Hacker News Reader

Comment by vouaobrasil | Hacker News Reader

This type of technological solution makes society worse. If we are so anonymized by technology that we need even more technology to try and refine recommendations, we are heading down the wrong path in my opinion.

The entire problem with this is that we have created a system where we have become anonymous cogs, where machines are more and more deciding on where we go and how people get to know us.

Soon we will have a system where AI machines analyze us and communicate with other AI machines on whether we fit well with being a drone in some large corporation.

This sort of development is sick.

View on HN

This reply seems a little bit pre-baked and somewhat irrelevant for the site in the link. The OP is building up a small world network of direct recommendations, i.e. it is about as far from an automated recommendation service as is possible. The warm introduction feature sounds like a simple path finding algorithm.

There may be another lens through which to view this instead of "balanced critique of technology". Describing this as "sick" seems somewhat hyperbolic.

More generally, is it really technology that makes us anonymous or is it simply an emergent property of scale? When there are millions of similar engineers out there (to use a single field as an example) relying on word of mouth, or similar non-technological approaches seems unlikely to find the best candidate with any degree of probability.

> There may be another lens through which to view this instead of "balanced critique of technology". Describing this as "sick" seems somewhat hyperbolic.

Well, when I used the word "sick" I was referring to the entire technological complex, specifically how it influenced finding jobs, that was sick -- not just the invention itself.

And sometimes it is necessary to pass strong judgment. What about everyone who raves about technology like it's the second coming? I hardly see anyone opposing their rabid enthusiasm.

> is it really technology that makes us anonymous or is it simply an emergent property of scale?

It can be both, but technology enables the scaling, and the scaling follows from our basal instincts to grab as much as possible. Therefore, the social development from the technological is almost unavoidable except under the watch of strict regulations and wisdom, which we DON'T have.

Your feedback laments technology making people anonymous but at the same time seems to forget there's a real person receiving it.

What of those who don't have a deep organic network and could benefit from additional exposure? (I'm personally grateful for a life-changing job brought in part by the algorithmic machinations of LinkedIn, for example.)

Concerns are fair, but you appear to jump immediately to the most negative possible interpretation.

It's the way I see it. Of course, some people might benefit from LinkedIn and they might get great jobs. That's the carrot, but what about the stick? Individual people will like it but only some and over time, the situation will get worse and the net effect will be negative.

> Soon we will have a system where AI machines analyze us and communicate with other AI machines on whether we fit well with being a drone in some large corporation.

it could be argued that group-think is an artificial intelligence in itself, nevertheless what you describe seems common

That is a very interesting point. To take it one step further, I do think that group think augmented with machines is a sort of "new organism" that has arises.

Never looked at it like that haha – hopefully it won't only be recommendations to be a corporate cog

Reply on news.ycombinator.com