gnramires

gnramires, 4 months ago

@smallcircles @avandeursen @jesper I think multiple solutions will be needed an emerge :) I think solutions can come from small changes to existing social systems and governments (charity and government incentives and programs), and broader changes. I believe in both (a) Stimulating spontaneous donations from individuals (toward what matters); and (b) Creating institutions specialized in evaluating what matters (like grant evaluators already do) with a broad view.

gnramires, 4 months ago

@smallcircles @avandeursen @jesper What do I mean by broad view? I mean evaluating all fronts: (a) Long term impact on wellbeing of society in general -- that's the guiding principle. But in a sense it's hard and debatable, so it is complemented by other approaches (that just specialize in aspects of this goal); (b) Environmental impact (more objective specialization); (c) Psychological impact on users; (d) Technical benefit (to other projects, e.g. for tool development).

gnramires, 4 months ago

@smallcircles @avandeursen @jesper I believe there's a duality to fragmentation (local, small) and unification (global, large), and it needs to be understood and respected. Both have their value: too big scale disallows nuance, closeness and intimacy; too small scale leads to disintegration and too low flow of ideas.

I think we went too quickly from small (local newspapers) to too big (twitter?). The scale is in favour of global news, which does favor global peace, but it can be too much.

gnramires, 4 months ago

@smallcircles @avandeursen @jesper There are other balances that I think we get wrong currently:

(1) Solitude <-> Connectedness

(2) Consumption <-> Creation

and so on. I think Netflix's idea of "Attention economy", that it needs to capture as many viewing hours from people as possible, is a disaster, compared to the notion that it should simply improve people's lives (with genuinely great content that does so). Hours viewed should be just another metric to get to that goal.

gnramires, 4 months ago

@smallcircles @avandeursen @jesper My life might be much better watching a single show that really speaks to me, rather than watching a number of shallow shows that try to have me glued to the screen. My hours of rest and everything else I have to do in life is important. I don't want a service that tries to maximize my time with it, I want a service that wants to help me, to make my life amazing, and to make me a better person too.

gnramires, 6 months ago

@textfiles @benfry Good point (although this is probably meant as a figurative way of speaking). The point is that the handmade option should be encouraged and cherished. Because the child that draws himself, however "poorly" is likely expressing himself more, developing his skills both technical and artistic. If the AI does everything for him, he doesn't get the opportunity to communicate or to develop, and instead gets a canned but "well made" response.