| poeTV | Submit | Login   |

Reddit Digg Stumble Facebook

Help keep poeTV running


And please consider not blocking ads here. They help pay for the server. Pennies at a time. Literally.

Comment count is 9
DerangedGoblin - 2014-05-25

So refreshing to hear someone give a simple description without insisting that it's a horrifically sinister thing. It might be careless and it might be ultimately harmful, but it's not this evil plan by anybody.


Old_Zircon - 2014-05-25

It COULD potentially get sinister, though, even if it's not there yet.

http://www.thebaffler.com/blog/2014/05/mouthbreathing_machiave llis


craptacular - 2014-05-25

that was a great read.


PegLegPete - 2014-05-25

Wish he'd gone into more depth about how we're going to control our information on the devices he's envisioning but I'm totally behind this idea. You can glean some information from the indiephone website and this talk; individualized servers presumably containing your personal information etc... on your actual device and your phone as a "cloud" space it looks like.

At least he thoroughly dispatched corporate surveillance as a good thing for anyone. The indiephone website is actually more informative than the website he talks about in this video. I guess they're crowdfunding this year with the the phone and OS set to "ship" in 2016.


Old_Zircon - 2014-05-25

So this is mostly a really accessible, TEDified version of what Jaron Lanier has been saying for more than a decade. I'm OK with that, Lanier's not going to convince many people who don't already get it, he's too weird, too smart and too prone to going off on questionable tangents that are completely outside of his areas of expertise (like, say, GLUING FAULT LINES CLOSED TO REDUCE EARTHQUAKE ACTIVITY IN LA - great idea, Jaron).

This guy just lays it out like it is in an accessible way, and that's important. Plus he proposes actual solutions, which is where Lanier tends to slip.

Also 100000000000000 times yes to distributed networks.


EvilHomer - 2014-05-25

I don't know, he certainly does a good job of explaining things, and he does try and offer some solutions... but I'm not really sold on the solution he proposes. On the one hand, yes, he's *probably* right: the average individual is looking more for "experience" (i.e. ease of use and intangibles like how pretty the device looks and how well it is advertised) rather than "function" (the actual performance capabilities of the service/ software in question). But I am not one of those individuals, and I don't think many of us here are, either. "Experience-driven models" might be successful, but they're still inherently bullshit-driven, or at least more bullshit than they need to be. An open-experience business model would, of course, be vastly more preferable than a proprietary/closed-experience model, but it'd still be setting a bad precedent, and I'd worry that, if such a model proved popular, it might endanger open-functional models.

Another thing I have an issue with is how briefly he touched on the rise of digital serfdom (or, as he calls it, "digital feudalism"). I'm glad he brought it up, and it's always nice to hear intelligent, articulate people addressing the almost invisible threat of service-based computing and the gradual loss of both software and data ownership rights to our corporate liege-lords. However, I do feel that I addressed the matter fully enough, nor did I notice him offering any solutions for that, specifically. Perhaps he goes into more detail elsewhere? Because, while it would be nice to assume that all the white-hat wearing "open-experience" techies would respect their users right to control the means of production, I would be worried that they might decide that cloud-or-"crowd" computing should be part of the "experience". After all, if you're playing to the iPhone crowd, and the iPhone crowd doesn't care about retaining private data ownership rights, anymore than they care about setting their own date on startup, then why should the designers?

Anyway, I'm not familiar with Jaron Lanier. Any chance you could describe and/or post some of his stuff?


EvilHomer - 2014-05-25

-edit- Ohhhh! The dreadlock guy who used to complain about Wikipedia! Yeah, I have read some of his stuff, but not much, or at least not enough, evidently.


EvilHomer - 2014-05-25

-edit edit- It's weird because I was actually reading one of Lanier's newer articles a few weeks ago, without even realizing it. I also had that documentary they mention in this video, Terms and Conditions May Apply, show up on Netflix recommended list a short while later. Haven't heard from or about either of them in ages, but then each pops up in rapid succession, and now, boom, here's both of them mentioned in the very same poeTV video!

Coincidence? Or maybe my digital-cyborg ghost is getting better and better at predicting what I will see and do?


memedumpster - 2014-05-25

if(google != evil){hellTemperature = 0; PigsFly(silkwings, jetfarts);}

Also, what will tnis guy's phone do with our data and how will it ever keep Google out of it? Is there going to be an Indie Internet and an Indie NSA?

He skates around a lot.


Register or login To Post a Comment







Video content copyright the respective clip/station owners please see hosting site for more information.
Privacy Statement