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<p>Great quote from CDs screed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="color: rgb(26, 26, 26); font-family: "Lucida
Console", Monaco, monospace; font-size: 16px; font-style:
normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps:
normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255,
255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial;
text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">"Every
billionaire is a policy failure, but every billionaire is also
a factory for producing policy failures at scale."</span></p>
</blockquote>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">I think this logic held for
*millionaires* at the turn of the *previous* century but I doubt
it will take until 2100 to raise the exponent from 6 to 9 to 12
(trillionaire)?</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Anyone else read Gibson's "Jackpot"
series or at least start watching "The Peripheral" on Netflix?
Their dystopian 2100 feels *almost* Utopian compared to what I
sometimes feel is looming on the horizon. <br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Musk/Tesla, I think I now understand
better how the died-in-wool capitalists who love-to-hate Musk
choose to make their money on his coat-tails by *shorting* against
the volatility he generates with his dumb-Tweets (everything from
420 to challenging Putin to resolve Ukraine through personal
combat to suggesting Zelensky give over disputed territories to
the latest Pelosi-conspiracy-talk). Buh!<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/31/22 7:50 AM, glen wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:092a83e9-78cd-3fdf-ac3b-1b87b7fa63de@gmail.com">Do you
get this:
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://theweek.com/speedreads/972170/peter-thiels-largest-disclosed-political-donation-ever-possible-jd-vance-senate-run">https://theweek.com/speedreads/972170/peter-thiels-largest-disclosed-political-donation-ever-possible-jd-vance-senate-run</a>
<br>
<br>
Doctorow has an interesting take:
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/26/boxed-in/">https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/26/boxed-in/</a>
<br>
"The Uihleins are ideologues, but it's a mistake to view their
authoritarianism, antisemitism, racism, and homophobia as the main
force of their ideology. First and foremost is their belief that
they deserve to be rich, and that the rich should be in charge of
everyone else."
<br>
<br>
I'm not convinced. But it's plausible. What do Musk, Thiel, and
the Uihleins have in common? They *probably* think they're better
at something than the rest of us. What is that something they
think they're better at? If you answer that, then maybe it'll
explain why Musk bought Twitter?
<br>
<br>
On 10/31/22 06:42, Marcus Daniels wrote:
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I don’t get it. It seems undisciplined to
put his successful companies at risk to buy this money loser,
while at the same time getting all this bad press.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">On Oct 31, 2022, at 5:11 AM, glen
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:gepropella@gmail.com"><gepropella@gmail.com></a> wrote:
<br>
<br>
Yeah, I deleted all my Tweets, unfollowed everyone, and
removed all my followers. Musk is an asshole. I know my lack
of participation means nothing. But at least I won't be (as)
complicit. There are no good billionaires
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://patrioticmillionaires.org/2022/09/21/dont-trust-the-good-billionaires/"><https://patrioticmillionaires.org/2022/09/21/dont-trust-the-good-billionaires/></a>.<br>
<br>
It's interesting how, in some cases, the existence of the most
horrible of any species (e.g. Uihlein
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/uline-uihlein-election-denial"><https://www.propublica.org/article/uline-uihlein-election-denial></a>)
can make the others seem "good". It's like a murderer saying
"At least I'm not a rapist." Or a rapist saying "At least I'm
not a pedophile." And a pedophile saying "At least I don't
kill 'em." Honor among thieves.
<br>
<br>
As SteveS mentioned earlier, I'm almost diametrically opposed
to effective altruism for exactly this reason. The argument is
basically: Hustle! Then Dole. I'm willing to change my mind.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YgbpxJmEdFhFGpqci/winners-of-the-ea-criticism-and-red-teaming-contest">https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YgbpxJmEdFhFGpqci/winners-of-the-ea-criticism-and-red-teaming-contest</a><br>
<br>
Even when we give Billionaires [ptouie] the benefit of the
doubt, forgive them for their rapacious and exploitative
methods, and
<br>
say "At least they're doing Good Things, now", the Hustle!
Then Dole lifestyle hones/perfects dystopian Taylorism
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor"><https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor></a>.
