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The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

scottrlarson.com

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#31

Awareness is not sufficient to overcome a well financed organized business enterprise. So, I disagree.

Indeed. Vital to the solution yes, but if it was all that was needed then the surveillance systems would have been dismantled and prevented each time enough people became aware. The fact that we are here now is it’s own evidence

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#32
post #17
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what is missing now Unfortunately what is missing (in the large part of the population) is the perception of Dignity, and the unawareness of the consciousness of their action (people are accepting and feeding the machine). It is not just the awareness of the historic context that is missing: it is the awareness that what was built is bad, and that that they are partially to blame in every act of acceptance and omis…

A better awareness of human rights would go a long way to solving the conditions which make surveillance capitalism profitable. Folks only accept these heinous abrogations of their human rights because they don't understand human rights.

"Human rights" is a binary abstraction over nonbinary human needs (needs aren't binary because sometimes you need some amount of water and sometimes you don't need any...but you may be fully hydrated while needing to clean a wound; that's just one example). Being stuck in binary thinking means being stuck in a mental model that can never accurately portray the world, despite rampant evidence the model doesn't work. Being stuck in a system founded on binary thinking is being stuck in a system of stupidity.

We focus on "human rights" because we've been propagandized into myths while never taking full responsibility for our own selves in it.

This is why humanity lives in a mythocracy, as Sun Ra called it. We are currently collectively governed by myths of money, debt, ownership, life, death, rights, wrongs, Earth, patriarchy, egos, liberty, and more. Until humans start collectively learning to craft/choose/embody myths for centering the conditions that sustain life and relating to all things as kin, we'll continue in the current direction.

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#33

I am intrigued by the header, and it seems like this has some good points. However, I'm struggling to parse this content. There's a full image in between almost every sentence. In most cases, I don't find the image adds significantly to the point of the preceding or following sentence, so it just looks like filler for colour. I could put this into an AI but then what's the point of the article in the first place?

Beyond the stated changes the author believes are necessary for citizens to make: stop externalizing responsibility, stop going along with social norms that perpetuate surveillance capitalism, and indulging in anger as a substitue for action; the other actionable takeaway to me is: "Unless we have real representation in our government. Companies don’t have vested interest in protecting privacy."

I interpret this as meaning citizens need to support advocacy groups that lobby elected officials to create/improve regulations that would limit the ability to implement surveillance capitalism. This aligns with the author's own words: "Responding to National or Regional calls for safety: Calls to support initiatives, or bills to increase security at the expense of freedom, make us less safe. Trading security for freedom reduces our ability to act."

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#34

I am intrigued by the header, and it seems like this has some good points. However, I'm struggling to parse this content. There's a full image in between almost every sentence. In most cases, I don't find the image adds significantly to the point of the preceding or following sentence, so it just looks like filler for colour. I could put this into an AI but then what's the point of the article in the first place?

Yes, the formatting made it very difficult to read and follow.

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#35

Awareness is not sufficient to overcome a well financed organized business enterprise. So, I disagree.

Awareness and giving a shit.

Most people don't care enough about this. They know that their phones are profiling them and delivering ads based on what they do, what they search for, or where they've been. They think it's maybe a little creepy but not really a big deal. Advertising has always been psychologically manipulative, so that part is nothing new. It's just a bit more targeted now.

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#36

Awareness is not sufficient to overcome a well financed organized business enterprise. So, I disagree.

Awareness and giving a shit. Most people don't care enough about this. They know that their phones are profiling them and delivering ads based on what they do, what they search for, or where they've been. They think it's maybe a little creepy but not really a big deal. Advertising has always been psychologically manipulative, so that part is nothing new. It's just a bit more targeted now.

> They think it's maybe a little creepy but not really a big deal.

In other words, it's the awareness again.

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#37

Awareness is not sufficient to overcome a well financed organized business enterprise. So, I disagree.

Indeed. Vital to the solution yes, but if it was all that was needed then the surveillance systems would have been dismantled and prevented each time enough people became aware. The fact that we are here now is it’s own evidence

I'm the author of the presentation. When I was designing this talk, the end game I had in mind is to have a starting point. I think bringing more awareness to the depth of the problem and some behaviors we can change can start us down the road is good enough to get the ball rolling. I don't think this is going to be solved in one generation.

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awareness and giving a shit. Most people don't care enough about this. They know that their phones are profiling them and delivering ads based on what they do, what they search for, or where they've been. They think it's maybe a little creepy but not really a big deal. Advertising has always been psychologically manipulative, so that part is nothing new. It's just a bit more targeted now.

> They think it's maybe a little creepy but not really a big deal. In other words, it's the awareness again.

It's the lack of awareness of what else these profiles could be used for. I would posit that many people are aware that advertisers are targeting them, but they don't care or maybe even like it.

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#39
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been very happy with @voice aloud on Android to convert a page, (but most often for me) a PDF into spoken audio, sometimes I'll watch it auto scroll what it's converted. It's robotic but I've gotten so used to it I don't really worry much anymore (though I have played with voice clone stuff some and have really been tempted to use that). Anywho just reminded me of the app I have been using for probably a decade…

How is your voice handling pipeline emojis and "leftwards rounded arrow with hook" bullshit any AI slop will contain and any reader will insist on fully reading aloud? I gave up reading webpages because of this, I can't focus on the actual text because of all formatting embellishment. I sought and sought but haven't been able to find an Android app or browser extension able to AI-filter through webpage garbage yet -…

I've not used it excessively on webpages, the ones I have, I start reading then change my mind and decide to listen, but haven't observed the emoji issue. Then again, maybe I tend to skip over listening to AI generated (or at least overtly obvious?) content. I also have dealt with listening to technical content on PDFs and it sometimes tries to read out x's and o's from a plot, particularly annoying driving ;) guess it hasn't ever bothered me enough to just not use it. I have slowly experimented here and there looking to build a pipeline of text ingest (thinking I could use LLM) to convert certain text (like a plot in my earlier example) into a verbal description, a plot about this thing with emphasis on showing this fact. Or basically hey take this text and make it more digestable by audio, but I haven't experimented a ton.

Ultimately yes garbage in garbage out, but I've found enough value in using it, it's been good enough for me to suggest it's use, and hasn't caused me to search for another variant of tts on phone.

Re: The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

#40
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better awareness of human rights would go a long way to solving the conditions which make surveillance capitalism profitable. Folks only accept these heinous abrogations of their human rights because they don't understand human rights.

"Human rights" is a binary abstraction over nonbinary human needs (needs aren't binary because sometimes you need some amount of water and sometimes you don't need any...but you may be fully hydrated while needing to clean a wound; that's just one example). Being stuck in binary thinking means being stuck in a mental model that can never accurately portray the world, despite rampant evidence the model doesn't work. B…

I care not one iota for the opinion of someone who degrades human rights, which are universal and apply to you - and me - equally, whether you agree or not.
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