The Great World Census

[Ali]

It means that if you're going to be new Julian Assange on your facebook wall or organize riots like middle-east did, your friendly neighborhood KGB-(whatever) goes to facebook, asks for your posts and tortures you in cellar based on them. It also asks for who your friends are, what did they private message you about your crazy ideas, and grabs them aswell.

I agree that's a big issue but the root of the problem is not Facebook or Twitter, it's the totalitarian regimes.

If anything, Facebook and Twitter have struck a terrific blow for democracy by helping ordinary people to organise themselves under oppressive regimes. The villains are fighting back in many ways, including through Facebook, but that doesn't make Facebook the main villain.

[InCreator]

Not the villain, just exploitable. Because it's business, not effort of humanity. It's scared to lose it's funds and therefore doesn't act as instrument of democracy or people's treasure.

But if we'd have one that's formed like this, it would be way different ballpark... I hope. People are ready to go long way to protect some stuff... like freedom. That's why we have colored revolutions and hacktivists and loads of bloody history and so on.

And governments can go only as far as populace lets them.

[Anian]

Take facebook profile data, for example you extrapolate what is the average when a person gets married, what is the most average job if they live in let's say London or whatever, where they go on holiday etc. you can and they do use that for marketing purposes, but you can also make a wicked AI - imagine if you will an AI that doesn't have to learn but that has access to behavior right away.
You'd be dealing not with simple stuff like a machine bumps into a wall and knows that there's a wall so it changes direction until it hits a wall again. There'd a be an AI that can find any conversation ever lead on facebook and emulate a human response that's not only topical but also emotionally correct and it's a "right" response to a particular person (as in how their friends react).
FB is not only a collection of human data, it's a collection of human thoughts, opinions and moods. An AI would know that a family member dying is a tragic event, that when it's drunk it sings and makes typos, that it takes a photograph of a certain monument when on holiday, that a person buys clothes every few months.
Also it can have a job over the internet, like bookkeeping or stock trading, imagine a power of a computer that can invest in stocks that can analyse human patterns and behaviors because of the database provided, and when someone goes to check on them on FB, there it is, an AI created timeline of a life that never was.

Wouldn't that be deliciously dystopian?

[miguel]

I'm with Ali on this one. Let me explain my point of view:

Facebook, Google or any other media used by masses isn't really the problem. In fact, such thing like Facebook is something really fantastic if you consider that 3 decades ago it would be pure fantasy! Communication is the big word here.

A theory explains that what made the Homo-Sapiens succeed and the Neanderthal not, was that Neanderthal people were seclusive and not very interested in meeting other tribes, sometimes only a day's journey distance. Making it impossible to trade goods that would keep them alive when severe climacteric conditions arrived.
The Homo-Sapiens explored the world, invented symbols to communicate with others, had the intention and desire of sharing their knowledge with other humans. It's almost impossible for an human not to scribble something while waiting for somebody.

Men scribbled, wrote, painted on walls, then he phoned, texted, and now has access to the internet on the palm of his hand. What does he do? He shares information about himself! It's impossible not to.

Also, you, me, everybody, we don't want to tell person A that we got married, we want to tell A,B,C,etc... about it! Actually, we want the world to acknowledge our presence here. Either we are sad, or happy or lost our jobs or got promoted!

The rest, well, like everything, it just takes some common sense to separate what we should or not to reveal about ourselves.
Don't forget that Facebook isn't forcing anybody into opening an account. You are free to close your account.

On a final note, a modern scientist wrote that our world is "pixelated", meaning that we only see what we are looking at. He believes that the world we know is a simulation, a virtual world, something made by future generations. It's a fantastic subject. I'd love to "dig" into it so that I'd have some more knowledge about his theory and debate with you guys.

Now, time for some beers! Merry Xmas!