Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

[airdvr 210]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/13/opinion/sunday/Silicon-Valley-Is-Not-Your-Friend.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion&action=click&contentCollection=opinion®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

Interesting op ed in today's Times. If things stay as they are we'll have 3 choices in our lives; Google, Amazon, & Facebook.

You know my opinion of the area. The people who are designing the future aren't designing it for the common man.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[RonD1120 62]

Amen to that.

Look for the shiny things of God revealed by the Holy Spirit. They only last for an instant but it is a Holy Instant. Let your soul absorb them.

[billvon 2,998]

>Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

Of course they're not. They are out to make money, not to be your besty. Same with Chevrolet, the local supermarket, the gun store, Wal-Mart, your plumber, Exxon, FOX News, Netflix, CNN, Playboy and the cable TV company. (BTW, all that is an _excellent_ reason to support net neutrality - so that none of the above can control what flows on the Internet.)

I don't know where people get the idea that any of those entities are your friend. Really good advertising? Gullible consumers? Projection?

> If things stay as they are we'll have 3 choices in our lives; Google, Amazon, & Facebook.

Or (wild idea here) actual in-person relationships.

[Bolas 5]

I thought this was going to be an article about the impending doom of AI super intelligence.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[airdvr 210]

You didn't read the article, did you? It's about limited choices. It's about control.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[headoverheels 333]

I knew that years ago, when I watched the first season of Continuum.

[wmw999 2,452]

It's about limited choices; the goal of nearly every capitalist provider. Consider InBev buying up Budweiser and everyone else; Amazon buying Whole Foods and trying to be the single provider isn't much different.

Our job as consumers is to know what we want, and to go find it. Google and the like color their search results based on what you've clicked on before, because they get paid by clicks, not by finding the best results. That's why TV ads are getting shorter and more obnoxious; same bang, less buck.

They're not utilities, committed to the public good (of course, with the monetization and capitalist approach to health care and utilities, they hold profits higher than the public good, too). Their primary goal is to make a better profit than anticipated this quarter.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[AlanS 1]

Quote

We need greater regulation, even if it impedes the introduction of new services.

Above is the only sentence of the article you need to read. I say putting our political class in charge of our tech industry is a cure worse than the disease.

Anyone lamenting the fact that Google is the only search engine is forgetting that other search engines once existed and Google won the search engine wars for a reason.

Does the author of this article not recall the names: Infoseek, Lycos., altaVista, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves, Oveture, AllTheWeb?

Do you really want to go back to using those search engines?


If you don't like our choice now, spend some time now thinking about if you want to use Lyft, Uber, Easy Taxi, or just get on your phone and call a taxi. The choice you make now will determine the options you have in the future. Be a smart consumer.

[kallend 2,027]

airdvr

You didn't read the article, did you? It's about limited choices. It's about control.

Capitalism in action.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 2,998]

>You didn't read the article, did you?

Yes, I did. Did you? Because it looks like you skimmed the article then didn't read my reply.

Like I said, Silicon Valley will do what it can to make money and control your life to the greatest degree they are allowed to - because that also makes them more money. Which is one reason net neutrality is important - so they have a little less control over you. We also need to have greater control over who can do what with our data; a HIPPA for personal data. To quote the article: "We need greater regulation, even if it impedes the introduction of new services."

[JerryBaumchen 1,367]

Hi Alan,

Quote

Be a smart consumer.

You ask a lot as regards some people.

Jerry Baumchen