It's only when these old codgers begin to see Death a little
more clearly, do they discover some sort of moral frame, while
(metaphorically) meditating at the edge of their infinity pool
built on the ridgeline of some desert mountain range. And, as
we see in Musk, their lifetime of isolation within the
outsized scope of their own influence (because, well, money is
God, omnipresent, omniscient, etc.), puts them at risk of
dimension reducing attractors like most individualist,
right-wing causes. E.g. "free speech" (distinct from free
speech, with no quotes).
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">On 10/30/22 11:37, Jochen Fromm wrote:
<br>
Until now I have used 3 Twitter accounts for scientific,
development and personal stuff. I have used them more
frequently since Google+ was shut down. One main reason why
I do not use Facebook or Instagram is Mark Zuckerberg. As
Grady Booch used to say "Facebook is a profoundly unethical
company, and it starts at the top, with Mark Zuckerberg".
<br>
For Twitter it is similar now. I really don't want to
support a platform that belongs to someone who likes to
insult others, like Garry Kasparov or the real Tesla founder
Martin Eberhard or many others, just the way Trump likes to
do it.
<br>
The note for advertisers was plain marketing. His intention
to save the world? A lie. This town square stuff? Nonsense.
He certainly didn't write this, it was more likely written
by Twitter's CCO Sarah Personette and her team. However, he
has created his own hell by buying the platform he is
addicted to.
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation">https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation</a>
<br>
I am using Mastodon instead now, which does not belong to an
egomanic or eccentric billionaire. Yes, it is named after an
animal which died out at the end of the Pleistoscene, but
the distributed and decentralized approach is much better
than having one big centralized system. My new Mastodon
accounts are here:
<br>
fediscience.org/@cas_group
<br>
berlin.social/@JochenFromm
<br>
ruby.social/@jofr
<br>
-J.
<br>
-------- Original message --------
<br>
From: Steve Smith <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"><sasmyth@swcp.com></a>
<br>
Date: 10/30/22 6:50 PM (GMT+01:00)
<br>
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com"><friam@redfish.com></a>
<br>
Subject: [FRIAM] (not) leaving Twitter
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mashable.com/article/please-stop-tweeting-leaving-twitter">https://mashable.com/article/please-stop-tweeting-leaving-twitter</a>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mashable.com/article/i-was-going-to-quit-twitter-but-elon-musk-takeover">https://mashable.com/article/i-was-going-to-quit-twitter-but-elon-musk-takeover</a>
<br>
I have a *very* limited twitter engagement myself. Same
with FB and *zero* with anything else *but* Instagram where
I restrict myself to viewing and posting and liking the
equivalent of "family" snapshots for my family and closer
friends.
<br>
I tried *mostly* to ignore the implications of a Musk
privatization-takeover of Twitter during all the on-again
off-again period but/and now as it has become a "done deal"
I feel more able to engage in thinking about that (unable to
avoid thinking about that?). I thought I might
de-activate/delete my nearly unused account when I
discovered that I had a renewed interest (morbid
fascination) in watching it spin out (decohere) or not from
the front row. I found myself looking for whether Musk's
magic pixie dust would somehow trigger a phase transition
(likely there will be one, but probably not the kind most of
us hope for).
<br>
Earlier discussions on *this* forum touched on what would
make for a proper *metaverse* (not the one Zuckerberg is
trying to create from whole-cloth). My (very loose)
engagement with the Cardano/Catalyst work and interest in
blockchain is motivated by this as well.
<br>
Musk's attempts to characterize Twitter as a "town square"
feels very off-base in many ways:
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-twitter-is-unlikely-to-become-the-digital-town-square-elon-musk-envisions/">https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-twitter-is-unlikely-to-become-the-digital-town-square-elon-musk-envisions/</a><br>
What do "town squares" look like in "company towns"? And
why does most social media so often feel more like a rolling
street-brawl?
<br>
I worked *peripherally* on a project at LANL trying to
address the possibilities/implications roughly 30 years ago:
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://library.sciencemadness.org/lanl1_a/lib-www/pubs/00285557.pdf">http://library.sciencemadness.org/lanl1_a/lib-www/pubs/00285557.pdf</a>
<br>
there were some good insights, but it was all so young and
fresh and raw at the same time...
<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
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