Hacker News Reader

Comment by m12k | Hacker News Reader

A headline that truly captures the times we live in. There's something poetic about using machine intelligence to detect human stupidity.

View on HN

I can't wait until this technology is perfected so that we can finally put an end to online disinformation for good.

Those dangerous idiots actually believe that a billionare pedophile spent decades inviting high-ranking politicians and influential decision makers to his private island for orgies with underage girls, and that when he was arrested he managed to hang himself while on suicide watch in a maximum security prison! They really are that deluded and dangerous. This needs to end, now.

The nutcases also believe that the governments are working with big tech to eliminate cash so that anybody who doesn't toe the line can be "permanently cancelled". Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous? I hope in the future we can just have an algorithm that disables the bank account of anybody who spews such divisive nonsense online. There is no place for that kind of hate in a society that strives for any kind of progress.

> I can't wait until this technology is perfected so that we can finally put an end to online disinformation for good.

Well, first you need to define "disinformation." It's a non-trivial, and probably a concept that's unable to be rigorously defined.

The entire post is sarcasm.

> I can't wait until this technology is perfected so that we can finally put an end to online disinformation for good.

In case the sarcasm is not obvious... this will never happen. Determining what is true and what is false will be one of the greatest challenges humans face from here on out. The source of disinformation may be from fellow citizens (conspiracies, memes), or it may be from the government itself (propaganda) or from massive corporations (lobbies, bogus research with predetermined conclusions)

I truly hope this is sarcasm

Yeah, it obviously is. But something that irks me about the comment is that it conflates a well-supported conspiracy theory (Epstein, who was actually charged and convicted) and a crazy illuminati-level one (Big Tech eliminating cash to cancel people, huh?), as if they are equally plausible.

You'll have a nice beta test to observe in 2021, as people who don't take a vaccine will be phased out from the society. Restricting payments seems like a good way to do it.

How will people who don't take a vaccine be phased out from society? This sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory to me, but then that by no means proves it as a falsehood. Should I be preparing for a purge of some sort?

Of course it will not happen, it is a ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Nobody is getting phased out, the people who chose to not take the vaccine will just not be able to buy or sell.

not be able to buy, sell, travel anywhere, go to cinema, restaurants, participate in sports events.

>a crazy illuminati-level one (Big Tech eliminating cash to cancel people,

Its been happening for a few years now. It is an unfortunate reality.

https://fortune.com/2017/08/18/visa-paypal-mastercard-hate-g...

Do we laugh or cry at how this cannot be immediately discerned as a joke at this point in time.

I think it's counter-productive to label everyone who believes conspiracy theories "stupid". Not only does it make it more difficult to talk to and help change their opinion, it further polarizes use. Sure, I will readily admit that some people are just being obstinate and stupid, but when you have the places you get your news from feeding you misinformation, or worse, feeding you facts, but not all the facts, or the details get lost in transit (e.g. the cdc not recommending masks and then recommending masks), it's not hard to see how some things become ideas.

We can't help correct misconceptions if we believe they're driven solely by stupidity.

I think trying to "help change their opinion" or "help correct misconceptions" is also counter-productive. Just accept that they have a different opinion and deal with that. It can be a challenge, but you can't avoid dealing with other ppl's different opinions. It's life.

The problem comes when their misconceptions have consequences to those around them. If somebody consistently swaps "left" and "right", that is fairly harmless until they start driving on the wrong side of the road. If somebody believes that there is a child sex ring operating out of a pizza parlor, that belief is fairly harmless until they take a gun to that pizza parlor.

That's exactly what I mean by challenge. But you have no other options. You can't force someone to honestly change opinion, that's impossible.

How do you deal with a different opinion that dehumanizes people? Eg. If I'm a trans person how do I not attempt to correct the misconception that "trans panic" is a socially acceptable justification to murder me?

Sure, I mean, I personally believe in the "conspiracy theory" that most of the QAnon conspiracy theories circulating on social media either originate from the Russian Internet Research Agency/Glavset, or is at least being actively nurtured and amplified by them as an attack on their geopolitical adversaries and their electorate. A belief that I don't have solid proof for, but which I still consider less naive than the alternative, that all this viral disinformation is really being created and spread by people who really believe it themselves, or just for the lulz.

As a bit of a conspiracy theorist myself I thank you for your more thoughtful stance toward myself and my tribe, and can confirm that your concerns (that slurs like "stupid", which are themselves stupid ironically, do indeed magnify the problem) are valid, at least to some degree.

But then on the other hand, I believe that the conversations and "thinking" on display in threads like this (and the many others that pop up from time to time) are beneficial to our cause, as it plausibly results in a kind of effort free recruiting. Of course we'll never be popular in intellectual forums like HN, but if one pays attention to comments on more "super-mainstream" (ie: non-HN, non-Reddit social media, like online newspaper comment sections or in YouTube comments from local TV stations), I sense distinct growth in average sentiments in our favour. To what degree this can be attributed to studies like this and the subsequent forum meme wars is obviously purely speculative, but I suspect "there's no such thing as bad publicity" is applicable here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com