1/09/2020

Headline, January 10 2019/ TECHNOLOGY : '' ' SEDUCTION FOR *STUDENTS? ' ''


TECHNOLOGY : 

'' ' SEDUCTION FOR *STUDENTS? ' ''




OUR BRAINS ARE NO MATCH FOR OUR TECHNOLOGY :

A viral app called FaceApp just recently persuaded 150 million people to handover private images of their faces, paired with their names, simply by appealing to their vanity. How?

The app offered the ability to create surreally accurate portraits of people as they would look many years in the future. Who owns the app [and the 150 million names and faces]?

A Russian company based in St. Petersburg.
 
A DECADE AGO, EDWARD O. WILSON - the Harvard Professor and renowned father of  sociobiology, was asked whether humans would be able to solve the crisis that would confront them over the next 100 years.

''YES, if we are honest and smart,'' he replied.'' ''The real, real problem of the humanity is the following :

We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.''

Since Mr. Wilson's observation, technology's godlike power have increased dramatically, while the ancient, Paleolithic impulses of our brains have remained the same.

Yet this isn't usually one of the complaints leveled against technology companies today - that the digital infrastructures of Facebook and Google have overwhelmed the natural capabilities of our brains. Instead, we hear concerns that tech firms are collecting and tracking our personal data. Or that they're simply too big.

Let's imagine that we managed to solve the privacy issue. In this new utopia, we would own all our data, and tech giants would be forbidden from tracking our online whereabouts; they would have access only to the data we agreed to share.

While we might see fewer creepy ads and feel less paranoid about surveillance, the troubling trends connected to the online world would remain unaddressed.

Our addiction to social validation and bursts of ''likes'' would continue to destroy our attention spans. Our brains would still be drawn to outrage and angry tweets, replacing democratic debate with childlike he-said, she said.

Teenagers would remain vulnerable to online social pressures and cyberbullying, harming their mental health.

Content algorithms would continue to drive us down rabbit holes toward extremism and conspiracy theories, since automating recommendations is cheaper than paying human editors to decide what's worth out time. And radical content, incubated in insular online communities, would continue to inspire mass shootings.

But influencing two billion brains in these ways, today's social media holds the pen of world history : The forces it has unleashed will affect future elections and even our ability to tell fact from fiction, increasing the divisions within society.

Yes, online privacy is a problem that needs to be addressed. But even the best  privacy laws  are only as effective as our Paleolithic emotions are resistant to the seductions of  technology.

Who needs to hack elections or steal voter information when people happily hand over scans of their faces when you appeal to their vanity?

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Technologies and Society, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Tristan Harris.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot. com and Twitter - !E-WOW! : The Ecosystem 2011:

''' Digital - Digress '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

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