How great it is that a Ray Bradbury story is so relevant today? I love those writers who can be so prescient. A pet peeve of mine is ALEXA. I hate that crap. I was at a friend's place and saw he had one, and i was grousing about it but he seemed to see nothing wrong with it. The idea of speaking to some piece of tech in the room to turn the light on, rather than reaching over and turning it on myself, is moronic to me. Turning over every little task to tech seems infantilizing. Every little skill we have, the tiny ones we do every day -- it's good for us. It's good to know how to operate a pair of scissors, or a screwdriver. It's good for the brain to be connected to the hands. People like driving cuz it may be the biggest skill they have and get to use.
When i hear about schools dropping something like cursive writing, i think it's bad; there goes another skill, one that, like swimming, i can't imagine not having. I take it for granted. But now schools are too busy doing . . . well, god only knows what they're doing that they no longer have the time to teach these basic skills. I can anticipate the argument that we no longer need to bother learning to read or write -- we can speak into the interfaces, and they will speak back to us . . .
Good point you made -- that tech has weakened us in all ways. It promises to do everything for us, and dazzles and entertains, and pulls at our weakest parts with addictive scrolling bullshit; but it's taking away our agency; how is it an advance to tell some appliance to turn on the lights? I guess if I were so fat that leaving the couch was a problem, that type of help could come in handy.
There's a connection to work, even tiny work, and what we get back from it, the intrinsic rewards. Nothing coming at us thru a screen can provide that.
About your friend with the abusive kid -- I've seen this before. Kids seek boundaries, guidelines, guidance, rules, and they do better when they have these things; it's ingrained; throwing a tantrum will just happen, so be it; I think when kids aren't given these things -- boundaries, expectations for behavior, etc. -- that they feel abandoned or neglected . . . they sense that on some level, and later they have resentment toward the parents who dropped the ball. And they become little Napoleons of course...
Chicken or the egg? I think tech/Internet is the culprit -- I think any generation would have been susceptible to the onslaught of this stuff, had it arrived in their time . . . this creepy thing that preys on the weakest parts of our psychology. Like you said, it weakens us.
My ex’s mom bought us an Alexa for Christmas one year. The thing terrified me. It would always speak when I was watching the tv. I told my ex I wanted it gone and he acted like I was nuts. So we logged into his Amazon account and found that it had recorded like 50% of the shit that was said in our apartment. The only time anyone engaged with it was when he asked for the weather or to have a song play. But it recorded wayyyyy more than that.
Did you see that Amazon just bought the company that makes Roomba? You can bet they’re gonna use data collected from those machines now too. Why people willingly bring this stuff into their home is beyond me. I don’t know if it’s naïveté or blind trust, but it’s no good.
Friggin Amazon. The Roomba will collect our hair and dust from our skin, and will take all the DNA info and make clones out of us. (reminds me of some B-film i can't think of right now).
Yes, why people are fine with a gadget that records everything in the room and takes that info away to god-knows where, is really beyond me. I feel like they get it just because "everyone else is...so it must be the thing to do".
I don’t remember where I saw it, but someone suggested that Amazon would use the roomba to collect data on the square footage of our homes, what sort of possessions we own, etc. It’ll become another way the government will be able to charge us more money, audit us, etc.
Whatever Amazon intends for the roomba and whatever it’s doing with Alexa, it ain’t good
Oh, i have no doubt there is no limit to the amount of info they'd like to collect, and to the vast ways they'd like to exploit it. They could even sell it to the real estate industry, for ex. The info Alexa collects will easily figure out your income, your class (types of music you listen to, places you talk about going, even the language you use while speaking, etc.), the state of your relationship; and your situation financially; let's say a couple is arguing about money one day, about who is doing what, who is pulling their weight or wasting money, maybe one person got laid off, etc. . . . Why not sell that info to a real estate company who will want to swoop in and make an offer on the house, just at the right time? This all sounds crazy; but not to me it doesn't -- it sounds easily like the near future. If i can imagine it, i'm sure groups of tech nerds working on this stuff all day long can think it up.
That doesn't sound crazy at all. We already see this with ads showing up after we talk (not even text or email) to someone about going somewhere, buying something, or doing something. It's the natural evolution of this privacy invasion.
