The world is Fed and I'm pretty sure its the internets fault

THE WORLD IS F-ED AND I’M PRETTY SURE IT’S THE INTERNET’S FAULT

link

At the above link the author makes a compelling argument that life and society runs on emotions.

Emotions rule the world.

This is because people primarily spend money on things that make them feel good. And where the money flows, power flows. So, technically, the more you’re able to influence the emotions and feelings of people in the world, the more money and power will accumulate to you.

Technology is simply one means of doing this. Technologies are invented for the simple sake of pleasing people. The ball-point pen. A more comfortable seat heater. A better gasket for your house’s plumbing. Fortunes are made and lost around these things because they make people feel better, make their lives easier. Entire economies are run on little more than a population’s whims and fancies.

And he goes on to explain that this emotional driver to progress was more or less a net positive for humanity in the past which is why humanity has thrived.

The fact that the world runs on feelings hasn’t always been a bad thing. In the industrial age, it was undoubtedly a good thing. The majority of the population was cold, hungry, and tired. And the invention of machines and cities and divisions of labor and legal orders and representative governments—it all went to great lengths to relieve the population of much of its poverty and hardship.

The more technology and society advanced, the more people were relieved of their physical hardship and suffering. Vaccines and medicines have saved billions of lives. Simple machines have relieved the majority of the planet of backbreaking workloads and starvation.

However the author laments that in our current age, ushered in by the invention of the internet, this emotional driver is starting to fail humanity. In what should be the age of "information" ... where all of the worlds knowledge is a click away ... we are building something far more sinister.

People aren't predominantly using this new powerful tool we call the internet to better their own intelligence or use that information for innovation. Instead we are using this new tool to validate our feels no mater how good or destructive they may be.

The internet’s intentions were good. Inventors and technologists in Silicon Valley had high hopes for a networked and computerized planet. They worked for decades toward a vision of seamlessly networking the world’s people and information.

But they forgot.

They forgot that the world doesn’t run on information. People don’t make decisions based on truth or facts. They don’t spend their money based on data.

And when you give the average person an infinite reservoir of human wisdom, they will not Google for the higher truth that contradicts their own convictions. They will not Google for what is true yet unpleasant. Instead, most of us will Google for what is pleasant but untrue.

Having an errant racist thought? Well, there’s a whole forum of racists two clicks away with a lot of convincing-sounding arguments as to why you shouldn’t be so ashamed to have racist leanings.

And what if a limitless amount of information makes any one peace of information less valuable or even worthless?

Economics 101 teaches us that when there’s an oversupply of something, people value it less. If we wake up tomorrow and there are suddenly 3 billion extra lawnmowers in the US, the price of lawnmowers will plummet. If suddenly everyone had a Louis Vuitton bag, nobody would care about Louis Vuitton anymore. People would throw them out, forget them, spill wine on them, and give them away to charities.

What if the same is true for information? What if increasing the supply of information to the point where it’s limitless has made us value any particular piece of information less?

Do we now live in an age where information is worthless because it is so readily available and a world where we have the tools to instantly validate any emotion we might have?

Over the millennia of human existence there has been progress and regression ... a renaissance and a dark age ... we thought the "information" age would unleash a new renaissance but are we really heading into the new dark age?

a reply to: dandandat2

Glad you fixed your title my fellow member.

a reply to: dandandat2

What's up, Ted Kaczynski?

a reply to: dandandat2

I didn't read your post cause I reckon you're full of sh!t.

To me ^^^^^^^^ that's the problem. It's not information, it's the ego of the individual that's exposed to the information that is the problem. Ego creates blindness and blindness breeds stupidity.

The Dunning Kruger effect is an excellent example of it, unfortunately now though it seems to have become a syndrome, not an effect.

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: dandandat2

I didn't read your post cause I reckon you're full of sh!t.

To me ^^^^^^^^ that's the problem. It's not information, it's the ego of the individual that's exposed to the information that is the problem. Ego creates blindness and blindness breeds stupidity.

The Dunning Kruger effect is an excellent example of it, unfortunately now though it seems to have become a syndrome, not an effect.

Oddly, that has been my sig line for at least a decade on ATS...

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: dandandat2

I didn't read your post cause I reckon you're full of sh!t.

To me ^^^^^^^^ that's the problem. It's not information, it's the ego of the individual that's exposed to the information that is the problem. Ego creates blindness and blindness breeds stupidity.

The Dunning Kruger effect is an excellent example of it, unfortunately now though it seems to have become a syndrome, not an effect.

Invoking Dunning Kruger after admitting you have not read the subject matter; thats a bold choice of argument.

a reply to: dandandat2

"The World is Fed" went right over my head.

a reply to: dandandat2

Invoking Dunning Kruger after admitting you have not read the subject matter; thats a bold choice of argument.

So, you saw the post, but didn't actually read it then.

Do you seriously think I'm going to write a line like that then use that as my argument to counter the point you're trying to make in your OP, without actually reading the OP. FS, point proven I reckon.

originally posted by: dandandat2

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: dandandat2

I didn't read your post cause I reckon you're full of sh!t.

To me ^^^^^^^^ that's the problem. It's not information, it's the ego of the individual that's exposed to the information that is the problem. Ego creates blindness and blindness breeds stupidity.

