from Hacker News

Sick of Myself – Algorithmic identity is a means of control and consolation

by campbellmorgan on 5/22/17, 6:40 AM with 29 comments

  • by slededit on 5/23/17, 3:47 AM

    This was not quite what I'd thought. I find these new "tailored" experiences cause boredom for me. I watched a WWII documentary once and now almost half of my netflix recommendations are more WWII films. I like other things too!

    Google has a similar problem, it returns what it thought I meant - the keywords seems to have only minor importance to the results. Searching for a non-tech term when it has a tech meaning is near impossible because google knows I'm a nerd.

  • by aphinity on 5/22/17, 10:24 PM

    There's also the premise of global superpowers locked into a theater of permanent economic conflict and the implicit balance of power perpetually threatening to break open and destabilize into massive full-spectrum conflict.

    Given the state of nature that exists between large industrialized nations, each in incentivized to foment dysfunction in their rivals to slow them down economically. The more infighting in any given country, the more headaches present among citizens, the slower and more reluctant their economy becomes.

    There's a slow, glacial, permanent grind that never goes away, because the world at large is trying to make you call in sick to work, so that they can gain some breathing room, and pump up their own economy.

    Meanwhile, uncompetitive personality flaws get classified as mental illness, so that there's medical justification to ply you with productivity drugs. Take prescribed speed to perform for the economy. Take mood stabilizers so you don't snap at your co-workers. Take anti-anxiety meds for your impostor syndrome, and stop worrying about whether everyone hates you. They're all just cranky from the speed and psychological operations of global superpowers trying to slow us down.

  • by supernumerary on 5/23/17, 12:20 AM

    I think that Facebook is almost the opposite of what the author describes. Not so much a "“ontological insecurity.”, more like a place for reassurance and security, i've written about it here: https://iainmait.land/posts/20170201-transitional-object.htm...

    Regarding algorithmic doppelgangers and how we govern them (Zuckerberg 2020) this is a good place to start:

    https://iainmait.land/posts/20170418-algorithmic-governmenta...

  • by cousin_it on 5/23/17, 8:58 AM

    Yeah. The dreams of going to heaven or building a perfect society have been outcompeted by the dream of being genuine, which benefits mostly marketers and causes tons of misery otherwise. I think the only solution is learning to recognize and resist dreams that promise too much. Maybe that should be taught in schools.
  • by chillingeffect on 5/23/17, 1:47 PM

    This is a set of brilliant observations... Humans have always had a social identity around ourselves, formed through memories by others, our appearances and the surroundings we create for ourselves...both for us and for others to see.

    Until the digital ages, (cameras, print, now bits), these external representations decayed somewhat organically. With perfect copies, these images persist for others and for ourselves. It makes it harder to escape.

    As others noted, yes, we have more potential to escape our self-created representations, but there's also a higher escape velocity.

  • by mmiliauskas on 5/23/17, 6:22 AM

    The magazine is funded by Snapchat. Just a fun fact.
  • by pmoriarty on 5/22/17, 10:20 PM

    You read my mind. I was just reading about social media and identity here: [1]. A very interesting read.

    [1] - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...

  • by panic on 5/22/17, 11:58 PM

    There are some good points here, but I think this article buys too much into the fantasy of magical algorithms -- that the systems for ranking and filtering that are tuned for maximizing engagement and trying to get people to click on ads actually change people's concept of identity in a noticeable way. People identified with stuff on Facebook just as much when it was an unfiltered feed of wall posts.

    If anything, Facebook has sacrificed some of its identity-shaping power in exchange for more engagement and ad sales. People are moving more of their real social interaction to other places, leaving Facebook to be mostly a source of news and updates from casual acquaintances.

  • by Pxtl on 5/23/17, 12:35 AM

    > “Depression began its ascent when the disciplinary model for behaviors, the rules of authority and observance of taboos that gave social classes as well as both sexes a specific destiny, broke against norms that invited us to undertake personal initiative by enjoining us to be ourselves … The depressed individual is unable to measure up; he is tired of having to become himself.”

    I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. Are they actually blaming clinical depression on personal freedom and social mobility?