RE: https://mastodon.social/@keynotes/117431830919179621

I am in this picture and I don't like it.

I want the #Fediverse to grow. But out of curiosity, how well would the Fediverse scale? What would happen if the current user base increased by a factor of 10, 100, or 1000?

And if the answer is "bad things", what would need to be done to make the Fediverse cope with such an expanded user base?

(For the purpose of this thought exercise, assume that each specific Fediverse software implementation would likewise multiply their user base by this factor, albeit spread out over more instances.)

#FediHelp

Remember, kids:

In proper scientific terms, an attempt to explain observable phenomena is called a "hypothesis".

It is called a "theory" when it fits all the observable facts, and there is no observable evidence to the contrary. We don't call it a "truth" because there's always a chance that it might be overturned by later evidence - but as far as science is concerned, a "theory" is as hard as it gets.

This is often confusing to people who dismiss science they don't like as "it's just a theory". But this distinction should be kept in mind when discussing things like the "Theory of Evolution", "Theory of Relativity", "Global Warming Theory", and "Dead Internet Theory".

#PSA #Evolution #GlobalWarming #DeadInternetTheory #Science #Theory

Previous poll:

https://mementomori.social/@juergen_hubert/116748866978290499

New poll: Who is the _5th_ worst person in Tech after:

1. Peter Thiel
2. Elon Musk
3. Mark Zuckerberg
4. Jeff Bezos

#WorstPersonsInTech

Previous poll:

https://mementomori.social/@juergen_hubert/116743169014735116

New poll: Who is the _4th_ worst person in Tech after:

1. Peter Thiel
2. Elon Musk
3. Mark Zuckerberg

#WorstPersonsInTech

Addendum: I misspelled Eric Schmidt (of Google). But correcting that in the poll would reset it, so I am leaving it as it is.

Previous poll:

https://mementomori.social/@juergen_hubert/116737381834896295

New poll: Who is the _3rd_ worst person in Tech after:

1. Peter Thiel
2. Elon Musk

#WorstPersonsInTech

Previous poll:

https://mementomori.social/@juergen_hubert/116731703700382841

New poll: Who is the _second_ worst person in Tech after:

1. Peter Thiel

Who is the worst person in Tech?

#TechBro

Could you all do me a favor when discussing #Israel ?

Yes, a lot of what the Israeli government is doing is very bad, and deserves to be criticized. But there is absolutely no reason to portray Israel as "The Secret Masters of the Western World" or something similarly foolish. Israel is a regional power, not a global superpower. Other state-level actors - the #USA in particular - have their own independent, shitty reasons for supporting Israel and its policies. And they have full agency in their decisions - claiming that Israel somehow "controlled" them means excusing them for their own culpability in the mess that is the world of today.

In other words, let's _not_ do a regurgitation of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".

#antisemitism

My stance on #LLM :

1. There _might_ be some useful use cases with this technology that could be worth exploring.

2. However, it is glaringly obvious that, as of now, their main purpose is to power the mother of all investments bubbles.

3. Which leads us to the present trillion dollar business case for "we must build energy- and water-wasting data centers everywhere so that we can scrape every single website a thousand times a month for new training data!"

4. Thus, there is currently pretty much no ethical way of using LLMs.

5. Any ethical exploration of LLM use cases will thus have to wait until the bubble has burst, the investors have moved on to the next scam, and we can sort through the rubble to check what is left.

I just had a really cursed thought.

When you post a link on the #Fediverse , it is usually shared with hundreds of instances and shows up in their global timelines.

Doesn't this mean that the Fediverse could be easily abused as an #SEO farm? I.e. increasing the search rank of websites by making them "more linked"?

Is this perhaps already happening?

Fediverse Admins, have you seen activity like this?

#FediHelp

I don't want the #Fediverse to grow because I see "growth" as an intrinsic good.

I want the Fediverse to grow because I see commercial social media as a major threat to the long-term survival of human civilization. Thus, we need to replace it - and right now, the Fediverse seems to be the best alternative we have.

RE: https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon/116015180016712361

I have been thinking for quite some time that we need a decentralized network for preserving public domain works. The #InternetArchive is important, but they are one single American organization and thus vulnerable (and the fact that they are playing fast and loose with copyright sometimes doesn't help). We need to spread those works out more.

Remember, folks: If you have a nasty cold, wear a mask on public transportation even if all your COVID tests have turned up negative. You don't need to spread the viruses of the common cold around either, and wearing a mask helps with that.

It's what people in civilized countries would do.

As a reminder, the notion that people should be able to maintain "a clean, well-organized household" came from the 19th century Western "upper classes" where the wife was expected to stay home and do this full time - and this was used as a status symbol and status marker to distinguish the affluent from the working classes, where women almost always had to work in (poorly paid) jobs in order to keep the household budget afloat.

Therefore, this notion is not only #Sexism but also #ClassWarfare . Thus, when someone presents this kind of "lifestyle" as something you should aspire to (whether a tv show, an Influencer, or a glossy magazine), you should really contemplate what kind of political agenda they are trying to sell to you.

Now, if you _enjoy_ keeping a household in a good, clean order, more power to you! Everyone needs their passion projects, after all! But it should not be the _expected_ thing - particularly for people who are already overwhelmed by the demands this late-stage Capitalist hellscape places on us!