Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanielBMarkham | Hacker News Reader

We're going through an epistemological crisis the likes of which haven't been seen since Europe went through the dark ages. (Disclaimer: I just wrote about this and submitted the essay on HN https://danielbmarkham.com/the-overlords-finally-showed-up/ )

I agree with the author that nobody cares about whatever content you create, aside from your own marketing value and ability. At the same time, we've created huge industrial systems to harvest your thoughts and reassemble them in return for eyeballs on some site somewhere. Your individual value is nil

Personal authorship and ownership of art and ideas is one of the key concepts that created the modern world. I have no doubt that folks are harvesting this guy's blog, and many more like it.

I don't know where we go from here. Should be an interesting ride!

View on HN

> I agree with the author that nobody cares about whatever content you create, aside from your own marketing value and ability.

I wouldn't say that's the author's contention, very much the opposite from the way he passionately defends his work and authorship, as well as all the work he puts into researching very niche topics.

On top of that, citing previous work is one of the most important parts of research, and plagiarism can be a career ending move. In this case the author's blog comes up in the first google results for that research topic so it doesn't seem to be a side-effect of some emergent industrial system that would strip and remix knowledge with no regard for its authorship as much as wilful scientific misconduct (allegedly).

You're conflating a lot of things here. The title of the original essay is "nobody cares about your blog" if I agree with the author in the sense he meant it, I'm not sure where the problem is. Likewise, "the author's blog comes up in the first Google results" is exactly the kind of industrialization I'm talking about.

Assuming positive intent, and that you're not a bot, thanks for the chance to clarify!

The title is a quote from the person who responded to him rudely, not a statement of his own opinion, he spends the entire article arguing against that person.

My understanding of your point, and the industrialization that you spoke of, is that it would strip or muddy authorship, you can't take this blog as an example of that when it's original research that comes up prominently along with its author in the medium the author intended. The stripping of the authorship was done willfully (allegedly) by a human, not by some algorithm that'd prop-up derivative content with unclear chains of authorship over original research.

Yes, I agree that the author that his work is important. I further agree that the sentiment expressed by his correspondent is common. Further, Google is just the first step in the internet repurposing machine. The tech is 20 years old. It drives newer industrial tech like the recent AI. All of it exists to gain a fractional value from thousands of sources rather than single source a work. The point here is not to research and cite a work, it's to scan and reassemble.

It's great to have a traditional view of authorship and scholarship. I support that view. The internet engine of commerce does not support this and views such as those debated in this essay far outweigh those older ones.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com