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Still Friends? The trouble with old sitcoms

Source: Still Friends? The trouble with old sitcoms

As 90s sitcom Friends faces a backlash for alleged homophobia and sexism, we ask, was it ever thus?

“Homophobia, racism and misogyny are not and have never been acceptable [but] if it’s 20 years old, why on earth are you surprised if it’s different? If it makes you uncomfortable, why on earth are you watching it?”

— James Baldock

“And there’s a bit of arrogance – thinking we’re so perfect now. Not that I endorse the old attitudes, but I suspect if you fast forward 50 years into the future you could put people in front of the TV now and people will cringe as we do.”

— Mike Ward

Cory Doctorow: Persuasion, Adaptation, and the Arms Race for Your Attention

Source: Cory Doctorow: Persuasion, Adaptation, and the Arms Race for Your Attention

There is a war for your attention, and like all adversarial scenarios, the sides develop new countermeasures and then new tactics to overcome those countermeasures.
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The attention wars have real consequences for our daily lives. The entire fake news/Facebook ad/Twitter bot scandal is but a skirmish in the wider attention war, albeit one with global geopolitical (and potentially thermo­nuclear) consequences.
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But history is littered with armies of seemingly invincible attention warriors who were out-evolved by their prey, and could not overcome the counter­measures that were begat by repeated exposure to their once-undefeatable tactics.

Against the synchronous society, by Artjoms Iškovs

Source: Against the synchronous society, by Artjoms Iškovs

It’s alarming how often society seems to hinge on people being in the same place at the same time, doing the same things. The drawbacks of this are immense: infrastructure has to be overprovisioned for any bursty load pattern and being inside of a bursty load pattern results in higher waiting times and isn’t a pleasant experience for everyone involved. Hence it’s important to investigate why this happens and whether this is always required. … Why are people doing this to themselves?

does the weekend really have to happen at the same time for all people?
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In professional services, in most cases, the client doesn’t care when the service is being performed. … Fixed work hours make no sense since it’s not time the client is buying, it’s the result. Knowledge work isn’t predicated on people having to do it at the same time or even at a given time.
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Do we still need offices?
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Do all meetings have to happen at the same place or at the same time?
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From a cultural point of view, public holidays are amazing. From a logistical point of view, they’re a nightmare. If everybody is having a holiday, nobody is, and the fact that everyone is observing the holiday at the same time yet again creates usage peaks in all sorts of places.
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There are still planes in January, but they’re… emptier. And airports aren’t such an unpleasant experience.

Raise AIs like parents, not programmers—or they’ll turn into terrible toddlers

Source: Raise AIs like parents, not programmers—or they’ll turn into terrible toddlers

Creating a safe AI is not that different than raising a decent human. … We can apply some important lessons we teach to young humans to how we govern AI:

  1. Keep an open mind
  2. Be fair
  3. Be kind

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Like human brains, machine-learning algorithms assess how to act based on past experiences: They create decision pathways based on the data they have seen. If the data they’re exposed to is limited, their understanding of the real-time information they process will be, too.
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Our ability to trust is underpinned by fairness. It is so essential that children as young as four will detect and react to unfairness. But in order to verify fairness, one must have access to the decisions that are being made. … The answer was produced in what’s referred to as a “black box”: an electronic system completely closed to analysis or inspection. This dismissive “because I said so” approach does not build a sense of fairness or trust in either AI or children. … AI needs to not only produce, but also explain the answer it creates.
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Understanding the process of decision-making is necessary but not alone sufficient—sometimes we need to improve the rules that we follow in the first place. This requires two key traits: empathy and imagination. … AI needs to learn the same skills.

We need a super-Turing test that reflects humanity as we want it to be when it grows up: not just human, but one that is kind, fair, and has an open mind.