SoylentNews

Valve Still Lives in the Waking Nightmare of Web 2.0

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday June 09 2018, @05:52PM   
from the not-it dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

You might say we're all living inside a ruinous waking nightmare that spawned from the dream of Web 2.0.

Don't get me wrong: It was a beautiful dream.

Web 2.0. We are all of us producers. With our blogs and our comments and our tweets and our YouTube channels we will democratise content and the algorithms -- those glorious algorithms -- will aid in the process. We will upvote and favourite and like and the wheat will be separated from the chaff.

Magic.

I think we can all agree that Web 2.0 didn't quite work as advertised.

It gave us Minecraft. It gave us Wikipedia, collaborative spaces, online tools. But it also gave us Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, Gamergate, incels, toxic communities, Logan Paul wandering into a suicide forest. It gave us Twitter bullying, Kelly Marie Tran harassment campaigns on Instagram.

It gave us terrible, opportunistic video games about school shootings.

Wednesday, after yanking Active Shooter, a video game where you play as a high school shooter, from its Steam store, Valve made an announcement. In a blog titled "Who gets to be on the Steam Store" Valve discussed the steps it's taking to prevent a video game like Active Shooter from making it to the Steam store in the future.

Its solution is about as Web 2.0 as it gets.

"[W]e've decided," wrote Valve, "that the right approach is to allow everything onto the Steam Store, except for things that we decide are illegal, or straight up trolling."

"Taking this approach allows us to focus less on trying to police what should be on Steam, and more on building those tools to give people control over what kinds of content they see."

In 2018, at this current moment, it seems like a decision out of time. An old-fashioned solution to a problem that literally every single platform on the internet is currently trying to solve. We live in a world where Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are in the process of trying to actively take responsibility for the content produced and posted on their platforms.

Meanwhile, Valve is busy trying to abdicate that responsibility.

---

Original Submission

• Dress rehearsal (Score: 0, Troll) by takyon on Sunday June 10 2018, @12:05AM

  by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Sunday June 10 2018, @12:05AM (#690970) Journal

  It probably should go to -1. It's off-topic. Put it in a journal. But let me brighten up your day.

  *SPOILER* (click to show) *SPOILER* (click to hide)

  Even if the federal government was trying to attack or ostracize "incels", to include a broad swath of people such as homosexuals, it's not really feasible. The FBI can't even stop mass murders in which they interviewed/investigated the perpetrator beforehand. There is no way to spot a so-called "incel" without sweeping up a large number of other outcasts and weirdos. They can only really be identified when they identify themselves through words and behavior.

  The feminist/other thinkers you allude to are making noise for clicks. Their fringe views don't really matter. In fact, the public seems to be getting used to the idea of a mass/school shooting every week. There is readier opponent than "incels" or outcasts: the NRA. Most of the blame will be focused on the NRA and the mass availability of guns will remain a reality in the U.S., even if the NRA gave in and allowed for some token measures such as (ineffective) background checks.

  Biotechnology will allow heteros, gays, lesbians, incels, and trans to venture onto their own paths by allowing the creation of one or zero-parent babies using the technology of synthetic DNA, synthetic embryos, and artificial wombs. Separately, sex robots will allow for the fulfillment of sexual needs where it is applicable (incels need/want it, asexuals don't care, homosexuals don't necessarily need it, etc.). The debate over sex robots is heating up [soylentnews.org] but I don't see a ban ever succeeding, and even if it does, a less sophisticated VR + fleshlight/dildo combo will suffice.

  It will be hard to regulate this stuff. With most drug production you can make it difficult to get various precursor chemicals. With nuclear weapons, you make it difficult to get refined elements. But with biology, you can do some experiments on the cheap, or band together to obtain equipment on the level of a DIYbio (hacker|maker)space. You can get used lab equipment from resellers or even by dumpster diving.

  The coming war over emancipation from the womb will pit feminist vs. feminist, Christians/Muslims vs. homosexuals, libertarian vs. evangelical, three-letter agencies vs. biologists, incel vs. women, etc. I don't think I have to explain how allowing a single man to conceive a child by himself, with no involvement with any female, will be seen as a grave threat by Christians, Muslims, SOME radical feminists, and governments. Ditto for the other groups mentioned. As for how to actually accomplish this, they say it takes a village to raise a child. Sometimes that village includes a heavily fortified Waco-style complex filled with either homosexuals, lesbians, incels, etc. Maybe some of these groups will even ally with each other and trade expertise and equipment, while others will largely keep to themselves (community only consisting of men, women, whatever, maintaining a high level of self-sufficiency with farming, solar, moisture condensers [berkeley.edu]...).

  That will be a messy time with full life real consequences and people dying. The real war involves playing God, flipping gender dynamics, and "killing" the "Divine Feminine" using science. If freedom wins, everyone on the LGTBBQIncel+++++ spectrum could benefit. If freedom loses, it will be because a new level of authoritarian government has been achieved in order to crack down on the relevant science/technology developments.

  Unless your karma is straight up negative, you might as well uncheck the box and post 1 point higher than anon. "What the hell do you have to lose?"

  --
  [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		-2
  Offtopic=1, Troll=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Troll' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		0