I think it s impossible to hold off the oncoming onslaught of Big State powered by AI , but i think we are doing a very bad job of telling the public to prepare for it, starting with AI powered online manipulation
but indeed this issue is not aligned with traditional political divisions. there is simply no meaningful part of society that is better of from this large scale digital surveillance that is being inflicted against all people's best interest. the only beneficiary is the small oligarchy that is orchestrating this.
Unfortunately the damage from that will be severe and will probably make everyone on the left double down about how AI is "safe" and all that. Remember Alex Jones et al conspiracy theories about powerful people being involved in a pedophile ring? For years it was widely mocked and dismissed (including by me) and then Epstein came to light. The prediction was far from perfect, but was right in overall gist, but the suicide was largely the end of the reporting. A lawsuit here and there but very little news coverage and a lot of weird stuff was happening around that, to the point that even "regular" people think it was a conspiracy and Epstein didn't kill himself. But it went nowhere.
Then there come people like Jones, and fill in the void, and suddenly name the issue (naturally they name a false issue, but nonetheless it sounds plausible to the untrained), and they do so in terms easy to understand. Now if they do this for a decade or longer they've successfuly radicalised people and polarised society just like we have been radicalised into thinking that these folks are just idiots and have no value.
That's why we need patience, active listening to their concerns, and actual real solutions that take into account the needs of both sides.
> people think it was a conspiracy and Epstein didn't kill himself
The guy is not interesting nor is the gossip. What I am worried about is that there is a climate that can even lead to a conspiracy theory. It means a good chunk of people don't trust any of our institutions (EU/US/UK) - the police, the government, the media, the prison system, are all rightfully prone to being suspected of dubious acts. We haven't been therein that cell, and the revelations surrounding Epstein have shown that even people that once were considered to be trustworthy beying doubt are now less than 90% trustworthy. Us saying he did kill himself is as ridiculous as those saying he didn't. We simply don't know, we paid investigators to do their jobs with no room for doubt. Why aren't they doing it?
Re: Epstein, if I meant to imply that I thought Epstein did kill himself, that was a mistake. I have no idea of course, but it seems pretty reasonable to me that he didn't...
That's the likely outcome if people are lead towards that outcome and if that's the only given option. And so far the only voices that validate their concerns are those that would benefit from such outcomes. Those that want a "better world" are too busy berrating those that have genuine concerns and as a result the only people they can take refuge in are those like Musk. It's time for genuine innovation and genuine conversation without losing track of the good in both sides.
Each cell acts as its own social media platform similar to how Mastodon works. The primary differences are: A. Cells are centralized on the platform, not federated. Makes it easier for users. B. Cells are dynamic. People can make cells, merge cells, split cells. If 50 percent of people in the R++ cell want to be more racist, they can vote to split and be moved to another cell. C. Cells are relative i.e. they exist on a map, people can compare their cell to others, any cell that exists is public and can be related to another cell.
Then provide tools for organization and communication, provide tools for policing and enforcing cell dogma, and then provide the tools to allow for fundraising of whatever causes the cell deems just. Add competition between other cells. Allow it to be integrated with other social media. Make it go viral.
Powerful populist movements have been built on solidarity. This is impossible in current social media which fragments political blocs creating detractors of every belief in every comment section. Remove the detractors and you have progress, radicalization. Thoughts?
I am actively moving away from any type of serveillance device and software, where possible of course. Moved away from the data scraping OS made by windows to linux. De google, de apple, and spread the word. There may not be much we can do against the sheer amount of public surveillance we enjoy, a level that makes the STASI and KGB pale in comparison, other than voting voting and voting. Protesting and vandalism would only ridicule any attempt.
Oh and I feel that there may also be a market for people that want an online presence but in a protected way. So starting businesses around that may also help. Nothing fancy. Just simple stuff such as not tracking users and not manipulating them. Requires avoiding venture capital, and that's fine. No point in being a paper millionaire with no life anyway.
This is how :-) I am not trying to live like a hermit locked in a forest. I do what is reasonable and learning more about how to do it even better.
I always demo it where people are open to it, I show them how it can used to steal their banking data (that has been the case already for many years), explain how everything they do is tracked (to those a little bit savy i show them the "hidden" tracking pixels here and there), I demo how people can talk about certain topics or search on site A and then similar content is shown on site B, and so on.
Spread the word, demo, explain, educate.
The mainstream is interested but they don't know how it works. They imagine cabals of people in secret dark chambers when in fact it was product managers in daily standups planning and delivering all this and an all too open to corruption politicians happy to keep the maases obedient and numb.
So cabals of people in secret dark chambers?
I don't recall people holding daily standups in dark chambers. Perhaps in a dark pub but there's nothing secret about it.
I don't know how to prepare for it, though. What should I be doing, and what should I be telling others to do?
Time to buy that country estate surrounded by trees so the surveillance state can’t see the finer details of your eyes with their AI cameras
Individualist solutions don't work here. Only regulatory solutions can address the source of the problem and those require solidarity and collective action.
Where has technology as disruptive as 'AI' ever been defeated by regulations? That's just more rules that the rich can ignore with impunity.
Western society doesn't really have real solidarity. It's a performance we go into every election season but it's just that: a performance.
Society will do nothing about this until it affects the rich. As always.