What's going on here is that unrelated libertarian principles are being recoded as issues of free speech. All of sudden preventing algorithmic harm becomes leftist censorship, and the culture war is used as a bulwark against government regulation of discriminatory technologies.
"Algorithmic decisions about parole, loan approvals, interest rates, program admissions, insurance premiums, security clearance, etc. that depend on race and ethnicity? That's not discrimination, it's *speech*."
And he's funding Post, which in itself is enough for me to stay clear of that platform.
@Mikal Yeah, I had a bit to say about this over there in my first post since immediately after learning about his involvement.
I read it. Ugh.
This is the thing that even I'm still having trouble fully absorbing about Mastodon: the completely different incentive structure and affordances built in to something that is user operated and governed, transparent, and non-commercial.
At this point, I can't really see much value in building the next VC bro's surveillance cash cow and fascist incubator.
There is nothing Post is doing that smart people couldn't build off of ActivityPub and federate.
There are a couple of things that are not working like this. There is no clear opinion as how Mastodon and the fediverse should look like. While many want features the official App gets featured willingly not implemented because of disagreement on its usefulness
Like here:
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios/issues/250
So different people have different views on the Network, some favor small instances, some want huge servers with useless public timelines for interaction.
All are valid
@ct_bergstrom @Mikal
But we will not see a "coherent" opinion about the fediverse and only one way to do it.
We can only show the options. And yes, we can get better in this :)
@stefpac
@ct_bergstrom @Mikal on the contrary, decentralization is the entire point. Don't like the instance you're on? Move. Maybe Pixelfed if you'd like something more IG. Don't like your app? Try a different one.
The magic of the Federation is the options, not some technogeek deciding how social media should work.
So, who's going to do this?
There are so many times where I wish I had the technical chops to be involved at the level necessary to do that kind of project. 🤷♂️
@Mikal @ct_bergstrom honestly, right now it would make sense to wait and see what Post does. They are paying for a lot of mistakes an attentive observer can avoid in the future.
Right now Post is new and shiny. That won't last. Once the (concrete, detailed) problems* become apparent, it will be easier to create an alternative that is also better.
* Not to imply that there aren't big structural problems already.
I am sorry. What is it from Post that you are missing?
It looks to me like a writefreely clone
Here their video for fediverse interaction
https://video.writeas.org/videos/watch/cc55e615-d204-417c-9575-7b57674cc6f3
A quick look at how federation on Write.as works. If you're already on Write.as, you can enable federation in your profile as shown in this video. Otherwise, create a new federated blog here: https://write.as/new/blog/federated
@mwfc @Mikal @ct_bergstrom This looks nothing like what Post is and shares none of what Post tries to do differently from other social media, so I don't really know how to answer that.
Federating blog posts is cool tho 😁
@ct_bergstrom @Mikal Post has EXACTLY the same goal as Elon has with Twitter, just more tact about how to do it:
Undoing the democratization of the flow of information and herding journalists into a bubble that billionaires control.
Post is just making them feel like VIPs rather than bombarding them with nazis.
@patrickgillam @Mikal @ct_bergstrom Thank you sharing. I just listened to it.
(Feel free to call me Adam.)
I love the mission of Post but I am going to need to see more details on the extent of this investment, moderation and governance.
Andreessen has nodded to “Pravda-like” designs in the past (as has Musk) that would artificially favor their viewpoints, and only their viewpoints.
I cannot invest in that without far more clarity.
My only post over there, since learning this, tackles the issue head-on.
@ct_bergstrom The European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency is hiring: https://algorithmic-transparency.ec.europa.eu/index_en
Up to now I had considered it to be a neutral department, but there seems to be some interesting politics on it too.
@ct_bergstrom honestly, world-wide I think that algorithmic gender discrimination is BY FAR most prevelent followed by ageism.
Here in Poland I dont even recall the last time I filled in "race"/"ethnicity" in any system that would be made in Europe rather than US. Hard to discriminate on something you dont know (perhaps its one of solutions, where possible dont gather this data?)
And US having issues with algorithmic race discrimination doesnt stop gender discrimination running rampant either.
@MarcinW I literally have lectured multiple times about algorithmic gender discrimination this month. I don't know why you seem to think that I am a doubter.
As for "Here in Poland I dont even recall the last time I filled in "race"/"ethnicity" in any system that would be made in Europe rather than US. Hard to discriminate on something you dont know": are you serious?
ML systems pick up correlates of gender/race/etc. See e.g. Amazon's system that was not told gender: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK08G
FREE SPEECH: when I get your money
WOKEIST HITLER: when you get my money
@ct_bergstrom That man is a danger to the world.
We have too many fragile men who are; but then isn't that just history?
@ct_bergstrom Not surprising. AI is a bulwark to secure status quo and even roll back progress made in the past decades.
If progressives *again* fail to address this threat and instead chase red herrings, we have dark times ahead.
This reminds me, didn't Thiel describe AI as the Socialist opponent to Crypto Freedom?
The leaked documents show a backer of a venture of Jared Kushner's has been bankrolled by Kremlin-controlled financial vehicles in the past, and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has held onto an investment with ties to Kremlin figures.
cami manning
Carl T. Bergstrom
My camera shoots fascists
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…might work for coffee…
Hung Nguyen
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Olav
vegangster
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MarcinW 🖥️🚀
teno
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