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Philip Teale's avatar

Aidan, a very timely piece. I wonder though, if this slop capitalism play by Meta drives humans off their platforms, wouldn't that hurt their advertising revenue model, if they push that too far? Surely there's diminishing returns to this strategy.

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Chelsea Counsell's avatar

Well jeepers this is bleak. I mean, it seems about right, and thanks for the book recommendations, but damn. I didn’t know Meta intended to flood its own systems with fake users. Gross.

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Spencer's avatar

Great point on how the business model is rent through data rather than selling an actual product. Unfortunately some economists are trying to see these digital goods as a benefit rather than a harm on society: https://www.nber.org/papers/w31670

I would recommend the 2025 sci-fi book We All Dream in the Eternal Machine. The story revolves around people being held captive by an AI machine that doesn’t allow them to experience harm but they also slowly lose a true sense of living.

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cricket guest's avatar

Love this

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