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New Book Argues Silicon Valley Will Lead Us to Our Doom (sandiegouniontribune.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the online-overlords dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader Zorro quotes the San Diego Union-Tribune: To many Americans, large technology firms embody much of what's good about the modern world. Franklin Foer has a different perspective. In his new book, "World Without Mind," the veteran journalist lays out a more ominous view of where Big Tech would like to take us -- in many ways, already has taken us... These firms have a program: to make the world less private, less individual, less creative, less human... Big Tech has imposed its will on the resident population with neither our input nor our permission.
The reviewer summarizes the book's argument as "Once hooked, consumers are robbed of choice, milked for profit, deprived of privacy and made the subjects of stealth social engineering experiments."

Interestingly, Foer was fired from The New Republic in 2014 by its new publisher -- Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes -- and Foer's new book includes strong criticism of the way companies are assembling detailed profiles on their users. "They have built their empires by pulverizing privacy; they will further ensconce themselves by pushing boundaries, by taking even more invasive steps that build toward an even more complete portrait of us."

9 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Only if we let them... by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I myself have no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or otherwise social media presence. You hand over power over you because you believe you get something back, but that something is often just an illusion.

    1. Re:Only if we let them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That worked as a solution *before* they got so big. Now they are everywhere and are unavoidable. If you want to join ANY group or contribute to ANY non-profit, communicate, meetup, collaborate, etc. They have Google Forms, Google Docs, Facebook Groups, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum. There is no way to avoid it. The entire world was dumb enough to hand over power to these asshats.

    2. Re:Only if we let them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Do you have friends? Family? People you just happen to know?

      The problem is that it's becoming increasingly impossible to avoid being on social media, even if you never use it yourself. Other people posting pictures of you, combined with facial recognition, means it's possible for social media networks to know quite a bit about you without you ever using them yourself.

      As data mining technique improve, this is only going to get worse. Simply existing is going to be enough for companies to build profiles on you, regardless of whether you yourself use their services. It's not enough to not use the services yourself, you need to make sure no one you know ever posts anything about you as well.

    3. Re:Only if we let them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Congratulations on making yourself an outcast. I'm against the whole craze myself but what can one do when the vast majority has already decided? You want to shut yourself out, it's your right but it doesn't make any difference. The war for privacy is over and we lost. Staying out counts only as sulking, they already have your profile whether you like it or not. You have to ask yourself, as I did, is it worth it? Becoming an outcast in the name of a principle nobody cares for?

    4. Re:Only if we let them... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sadly, it may be too late. We've already handed over control of almost all public discourse to private companies, companies which are free to censor that discourse at will. They're already using that power to censor ideas from the right that they disagree with. And many leftists are celebrating that, championing it even. But that's a mistake they'll regret.

      You see, what these anti-"hate speech" leftists have failed to consider is "what ideas are going to be censored next?" Do you really think that this handful of super-powerful corporations who you've ceded control to are going to tolerate anti-capitalist rhetoric, or calls for higher wages, worker rights, higher corporate taxes, and unions? Ha, not for long! And you've been the one who championed them having the the right to censor, never thinking that power could be turned against YOU too. But once they've banned the "Nazis" you can bet they'll come after the "Communists" and "Socialists" next. And you Bernie bros will end up just as cut off from all the major social media outlets as your bad-guy-du-jour Milo Yianopolis.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    5. Re:Only if we let them... by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd say they're privacy oriented, like I am. What can you do? The same thing that people have done in the past, refuse to participate in it. Something is only lost when you give up, as it stands there is no "social media" presence for me out there. I don't exist at all among social media networks or anything else. It's not hard to do and still keep a large enough social and work network. If anything, I see more people going back to face-to-face social networking because they're tired of all the inane, pointless, bullshit drama that happens on every single platform.

      You have to ask yourself, as I did, is it worth it? Becoming an outcast in the name of a principle nobody cares for?

      Sure is. The real question is, are you a person who can hang onto their principals while others are throwing theirs to the wind?

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    6. Re: Only if we let them... by lucasnate1 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      As if the right wing never supported corporatism and censorship

      --
      Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
    7. Re: Only if we let them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      1. Companies can also lobby to change laws with their capital and influence, something that the average Joe couldn't compete with equally.
      2. It's not about not using services anymore honestly. Even if you don't have a social media account your family could be posting pictures and videos of you online for the algorithms to collect. Web browsers collect info on everything you search online pretty well. You'd be surprised what these companies have on you. You'd also be surprised at how good these companies have gotten with exploiting the human psyche to stay addicted to their endless barrage of trash news and trivial outrages.
      3. Readily available and cheap food owes much of its success to the chemical fertilizers and assembly line slaughterhouses perfected during WW2. Computers just help make it more efficient.
      Deterrence via nuclear arms arguably played the biggest role in preventing conventional wars, way before even Apple was a thing, so countries turned to supplying rag tag militias with guns to fight for them instead. We still do that to this day. It's just that those wars are more or less background noise. Space travel was pioneered during the Cold War with military aims backing the project to make sure the Soviets didn't pull anything with their own space programs. The corporations just got the leftover research. The government is the one that funds most of these space startups anyways(*coughSpaceXcough*).
      4. The recent scandals and controversies have shown the cracks in Silicon Valley's culture. Firing people based on their opinions, criticizing others for lack of diversity despite lacking it themselves, a general sense of cultural isolation from the rest of the country, a lack of self awareness, cultivating public shaming, etc.

      SV hasn't learned anything since the Californian Ideology days. They may have good intentions, they just don't seem to consider others' as well.

  2. Re:I've said it here before by TimothyHollins · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's not true. Sometimes you pay for the product but you are still the product.