Little late for “before”.

Last edited Tue Jan 6, 2026, 02:11 AM - Edit history (3)

These things make work, education and health worse..a total scam.
I am not sure love of personal use tech has any connection with or relevance to science.

Some convenience I get. Even my onc is one WhatsApp. I wish it wasn’t Facebook’s.

Edit: Another problem with narratives shaped by contemporary tech is that they warp human thought-if you have nothing hide, why be private. Streisand effect. Greta Garbo.
It is all based on people who are willingly in the public eye; like the net and socializing (which I don’t understand in the flesh or online..Why?); or at least don’t mind it.

It seems to leave out human experience of some kinds. My only pull was ever abstractly political or work driven never social. Scientists are observers of nature by nature,. And often people who like to be left alone. I don’t think that can be changed. You can either be observed or work. Not both. And not all of us can tune out the spectacle. I am going to purge my journal and go offline.. Or maybe not. Its mostly rants about creeps rather than personal overshares (that would not fit at all). I do support rants about creeps so eh…I will look at it later. I would totally rant about creeps..I don’t like uncharacteristic behavior. Who are these people who share and what is wrong with them? I have taken enough bot or not tests by now that I should get to trash creeps anonymously without it being about me ;-/. And DU is fairly obscure…

I can’t focus like this. Yeah tech is a waste of time and life and this is all too much. Too much connection and noise instead of quiet. But otoh creeps can’t barge in. They will go to prison if they do. It breaks my concentration and that is annoying. I will definitely file complaints, but that will be easier with a functioning head.

This isn’t the world of science. It is the world of bloated entertainment and a kind of Omelas.
If there was a multiverse this would be the one of the shittiest possible ones.
I am in the bottom 25 percentile in real science (ie science with Pentlands and Google types and Musk etc deleted) in this one and this universe would overall be in the bottom 25%. It is one run by religion, histrionics, games and war. Not science. A mean-spirited Idiocracy.

And as the pacifist in 3-body got, no one from this (including me) in any part of this universe should be allowed to go anywhere else and break those places too. As a thought experiment. Look at the mess we have made of what we have as is. Sorry..just a thought.
This is all such junk. No wonder Trump is president. That fits. If I think in terms of scifi rather than science, I come to a very different conclusion from the tech creeps.

Is something I think about a LOT !

All my friends and I are workers, not people with blogs or YouTube channels.

I don’t have a job in ai or data mining and those things are taking over my devices and home by force and destroying my attention and forcing unwanted and unnecessary interventions and connections. That is all taking away from what was supposed to go towards my work and income.

I am being gatekept in my own home. I am not even trying to go anywhere else. But I feel connected to all sorts of things I would not allow or sign up for. Its sucking my resources. The blogs are a noxious part. But so are all these software companies and their curation of the lives of people who aren’t fighting the state so much as a digital economy that cuts us out and plunders our resources. And it is not even for a worthwhile product or service.

I post mostly to keep my own resources for me first and then build on that.

This for instance (a creepy little company I read about in a New Yorker article on Marc Andreessen) is an example of what I consider a junk capitalism built job killing real life. Who needs this?
https://mixpanel.com/home/
(Though I guess in their view a diss is more attention )
Its probably a parasite on your job and income as well NJCher. They are a life-sucking force.

I used to be in advertising, so I knew it would come to this. This person is being hyperanalytical about page views and “engagement.” His “service” is oriented toward people who used to be in a job capacity like what I had, where I decided how to spend $25 million. His service, mixpro, would give me an analytic way to design my ad or public relations spending. Plus if you note, I can share this with my colleagues so we can all waste our time watching how someone points and clicks.

This is the ultimate “nothing” (meaningless) job.

It was funded by that jerk Marc Andreessen who is a bigtime Trumper these days and DUer UpinArms called it a vomitous read overall, which it was. I wanted to show it to you, but I can’t find it.
But I did find this (that woman is an associate of Andreessen’s):

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/building-drones-for-the-children



I know the internet runs on ads and I support a few small businesses like DU itself so, at normal levels, I have no issue with it. But as you pointed out this is a bullshit job and you would probably know better..but my impression is that most types of advertising (even where targeted) are mostly a miss making the loss of privacy a poor bargain for the customer and business.

I am typical enough this way -I go online and look for stuff i want or need and it is very rare that something random or targeted ends up being something I buy. Human behavior imo is usually self-directed..but you can be reduced to a state of learned helplessness by increasing levels of unsolicited intrusions on seclusion which I associate with guys like these.

I just mean the creeps you know..like Marc Andreessen..

And human education has far fewer no downsides, except for tyrants.