No, I mean just mapping social media closer to actual social networks. As examples of how existing platforms have strayed from that:
Something like 80% of my Facebook feed these days are content from groups I didn't join posted by people I don't know. It's no longer social, it's just content.
Twitter has a "Verified" checkmark, but you don't need a third party to verify your friends' identity. Of course, this is for public entities like celebrities or news organizations, but in my book celebrities don't have a place on social media besides connecting socially with their celebrity friends. But what if you want to follow the BBC? Not what social media is for. Shut off mass media and socialize with the people around you.
My current experiment is running an ActivityPub server where I only federate with a small selection of peers who I already know I trust. I think ActivityPub is likely to be a dead-end for widespread adoption (at least in this model), however, since not everyone knows someone who runs a host. Most of the uptake is on mastodon.social and people there are effectively strangers so this breaks the social trust model.
Anyway, from there I'm looking to get more into gossip protocols like Secure Scuttlebutt since on some level that's the platonic ideal of this idea: there are no servers or admins, just people connecting directly with each other (and even without a need for internet access!). However, there are usability challenges with the protocol, especially that your identity is tied to a specific device (you can't even share an identity across your mobile and desktop devices). The Manyverse crew is working on a protocol inspired by SSB to try to address these issues which I'm looking forward to.
It doesn't have to anything with elites. EU just likes to virtue signal on climate change and new technologies by introducing regulations to keep status quo. Keeping jobs for the sake of only keeping jobs doesn't make any productive sense.
Just wait for luddite political candidates becoming popular when white collar workers will start be inevitable replaced. It will be a total disaster for any sensible discourse.
I dislike the unquestioned assumption that "Luddite bad, machine good".
If you love progress for progress' sake, think about where you're progressing _to_. So far we've "progressed":
- My furniture no longer being made by skilled carpenters: Everything is falls apart after a couple of years, and great, I have to put it together myself to begin with
- Lowering of the bar to _literally anyone with a computer_ for music creation: I know all old people say this, so I won't break tradition: Your music is shite
- Hi-Fi not being particularly hi-fi: A Bluetooth receiver playing lossy format crap out of terrible speakers
- Cashiers to automatic checkouts: Cool, now I have to do their job without getting
paid, then wait for the one staff member they kept on payroll to come and check my shopping and rescan everything because of course they don't trust me
I could go on all night. Point is; progress just means forward motion, not always in a good direction.
I think the US already went through their populist cycle between 2008-2020. If that cycle theory is true, we shouldn't have to worry about it until our old days.
