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GraceHopperFirstEssay 3 - 07 Oct 2023 - Main.GraceHopper
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| | | The Model.
The third component is the model. The first two parts, the content and your data, go into the model to train it and to output recommendations. A blackbox of statistics and optimization algorithms, the model is optimized on clicks (a measure of immediate engagement) and long-term engagement (“stickiness” is the industry term, an euphemism for addictiveness). The more engagement an algorithm generates, the more money it makes, and more successful it’s considered. | |
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< | The model is further reinforced through “topic clustering”. Topic clustering creates groups of users that behave a certain way (“cluster”) and then “discovering” other users that look like the “cluster” and surfacing recommendations to these users as well. These clusters generally revolve around classifications of the content, so multiple clusters can encompass a single user, creating a unique identity and derivative clusters. Topic clustering industrializes the recommendation engine and crystalizes the silicon cage, mass producing recommendations to keep people clicking within their clusters. | >
> | The model is further reinforced through “topic modeling”. Topic modeling creates groups of users that behave a certain way (“cluster”) and then “discovering” other users that look like the “cluster” and surfacing recommendations to these users as well. These clusters generally revolve around classifications of the content, so multiple clusters can encompass a single user, creating a unique identity and derivative clusters. Topic clustering industrializes the recommendation engine and crystalizes the silicon cage, mass producing recommendations to keep people clicking within their clusters. | | | The Threat - Freedom of Choice
People say they have nothing to hide, that the parasite can have their data. People don’t understand that every piece of personal data fed to this engine chips away at their freedom of choice. The more information the model has, the better recommendations it produces and the narrower the results it gives. The recommendation engine transforms our online choices from a cornucopia of ideas to slightly different flavors of the same thing. It whittles the mind, reducing choice to a narrow band of prepackaged recommendations that the engine is statically sure we will click on and get addicted to. Advertisements sell products and profits get pumped into data science teams to optimize attention to recommend advertisements with products that will sell. In this world, what does that mean for freedom of thought? | |
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< | Even more nefarious is topic clustering. The more information the model has, more accurate the cluster it places users into. Attention stealing and addiction happen en masse as companies target entire clusters to sell to. In practice, this bends society to succumb to the the tyranny of the majority. It silences people and messages who challenge the masses by placing them in clusters of similar people and views. Imprisioned, their war cries are locked in echo chambers and heard only by a chorus of similar voices. I do not have to ask what happens when bad actors utilize this power when Cambridge Analytica and the 2016 election already have. | >
> | Even more nefarious is topic modeling. The more information the model has, more accurate the cluster it places users into. Attention stealing and addiction happen en masse as companies target entire clusters to sell to. In practice, this bends minds to succumb to the the tyranny of the masses. It silences voices who challenge the majority by placing them in clusters of similar people and views. Imprisioned, their war cries are locked in echo chambers and heard only by a chorus of similar voices. I do not have to ask what happens when bad actors utilize this power when Cambridge Analytica and the 2016 election already have. | | | A Plan of Attack?
For every byte of data given to the parasite, a crumb of freedom succumbs to its voracious appetite. We must cut ties with the parasite and reclaim our minds. Once we take that critical, revolutionary step, then we strategize. Can tort law hold social media companies responsible for the harms that they cause? Or can contract law protect as consideration the unbridled use of our data? What role does antitrust law have in this Brave New World? Or do we place a cratering charge in the heart of the parasite and build a new? I do not have answers, only musings, an appetite for knowledge, and a stomach to say “fuck you” to power. |
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All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
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