pluralistic

pluralistic, 6 months ago to random

Before the term "ecology" came along, people didn't know they were on the same side. You care about owls, I care about the ozone layer - what does the destiny of charismatic nocturnal avians have to do with the gaseous composition of the upper atmosphere?

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/24/coalescence/#solidarnosc

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pluralistic, 10 months ago to random

#PrivateEquity is quite a racket. #PE managers pile up other peoples' money - pension funds, plutes, other pools of money - and then "invest" it (buying businesses, loading them with debt, cutting wages, lowering quality and setting traps for customers). For this, they get an annual fee - 2% - of the money they manage, and a bonus for any profits they make.

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pluralistic, 1 year ago to random

Competition is just a click (and $45b) away
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1328941/download

> #Google pays $45 billion a year for contracts to lock out rivals, signing deals with “Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung; major U.S. wireless carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon; and browser developers such as Mozilla, Opera, and UCWeb— to secure default status for its general search engine and, in many cases, to specifically prohibit Google’s counterparties from dealing with Google’s competitors.”

pluralistic, 7 months ago to random

Almost no one knows this, but last June, a 90-car train got away from its crew in #Hernando, MO, rolling three miles through two public crossings, a ghost train that included 47 potentially explosive propane cars. The #BombTrain neither crashed nor derailed, which meant that #GrenadaRailroad/#GulfAndAtantic didn't have to report it.

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pluralistic, 4 months ago to random

Giant Teddy Bears R Us

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

#TransparentRuses #Enshittification #GiantTeddyBears #MrBeast #X

If you go down to the midway at your county fair, you'll spot some poor sucker walking around all day with a giant teddy bear that they won by throwing three balls in a peach basket. The peach-basket is a rigged game. The carny can use a hidden switch to force the balls to bounce out of the basket. No one wins a giant teddy bear unless the carny wants them to win it. Why did the carny let the sucker win the giant teddy bear? So that he'd carry it around all day, convincing other suckers to put down five bucks for their chance to win one. The carny allocated a giant teddy bear to that poor sucker the way that platforms allocate surpluses to key performers – as a convincer in a "Big Store" con, a way to rope in other suckers who'll make content for the platform, anchoring themselves and their audiences to it.

pluralistic, 2 months ago to random

Remember the first time you used Google search? It was like magic. After years of progressively worsening search quality from Altavista and Yahoo, Google was literally stunning, a gateway to the very best things on the internet.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

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pluralistic, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to DaftPunk

My latest column for @Locusmag is "What Kind of Bubble is AI?" All economic bubbles are hugely destructive, but some of them leave behind wreckage that can be salvaged for useful purposes, while others leave nothing behind but ashes:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/19/bubblenomics/#pop

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pluralistic, 5 months ago to random

Dig that crazy cat

#sign #nola #pets

pluralistic, 4 months ago to berlin

Last night, I gave the annual #MarshallMcLuhan lecture at the #transmediale festival in #Berlin. The event was sold out and while there's a video that'll be posted soon, they couldn't get a streaming setup installed in the Canadian embassy, where the talk was held:

https://transmediale.de/en/2024/event/mcluhan-2024

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

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An animation built around an image of dark, menacing storm clouds. Peeking through the clouds is a 386 motherboard, which slowly crossfades to a Code Waterfall effect from the credit sequence of the Wachowskis' 'The Matrix.' The animation crossfades back and forth in an endless loop. Image: Drahtlos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motherboard_Intel_386.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en -- cdessums (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monsoon_Season_Flagstaff_AZ_clouds_storm.jpg CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

pluralistic, 11 months ago to random

12% of Americans live in California - but 30% of homeless Americans, and 50% of unsheltered Americans, call California "home." This prompts endless schadenfreude from "red state" partisans, and is waved as proof of the failure of liberal policies. But the real story is both more complicated - and simpler.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/12/because-its-too-expensive/#rents-too-damned-high

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pluralistic, 4 months ago to random

As a science fiction writer, I am professionally irritated by a lot of sf movies. Not only do those writers get paid a lot more than I do, they insist on including things like "self-destruct" buttons on the bridges of their starships.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/17/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated

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pluralistic, 1 year ago to random

"Two things have quickly become very clear: First, corporations will happily sacrifice quality for infinite amounts of passable AI sludge. And, second, unless you have some mechanism for collective action in your workplace, your boss is going to try and figure out a way to replace you with an AI."

