[DigitalFreak]

  Yeah, I meant that as a compliment.  I kind of hate how professional a lot of YouTube's become and I think his couch shenanigans kind of keep the old spirit of it alive. 

Have you noticed how some of the Brits seem to really love YouTube. I was surprised how much content from the UK is on there. Everything from fancy car reviews to guess what me and my boyfriend did last night.

 

[DigitalFreak]

 

[Mimouille]

Have you noticed how some of the Brits seem to really love YouTube. I was surprised how much content from the UK is on there. Everything from fancy car reviews to guess what me and my boyfriend did last night.

That would be an idea...I would love to know what you and your boyfriend did last night...but I know you're not the type to kiss and tell.

 

[DigitalFreak]

That would be an idea...I would love to know what you and your boyfriend did last night...but I know you're not the type to kiss and tell.

I always knew you wanted me

 

[warrenpchi]

  I kind of hate how professional a lot of YouTube's become

 
Any ones in particular?

 

[driver 8]

Just the whole thing since the content networks started popping up.  There was a time when almost the entirety of the site were people with cameras ******* around in their houses as a hobby and the well known ones were essentially no different.  Then there were covert networks which had to be exposed by people like Mr. ChiCity and it suddenly made sense why everyone was jump cutting and throwing around the same couple of memes, as if it were all directed and edited by the same couple of suits since -- surprise surprise -- it was.  Now the networks are transaprent at least, but there's still an annoying level of sameyness present and, as a personal quip, I get annoyed when I'm watching vids and feel as though I'm an outsider looking in on some California Cool Kids Club.  I should probably elaborate on that, but bleh.
 
It's kind of silly of me to complain about that, though, since I barely watch any of the big names anyways and think the quality of the site's content has gone up tremendously overall.

 

[Coq de Combat]

What's your take on this whole "quantified self" thing?
 
The geek in me loves it. I can keep track of basically anything I do, in order to get a macro view of my life so I can easier make the changes I need in order to get a better life. I mean it, I love the idea, and while the execution is so-so, I'm also in the clear that it's just the beginning and that things will get a lot better in time - with wearables, and so on. It's a bright future for biostatisticians and epidemiologists, and guys like me: with background in computer science, real life big data/datacenters/databases and epidemiology/biostatistics. This being my future, I am sure of.
 
The infosec geek in me is paranoid. While it seems that malicious things aren't being done yet with all this data on me yet, one can never be sure. Forget this whole dupe-giving-away-data-for-free-thing because that's how it wortks: you get a service, and it works as long as people give away their data for free, and let's face it, you wouldn't be able to sell it yourself. I'm just worried about us creating the figurative 1984 scenario here, the real life panopticon; the state that is run by algorithms and sensors rather than human contact. When it all comes tumbling down on us, when Google becomes Skynet and we all live under a global corporate umbrella, you bet your shiny ass that I will be wearing my Tinfoil Hat Deluxe 2000!
 
I don't know what to make of all this. All I know is that data is being collected all the time, people already buy bracelets to make sure data is collected even when they're not connected to the net (Fitbits?) and that there will be a great need of guys to handle all of this. I think that there may be a need to have some sort of regulatory body looking over shoulders here as well.

 

[driver 8]

As a chronic self-hater I think I'd have to change and grow a lot as a person before I could ever appreciate having data like that about myself visible to me at all times.
 
Alt-post:  I think it makes life less romantic to a fair degree.
 
Also, analog watches for life.
 
Re: Paranoia: Iuno, the NSA already has enough **** on me to get me blacklisted from jobs and ruin my life forever if they wanted to.  I feel like I'd have larger concerns if we ever really started to see that happen to normal people, though.
 
-Edit-
 
I think people value their right to privacy and independent thought more than they know.  When people like Michio Kaku say we'll inevitably all be data in servers one day (just, like, taking this to a crazy extreme for the hell of it)I kind of just go "wut" because I don't see that as some natural progression of humanity at all.
 
Also, Big Bro likely knows that he wouldn't even need that **** if he wanted to take over. 

 

[Coq de Combat]

I agree about making life less romantic. Life becomes just numbers and someone else is sitting on them.
 
Food for thought: what if someone alters some algorithm just slightly to barely be visible, but enough to start screwing with your numbers, resulting in the 'quantified self'-you pressuring yourself to become depressed about not reaching your goals or whatnot.
 
As for the NSA, I hear you. Sweden is notorious for our "register state", and it's one of those things I hate about this country: mess up once and it's harder to get yourself up than sleeping on speed. Not impossible, but hard enough to make most people stay in their spiral.

