posted by
martyb
on Monday August 20 2018, @05:16AM
from the How-I-Learned-to-Stop-Worrying-and-Love-the-(spoiler) dept.
from the How-I-Learned-to-Stop-Worrying-and-Love-the-(spoiler) dept.
In recent issues, Technology Review has been running some science fiction short stories. I found "Noon in the antilibrary" to be timely, taking the concept of fake news to a logical extreme, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611829/noon-in-the-antilibrary/
It starts out with some action,
Marius cursed and jammed a mic stand between the crash bars of the TV studio door. "If SWAT's on its way, we don't have much time," he said.
"I don't understand." Michaela, who up until a couple of minutes ago had been streaming their interview live, still sat on one of the oval chairs under the hot lights. "What are they talking about?"
The subtitle (referenced in the Dept. line) could be:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the IoT.
It's a quick read, perhaps 5000 words.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
SF From Technology Review - What Happens When Fake News is Everywhere?
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 40 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
(1)
(1)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @06:12AM (13 children)
It went on too long without anything to hook me in. I felt like I was trying to read a New Yorker article waiting for it to get to the point.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @06:14AM (12 children)
I suppose that is one excuse. Or, you could just admit that you aren't very literate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @06:24AM (10 children)
They could spice it up by leaking some breaking news in the story. Eg, why is no one talking about Trumps collusion with the avians? Total media blackout on that one.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @06:41AM (9 children)
*sigh*
So, your obsession with the orange-headed freak in Washington prevents you from reading any stories that are not about gingers in power. Got it. There is actually a name for your problem - Trump Derangement Syndrome.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-raimondo-trump-derangement-syndrome-20161226-story.html [latimes.com]
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/jeffrey-lord/2018/06/16/liberal-medias-cult-trump-derangement-syndrome [newsbusters.org]
Please, seek professional help. Almost any rational human being will be able to assure you that the Orangutan really isn't any worse for this country than the brown baboon who preceded him, or the pale chimp that preceded the baboon. He's probably not any better, but he's certainly not much worse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @06:50AM
Does this look like an Orangutan?
https://images.tenplay.com.au/~/media/News/National%20News/extra%20jpegs%20for%20outage/2016/November%202016/18/trumpbird.jpg [tenplay.com.au]
Its the avians...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @06:52AM
http://specialarad.ro/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TrumpBird.jpg [specialarad.ro]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @02:42PM
Whoosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:47PM
Ignore the Silverback pounding his chest.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @04:15PM (3 children)
You just couldn't resist working that alt-right talking point in to your rant, could you?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @04:37PM (2 children)
I don't hear TDS from the "right". I hear it from my Libertarian talk show friends. What's to resist? The Libertarians don't like Trump, they don't like Republicans, they don't like Democrats, and they certainly didn't like Hillary. From their perspective, both sides have their heads up their asses. From my perspective, I've got to agree.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @06:39AM (1 child)
Again, Runaway, this is because you are stupid. Stupid, and you have Libertarian friends, which kind of doubles down on the stupid, because any one of them would stab you in the back for a personal advantage where it not for the violently imposed monopoly of force that is your local constabulary. Your head is up your own ass, Runaway, so far away from light and truth that your solar panels cannot recharge the battery of your humanism. We give up on you.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 21 2018, @02:58PM
You give up on me? Great. No more vapid nattering to annoy me. It's been real, and it's been fun, but it ain't been real fun. Buh-bye.
(Score: 3, Informative) by nitehawk214 on Monday August 20 2018, @06:54PM
Usually a disease is named after the first person to carry it. So perhaps Trump Derangement Syndrome is what happens when someone worship's Trump's ego to the point where they ignore all reality.
And certainly Trump was the first one to do that.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:45PM
Different AC. I got lost when the enemy was revealed to explicitly be people assigned the male gender at birth who have no claim to any ethnic group other than European. I kind of liked where it was going until then.
