Lith

@Lith@lemmy.sdf.org

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"Gems stolen from British Museum seen for first time" Bruh, how are you going to get mad someone stole what you stole?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  the museum announced up to 2,000 objects from its storerooms were missing, stolen or damaged

  Not only were they in storage, they don’t even know what’s missing lmao

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨That Electric Toothbrush Botnet Story Is Totally Fake⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  One application I’ve seen for this is recording your brushing patterns for your review and to recommend ways to improve your process. This is pretty useful right now considering dental hygiene literacy is criminally undertaught and uncommon even among adults.

  IoT is great, it’s just that companies right now are abusing it and our lack of data protection laws to extract as much personal information as physically possible. The question shouldn’t be “why is my toothbrush connected to a network”, it should be “why does my toothbrush need to be connected to the Internet”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's not just about facts: Democrats and Republicans have sharply different attitudes about removing misinformation from social media⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Here’s my e621 tag (notice my username?) where I’ve commissioned several acts of homosexual intercourse between a representation of myself and other male characters.

  Yes, I very much am.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's not just about facts: Democrats and Republicans have sharply different attitudes about removing misinformation from social media⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  You saw whatever hand you wanted to see. Have you considered that I’m gay and pro-abortion, and I have legitimate reasons to worry that some corporations (e.g. Twitter) will try and start censoring support for these through selective enforcement of the current ToS?

  What’s more dangerous, your grandma being allowed to say racist things on Facebook, or marginalized groups being systematically silenced? You’re missing the forest for the trees.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's not just about facts: Democrats and Republicans have sharply different attitudes about removing misinformation from social media⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s bad faith to argue that companies should be allowed to do things because they’re already allowed to do those things. I see a little bit of that creeping in even here with the concept of “rights”, as if corporations were humans. Laws can change.

  It’s good faith to ask if companies have too much power over what has become our default mode of communication. It’s also good faith to challenge this question with non-circular logic.

  Your assumption that I’m defending racism and bigotry is exactly why I think this stuff is important. You’ve implied I’m an insidious alt-rightist trying to dog whistle, and now I’m terrified of getting banned or otherwise censored. I’m interested in expressing myself. I do not want to express bigotry. But if one person decides what I said is even linked to bigotry, suddenly I’m a target, and I can lose a decades-old social account and all of its connections. And if that happens I just have to accept it because it’s currently legal. It’s so fucking stressful to say anything online anymore.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's not just about facts: Democrats and Republicans have sharply different attitudes about removing misinformation from social media⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I think this is an underrated point. A lot of people are quick to say “private companies aren’t covered by free speech”, but I’m sure everyone agrees legal ≠ moral. We rely on these platforms so much that they’ve effectively become our public squares. Our government even uses them in official capacities, e.g. the president announcing things on Twitter.

  When being censored on a private platform is effectively social and informational murder, I think it’s time for us to revisit our centuries-old definitions. Whether you agree or disagree that these instances should be covered by free speech laws, this is becoming an important discussion that I never see brought up, but instead I keep seeing the same bad faith argument that companies are allowed to do this because they’re allowed to do it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Google Trial Docs May Explain Why Search Sucks So Bad Now⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  This was the main thing that made me switch to another engine, too. It’s very obvious that Google hides certain results in addition to sponsoring others, and I don’t want a profit-driven corporation deciding what I can and can’t see (or anyone, if I can help it). On a larger scale, it’s terrifying how much power over our culture via access to information this gives Google. I’m just glad there are still better options for me to choose from.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft now pops up a poll asking why you'd want to use another browser when you download Chrome⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  That would be the Cancel button, because anything else would be giving Microsoft free data.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘It scars you for life’: Workers sue Meta claiming viewing brutal videos caused psychological trauma⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh so it’s just like normal employee training.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Retro Dom illustration⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  This mech was my favorite to use in Journey to Jaburo many years ago, this brings back some really fun memories.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Best Thing About Amazon Was Never Going to Last | If shopping on the site feels different now, that’s because it is⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Another area affected by this is trading cards. If you buy a trading card pack, it’s guaranteed yours will have previously been opened, sifted through for good cards, poorly resealed, and returned for Amazon to say “yeah this looks untampered, sell it for the same vendor as new”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨if it turned out there was a sentient AI capable of running the world would you accept it or rebell against it?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Basically I’m ok if AI gives suggestions, even at the top level, but there need to be people able to go “hol up, that’s not something we actually want” if it declares something stupid.

  We need to be careful with this approach. SciFi has been warning us about letting technology take over our critical thinking for over a century, and based on human nature, I think it’s an inevitability to some degree. Once we normalize making decisions based on an AI’s input, it will become harder and harder to question them. Regardless of the AI’s “intent”, critical thinking is something we’ll need to continue to exercise, the same way we still go to the gym despite industrializing our hunting and gathering.