How great it is that a Ray Bradbury story is so relevant today? I love those writers who can be so prescient. A pet peeve of mine is ALEXA. I hate that crap. I was at a friend's place and saw he had one, and i was grousing about it but he seemed to see nothing wrong with it. The idea of speaking to some piece of tech in the room to turn the light on, rather than reaching over and turning it on myself, is moronic to me. Turning over every little task to tech seems infantilizing. Every little skill we have, the tiny ones we do every day -- it's good for us. It's good to know how to operate a pair of scissors, or a screwdriver. It's good for the brain to be connected to the hands. People like driving cuz it may be the biggest skill they have and get to use.
When i hear about schools dropping something like cursive writing, i think it's bad; there goes another skill, one that, like swimming, i can't imagine not having. I take it for granted. But now schools are too busy doing . . . well, god only knows what they're doing that they no longer have the time to teach these basic skills. I can anticipate the argument that we no longer need to bother learning to read or write -- we can speak into the interfaces, and they will speak back to us . . .
Good point you made -- that tech has weakened us in all ways. It promises to do everything for us, and dazzles and entertains, and pulls at our weakest parts with addictive scrolling bullshit; but it's taking away our agency; how is it an advance to tell some appliance to turn on the lights? I guess if I were so fat that leaving the couch was a problem, that type of help could come in handy.
There's a connection to work, even tiny work, and what we get back from it, the intrinsic rewards. Nothing coming at us thru a screen can provide that.
About your friend with the abusive kid -- I've seen this before. Kids seek boundaries, guidelines, guidance, rules, and they do better when they have these things; it's ingrained; throwing a tantrum will just happen, so be it; I think when kids aren't given these things -- boundaries, expectations for behavior, etc. -- that they feel abandoned or neglected . . . they sense that on some level, and later they have resentment toward the parents who dropped the ball. And they become little Napoleons of course...
Chicken or the egg? I think tech/Internet is the culprit -- I think any generation would have been susceptible to the onslaught of this stuff, had it arrived in their time . . . this creepy thing that preys on the weakest parts of our psychology. Like you said, it weakens us.
My ex’s mom bought us an Alexa for Christmas one year. The thing terrified me. It would always speak when I was watching the tv. I told my ex I wanted it gone and he acted like I was nuts. So we logged into his Amazon account and found that it had recorded like 50% of the shit that was said in our apartment. The only time anyone engaged with it was when he asked for the weather or to have a song play. But it recorded wayyyyy more than that.
Did you see that Amazon just bought the company that makes Roomba? You can bet they’re gonna use data collected from those machines now too. Why people willingly bring this stuff into their home is beyond me. I don’t know if it’s naïveté or blind trust, but it’s no good.
Friggin Amazon. The Roomba will collect our hair and dust from our skin, and will take all the DNA info and make clones out of us. (reminds me of some B-film i can't think of right now).
Yes, why people are fine with a gadget that records everything in the room and takes that info away to god-knows where, is really beyond me. I feel like they get it just because "everyone else is...so it must be the thing to do".
I don’t remember where I saw it, but someone suggested that Amazon would use the roomba to collect data on the square footage of our homes, what sort of possessions we own, etc. It’ll become another way the government will be able to charge us more money, audit us, etc.
Whatever Amazon intends for the roomba and whatever it’s doing with Alexa, it ain’t good
Oh, i have no doubt there is no limit to the amount of info they'd like to collect, and to the vast ways they'd like to exploit it. They could even sell it to the real estate industry, for ex. The info Alexa collects will easily figure out your income, your class (types of music you listen to, places you talk about going, even the language you use while speaking, etc.), the state of your relationship; and your situation financially; let's say a couple is arguing about money one day, about who is doing what, who is pulling their weight or wasting money, maybe one person got laid off, etc. . . . Why not sell that info to a real estate company who will want to swoop in and make an offer on the house, just at the right time? This all sounds crazy; but not to me it doesn't -- it sounds easily like the near future. If i can imagine it, i'm sure groups of tech nerds working on this stuff all day long can think it up.
That doesn't sound crazy at all. We already see this with ads showing up after we talk (not even text or email) to someone about going somewhere, buying something, or doing something. It's the natural evolution of this privacy invasion.