Hello and welcome back to another thrilling development brought to you by Isaac and TWhbP:Blog! I decided to take a break from the normal nerd talk to just discuss surface level nerd talk that many of you might be familiar with, social algorithms. My algorithms has lots of tech and currently has got a lot of AI trending videos on YouTube so it's what inspired this post. I'm not going to go into deep details of how algorithm work, but more of an approach one should take to ensure your algorithm is helping and not hindering your life.
This YouTube Short (below) was the first video I saw on my feed this morning and I felt like it was a good topic to post about today. AI is dramatically shifting power structures for content creators, as images generated can now be unbelievably real. See this short below (I've linked to YouTube below to credit and support the creator, but I've also embedded here for your convenience without ads): Link to Short on Youtube.
My take away is this blog and movement is important to all who find it. It might not be important today, it might not be important tomorrow. But at some point there will be a time where the knowledge found here will assist you with your life. We are already in the beginning of being able to easily fake images and videos with imperceptible accuracy, so who's to guess what 1, 2 or 5 years further into the future will bring? I'm not certain, but without a well informed populace the wolves in sheep clothing will be 110% believable and indistinguishable from any other average sheep. These sheep 2.0, you won't see the fangs or claws before they get you.
My social algorithms are full of tech and science with some politics for good measure. I've been slowly peeling off the political aspects of my social presence, as politics has lead me to raw feelings that leave my day worse off. I feel the messaging is setup to evoke this type of emotion, so it makes me not want to visit those areas of social. But I'm reminded that we can't just disregard anything that makes us uncomfortable, many religious texts say we must endure some suffering to attain salvation. I'm not sitting idly by and discounting politics entirely (I'm attempting to keep this movement as a-political as I can to ensure we can help the most people), but it's why this messaging is so wrought with fear. I think I'm being socially engineered by my social algorithms to decidedly reject things that are uncomfortable. I think maybe we all are? I think we need to get everyone in a room on a similar footing and start to air our grievances. I think we'd see, whatever political affiliation you have, that there's more in common in each of us than we are lead to believe by daily soundbytes trying to sew eternal division (well, more likely just trying to make a buck).
Politically divisive rhetoric isn't easy, someone sees without understanding a parroting of political ideas. It evokes some emotions, it makes someone else feel a way. No matter your politics, you can't reach across the aisle with fists, you can't reach across the aisle with anger or reprehension; you need to open your arms and embrace what the other side has to say because in my experience we all want similar things. We all want a safe environment to figure out life, we want to have food on our table and loved ones to share our joys with.
Sometimes how we get to the things we want are different from our neighbours; some bend mores to step over people, some decide the trek was too hard so they lay down pavement so the next to go on that journey comes with less cost. It takes a village and many multiple types exist within these two examples. You don't need to be a saint, but I firmly believe you should try to make the world easier for as many people as possible. I feel this greatly because, I for one, was never asked if I wanted to be alive. I only wish for any small child feeling the same as I have felt, for them to find solace in that the tools are around them. They just need to find the tools littered about or have someone show them explicitly. I'm hoping this messaging will be a tool for those who need it.
Isaac