 

[driver 8]

If you mean that in a more literal sense then I think people will ultimately reject the means by which that could happen.  If you mean that in some mass-manipulative socio-economic sense then I think that could easily happen (if it doesn't already), but the means by which people can overcome depression have to be available in order to keep civility in any hypothetical 1984 hell-hole imo.
 
I guess overall I doubt evil masterminds would go about world domination with "algorithms and sensors rather than human contact" since it's easier to just get people to police one another and it's way better for whoever's in charge to be the big hero who's going to save them from abstract issues, the likes of which I don't think would exist with the level of manipulation I think you're implying.  I could be wrong, though.  I'm not in the clearest frame of mind right now*.
 
I'm also assuming even the most awful sociopathic ruler would still have some, like, aesthetic interest at least in a humanity that's at least somewhat, well, human.  If it were me I'd still want people to make music to listen to that I couldn't predict and shiny objects and interesting foods.  Outright destroying the world makes no sense if you want to live on it too.
 
-Edit-
 
*Actually, if it seems like I'm really misinterpreting what you're saying here it's probably not so much that as it is the fact that I know very little about the "quantified self" thing as it exists now and the dialogue surrounding it.  Despite being a tech geek overall I really don't care about a lot of the more trendy ****.  Despite being 25 I'm already starting to feel like a grumpy old man in that I think some of this phone-y stuff is incredibly uninteresting.  Like, I know smart watches are a thing and they can count your calories and heart rate and ****.  If there's some deeper dimension to what they can monitor about you then I haven't heard about it.  I can imagine that if there's a trendy schedule app and a trendy check-my-bank-account app and all that data winds up in someone else's hands (as it probably does) then processing that all together could be pretty telling in the here and now.  I honestly don't know if that's what people want to do with it, though? 
 
I also suppose that, with what they can do now, Google or whoever can secretly check my heart rate as certain stimuli are on the screen of my phone.  Is that a concern people have?

 

[Coq de Combat]

I'm not sure if anyone is really having any concern with the whole thing, I just think that it's appropriate to stop and think about what they could do with all that personal data they have on all of us. This whole 'quantified self' is basically keeping track of everything you do with wearables and smartphones, to make everything a bit easier to interpret, but somewhere along the line it might be a good idea to keep an eye on what exactly they do with the collected data other than present it to you with nice graphs and maps. If they sell it to Nike, Adidas etcetera to make better shoes or condoms, it's okay with me. But I'm not so sure that it would be okay if they used it more maliciously or if we're in the middle of giving our governments the perfect fundament to keep better control of us, or anything of that caliber.
 
That's the more paranoid infosec side of me, thinking that here's the perfect way of ruining our personal integrity, and we're happily letting them -- not that anyone else is having problems with it (it's not a #selfgate yet; there's no uproar).
 
But like I said, there's a part of me that is childishly in love with the whole idea: apps that keep track of me. I can't even keep track of myself. But apparently some apps can, and I find it awesome. I literally have apps to tell me when it's time to take my psycho-medication, sleep, work, eat, and so on. Not that I'd really need it, but after a few weeks without them I'd find my life a carousel that I can't get out of. I've tried it, it was no fun. Those sorts of things makes me feel like I'm in a sci-fi movie.
 
I just hope it doesn't turn out to be one of those dystopian ones.

 

[driver 8]

Ah, alright.
 
Also the idea appeals to me less mostly since I have a really good internal clock and sense of schedule already.  I just have issues caring enough to do things.  Like, I constantly know when things are due and when I should start them and how I should go about them, but it's always been too easy for me to say **** it or even disregard that for amusement sometimes.  I don't think a PDA would solve my issues since my main issue is that I just don't use the one I've got >_>
 

---

 
 

 

[compoopers]

Hello everyone, nice to see this thread back

I recently went to a simian mobile disco concert, it was really good. Tried some drugs, those were good.

I was reflecting on all my posts from the past and thinking about how much I've changed. Weirdly enough I grew up in this thread!

 

[DigitalFreak]

Hi compoopers nice to see you again

 

[MuppetFace]

  Muppet, any impressions of Thom Yorke's new EP (Tomorrow's  Modern Boxes)?  

 
 
I'll be talking about it a bit in my next entry, actually.
 
It's far from my favorite electronic album this year, but I definitely like it. Thom Yorke's production and range of sounds is more intriguing to me than his last few efforts.