Notices by phiofx (phiofx@hachyderm.io), page 2

@snscaimito Hopefully the issue is temporary. The advantage of the federation pattern is that it can easily accomodate different choices. In the fullness of time it is likely it will do so. But currently the burden is on devs/admins to educate users as there is basically nobody else to do it. Open minded journalists could help out here.

The high level "selling" point of the fediverse has been that this is a "safe" space. Non-technical users are left on their own to figure out what it means.

@snscaimito the broader online literacy is abysmal and the blame is squarely on public sector / governments outright, shameless, selling of their citizenry to #surveillancecapitalism.

But the furore about fediverse bridges to #threads #bluesky etc reveals a more narrow and recurring problem: early adopters seek to escape abusive patterns from said social media, and to a good extend they get it (no adtech algorithms etc) but there is confusion and anxiety about rugs being pulled.

@RL_Dane @mozilla maybe an "activitypub indicator" too? Eg to think what it means to visit a wordpress site that is federating content

@owzim yep. Not much of a frontend person myself but when i want to code some visual / interactive web app it is just the perfect balance of complexity / ability.

I just wish it had been developed a decade earlier.

@jack @blaine @boris if non-technical people make wrong assumptions and have wrong expectations about a technical service who is to blame?

Imho the burden is on #activitypub developers and #fediverse instance admins to clarify to users what being active on these platforms means in terms of #dataprivacy and the different modes they can be used to find, link and interact with others.

In particular, the line "its the public internet, deal with it" is certainly not the whole truth. Public timelines is just one usage mode.

People are justified to be suspicious given #surveillancecapitalism

Clarity and transparency earns trust.

@tuban_muzuru @FantasticalEconomics @fifilamoura @jackofalltrades @the_Effekt @gerrymcgovern @jill_the_pill

If your thesis was true we wouldn't exist. There is the random evil of individuals (bullying, rape etc) that will always be with us in some form but its not an existential risk. And there is the systemic evil of collective narratives and hallucinations. There is nothing unavoidable or pre-ordained about this type. Its a cultural construct. It is explicitly taught.

@FantasticalEconomics @tuban_muzuru @fifilamoura @jackofalltrades @the_Effekt @gerrymcgovern @jill_the_pill

I trust my eyes. When I look around I dont see vicious hominids. I see people living largely peacefully, in very large numbers, in various degrees of hierarchy / inequality.

We can obviously be induced into collective violence. And that agitated state is becoming ever more menacing with ever more lethal technology. But its not our ground state. Its an excitation triggered on purpose.

@peter there is a whiff of insanity in the air

This doesnt look kosher to me. Its not doubling down on some hype, its like 100 x that.

Cornered cats do crazy jumps is the saying. Who knows what cornered this guy.

@the_Effekt

Ha, ha this.

My take is that we are (mostly) innocent idiots. Or rather, idiot savants that got in serious trouble operating in disconnected silos. We have developed scientific thought and built amazing tech domains, but haven't touched the most critical one: the science of a good society.

Why not? Its just to disruptive to long-dominant social patterns to do so. Social tech is still antediluvian
@gerrymcgovern @jackofalltrades @fifilamoura @jill_the_pill @FantasticalEconomics

@WagesOf @gerrymcgovern @jackofalltrades @jill_the_pill @FantasticalEconomics

if the system was in any shape or form long-term sustainable one might think twice about condemning it to eternal hell. in the end lifestyles and cultures are arbitrary.

but it isn't.

people are chronically psychologically stressed to fit in the work-earn-consume cycle and the environment is driven to annihilation to accommodate an ever increasing footprint.

patching this piece of broken software will not be easy

@jill_the_pill

The fashion's industry disastrous footprint is well documented. 85% of clothes is dumped every year https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/fashion-industry-carbon-unsustainable-environment-pollution/

Consumer demand does not come out of nowhere. Beyond a few basics, it is more or less arbitrary, culture defined and largely engineered. This is well documented. There is no chicken/egg, it is a cyclical process that started circa 1890 and never stopped. Read e.g., Land of Desire by William Leach.

@gerrymcgovern @jackofalltrades @FantasticalEconomics

@gerrymcgovern @jackofalltrades @jill_the_pill @FantasticalEconomics

with only mild exaggeration, if you want to isolate true evil in the economic structure of modern societies, its the advertising clan

they are experts in manipulation, triggering base instincts, creating addictions and insatiable demand

think e.g., fashion: the ritualistic churning of clothes every season because "you must"

once they got their hands on tech the dehumanization and mass abuse was inevitable

@adactio no, its worse. They mean they didnt find a way to create an #RSS controlling monopoly that will extract a tax from *anybody* using it.

For some time now tech had ceased being normal economic territory. Out of infinite possibilities the only ones pursued are those that serve the current oligopoly.

@FantasticalEconomics @jackofalltrades an extra challenge is that the current system is far from what it pretends to be. Milton Friedman defended the obsessive pursuit of monetary profit by saying that if you dont want private interests to pursue an X with negative externalities, you should just outlaw X. This ignores the reality of deep and pervasive political corruption, where acquired economic power shapes the conditions for its own further concentration and political influence.

@adamchainz @paulox there are several django based instances, i think #funkwhale is another. But as far as i can tell alot is still in alpha and none has seen significant adoption. Its a bit of a pity. With the large numbers of python enthousiasts and contributors such a stack could made a difference for building out the #fediverse

@jackofalltrades @FantasticalEconomics its entirely conceivable (but the odds are unknowable) that in a not too distant future the role of energy in underpinning human economies will mutate yet again, and dramatically. We are, after all, drenched in low entropy solar radiation that is "free".

So even as the project of explaining the economics the fossil fuel era has barely started it feels it will have an expiry date. The future "value multiplier" might be whatever constrains digital systems

@womble @carnage4life its obviously a pointless discussion but for the sake of the argument, houses can last for centuries but cars at most a decade.

@womble @carnage4life if cars did not depreciate heavily you'd have similar dynamics.

The question is, are you going to limit what people can do with the things they own ( and to what extend). Its not a taboo to do so (in some cities they limit airbnb type usage and rental levels controls have a long history in many countries).

@carnage4life home ownership requires that housing is an investment (i.e. an asset you can buy or sell). And i think that is a good thing - in principle. It gives people a strong bond to a place, a sense of agency and wiggle room in life etc.

Things go awry when homes become rental properties and effectively pure financial investments: an arbitrage between lending / interest rates and running cost and rent income.