It's not so much the studying of our data - indeed it's out there and being analyzed anyway - as the idea of manipulating communications from your friends so as to influence our moods. I'm not entirely clear how this was to be achieved, but it sounds like they were in effect meddling in our relationships to a degree. Maybe there was a marriage in your family that week, but Facebook has chosen to funnel you a little extra negativity. Gee, thanks. It's also a fact that corporations do try to manipulate our feelings all the time - so that we will buy their stuff. In fact, everybody manipulates everybody else's emotions all the time, either because we want something or simply by being there. We all know this and most of us are at least sort of used to it. But somehow, dispassionately stepping back and just playing with our feelings to see what happens seems a little extra creepy, especially for a company that we've come to look at as one that dispassionately relays our communications, almost like the phone company. Yes, I am logging in via Facebook. Maybe they'll read this, and start to get it.
In reply to "Facebook still won't say 'sorry' for mind games experiment" on CNN's website.
Thursday, July 03, 2014
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Military Suicide Prevention
In reply to Senator Donnelly Announces Jacob Sexton Suicide Prevention of 2014
I agree with all of the Senator's comments. However, the number one thing we can do to prevent military suicides is to stop sending our service men and women into unnecessary wars, wherein they may be forced to see and likely take part in things that no human being should ever have to see. We can and should do everything to comfort and if necessary rehabilitate those who have been there. If there is such a thing as a just war and our wars are truly just, they can also take comfort from that. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and to this end I would say that the most effective thing the federal government can do is to adopt Dennis Kucinich's forgotten proposal to establish a Department of Peace, to put the same kind of energy into preventing wars that currently gets put into prosecuting them.
I agree with all of the Senator's comments. However, the number one thing we can do to prevent military suicides is to stop sending our service men and women into unnecessary wars, wherein they may be forced to see and likely take part in things that no human being should ever have to see. We can and should do everything to comfort and if necessary rehabilitate those who have been there. If there is such a thing as a just war and our wars are truly just, they can also take comfort from that. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and to this end I would say that the most effective thing the federal government can do is to adopt Dennis Kucinich's forgotten proposal to establish a Department of Peace, to put the same kind of energy into preventing wars that currently gets put into prosecuting them.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Comment on CNET Google Glass Piece
My reply (as Guitarface) to "United Airlines to Google Glass wearer: Take off high-tech specs"
Not everybody likes to have a camera stuck in their face, and nobody likes to have a camera stuck in their face all the time. The more people use Google Glass, the more time we will always spend with a camera stuck in our face, or trained upon us whenever wearers glance our way. Now, you won't know whether it's being used as a camera at that moment, since it has other functions and may also just be sitting there, stored idly upon the wearer's nose for the moment until wanted again. But still, someone's camera will be potentially on you in every public moment, not for security purposes, not because you're friends, but maybe just because someone is a photobug, or a voyeur, or even actually spying on you for whatever reason. I'm sure the vast majority of Google Glass users will be as polite, well-intentioned and respectful as the general population has ever been, but given the fair number of people in that population who aren't terribly polite, well-intentioned and respectful, is it hard to imagine that this phenomenon of wearable cameras - albeit they are more than cameras - may become, well, rather creepy? Come to think of it, "more than cameras" makes it a little creepier. It looks like folks can already look you up using face recognition via a Glass app called "Name Tag". Hmm, cute, wonder where she lives...
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad we all have cameras in our pockets, to record anything from precious moments to wrongdoing by rogue police. But I truly feel that Glass has the potential take us a step too far towards a voyeuristic society where privacy has ceased to exist for all intents and purposes. This may be unavoidable; it may even have overall benefits with regards to law and order, and become less painful as new generations are born into this milieu. Nevertheless, if Google Glass and similar hardware become ubiquitous, it's going to be an uncomfortable transition, and we should think long and hard about how it will affect us all.
Not everybody likes to have a camera stuck in their face, and nobody likes to have a camera stuck in their face all the time. The more people use Google Glass, the more time we will always spend with a camera stuck in our face, or trained upon us whenever wearers glance our way. Now, you won't know whether it's being used as a camera at that moment, since it has other functions and may also just be sitting there, stored idly upon the wearer's nose for the moment until wanted again. But still, someone's camera will be potentially on you in every public moment, not for security purposes, not because you're friends, but maybe just because someone is a photobug, or a voyeur, or even actually spying on you for whatever reason. I'm sure the vast majority of Google Glass users will be as polite, well-intentioned and respectful as the general population has ever been, but given the fair number of people in that population who aren't terribly polite, well-intentioned and respectful, is it hard to imagine that this phenomenon of wearable cameras - albeit they are more than cameras - may become, well, rather creepy? Come to think of it, "more than cameras" makes it a little creepier. It looks like folks can already look you up using face recognition via a Glass app called "Name Tag". Hmm, cute, wonder where she lives...
Don't get me wrong. I'm glad we all have cameras in our pockets, to record anything from precious moments to wrongdoing by rogue police. But I truly feel that Glass has the potential take us a step too far towards a voyeuristic society where privacy has ceased to exist for all intents and purposes. This may be unavoidable; it may even have overall benefits with regards to law and order, and become less painful as new generations are born into this milieu. Nevertheless, if Google Glass and similar hardware become ubiquitous, it's going to be an uncomfortable transition, and we should think long and hard about how it will affect us all.
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