4 ms·
This is the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. We were not paranoid enough. I was not paranoid enough. You were not paranoid enough. Reality outstripped
by msg 13y ago
This is the tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg.
We were not paranoid enough. I was not paranoid enough. You were not paranoid enough. Reality outstripped our imaginations. How are we going to recalibrate our expectations? What's next?
- lukifer 13y agoHere's my answer: predictive Bayesian algorithms, run across the data-set of all human behavior, and algorithmically generated dossiers and smear campaigns for every human on the planet. All available for sale, for favors and influence if not for money. ...that is, assuming these aren't being done already.
- j_baker 13y agoA part of me wishes all these dossiers would become public. If everyone's skeletons were out of the closet, we wouldn't care about skeletons so much.
- adventured 13y agoI think most people would proceed to focus on everybody else's skeletons in a shallow judgmental fashion and continue to ignore their own flaws exactly as they do today. The net effect would be to put our rotting culture's worst aspects on steroids. What would occur is mass ostracizing and general social chaos from imploded relationships (friends, lovers, family). There would be shocking and boring skeletons, it would become a giant cultural witch hunt, pleasure would be taken in socially mocking and assaulting people with the most outrageous or abnormal skeletons. We live in a bankrupt culture that worships tabloids, gossip and low value entertainment (low value everything in fact, including food, just so long as it distracts for a moment). I see no reason to think people would suddenly change the way they go about the world: the averages for what is considered scandalous behavior would simply shift and there would be a new unlimited supply of people to be socially assaulted. Why just look at my boring skeletons compared to that guy! My scandal is nowhere near as bad as hers!
- bashinator 13y agoC.f. congress has a <20% approval rating, but everybody likes their own congresscritter.
- w_t_payne 13y agoYup. I am fed up with the lies we all tell to ourselves - all the BS that we smother ourselves in:- all for appearance's sake. If we could admit to ourselves (and to each other) how crap we (as human beings) really are, then we might actually stand a chance of fixing ourselves - and maybe also make a start on all of the obviously broken systems in the world. Only we cannot - we dare not point out our flaws or criticize the systems that govern and control the world:- because that would be "weird". The emperor is stark bollock naked, and we need somebody to point it out in such a way that we all take notice.
- lukifer 13y agoI can't help but be fascinated by the web of lies that comprises so much of the social fabric: not only cultural notions like "God cares about your sex life" or "America is the greatest nation", but even fundamentally obvious ideas like "human life has value" or "the truth matters". :P Beliefs, and the deceptions that maintain them, are more properly understood as self-fulfilling prophecies; prescriptive ideas, masquerading as descriptive ideas. I have a serious concern that if we magically evaporated every single lie, and therefore every belief, we would disintegrate back into "nature red in tooth and claw". Our capacity for aspirational imagination and social climbing through deception is as every bit baked into the history of human evolution as our empathy for those like us, or our care for child-rearing. It is, in Stross's term, a wicked problem. "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Vonnegut
- w_t_payne 13y agoWow. Interesting take on things. I may have to think about this a bit.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- 001sky 13y agoWe were not paranoid enough. I was not paranoid enough. You were not paranoid enough. Reality outstripped our imaginations. Unfortunately now twisted, this lesson from 9/11 stares back at us in the mirror like a nightmare. Social engineering and conditioning were manipulated by the terrorists, too. The lesson is don't be naive. People can do some ugly things. Especially when they abuse positions of trust and basic norms of civility.
- Derbasti 13y agoThe lesson of 9/11 is: The terrorists won. The NSA et al. was way more effective at spreading terror than those terrorists ever were. And it probably cost more money (and lives?), too.
- 001sky 13y agoIts not clear that they have "won", in an endgame sense. But if the NSA has commandeered the internet ("for security")... The logical conclusion points to (/seems to be) the course of history is nearing at an inflection point.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago>Its not clear that they have "won", in an endgame sense. We'll see after the next election. If a whole bunch of incumbent security hawks and war hawks aren't unseated by civil libertarians, then we're probably out of chances.
- mcguire 13y agoPlease let us know how to identify some civil libertarians. It would help if they aren't also crazy in their own right.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoIf I see one, I'll let you know.