if you don’t agree with her stance. Chris Hedges is a self reported socialist. So makes sense they would not like books negative on socialism. But you can be a socialist and still engage with competing thoughts. Just like a capitalist can review Ma…
I don't know how anyone can read her and not feel the overt reader manipulation. Her skill, if any, is to break the 3rd wall without seeming to acknowledge that 3rd wall and constantly tell the reader they are one of these special people that are borne better than others.
Rand is a clear intellectual trap for lazy thinkers. If you like her, you're not thinking.
Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think anyone who says there is nothing interesting in Rand either didn’t read it or is acting in bad faith. Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead are uniquely fascinating even if you don’t agree with her stance. Chris Hedges is a self reported socialist. So makes sense they would not like books negative on socialism. But you can be a socialist and still engage with competing thoughts. Just like a capitalist can review Ma…
I don't know how anyone can read her and not feel the overt reader manipulation. Her skill, if any, is to break the 3rd wall without seeming to acknowledge that 3rd wall and constantly tell the reader they are one of these special people that are borne better than others. Rand is a clear intellectual trap for lazy thinkers. If you like her, you're not thinking.
I think reading philosophical arguments masquerading as novels, or any sort of fiction, is an intellectual trap in general. Anything can be made to work in a fictional work simply by saying that it works. It means nothing.
"Genghis Khan the 73rd, who got high on some really weird drugs in the fifth year of his reign, decided that everybody in his empire should be tortured for at least 73 minutes every day. And everybody loved it and completely voluntarily sang his praises and said it was the best thing that ever happened to society and there were just all sorts of benefits and you should totally organize your society this way too because look how well it is working for this one."
Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#127I have been locked out of my account for 5+ months -- and customer support has been a Kafkaesque nightmare. I am still locked out. (Oh, and I've spent $1M+ in paid META ads...)
Yeah, I've been locked out of Meta for a couple of years, just stopped VR altogether because getting the account back turned into a new hobby that I never asked for. Just moved on.
Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Mark Zuckerberg didn't exist, we'd still have Facebook. Someone else would have done it. But if Neal Stephenson didn't exist, we'd not necessarily have what he created. That's how unique his ideas are. And Meta, billions of dollars later, is still no Metaverse...
> If Mark Zuckerberg didn't exist, we'd still have Facebook. Yes, because multi-trillion dollar companies are completely natural and spawn almost at random to whatever nerd happens to be working on a particular problem at any given time
Web 2.0 -> inevitable social interaction platforms -> inevitable network effects -> inevitable advertising magnet.
Who knows, it could've been MySpace Tom?
Re: Meta just suspended the Facebook account of Neal Stephenson
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not intentional malice, it's just 2025 - an age where calling someone a fascist or a racist is worse than being one. If that doesn't make a lick of sense to you - it's simple. The latter is an offense against a nebulous, undefined outgroup of people, while the former offends a particular person. It's the same reason why someone can steal a dollar from a million people, but why you'd go to jail for punching the t…
"Everyone I disagree with is a nazi"
Did you miss the part of my 2 sentence comment where they openly praised Hitler? That makes someone a Nazi.