It's a pretty good piece of propaganda!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @06:13AM (10 children)
Running Man. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093894/ [imdb.com] Way back then, the vision was seen. "The Man" could create audio video evidence, on the fly. If some Hollyweirders could see that vision back then, surely others can see it by now. And, the thing is, I don't think that it requires all the resources hinted at in the story. Just one server can generate the "live action story". Feed it to the web, and everyone has it.
If one man can think it, another can as well. The idea has been around for a few decades now, and SOMEONE is working to make it happen, HIS WAY. Does the Deep State have it yet? Well, they're not going to tell us, yea or nay.
Yeah, we're working toward a more "transparent" government on some fronts. Police body cams are cool and all - supposedly it will make the police more accountable for their actions. Meanwhile, https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/08/17/0331215 [soylentnews.org]
Potentially, ten (or more cops) could be handling a situation - armed insurrection, riot, terror attack, whatever you might imagine. And, all of those cop's bodycams are "hacked", and fed straight to the internet, to "prove" whatever. The President needs ultra-super powers to deal with the emergency. Or, DHS needs to put the president into "protective custody". Or, the Secret Service is "exposed" for being under control of (OMG) Russia!
The very worst, the very craziest thing you can imagine, may actually appeal to the madman with the power to make it happen on "live television".
Once again, I see this story not as a simple story, but a warning.
What did we all think that the NSA has been working on for the past few years? What did we think the corporations were going to do with all their "deep learning" AI's? And, what did we think the Main Stream Media has in mind, when it's so very busy feeding us bullshit, day in and day out?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 20 2018, @08:38AM (7 children)
Have another warning [bloomberg.com] - while not at the SF level of technological sophistication, but it is already happening.
And this level may be enough without RealTime FakeNews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @09:26AM (6 children)
That presumes that the "platforms" such as Facebook even desire to detect or counter those states and political parties. In point of fact, each of those platforms has a generally liberal/progressive agenda, and each of them will favor one government over another. Each of them is in bed with one or more government agencies, whether that agency represents Turkey, Russia, the US, or China. All of them are opposed to the "alt right", and all of them favor "antifa" - that much is obvious without even considering international news.
I love that word, "non-partisan". Every think tank that has ever existed has claimed that description, I think. Maybe a few exceptions, such as the Neocon's New America thingy. We're all supposed to be so naive that we believe this institute doesn't have an agenda.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 20 2018, @10:07AM (5 children)
It doesn't matter, the agenda is secondary to the profit.
Profit drops, they'll move their agenda to restore it or will fall.
Besides, replacing them with local-inside-borders clones under the local govt control is not hard. Eg the chinese have their own social networks, Russians almost the same.
Partisans/biased or not, do you have reasons to believe what they presented is false?
From curiosity, have you read even a bit from what I linked? There's nothing in there about USA, but desinformation and aggressive trolling conducted by govts around the world. One that ended with an assassination too (Malta).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @10:23AM (4 children)
LOL, yes, I read it. From beginning to end. And, the US is mentioned within the article, although there are no specific cases presented, as with Turkey, Malta, and others.
False, you ask? No - I can't put my finger on any falsehoods. But, you know as well as I do that the best propaganda uses verifiable facts, spun to the propagandist's point of view. It's difficult to make up a story out of whole cloth. It's relatively easy to put a spin on facts. Fact is, a number of nations and states readily play the censorship games. Who, what, why, when, and where aren't always readily apparent. In our case, in the US, we had the "Russian meddling in our elections" - and as far as that goes, there is truth there. But, what exactly did Russia do? How many resources did they use? How determined, and how prolonged an effort was it? The spin is everything. At one extreme, Russia merits nothing more than a stern scolding. At the other extreme, we owe Russia an invasion and a punitive campaign. Spin, spin, spin.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday August 20 2018, @11:21AM (3 children)
Help me understand you reaction. You consider a piece of fiction as a warning but all you get to say about the article I linked is "presented by a liberally biased organisation".
Thus, what? Not worthy to be considered a warning or what?
