Ah yes I almost forgot about all the facebook stuff. Have you read Mindf*ck? The one about Cambridge Analytica not the romance novel that comes up when you search for it. While not directly implicating facebook, they are at least complicit in some pretty horrible stuff (and that was 10+ years ago). It’s one side of the story from a whistleblower but it’s a pretty crazy story.
I haven’t posted on facebook in a long time (I can’t remember posting anything after they got rid of “walls”), there’s an awful lot not to like about facebook, but there isn’t a replacement. There’s Friendica, sure, but that is not in any way ready to replace facebook, and I have pretty simple criteria (posts are private, handles video and photo uploads well. That’s pretty much my whole list).
I have not read that, sounds interesting! I remember reading an interview with one of the Cambridge Analytica whistleblowers who said they had been deliberately testing messaging on dissaffected young men and came up with “drain the swamp” etc long before Trump’s candidacy though.
Meta are directly implicated in the Myanmar genocide. The higher ups there were aware that it was being used to deliver specific genocide instructions for over two years and refused to shut that down, then later during the genocide prosecution they actively impeded the courts.
The book covers that pre-Trump stuff. From memory it was something like Obama got elected using a form of microtargeting and Republicans realised they were way behind on using big data. So the early parts were almost 8 years before Trump was elected. I think the company (not yet called Cambridge Analytica) was involved in dodgy stuff in developing countries ahead of that as well.
That does sound interesting. I’m really behind on reading about all that big picture stuff. There’s a book called Surveillance Capitalism I keep meaning to read to help me make sense of what is going on.
Lately I get the impression that “Republicans” and “Democrats” aren’t really the driving forces behind any of this - it’s oligarchs or something.
Problem is my brain rebels against non fiction lately and would much rather read a sci fi about evolved spiders exploring space!
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The premise is that jumping spiders evolve into a complex civilization.
It cuts between humans and jumping spiders - the humans keep going into hypersleep so it’s the same humans, but the jumping spider side is like an epic and covers many centuries.
Have now finished it, it was really good in a light-hearted way.
I’ve always been fond of irl jumping spiders so imagining it is super cute.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The premise is that jumping spiders evolve into a complex civilization.
It cuts between humans and jumping spiders - the humans keep going into hypersleep so it’s the same humans, but the jumping spider side is like an epic and covers many centuries.
Have now finished it, it was really good in a light-hearted way.
I’ve always been fond of irl jumping spiders so imagining it is super cute.
Ah yes I almost forgot about all the facebook stuff. Have you read Mindf*ck? The one about Cambridge Analytica not the romance novel that comes up when you search for it. While not directly implicating facebook, they are at least complicit in some pretty horrible stuff (and that was 10+ years ago). It’s one side of the story from a whistleblower but it’s a pretty crazy story.
I haven’t posted on facebook in a long time (I can’t remember posting anything after they got rid of “walls”), there’s an awful lot not to like about facebook, but there isn’t a replacement. There’s Friendica, sure, but that is not in any way ready to replace facebook, and I have pretty simple criteria (posts are private, handles video and photo uploads well. That’s pretty much my whole list).
I have not read that, sounds interesting! I remember reading an interview with one of the Cambridge Analytica whistleblowers who said they had been deliberately testing messaging on dissaffected young men and came up with “drain the swamp” etc long before Trump’s candidacy though.
Meta are directly implicated in the Myanmar genocide. The higher ups there were aware that it was being used to deliver specific genocide instructions for over two years and refused to shut that down, then later during the genocide prosecution they actively impeded the courts.
The book covers that pre-Trump stuff. From memory it was something like Obama got elected using a form of microtargeting and Republicans realised they were way behind on using big data. So the early parts were almost 8 years before Trump was elected. I think the company (not yet called Cambridge Analytica) was involved in dodgy stuff in developing countries ahead of that as well.
That does sound interesting. I’m really behind on reading about all that big picture stuff. There’s a book called Surveillance Capitalism I keep meaning to read to help me make sense of what is going on.
Lately I get the impression that “Republicans” and “Democrats” aren’t really the driving forces behind any of this - it’s oligarchs or something.
Problem is my brain rebels against non fiction lately and would much rather read a sci fi about evolved spiders exploring space!
Tell me more about these spiders exploring space? Presuming we aren’t talking Ender’s Game.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The premise is that jumping spiders evolve into a complex civilization.
It cuts between humans and jumping spiders - the humans keep going into hypersleep so it’s the same humans, but the jumping spider side is like an epic and covers many centuries.
Have now finished it, it was really good in a light-hearted way.
I’ve always been fond of irl jumping spiders so imagining it is super cute.
Ah I’ve heard of that but haven’t read it. I’ll put it on my list, thanks!
Edit: it was already on my list 😅. But has a 9 week wait on Libby.
That’s hilarious!
9 weeks ay. You’ll just have to go into a cryochamber to wait for it.
Haha I could try, but I haven’t learnt how to make one yet! I presume this will be covered in the instructions in the book.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The premise is that jumping spiders evolve into a complex civilization.
It cuts between humans and jumping spiders - the humans keep going into hypersleep so it’s the same humans, but the jumping spider side is like an epic and covers many centuries.
Have now finished it, it was really good in a light-hearted way.
I’ve always been fond of irl jumping spiders so imagining it is super cute.