The web is full of garbage but one can find sources of specific and detailed information, and also to contact friends directly. So, I choose to go to sites for information (product, “how-to”, or Wikipedia-like), to use aggregators like Hacker News to get a broad brush picture of what’s going on (because no “news” site can be so diverse) and to contact friends directly, and not via a “social” site with billions (?) of users.
Likewise, AI is biased, tries to be all things to all people, and is outright wrong in many cases. It is too easy to nudge in strange directions, and is NOT a nice companion. The lure of advertising is too big not to enshittify it.
However, in strict verticals, it can be helpful.
Since it is by structure non-social, it can’t be used to connect people.
It’s really a matter of choice, and people choose poorly.
“My Internet World” consists mainly of two aggregators, heavily moderated, sites that serve my interests directly, and communications with friends. The latter could be improved by “group forums” outside of the surveillance capitalism monster sites, but nobody seems to care, and should be part of operating systems, but Apple, Google and Microsoft, for example, will never agree on anything, so it’s left to third parties to crack a billion-device market. Fat chance.
As an example, I used to host Moodle on laptops and servers for docs, where people could comment, and it had built-in controls. Perhaps, some outside hosting? Small is beautiful.
People and information. They’ve been poisoned and probably always will as long as people use “big” sites.
Oh, and as for advertising. If I want information, I’ll just go get it. Anyone who pushes information on me is poisoning my cache. Out, damned slop.
Likewise, AI is biased, tries to be all things to all people, and is outright wrong in many cases. It is too easy to nudge in strange directions, and is NOT a nice companion. The lure of advertising is too big not to enshittify it.
However, in strict verticals, it can be helpful.
Since it is by structure non-social, it can’t be used to connect people.
It’s really a matter of choice, and people choose poorly.
“My Internet World” consists mainly of two aggregators, heavily moderated, sites that serve my interests directly, and communications with friends. The latter could be improved by “group forums” outside of the surveillance capitalism monster sites, but nobody seems to care, and should be part of operating systems, but Apple, Google and Microsoft, for example, will never agree on anything, so it’s left to third parties to crack a billion-device market. Fat chance.
As an example, I used to host Moodle on laptops and servers for docs, where people could comment, and it had built-in controls. Perhaps, some outside hosting? Small is beautiful.
People and information. They’ve been poisoned and probably always will as long as people use “big” sites.
Oh, and as for advertising. If I want information, I’ll just go get it. Anyone who pushes information on me is poisoning my cache. Out, damned slop.