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I think one of my most repeated tropes on HN is bringing up that scale and degree matter. A problem of a kind is of a completely different kind when the scale i
by piva00 8d ago
I think one of my most repeated tropes on HN is bringing up that scale and degree matter. A problem of a kind is of a completely different kind when the scale is another order of magnitude.
A simple example: with picture editing software people have been able to create believable fake content for a long time, it did require skill which limited the scale, with genAI creating in seconds, by anyone, a much more plausible fake image than most people were able to before creates a whole other kind of problem that didn't exist before.
It's a tired argument to reduce issues to analogous which existed before and discard how the scale and degree of it changes the class of problem...
- greggoB 8d agoSeems like exactly the kind of distinction that would be a common refrain on HN, yet somehow on this topic it's gone out the window. > A simple example: with picture editing software Actually reminds me of a story a professor in a comsci ethics class once told about how the police in South Africa (during the apartheid years) would take photos of everyone protesting the regime at the university campus. Back then (this was the 80s) nobody really cared - what were they going to do, go through all the photos by hand? He said "imagine how much more concerned people would be today". That was in 2011 or so.