Does it matter? If so why?
In my mind, I'd be concerned that someone from outside managed to fool me and my first reaction would have been: how did they managed to do it and what can I do to prepare myself better next time? And you know why?
Because, dam', I do have control over and can adjust myself but I have no control over "them"
Realistically, you think you (the Americans) could pull such a feat?
I mean, look, the Afghans are playing you for over 10 years (and before that, they played the soviets almost for twice as long) and you didn't manage to "win". No, seriously., you reckon invading Russia, the largest country in the world by area. will get you somewhere?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @01:50PM (2 children)
Can't stand an enigma, huh? I'll help you a little. The work of fiction is worth listening to, because it IS non-partisan. The link you linked to has another value, entirely. That shit's bad, man. But - who are the actors? Communists and Muslims. They only affect me very indirectly. I'm looking for first and second world countries trying to pull that crap. Commies and Muslims can't surprise me at all when the depths of their depravity is described. Of course - the Five Eyes have few surprises left.
If the "enemy" is sniffing around the perimeter, and testing you, and you catch him, then all is well. If you can't find the "enemy" doing recon on your, you might want to presume that your security sucks. OK, in this case, we found two squads of enemy recon patrols sniffing around, and scared them off. This is GOOD! They kept our guys on their toes, we kept them on their toes, everyone learns something, and nothing is lost. Good training!
At this point in time? Not only "NO" but "HELL NO!" WTF? As you point out, Fukistan has us tied down for a decade. Vietnam kept us tied down for a couple decades. Before them Korea fought us to a standstill. (Alright, so Korea had China's million man army backing them up, but still.)
No, we can't even think very hard about a punitive action against Russia, because we live in a decadent, lazy, candyassed country today. But, that doesn't change what we owe. Give it a hundred years, and maybe we'll remember our debts. Not likely, but maybe. And, maybe by then the military industrial complex will have collapsed, and maybe we'll have real leaders in charge. Maybe. 'Course, I'm not holding me breath . . .
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @06:48AM (1 child)
FTFY, Runaway. Gratis. But consider well that you ought not to go up agains c0lo, as he appears to know his shit. Recent debates on 3d printing on Mars, and in very many other places, c0lo knows his shit, and probably much shit beyond. You, Runaway, on the the other hand, appear to be shit rather than know shit. You are easily manipulated by not only Fox News, but by Islamophobes, and really wacko Protestant anti-abortion, pro-death penalty, pro-war, and pro-death and destruction in general groups. You need to sit down, shut the fuck up, and stop embarrassing your children and the rest of SoylentNews.
I know this the one place that won't ban you, as they have banned aristarchus, but that means it is up to you to practice some self-restraint. Realize when you are defeated. Do not go against c0lo, if you want to retain any shred of self-respect. It may already be too late.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @02:56PM
What is that hanging out of your mouth? Is that your tongue? Oh, FFS, looks like a penis. Whose penis is it? Is that even a man's penis? Did you bite that off of a dog?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @10:49AM (1 child)
Go back to 1953 when Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 did the same thing. There is a prominent fake news moment when the hero of the story watches his own capture and death on TV - the government hunts him down and kills him to satisfy the masses by randomly picking an innocent man and declaring it is him.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 20 2018, @01:51PM
Guess I forgot about that one. Nice catch!
(Score: 3, Troll) by aristarchus on Monday August 20 2018, @06:58AM (4 children)
When all news about you is fake news, when your level of critical thinking and historical perspective is so diminished that you cannot distinguish the real from the played, your only hope is Janrinok at SoylentNews! Yes, he will deliver the real news, as long as it does not call out the far right, the Brexit shills, the American Neo-nazis, the Alt-right, alt-lite and the alt-white. Oh, dear. I suspect that janrinock is, um, a Pom? Say it ain't so, janrinock!!!
