How it really works nowadays;)
Considering that about 60% of all online traffic are bots, the chance is high that that troll you have been arguing with on social media is one. Some of this bot traffic is fully automatic while others are being paid to spread propaganda and disrupt discussions. This obviously includes malicious spammers and wh8rebots.
A big example of what I'm talking about can be seen on YouTube. Governments in some Western countries are getting worried about low fertility rates so they started putting out videos on this topic. Every one of them attracts the same type of comments telling you that having children is a stupid idea, patriarchal oppression, that children will ruin your life etc. Personally I speak several languages and let me tell you, that the comments are literally the same in any of them. It's obvious that some nefarious agents are simply clogging any discussion on raising fertility in different countries with identical arguments. It can also be observed in Telegram discussions but YouTube is particularly bad lately.
Another example is how the search engine algorithms are getting rigged. If you did a search on vaccine harm pre-Covid, you'd get a variety of vaccine skeptic sites, while now you get countless government reports on how all vaccines are safe and effective. I''m sure if you start paying more attention to it, you'll find other examples as well.
Years ago, whatever the internet's many faults, it was a remarkably honest (if anonymous) place. Probably too honest. But at some point the system saw the opportunity to addict the general public, gather data on everyone, and then manipulate collective realities into delusion. If we are starting to reach a point in this process where the internet is so fake and dishonest that it is choked with junk, I wonder if people will finally abandon most of it the way more and more people have abandoned the rest of the media. Could other networks of honesty form outside the eyes of the system? I hope so, but I'm not especially optimistic.
ReplyDeleteI recently read your books (and enjoyed them!) One thing I noticed in them was that although the characters were space-faring people for maybe hundreds of years, the planets in that particular section of the galaxy intentionally had restricted their daily exposure to automation, robotics, transportation, computing, etc. to something that looked (in my own interpretation) very much like our own daily technologies circa the year 2000.
ReplyDeleteYou had made a mention in the first book that this policy was deliberate, but didn't elaborate (it wasn't essential to the story, after all), and I wonder what you think about this idea of nations deliberately restricting technological practice and exposure for the sake of the humanity of their people and probably for the sake of the limitation of government/economic power as well? Such restrictions by popular consent would seem to solve the kinds of socio-technological problems that nations are now facing.
(And I'll probably write an article on this idea myself before too long.)
I guess it started with Facebook and then you got smartphones and now we are all addicted;) But you can still find good stuff online, you just need to know where to search. Some telegram channels are really fine. YouTube also used to be OK, but it all went downhill in corona years.
ReplyDeleteJanus, concerning your 2nd comment (I just read it today). First of all, I'm really happy you liked my books! Did you order them from Amazon? Feel free to recommend them to friends and family:)
ReplyDeleteAs for your question about technology. Yes, the restriction was partly intentional (just look what smartphones and ai are doing to people's brains, especially kids), but also because it would make stories much more complicated (I did already have to research a lot while writing them, and I'm not that much into technology being a female). Things like drone warfare which we now see taking place we didn't know that much about 14 years ago. And also, I just wanted to write stories about more or less traditional society but relevant for modern times, and since there are no Western societies like this, I had to invent a world for them to take place.
War is also only more or less described in book n1 and I based it on some conflicts I knew (and watched movies) about. Were I to write it now, I'd probably give more space to drones. But then, they depend on satellites a lot as far as understand(doesn't Ukraine use starlinks a lot?) and a satellite can be destroyed which doesn't happen in the current conflicts for various reasons. Anyway, you see that going into all these details makes everything too complicated, since warfare isn't really the topic of these books so I just chose the way of the least resistance and avoided it altogether.
I read epub versions of your books from Lulu. And I read them during a time earlier this year after I was finally starting to get out of years of burnout, exhaustion, and alienation, and I hope it doesn't sound trite or sycophantic to say that your two books brought me a lot of comfort over a critical month and a half. I enjoyed the way you depicted sensible worlds with realistic characters with engaging conflicts in a universe that was familiar and yet new and in many ways better, elements of classical mixed with elements of the present. The first book with Lennart's adventures was fun, and you described military life remarkably well. I enjoyed the second book even more, with all the intrigues related to Eric's rise towards his birthright. I recommend both books for anyone who just wants to read fun stories that aren't pushing any modernist narratives. In my case, I will always remember them fondly as part of a personal restoration and healing.
DeleteAs far as technologies, I'm glad that you didn't emphasize them too much, because the main strength is your plots, your characters, and the interactions with both.
Janus, I'm really glad to hear it!
Delete"you described military life remarkably well"
I won't disclose all my sources, but if you like retro shows, you should check the original 1960s "I dream of Jeannie" series:)
Concerning the 2nd book, it was partly based on things I learned while traveling through Europe. Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Northern Italy and, of course, Germany. Have you ever read Alistair McLean? I think you'd like his books.
For me, the best part of the internet is paying bills online and not having to worry about whether the US mail delivered my check on time. It's nice having the flexibility to pay more in line with when my check is placed into my account.
ReplyDeleteI also love all the old movies I'm finding on YouTube and older ones before my time that are quiet good, I like the internet archive with the never ending selection of old books and other material, and the hobbyist out there who do things with cars, computers, electronics, metal, and such I would not have thought possible.
The downside is that people can find their group to re-enforce their idiocy and people are rather tribal on some things.
I very much agree with you both, Sanne and Texan, that there are many good and honest and fascinating things to be found online. Definitely many Telegram channels give better information than most news sites these days, and I agree especially, Texan, about the ease of financial transactions and most especially about the joys of Internet Archive. There are many good and useful things! But it's also getting more difficult to navigate through the online crud, too. In the end, so much comes down to balance, orientation, and scope. The manipulation has gotten out of hand.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, internet banking. I still remember writing and mailing checks;) BTW, it's again very hot over here. This summer is brutal and during the daytime I don't use the airco in my bedroom, hence the lack of posts.
ReplyDelete