This is exactly "Fahrenheit 451".
Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
181–190 of 244 posts
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#182The Three Trends (according to the article): 1. Medium: text -> images -> video -> 3D graphics -> VR 2. AI: time -> rank -> recommend -> generate 3. UI: click -> scroll -> tap -> swipe -> autoplay By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. (I may be exaggerating a touch.) It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers o…
You might enjoy The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect [1]. It addresses these themes quite directly. The thing is, we're sort of talking (still somewhat hypothetically) about the Internet becoming more like hard drugs here in terms of entertainment/pleasure/addiction potential, which puts pretty much everyone except for (by HN standards) serious conservatives in a bind on slamming social media: liberals like me and th…
That's Peter Thiel's thesis
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 75% isn't calculated per player or per session. It's the theoretical minimum payout over the long run. Basically it's just code that does win = rand()
Why does the GP's comment strike you as implying that the minimum is calculated per person or session?
> each loss does in fact bring you closer to the winning spin
To me that implies that the machine is keeping track of a period of time to make sure it pays out 75% during that period.
Each spin is random and independent of whether it's been on a losing streak or not.
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#184The Three Trends (according to the article): 1. Medium: text -> images -> video -> 3D graphics -> VR 2. AI: time -> rank -> recommend -> generate 3. UI: click -> scroll -> tap -> swipe -> autoplay By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. (I may be exaggerating a touch.) It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers o…
“You only started trying it out once they moved to GANS and VR headsets. You are not pathetic or anything, could get a real girl if you wanted to. Just don't have time. Have to focus on your career for now. "Build your empire then build your family", that's your motto.
You strap on the headset and see an adversarial generated girlfriend designed by world-class ML to maximize engagement.
She starts off as a generically beautiful young women; over the course of weeks she gradually molds both her appearance and your preferences such that competing products just won't do.
In her final form, she is just a grotesque undulating array of psychedelic colors perfectly optimized to introduce self-limiting microseizures in the pleasure center of the your brain. Were someone else to put on the headset, they would see only a nauseating mess. But to your eyes there is only Her.
It strikes you that true love does exist after all.”
- 8fhdkjw039hd
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#185The tweets from Sam Lessin quoted in the article seem deeply dystopian, particularly the idea that FB/IG's fundamental problem today is interface-based, something Tiktok has apparently solved. Currently, users actually have to make a decision to click to view something, e.g. comments on a post.
Infinite scroll UI and pageless SPA frameworks fixed this to an extent, but apparently that's not enough anymore. Today, the algorithm "knows" that you want to watch this trashy sensationalist video, even though you aren't physically tapping the button to view it.
So Tiktok's format of fullscreen autoplaying video is designed to pass that final hurdle: remove decision making from the user entirely. Throw AI-recommended (and soon, AI-generated) material at them, forever, until they physically exit the app.
No wonder Zuck wanted a Facebook phone back in 2011. iOS and Android actually let you exit the FB app if you wanted to.
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reminds me a little of Star Trek TNG's The Game [1], where the crew becomes addicted to an automated AR/VR game that just sits there autoplaying, directly manipulating the brain's pleasure sensors. Something like this, but one that also slowly transfers the contents of the user's bank account to a corporation, could be the ultimate end-result of our current capitalist-technologist trajectory. 1: https://en.wikipedia.…
"To unlock more Dopamine Crystals, please do this Mechanical Turk task and complete a side quest for Pepsi flavored Vat Fluid"
Isn't this what a job already is?
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 75% isn't calculated per player or per session. It's the theoretical minimum payout over the long run. Basically it's just code that does win = rand()
No, that's an oversimplification. The takeout is configurable. With older machines they have to be manually set at the machines, but with more modern machines it is controlled by a server. The period of time while the takeout remains unchanged is referred to as a cycle. Casinos are generally free to change the takeout so long as it is a minimum of the regulated amount. Then there are the regulations requiring idle ti…
Right, it's more complicated because there are different payouts with different odds. But when you add up all the payouts with all the odds it has to add up to >.75.
What I'm objecting to is your idea that machines are more likely to payout after they've lost for a while. Each spin is independent of previous spins. The 75% is just a statistical average over the long run.
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
VR is never going to be a replacement for short form video. Casual passive consumption of video benefits from being able to fit in between other activities easily. I'm never going to want an immersive experience when I have 2 minutes to kill waiting for a friend to show up at a bar - I just want easily digestible content snacks.
> Casual passive consumption of video benefits from being able to fit in between other activities easily. I'm never going to want an immersive experience when I have 2 minutes to kill waiting for a friend to show up at a bar - I just want easily digestible content snacks. This presumes the existence of important "other activities", and relegates this content consumption as some lower-priority thing done between these…
The fact that a lot of viral videos are produced with built-in video game split-screens proves that people don't want full immersion. To fully engage our focus-deprived adhd brains you need multiple inputs at once.
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
This reminds me of the evolution of the slot machine (as read in Matthew Crawford's The World Beyond Your Head ). A rough analog would be: 1. Medium: Mechanical reel > Digital reel 2. Gameplay: Fixed odds > Adjustable odds > Programmatic adaptive odds 3. Experience: Pull the lever and win or lose > Pull the lever and win even if you lose (e.g. get back change) > Swipe a card and win even if you lose > Swipe a card an…
Reminds me a little of Star Trek TNG's The Game [1], where the crew becomes addicted to an automated AR/VR game that just sits there autoplaying, directly manipulating the brain's pleasure sensors. Something like this, but one that also slowly transfers the contents of the user's bank account to a corporation, could be the ultimate end-result of our current capitalist-technologist trajectory. 1: https://en.wikipedia.…
> Reminds me a little of Star Trek TNG's The Game[1], where the crew becomes addicted to an automated AR/VR game that just sits there autoplaying, directly manipulating the brain's pleasure sensors.
Huh. That appears to be a mostly-accurate summary of Wikipedia's description of the episode, which heavily features the term "addicted". But it's an awful summary of the episode itself, which doesn't use the concept of addiction at all. (Also, the game doesn't autoplay; it is shown on screen requiring effort from the player.)
The game is a malevolent agent which intentionally makes very specific modifications to the players' minds. The relevant concept is infection, not addiction. The plot of the episode is essentially identical to that of the TNG episode Conspiracy[1], or the Buffy episode Bad Eggs[2].
And while not completely identical, the plot is also very similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers[3]. It's a very, very common theme. (As shown by the fact that TNG did it twice!)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(Star_Trek:_The_Nex...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Eggs_(Buffy_the_Vampire_Sl...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers
Re: Instagram, TikTok, and the Three Trends
#190The Three Trends (according to the article): 1. Medium: text -> images -> video -> 3D graphics -> VR 2. AI: time -> rank -> recommend -> generate 3. UI: click -> scroll -> tap -> swipe -> autoplay By this definition, the end of the line is a totally passive consumption of endorphin-inducing pablum that blots out the real world. (I may be exaggerating a touch.) It might stop short of a wire into the pleasure centers o…
maybe end of the line for AI is ... generate -> consume, us humans can unplug from social media and leave it for bots :)