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8 posts

Internet

Avoid Digital Ketchup

In 2004, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article which, among other things, explores why there are hundreds of varieties of mustard, but only one type of ketchup. (I first encountered it in the printed collection "What The Dog Saw" which is, I think, Gladwell at his finest. Freed from the burden of an overarching narrative, he can tell interesting stories 30 pages at a time.) Part of the story is a meditation on the soul of ketchup: what it is, how it functions, and so on. The basic idea he lays out … (Continued)

Is Facebook More Like Cigarettes or Alcohol?

It's becoming increasingly clear that infinite-scroll, algorithmic social media in its current incarnation is harmful to both the users that over-indulge, as well as countries filled with obsessive users. For an overview of some evidence, here's a snippet fron Jonathan Haidt's interview with Joe Rogan. If that piques your interest, his full interview with Rogan is worth a listen, as well as his 2019 article in the Atlantic about how social media is corroding our republic, or his 2015 article wit … (Continued)

Durable Connections

Listening to Moxie Marlinspike on JRE, around 1h39m: "In a sense, I'm glad those things [social media] exist, because they're sort of what we wanted, but I think we underestimated how important the medium is, like the medium is the message kinda thing. What we were doing at the time, of writing zines and sharing information, I don't think we understood how much that was predicated on actually building community, and actually building relationships with each other, and that just... what we didn' … (Continued)

Limitations and Humility

There is a type of humility, an admission of limitations, that is as rare as it's ever been on the internet. But for some reason, I'm finding it standing out to me more and more. It sounds something like, "Here's what I think I know, and here's how I know it, but if that turns out to be wrong, I stand corrected." Here's a real world example: InstaHide Disappointingly Wins Bell Labs Prize, 2nd Place. The core argument of the article is thus: InstaHide (a recent method that … (Continued)

The World We Were Promised, Part 2

When I set out to build this blog, it was deliberately a place to tinker. I already have one blog running on WordPress and there wasn't a "cool factor" to starting up another one. Why? Because WordPress is so old-fashioned. It's built in PHP, a programming language that is a few generations out of date and quirky. People who have other options would never choose to start a new project in PHP these days. There are just too many newer languages that are better-designed. Surely, then, someone has … (Continued)

The World We Were Promised, Part 1

Mozilla Corporation, the commercial arm of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, announced this week that they are laying off 250 people, which is a quarter of the company. The official press release on the Mozilla blog is very upbeat, including bits about "acting more quickly and nimbly" and that they will "experiment more." Piecing together reports from Twitter and elsewhere, however, it looks like the entire team of the Servo browser, an R&D project has been cut. (I guess that's not the kind of … (Continued)

Palantiri and Social Media

Journal, 13 March 2020 So much of social media reminds me of Tolkien's palantirs. Dangerous and corrupting for mortals. Manipulated to show you what will redirect your will to someone else's aims. Seemingly a gift but more a temptation. Can lead even mighty kings to crazed suicide. Is long-distance, many-to-many communication beyond a small forum always doomed to do this? It seems harmful every time it's been tried.

On Moderation

As you move about on the internet, on each page, ask yourself "Who moderates this?" If it's someone's Twitter feed, that person doesn't just moderate it, they directly control it. Every tweet is either written by them or retweeted by them. But if you click one of their tweets and Twitter shows you the responses, who moderates those? Nobody. Literally. Even the person who originally posted the tweet, unless they block the person that replied, has no control of the content shown just below to … (Continued)