The Power of Awareness: Overcoming Surveillance Capitalism

(scottrlarson.com)

98 points | by trinsic2 11 hours ago

5 comments

  • ale42 20 minutes ago
    It's interesting, but it sounds more like a political/societal theory rather than actual events or state of the society. It would be much more interesting and largely shareable if it contained more documented facts rather than generic affirmations.
  • two-sandwich 9 hours ago
    I am intrigued by the header, and it seems like this has some good points. However, I'm struggling to parse this content. There's a full image in between almost every sentence. In most cases, I don't find the image adds significantly to the point of the preceding or following sentence, so it just looks like filler for colour.

    I could put this into an AI but then what's the point of the article in the first place?

    • lbrito 9 hours ago
      Seems like slides from a presentation talk.
    • mdp2021 1 hour ago
      > what's the point of the article in the first place

      Jump to the end, to the summary.

      The position of the submitted is that there would be psychological constraints in that certain type of population that inhibit the perception of risk.

      And he seems to be wanting to trying to built it up as a creeping subconscious notion through a "story", instead of going "TL;DR" (which is part of facts and of a different "psychology") and clarifying the points immediately.

      He believes that that would be the way to deal with the non-adults.

    • malfist 7 hours ago
      I read and read and read and he never got to a point other than some nebulous "this is wrong and we can change it" without specifics. DNF
      • functionmouse 7 hours ago
        Talking about this specifics is illegal. You're not allowed to talk about anything that will displace the Epstein class, because they own us.
    • _def 9 hours ago
      tangent but i vibe coded a webapp that pulls article texts and runs tts via kokoro. Its interface allows me to read the article text while the current paragraph is highlighted + autoscrolled while the audio is playing. All of this runs on a cheap vps. Works surprisingly well, as long as you are fine with consuming it "later" (conversion needs some minutes)
      • onaclov2000 2 hours ago
        I've been very happy with @voice aloud on Android to convert a page, (but most often for me) a PDF into spoken audio, sometimes I'll watch it auto scroll what it's converted. It's robotic but I've gotten so used to it I don't really worry much anymore (though I have played with voice clone stuff some and have really been tempted to use that). Anywho just reminded me of the app I have been using for probably a decade (don't quote me ;)).

        Having the option on my desktop might be nice tho!

      • Paradigm2020 5 hours ago
        Link please
  • newsomix9xl 5 hours ago
    Awareness is not sufficient to overcome a well financed organized business enterprise.

    So, I disagree.

    • fsflover 1 hour ago
      Awareness is what is missing now in order to do anything substantial.
      • mdp2021 1 hour ago
        > what is missing now

        Unfortunately what is missing (in the large part of the population) is the perception of Dignity, and the unawareness of the consciousness of their action (people are accepting and feeding the machine).

        It is not just the awareness of the historic context that is missing: it is the awareness that what was built is bad, and that that they are partially to blame in every act of acceptance and omission in stating the "red lines".

  • Pawenniag 39 minutes ago
    I think the argument would be more persuasive if it stayed closer to things people can verify themselves
  • agnishom 4 hours ago
    Awareness is the first step, but very far from the final one. (I am sure the author knows this, but worth reiterating.)

    Surveillance Capitalism is fueled by large institutions with vast depths of wealth and implemented by world-class supercomputers and algorithms. Fighting surveillance capitalism by individual action is like fighting climate change by drinking through paper straws and bringing totebags to the supermarket.