Tech

There are 2 posts tagged Tech (this is page 1 of 1).

Tear down the new institutions – Ethical Tech

Ben Werdmuller:

Facebook is what you get when you don’t have any ethical quandaries about building a platform where engagement is powered by addiction, proprietary algorithms and rules decide what you should and shouldn’t read, and advertising is allowed to target users to a disturbing degree.

 

The new generation of social platforms have become gatekeepers that dictate exactly what we can learn about, and how. Most importantly, they have decided to make money by letting third parties have influence over what we learn. It has become painfully clear that this is in opposition to democracy itself.

Silicon Valley: A Reality Check – Slate Star Codex

Scott Alexander:

“Here’s my theory. If you’re an average well-off person, leading your average well-off life, consuming average well-off media and seeing ads targeted at the average well-off demographic, and going over to your average well-off friends’ houses and seeing their average well-off products, which are you more likely to hear about? A structured-light optical engine for cytological research? Or a juicer?”

Everyone piled on the Juicero thing, including me. The fiasco became a poster child of Silicon Valley vapidness. Alexander reminds us that there’s usually more going on than what we are exposed to in our little social network bubbles.