I was watching buffy and the eighth episode of the first season a demon is scanned into the computers. This is a funny time as its when people where online with dialup. All the same it had a quote I feel is apropos to the current period. Truns out that show had a bit of the simpsons precog ability:
Giles: Nonsense! I simply don’t adhere to a, a knee-jerk assumption that because something is new, it’s better.
Ms. Calendar: This isn’t a fad, Rupert! We are creating a new society here.
Giles: A society in which human interaction is all but obsolete? In which people can be completely manipulated by technology, well, well… Thank you, I’ll pass.
A society in which human interaction is all but obsolete?
This is the notion that I always hated growing up. We are humans interacting with other right right fucking now. And we are doing so over the internet.
The internet is a literal communications tool for fuck’s sake!
There is a noticable difference in electronic communication. Before the internet there were plenty of people that hated being on the phone instead of face to face. Something is lost with each loss of the physical experience. From in person to voice to text. Granted video calls actually are a bit of an improvment to a phone call as far as human connection goes.
Yes, there’s something lost, but there’s something gained as well. By linking to things, we can refer people to a source without sending them to the library. We can show others photos or diagrams without having to carry them around in our pockets all the time. We aren’t bound by time or distance.
yet so many sources are of questionable quality and so rarely are the pictures of anything useful. We have greatly increased efficiency but often have lost quality.
I’m sure people made the same arguments against writing letters and the telegraph.
Only 80 years ago, maths profs literally picketed calculators being allowed in schools. 🤓
true but I think they had a point then. especially given the limits of the telegraph. thats like email and the original text message in some ways.
What do you mean original text message?
Probably referring to SMS protocol, 160 7-bit characters.
In a few years the newer phones automatically started just telling you how many messages long your message was.
You’d end up shortening things sort of like a telegram.noSpacesSomeTimesToSaveChars etc. but it’s own style. txting it was called, because “txtMe” is a lot shorter than “text me back, please”.
And they weren’t free so you’d pay by the SMS.
And when you were txting your crush and heard the Nokia sms… and then another, you’d know there was a longer message. Or having a row with them, in which case it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
And sometimes you’d run out of room on your phone (because the memory only supported like 48 messaged or smth), you’d get a message, start reading it, then it’d say “cont”, but your message memory full icon is flashing (same as got a message, but flashing instead of just the letter icon).
Idk what the argument is but that’s what “original text message” means to me.
yup. thats essentially what I meant. email could be a book but sms was limited in size.
Unless you are a bot, interacting with orher bots. Damn, I feel old thinking how the internet used to be good.
Well, we aren’t manipulated by technology per se, but by the humans who control the technology. Could have been nice if Silicon Valley wasn’t so damn fascist. But I suppose that’s nitpicking, Giles definitely had the right idea.
On that note, can’t wait for another season of black mirror. (it’s not the technology that is evil, but can easily be used for evil)
This applies to all technology.
A hammer can be used to build. It can also be used to bludgeon someone’s skull. It’s about who is wielding it and how they choose to use it.
Meh, the evil was usually based on humans.
Steve Bannon made a lot of gold selling virtual wow gold, but even worse he learned how toxic and impressionable young male gamers were. Which lead to Gamergate and the radicalizing of a lot of the current generation…
If anything, Gile was underestimating the dangers.
At the same time technology is neutral, it’s humans who chose this, so frankly less interaction and a bit more technology might be highly beneficial.
as long as you don’t count software as technology because it, especially algorithms, are often not neutral.
The software didn’t code itself
originally but it is a thing now.
But the other poster’s point still stands. Technology in general, and algorithms specifically, are neutral. It’s humans deciding what to put into production and what metrics need to be met that cause the problems, not the technology itself. Blaming “technology” is just a way to let the humans making decisions off the hook.
true. its dystopia because done in another way it could be utopia.
Stupid quote and only works if you stupidly believe we weren’t manipulated before the Internet.
certainly, but just not as efficiently.
