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'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

theguardian.com

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Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#101

Post by seltzered_ »

cma wrote: post #17
aaron-lebo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David Foster Wallace had the same belief about TV 20 years ago. He seemed more addicted to it than the average bear, more along the lines of how you see people tethered to smartphones today. He very much saw TV as candy - sweet, addictive, not sustaining, and unhealthy without moderation. He talked about it in multiple places, but Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (an interview) discusses it a lot. http…

Lots on the topic by Neil Postman too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

In one of his talks, he actually wished that newer information mediums came with a warning label.

(This miight be the one - “informing ourselves to death”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&t=1487&v=fuRVxW... )

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#102

Post by kilroy123 »

bit_logic wrote: post #53

Something that helps a lot is to be ruthless with notifications on a smartphone. I basically have it set to only bother me for calls, SMS, and chat apps. Everything else is turned off. And whenever I get a new phone, it surprising how bad the defaults are. Basically every apps default is to spam notifications.

Here is what I've done:

- I have a gmail filter for emails that contain 'unsubscribe'. They skip my inbox so all emails I get are real ones I need to look at. (It's magic)

- I don't have facebook installed. Only messenger.

- Twitter notifications off.

- Snapchat notifications off. (Except direct snaps)

- Instagram notifications off except for comments.

- Slack notification only for direct messages or mentions.

- Installed 'News Feed Eradicator for Facebook' and broke the habit of passively scanning facebook when bored: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

I get basically no notifications except for IMs, important emails, and direct slack mentions. I occasionally scan facebook on my phone but I only do it like once a day.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#104

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

jgibson wrote: post #4

Does anyone see an analogy with highly processed, sugary foods? Highly addictive, thought to be miracles of convenience, but ultimately detrimental when consumed in excess, and now we are starting to realise that and demand better. I wonder if society will go through the same rejection phase with attention-seeking media consumption. Or maybe those who grow up with it will be better able to control themselves.

Yes and no, on one hand there is definitely a potential for misuse, on the other I use mine to constantly be learning something, it's like I'm a book worm except I'm reading what ever I find relevant to the thing I'm currently interested in.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#105

Post by jwong_ »

kilroy123 wrote: post #102
bit_logic wrote: post #53

Something that helps a lot is to be ruthless with notifications on a smartphone. I basically have it set to only bother me for calls, SMS, and chat apps. Everything else is turned off. And whenever I get a new phone, it surprising how bad the defaults are. Basically every apps default is to spam notifications.

Here is what I've done: - I have a gmail filter for emails that contain 'unsubscribe'. They skip my inbox so all emails I get are real ones I need to look at. (It's magic) - I don't have facebook installed. Only messenger. - Twitter notifications off. - Snapchat notifications off. (Except direct snaps) - Instagram notifications off except for comments. - Slack notification only for direct messages or mentions. - Inst…

That e-mail tip is really clever. I'm going to test that out.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#106

Post by dualogy »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #93
notaboutdave wrote: post #38

Ever see that photo of Mark Zuckerberg surrounded by hundreds of people in VR headsets? The backstory of the original Matrix movie doesn't seem as far fetched anymore. http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-virtual-reali...

Not only that but I believe the look on his face was one of joy or at least accomplishment. The media parroted that spin. That said, metaphorically we're already in The Matrix. Humans were just fuel for the system. When I see so many over-weight/obese "consumers" I can't help but think how happy the system is to have them; how well they're fulfilling their role. VR glasses will simply close the loop.

> That said, metaphorically we're already in The Matrix. Humans were just fuel for the system. When I see so many over-weight/obese "consumers"

Well, if we go with The Matrix, then these battery specimens so far have only been storing energy, not releasing it.. =)

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#108

Post by bksenior »

jgibson wrote: post #4

Does anyone see an analogy with highly processed, sugary foods? Highly addictive, thought to be miracles of convenience, but ultimately detrimental when consumed in excess, and now we are starting to realise that and demand better. I wonder if society will go through the same rejection phase with attention-seeking media consumption. Or maybe those who grow up with it will be better able to control themselves.

The invention of TV dinners and the preservative revolution is the best parallel ive seen compared to the invention of the internet from a regulation and unintended consequence perspective.

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#109

Post by fortani »

nether wrote: post #74
jgibson wrote: post #4

Does anyone see an analogy with highly processed, sugary foods? Highly addictive, thought to be miracles of convenience, but ultimately detrimental when consumed in excess, and now we are starting to realise that and demand better. I wonder if society will go through the same rejection phase with attention-seeking media consumption. Or maybe those who grow up with it will be better able to control themselves.

Not too long ago, we had this story, "Social Media is the New Smoking" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14851057 . The mathematician Ted Kaczynski said decades ago, "humans with technology is like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine."

Interesting, while I have known about it, I haven't really read Ted Kaczynski (aka Unabomber) essay "Industrial Society and Its Future" [1] (aka The Unabomber Manifesto) before until your comment. I absolutely abhor his actions and what he had done, but the essay is a brilliant read.

Especially interesting is paragraph 171, as it pertains to the recent concerns about AI and our increasing technological dependence. Note that he wrote this essay way back in 1995:

"What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines’ decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and as machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more and more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made ones. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won’t be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide."

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabo...

Re: 'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia

#110

Post by jeffdavis »

vonnik wrote: post #47

This excellent article fails to mention artificial intelligence. Facebook has recruited one of the world’s top AI teams, led by Yann LeCun. Their work and Google's are the equivalent of tobacco companies engineering cigarettes to ensure that nicotine hits a smoker's brain more quickly. Facebook and other social networks are the cigarette companies of the mind. Cigarettes blackened our lungs with tar, and social media…

"Capitalism is an accelerant for addictive behavior"

I'm not sure that what we have would be described as capitalism any more. If you buy FB stock, are they using that to build new machines that pay dividends over time?

You can make an analogy involving software, sure, but it really seems quite different to me. The way I think about it is this: if we all had amnesia and forgot that company XYZ existed, would it still have any value? Under traditional capitalism, yes, they would just need to advertise a bit and rebuild their customer base. But FB and google would be worth close to zero no matter how much software they have.

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