@tyghebright The US red states have been whipped up into a frenzy on multiple fronts, fuelled with religious zeal (it carries among people who have no religious affiliation, but who give them power through their vote and money for other reasons).

The paranoia is resulting in untold real-world consequences, and the instigators are twisted enough to believe that this is winning.

There has to be a word for a thing that is so absurdly, bizarrely, grotesquely hypocritical. It is utterly horrific.

@Cmnslivn Absolutely! It can be a very compelling distraction.

@redenigma That's a gross profit, all right!

Social media have consistently revealed that people can have strong feelings about concerns they lack understanding in.

Also there is a whole cottage industry (indeed, several of them) which have sprung up around instigating baseless outrage.

It is important to remember this as you confront anything you see on the internet. This awareness can help you regulate your own emotional health.

(There are outrageous things in the world. Not every example of outrage is worth your attention or energy.)

@th3j35t3r @Alfred I'm glad that you're aware of this.

A whole lot of people need to be more aware; so many people are using videochat software now, and aren't cognisant of even 10% of what they're disclosing.

The need for trying together future literacy and media literacy just jumped into hyperdrive.

@MaggotBrain This can't be optional. It has to be the way forward, for all of us. It's not about cushioning the blow, as if this a temporary measure.

The rug is being pulled out from underneath everyone.

There is no part of any industry that won't feel implications of this directly, and swiftly.

@th3j35t3r @Alfred Honestly, this has truly terrifying implications.

All of this does.

The potential for privacy invasion is broad and deep.

@Wbtphdjd I agree with both of those statements.

Technology that has no capacity for regret is a dangerous thing to outsource decisions to, especially significant ones.

One particular public figure comes to mind who seems incapable of feeling, or at least expressing regret. So it can be valuable without being universal.

Yet when we start to make binding non-universal statements about what makes human beings valuable, there is always the danger of further marginalising people on the margins.

@Wbtphdjd If horses could draw, their gods would look like horses. -- paraphrase of Xenophanes.

🙂

@corlin In essence, this is the current situation. It got more difficult for the elite with the deconstruction of the broadcast model, and the democratisation of creative abilities.

But the rich and powerful still have unmatched influence. It shows up in everything from electric cars to fast fashion.

We need to rediscover/re-assert the value of being human.

We currently have a number of subjective, relatively trivial, and non-binding attributes that we assume to be human. With the expansion of the internet, we're learning how limited our definitions have been.

We may be unable to make universal statements.

For example, regret. Do all humans regret? I'm not sure. But a computer at this point cannot experience regret. (I'm not saying this will never be possible, but it's impossible now.)

We have entered a new zone in human development, one where our machines are very nearly as good as creating things as we are.

This is a bizarre new world that we are not nearly ready for. And yet here we are!

The most common thing that people are talking about is the jobs, and whole industries, that are about to be disrupted.

That's serious.

Even more serious is the worsening of the global credibility crisis. Now there can be photo/video evidence of absolutely any truth claim.

@thewebrecluse This is a more in-depth review of the tech, including analysing some of sample clips that were released:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXpdyAWLDas

As suggested in the news clip, 21.6% is a very low estimate of creative jobs that will be affected by this tech.

@AskTheDevil Yeah, that's where I'm at. It's easier to do work with corporations when you're a corporation.

I'm on a really steep learning curve, but I have some really sharp people on my side with this.

So...I'm just putting one foot in front of the other.

@AskTheDevil Good question!

I have a few concrete ideas of what it's going to do. I have a lot more vague ideas about its possibilities and potential.

What it's actually going to do is, well, a blank canvas, and depends on how the opportunities I currently have will evolve. I can't predict what will catch.

I've felt an unshakeable impetus to start something "official" to test out the validity of my inspiration(s), and I'm just following that for now.

How the conversation goes when I tell people I'm starting a company:

"Uhhh...I don't know what means."

"Nah, me neither!"

"But, like, what's it going to do, exactly?"

"Well, I'm not totally sure yet."

"Oh..."

"Yep. Fun, right?"