The Dunning Kruger effect is an excellent example of it, unfortunately now though it seems to have become a syndrome, not an effect.

Invoking Dunning Kruger after admitting you have not read the subject matter; thats a bold choice of argument.

What, it was invoked the minute my post was made...like I said...a decade of having it as a sig line here..

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: dandandat2

Invoking Dunning Kruger after admitting you have not read the subject matter; thats a bold choice of argument.

So, you saw the post, but didn't actually read it then.

Do you seriously think I'm going to write a line like that then use that as my argument to counter the point you're trying to make in your OP, without actually reading the OP. FS, point proven I reckon.

I apologize; you are being to cryptic for me to understand your point.

a reply to: dandandat2

I was demonstrating what the problem is. Many people engage in one directional communication, so not reading a post because it appears to go against one's divine correctness, is common place, and that is where I believe the problem lies.

a reply to: dandandat2





The internet. Still, a better love story than Twilight.

a reply to: 19Bones79

LOL! Nice...

F*uck You! 19Bones79!

a reply to: ArchangelOger


I probably deserve that!

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: dandandat2

I was demonstrating what the problem is. Many people engage in one directional communication, so not reading a post because it appears to go against one's divine correctness, is common place, and that is where I believe the problem lies.

Thank you; I understand now. I do agree that is a problem.

Strange, I've always been seeking knowledge since I've had internet access.

It started with chatting admittedly, but it quickly became an electronic library for me. I dove deep into many, many subjects and have avoided the emotional content for the most part. I've done very little online related to recreational type interests. In many ways I've come to rely on it as a store of knowledge and even of personal memories. Memories like when did I go to that concert? Or how long was that amusement park open I went to as a kid? Or family information I never paid attention to and have had to rediscover. I've used it so much like this, I have been challenging myself to think first, try to remember the information before searching on it. Such reliance can dumb a person down pretty good if all you need to do is "Google it" without trying to think about it first.

True, that I've downloaded classic science fiction, Verne and Wells for the most part, and other classics as well, like stories by Washington Irving ("Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle") or Samuel Clemens ("Huck Finn"), but not so much for "feels" as entertainment.

It has become very political for me though, but I'm always searching for knowledge and facts. If I get any emotional reaction from the internet, it is related to news stories, usually political ones. Also, I find I get irritated if I get a news story that is more than a day old, I want to know as it happens or even sooner if possible.

a reply to: dandandat2

Do we now live in an age where information is worthless because it is so readily available and a world where we have the tools to instantly validate any emotion we might have?

Kind of but not really... look at big data, look at how much your personal information is worth. Then consider personal choice and the over abundance available which can leads to endless scrolling. Netflix knows about this issue. Then consider censorship and deep fakes.. what happens when the mind is overwhelmed with information overload, we switch off and are open to suggestion.

Ask yourself if information gathered about you and presented to you is being used to manipulate your very reality. Because that’s exactly what’s happening.

a reply to: dandandat2

The world was messed-up before the internets as well.
Yet perhaps the internet has the capability of bringing-out the worst of us ?

Not like : it's some kind of intelligent thing, really acting in a way to manipulate us ; but more as the quality of the water that we all swim in, as we all swim in the big internet pool of vacuous 'stuff' ?

Targeted advertising, internet bubbles, and such are now surrounding all of us, no matter how aware of them or not we are.

But somebody threw an Oh-Henry™ into the pool...

originally posted by: MichiganSwampBuck
Strange, I've always been seeking knowledge since I've had internet access.

It started with chatting admittedly, but it quickly became an electronic library for me. I dove deep into many, many subjects and have avoided the emotional content for the most part. I've done very little online related to recreational type interests. In many ways I've come to rely on it as a store of knowledge and even of personal memories. Memories like when did I go to that concert? Or how long was that amusement park open I went to as a kid? Or family information I never paid attention to and have had to rediscover. I've used it so much like this, I have been challenging myself to think first, try to remember the information before searching on it. Such reliance can dumb a person down pretty good if all you need to do is "Google it" without trying to think about it first.

True, that I've downloaded classic science fiction, Verne and Wells for the most part, and other classics as well, like stories by Washington Irving ("Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle") or Samuel Clemens ("Huck Finn"), but not so much for "feels" as entertainment.

It has become very political for me though, but I'm always searching for knowledge and facts. If I get any emotional reaction from the internet, it is related to news stories, usually political ones. Also, I find I get irritated if I get a news story that is more than a day old, I want to know as it happens or even sooner if possible.

It would seem that a lot of our emotional indulgence on the internet comes in the form of politics these days.


I agree with you that reliance on the easily accessible information on the internet can dumb a person down pretty good. But at the same time it can free us from the energy it takes to memorize that information so that this energy can be used elsewhere.

Its not a great example but I have cognitive difficulties with recall ... spelling, simple math, memorizing formulas, the sort of information you just know and pull out of thin air when you need it. But I'm great at higher analytical thinking. I understand how to use that formula and why it works better them most even if I can instantly recall its exact arrangement of symbols. With out the internet and the ability to bring up the information my brain refuses to remember I'd be flipping buggers instead of leading teams of engineers.

a reply to: dandandat2

www.youtube.com...