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<p>Thanks to Glen's clear/concise response to my fence-sitting
contemplations I <font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace"><virtue-signal></font>
<i>left twitter myself...</i><font face="Courier New, Courier,
monospace"></virtue-signal></font> <br>
</p>
<p>I only had 123 tweets and 22 followers after 12+ years on the
platform so I surely won't miss it much. Several of my "follows"
were of folks I haven't seen or heard from in most of a decade...
I guess since I was able to "unfollow" them they must still have
accounts, even if they themselves haven't tweeted in all that
time. I'm pretty sure I was following Glen but had no indication
he had left and was simply not on my "followed" list...
unsurprising that Twitter would support all of us leaving as
silently as possible.<br>
</p>
<p>I appreciate Marcus point about twitter having it's "finger on
the (im)pulse" of a huge subset of the first world's
population. I'll be waiting with 'bated breath to see how much
of a "great resignation" actually happens. Reminds me of a
dystopian version of Brunner's "Hearing Aid" or 999-999-9999
service in Proto-Cyberpunk <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider">Shockwave
Rider</a>.<br>
</p>
<p>In the process of making sure I understood how to *deactivate* I
read a few dozen tweets (mostly) by right-wing-loons saying "good
riddance" to the Libs/Dems/Snowflakes, etc. This naturally
increased my resolve. I think I'd be happy to concede *this*
town square to become another Parler/TruthSociopath/etc. <br>
</p>
<p>I obviously never found Twitter that useful to myself so no "town
square" there for me anyway, unless you call a rolling
street-brawl your kind of town-square. I put away my own brass
knuckles long ago. FB had the same structure/experience for me...
maybe worse since the size of the payloads were so much greater.</p>
<p>Most of the folks I'd crow to about leaving Twitter would never
have signed up in the first place... so I suppose this is my
only "crow" <CAW !><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 10/31/22 11:39 AM, Marcus Daniels
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:BEC0FEF4-58CC-49C7-9144-A6444AEB1E69@snoutfarm.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
I guess it is the data he is after. People posting on Twitter are
being selected for impulsiveness due to limited message length.
Having models of hundreds of millions of individuals’ impulses
could be valuable to all sorts of organizations.
<div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<blockquote type="cite">On Oct 31, 2022, at 10:28 AM, Steve
Smith <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"><sasmyth@swcp.com></a> wrote:<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<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"
moz-do-not-send="true">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/"
moz-do-not-send="true">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"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<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/"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<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"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<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"
moz-do-not-send="true">
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"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<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"
moz-do-not-send="true">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"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<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"
moz-do-not-send="true">
<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"
moz-do-not-send="true">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"
moz-do-not-send="true">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/"
moz-do-not-send="true">
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"
moz-do-not-send="true">
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>
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<br>
<br>
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