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Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

clivethompson.medium.com

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Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#151

Post by kbutler »

JoeyJoJoJr wrote: post #145
kbutler wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a case of hyperawareness/catastrophizing - upon realizing the mindless interruption of CAPTCHAs, the authors have focused so intensely on the minor discomforts of monotonous, poorly composed, poorly shot pictures that the discomfort has grown through hyperbolic focus into a soul-destroying burden. It's like anaphylaxis - a completely outsized and self-harmful reaction to a minor disturbance.

I think the minor disturbance is the article and the outsized reaction is calling it a “soul destroying burden”. I’m primarily a software dev, but clients mostly value my skills in producing visually pleasing layouts and graphics. I’ve come to realise that good aesthetics are extremely valued by most. Even during the development process, nice looking layouts/design integrated early can immensely lift the team’s spiri…

So Unbearably Depressing / force you / hate / deeply, overwhelmingly depressing / spirits deflate

And that's just the intro.

Skip to the end: "These pictures erode the soul."

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#152

Post by thescriptkiddie »

mkl wrote: post #125
pkulak wrote: post #36

I'd say it's because the North America, car-dominated, strip-mall-and-stroad landscape is depressing as hell. Open a map and drop yourself somewhere in Europe. I just did, and I feel like identifying crosswalks in a photo like this wouldn't be depressing at all: https://i.imgur.com/31AgNvs.png

I didn't understand "stroad" so I looked it up: > "Stroad" is a word we coined in 2013 to explain those dangerous, multi-laned thoroughfares you encounter in nearly every city, town, and suburb in America. They're what happens when a street (a place where people interact with businesses and residences, and where wealth is produced) gets combined with a road (a high-speed route between productive places). -- https://w…

Americans also tend to use the words fairly interchangeably, but there is still at least some instinctive distinction. People often say "kids are playing in the street", but they almost never say "kids are playing in the road".

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#153

Post by adamcharnock »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #75
MrManatee wrote: post #43

This is making me wonder if the experience is intentionally so bleak. It reminds me of how nowadays when I do an incognito Google search on my phone, I need three taps just to accept the terms of service. Same with YouTube. Maybe this level of cumbersomeness is somehow legally required now, but I find it more likely that this is an attempt to subconsciously encourage people to not browse incognito—so that they can be…

It does feel like a similar sort of thing to how fag packets are this horrible murky brown with bleak pictures in them in the UK.

fag is British slang cigarette, for any scandalised US folk reading this :-)

(Does this still need saying?)

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#155

Post by johnsolo1701 »

rickboyce wrote: post #3

For me this effect is significantly compounded by not being from the US / North America. This has come up on HN before (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25226805 ) but it still strikes me as so odd that you need quite a bit of USA cultural / vernacular knowledge to navigate the internet anywhere in the world (or at least English speaking sites?). What a strange view into another country to see each day!

Honest question - how can you tell the difference between "English speaking sites" and "American sites"? Since English is currently the common international language, when an American creates a site or service for a domestic audience, anyone around the world can still come visit and read it. But how does one know if a service is meant for a domestic audience?

We've all seen services launched by American companies, with American employees, American VC money, that only work within the US, and are only offered in English. We've also all seen how these companies get criticized by people around the world that the service doesn't work in their country and their language. From the American perspective it seems like the rest of the world feels they are automatically entitled to services created here. Even if the stated plan is to eventually roll out to the rest of the world.

This behavior is stunningly obvious when a Chinese or Indian company launches an interesting new product or service for a domestic audience. In those cases, it's hard to find people upset that the service only works domestically or doesn't work in their language. This is because those people aren't falling into the logical fallacy of "American = English = International language = International product".

As a good faith question - if you were an American, how would you create a site or service for a domestic audience without insulting the rest of the world?

p.s. This is a side question non related to this article specifically - obviously google is an international product.

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#156

Post by PhasmaFelis »

gdulli wrote: post #135
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #19

I wish my life was so utterly without other problems that I could get this worked up about something so minor and meaningless.

You just did.

Enh, not really. I got worked up enough to write one (now three!) sentences, not a lengthy article with illustrative screenshots.

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#157

Post by JimTheMan »

pkulak wrote: post #36

I'd say it's because the North America, car-dominated, strip-mall-and-stroad landscape is depressing as hell. Open a map and drop yourself somewhere in Europe. I just did, and I feel like identifying crosswalks in a photo like this wouldn't be depressing at all: https://i.imgur.com/31AgNvs.png

Couldn't agree more. There are car dominated places where I live that give a similar 'American' feeling, but it's not a given.

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#158

Post by walrus01 »

judge2020 wrote: post #138
walrus01 wrote: post #129

If you want to see a lot of captchas, try browsing with Firefox mobile with ublock origin installed. It's sad how many people design for 100% chrome. To the point that being a stock Firefox user agent that doesn't receive all ads shows up as if you're a bot scraping the site.

It all comes down to how lazy (or perhaps cost-conscious) the developers of the website are. Most traffic is Chrome and Safari, so running those two tests covers nearly 85% of users[0] and most other browsers like Firefox make an effort to fix incompatibilities with Chrome. It’s the same for captchas - most people aren’t running in anonymous mode, and when they are, their IP is usually part of a major ISP and thus re…

One could have written the same thing about internet explorer in 2001 or so. History repeats itself.

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#159

Post by Semiapies »

mixedCase wrote: post #59

I've read the whole article, and I see so many comments agreeing or even adding detail to the post. Am I really in the minority if this kind of thing couldn't even cross my mind or feels like written by someone living in a parallel universe? A few poorly shot street photos are "unbearably depressing"? And there's even a detailed explanation breaking it down into points, each one feeling more alien than the last. They…

The first picture is morning or evening sun catching some brilliant autumn leaves. The second picture is some stoplights in front of a building and trees. The third has boats and blue water and a palm tree. Not exactly drab stuff.

At that point I just lost interest in trying to figure out what was even vaguely objectionable about the images. It was like someone was trying to imitate the humor of something like The Gallery of Regrettable Foods with perfectly reasonable restaurant dishes.

Re: Captcha pictures force you to look at the world the way an AI does

#160

Post by johnsolo1701 »

Zababa wrote: post #14
rickboyce wrote: post #3

For me this effect is significantly compounded by not being from the US / North America. This has come up on HN before (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25226805 ) but it still strikes me as so odd that you need quite a bit of USA cultural / vernacular knowledge to navigate the internet anywhere in the world (or at least English speaking sites?). What a strange view into another country to see each day!

I was going to say exactly the same thing. Some things are really confusion when you're not from the US. I think it's a problem with internet in general, as many people speaks english and thus people from the USA think everyone is from here.

Just to share the American perspective, it feels like this: Many people speak English, and thus it is difficult/impossible for people from outside the US to discern the difference between domestic and international services. (Not saying Google is a domestic service obviously.) Through historical chance, we don't have the luxury and benefits of a native language like many of you reading this right now.
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