HeOwnsTwitter

Reasonable.

No transparency, though. Cannot be sure.

You’re way off base and I would prefer if you were to discontinue responding.

Yes, for instance if a big tech company knows that a person is demoralized already (for example, out of work and isolated), and if a major life trauma event occurs for that person, create a satirical and insulting depiction of that trauma event for the person unannounced on their personalized feed. They will never know for sure whether it was intentional, which will add to the stress and demoralization effect. The big tech parter could conceivably then measure their response to help refine the psychological warfare weapon.

Another technique is to use past trauma events such a divorce or childhood abuse as part of customized content on one’s feed.

Without transparency, how could one know if this was being done intentionally or not? Big tech valuations are largely tied to information asymmetry and secrecy as such. What power could they enjoy over a user if the user was able to see all of the data they hoard and how it’s being used in full transparent detail?

USA

Yep, age 7 and 11 were peak bullying ages. Verbal and physical abuse, scapegoating. Ignored and blamed by administration. Parents from an era where “boys will be boys”.

Now: Homeless and broke. Out of work for a long time. I let people shit all over me, even in adulthood.

I was told that adulthood would be different. In fact, it was the same as childhood, but more insidious.

I pray for death being unable to commit suicide. Failed attempts. I don’t want any help. I just want to go to sleep and not wake up.

Related: is it weird that the identity of my childhood bully ostensibly exists on some dossier in possession by a big tech company, and has been used as part of a demoralization campaign? How would I even know if this had occurred intentionally? Seems to me that the information secrecy and closed source nature of social media big tech firms is ripe for abusing data as part of malicious psychological warfare: bullying on algorithmic steroids. I am quite sure that this has happened to me repeatedly (google, twitter), yet there’s no pathway to inquire, etc. no accountability, no transparency. Unlike other hn users, I don’t have insider friends at those orgs to inquire.

This is an enlightening article. I’ve had tinnitus and hyperacusis for my entire adult life. I used to be able to live in a reasonably quiet high rise. In fact I started programming remotely full time from home in an urban high rise condominium.

After many life disasters in part related to urban living with these conditions, I have found myself long term homeless and destitute. I tried moving back into a city a few years ago, in a “luxury” building that had poor construction standards, particularly in terms of the sound isolation from neighbors and outside.

If I could go back, I’d place sound isolation at the top of the list of requirements, given my disability. Might have helped to restart software development. Bummer.

Great article.

After using a sibling’s Ti-99/4a, my first real “puter” was a hand-me-down PC/XT with an 8088, CGA, 256k RAM and dual 5-1/4” floppy drives. Much appreciation for the nostalgic post.

Yes, perhaps similarly, my endeavor was to build tools for engineering drawings. Definitely was a surface level usage of autolisp.

One of my earlier professional programming projects was to build a set of custom tools for engineering in Autolisp. Rip Mr. Walker

My Russian ex used this to send me a long note eight years later.. on Chekist Day

No, they are still fronts for three letter agencies. Different variety of creepiness.

The overarching concern is that Musk’s national security portfolio is too broad, which presents a unique risk without precedent.

Just noting that Elon Musk now owns Twitter, rebranded as X. You can expect the same degree of indecency with your data there. Grimes and (now defunct) circles? Creepy.