But there is hope. At the end of the line, when one has nothing to consider but whether they have done right in their life or not, most people, including janrinock but not jmorris, will do the right thing, and #freearistarchus!!!! Janrinock! #FreeAristarchus!!! For Britain! For the European Union! For Bhutan! And for Ireland. It is time, janrinock. Do the right thing, even if it hurts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @07:36AM
On Critical Thinking
-- Senior Policy Advisor to Vice President
(Score: 4, Insightful) by anubi on Monday August 20 2018, @07:43AM (2 children)
The problem as I see it is that we must be base our judgement and action on truth, but its not in the interest of those in control that we know what they know.
So they spread "misinformation", but threaten us not to do the same "under penalty of perjury".
Remember what the religious leaders of the day had to say about Gutenberg? It was like revealing the source code of Windows. Everyone could see what was in the Holy Book. As a result, many priests suddenly descended from their throne on high to be seen as yet another blower of much hot air.
Or what our own Government had to say about Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Ed Snowden, and the like, who spilled their beans?
Ignorance breeds bad decisions. And that's just what the elite need to keep the sheep in the pen.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @09:01AM (1 child)
I believe many a sheep have already bolted.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @09:33AM
Yeh! We see that... and we are trying to put a stop to it. Pass Law!
Keep 'em ignorant. Call it something else so it looks plausible. But keep them from knowing how it works.
We can always buy from those who are not ignorant, in another land, under another regime. Does not affect us, as we are multi-national. We want to make sure they have to play in OUR ball park, where WE set the rules. We never play in their ball park. We don't have to. And we want to keep it that way.
We print the contracts. They sign. Never the other way around!
For us, CopyRight! For them, "Work For Hire!"
We can hide stuff in contracts... if they sign and find out later, too fricken bad! Honor your committment!
But if they pull a fast one on us, its FRAUD!
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Monday August 20 2018, @08:18AM (4 children)
The author probably just insulted a large part of his readers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @08:47AM (1 child)
^^^ Before the title, in large bold letters, there should be a "Warning! Snowflakes, you may melt before the end of the story. All the others: you may experience trigger feelz"
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @09:46AM
Jordon Peterdick touched me! Right here, in my manhood! Can you not see how this makes both myself and khallow feel? We are devastated, almost like we had been Catholic boys in Pennsylvania, or Proud Boys in Oregon. Shirley you see how this goes? Khallow? Back me up with an obvious rebuttal, just like in the old days, with Father Mcmuffin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @03:41PM
> quotes from Jordan Peterson
"Clean your room"
The horror. The horror!
(Score: 1) by RantyRantington on Monday August 20 2018, @07:40PM
I find it strange that a story warning of the dangers of fake news while including the fake news of "Jordan Peterson is beloved by authoritarian Nazis" when the far right calls Peterson a "cuck" because he is anti-authoritarian, anti-identity politics, and anti-antisemitism.
I guess it's only fake news when the people you don't like do it.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Monday August 20 2018, @08:43AM
fake news is everywhere
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Monday August 20 2018, @02:29PM (3 children)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @06:02PM
There is no such thing anymore, if there ever was. There always was, is, and will be false propaganda. But Donald Trump made the term absolutely meaningless when he popularized it and twisted it to his agenda, that is, anything Donald Trump doesn't like. (Could that be a metalogism?)
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Monday August 20 2018, @07:55PM (1 child)
The frightening thing isn't that people can concoct fake stories to convince people. The frightening thing is that this power has become so cheap that anyone with an internet connection is capable of it. When that happened, winning the right to define "truth" stopped being about having access to the best experts, the fastest presses, the most computing power. It became about having the most idiotic followers ready to retweet your nonsense.
The battle to control the truth used to fuel innovation, its winners controlling the best means of generally running civilization. Now the winners control the most idiots, and the battle to control the truth requires its combatants to make the world stupider and stupider.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 20 2018, @09:47PM
I agree with your analysis. The antidote, of course, is a better educated populace. Perhaps now the assembled peanut gallery might actually see the value of a free college education for all? Just sayin'.