• Ryan Broderick, Garbage Day

https://www.garbageday.email/p/unions-are-our-only-defense-against

#unions #writersguild #AI #sludge

pluralistic, 1 month ago to random

Combine Angelou's "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" with the truism that in politics, "every accusation is a confession" and you get: "Every time someone accuses you of a vice, they're showing you who they are and you should believe them."

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

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pluralistic, 6 months ago to random

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing"; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/

#Pluralistic

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pluralistic, 1 year ago to random

Big Tech steals from the news, but what it steals isn't content - it steals money. That matters, because if we create pseudo-copyrights over the facts of the news, or headlines, or snippets to help news companies bargain with tech companies, we make the news partners with the tech companies, rather than watchdogs.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this to read/share, here' it is on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/31/context-ads/#class-formation

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pluralistic, 10 months ago to random

The vast majority of America's debt collection targets $500-2,000 credit card debts. It is a filthy business, operated by lawless firms who hire unskilled workers drawn from the same economic background as their targets, who routinely and grotesquely flout the law, but only when it comes to the people with the least ability to pay.

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pluralistic, 11 months ago to ai

"The Venn diagram of #AI concerns and #privacy concerns is a circle."

• @Mer__edith

https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/22/get-a-clue-says-panel-about-generative-ai-its-being-deployed-as-surveillance-devices/

pluralistic, 8 months ago to random

Forsooth, Tis Spın̈al Tap

pluralistic, 1 year ago to random

Internet platforms have reached end-stage enshittification, where they claw back the goodies they once used to lure in end-users and business customers, trying to walk a tightrope in which there's just enough value left to keep you locked in, but no more. It's ugly out there.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/10/soft-landings/#e2e-r2e

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pluralistic, 7 months ago to random

Media explainers are a cheap way to become an instant expert on everything from billionaire submarine excursions to hellaciously complex geopolitical conflicts, but @onthemedia's "#BreakingNewsConsumersHandbooks" are explainers that help you understand other explainers:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-and-gaza-edition-on-the-media

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/28/fog-o-war/#breaking-news

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pluralistic, 1 year ago to random

Cory Doctorow Explains Why Big Tech Is Making the Internet Terrible https://jacobin.com/2023/05/cory-doctorow-big-tech-internet-monopoly-capitalism-artificial-intelligence-crypto/

pluralistic, 7 months ago to random

Think of everything that makes you miserable as being caught between two opposing, irresistible, irrefutable truths:

• "Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops" (#SteinsLaw)

• "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" (Keynes)

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/30/markets-remaining-irrational/#steins-law

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pluralistic, 1 year ago to random

Y'know how "#realist" became a synonym for "#asshole?" As in, "I'm not a racist, I'm just a #RaceRealist?" That "realism" is also used to discredit the idea of democracy, among a group of self-styled "#LibertarianElitists," who claim that social science proves that democracy doesn't work - and can't work.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read/share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

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pluralistic, 7 months ago to random

There's a cheat-code in US #antitrustm it's been increasingly used since the #Reagan administration, when the "#ConsumerWelfare" theory ("#monopolies are fine, so long as the lower prices") shoved aside the long-established idea that antitrust law existed to prevent monopolies from forming at all.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

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pluralistic, 17 days ago to random

I, a total stranger, was thinking of befriending your kid, but before I did, I thought I'd ask you, are they a boring, selfish jerk?

It's fine if they are, I'm just really trying to find quality people to be friends with, so I thought I'd ask you, is your kid a dick?

Wait, don't get offended! How are people supposed to know whether to hang out with your kid if you can't answer a simple question?!