The Internet is a Kill-switch for Inconvenient Truths

Facebook is curating trending news stories.

Google is tweaking algorithms to control what they want to have appear in search results:

www.washingtonpost.com... /

Truth or accuracy be damned.

How else is the information on our precious Internet being bent to the will of powerful people who do not have our best interests in mind???

Here is why the Internet scares me right down to my socks: digital data can be cooked, altered, manipulated, obscured or just plain deleted at the push of a button. Books are much more troublesome things if you want to control information. You have to physically find them, then actually burn them, hoping of course you found all the copies. If there is information that some powerful entity does not like harbored somewhere on the Internet, they can scrub it remotely if they have the tools and resources.

a reply to: olddognewtricks

What frightens me about these companies manipulating topics is that there will be people calling for this to be regulated to prevent them from altering the topic/news stories.

And guess who ends up regulating the information then?

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Exactly!!! None of this is to say that the Old Internet (books, and the people who could lead you to them) wasn't fraught with innacuracies. But you had to go to tremendous physical efforts to produce that information in the first place naturally led to most people taking pains to ensure accuracy of information before expending resources to publish. That's why most of it is pretty accurate and what was bogus could be weeded out by careful cross referencing. One if the problems sited in the Washington Post article is that habitual cross referencing is not being done before Google decides what to present as fact!

originally posted by: olddognewtricks


How else is the information on our precious Internet being bent to the will of powerful people who do not have our best interests in mind???

The mistake is in thinking that the internet with it's "wealth" (tongue in cheek) of information at the push of a button was ever for our benefit. It's use is exactly as it was created for. We willingly offer up information about us in one form or another, and they offer up information / entertainment designed to manipulate us and our thought process.

There's a reason why Google wants to monopolize the information superhighway.

So they can issue tickets for violations of "conduct."

Take a stroll into the deep web and these invisible barriers tend to disappear.

Most either like their padded environment or are completely oblivious to it.

So, don't believe everything you read or see on the internet; do in-depth research for yourself.

a reply to: AccessDenied

Ha! No I definitely would not use the term"wealth" with any seriousness at all to describe the vast majority of what's out there on the Internet. Outside of a precious few sites (stackoverflow, ATS, project Gutenberg to name a few) it is pretty much all worthless garbage that you cannot trust one bit.

a reply to: InTheLight

Right on! I'm one of those lunatics who actually sees value in reading historical monographs. Something where an independent historian or researcher has spent years digging up primary resources before sitting down to write. It's a MUCH better use of my time than reading anything published willy nilly on the 'Net. And it gives me the background to more easily see through the myths and downright fabrications propagated by the media.

those of us that actually want to have a clue about what is happening will have to more and more move into the DarkWeb or DeepWeb or whatever you wish to call it.
that's what will happen to truth and information....once they were burned, now they are not being indexed

originally posted by: IShotMyLastMuse
that's what will happen to truth and information....once they were burned, now they are not being indexed

'Xactly!

a reply to: olddognewtricks

Even worse! When people as yourself, think someone is nice to you, but wishes you misfortune!

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

What i enjoy about the internet, you can find so many dark secrets.. What you think August?

a reply to: olddognewtricks

a reply to: olddognewtricks

I believe, people tend to believe in mostly anything and see what they want to see.. You see if a man has alcohol problems and has friends believing in a word game, they have a tendency to see things that actually are not real..

Its algorithms for marketing, just like a commercial spot on TV

a reply to: PanPiper

The same thing I think about your other posts.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I think you need to elaborate on that, cause i believe you see things, which are not real..

I can quote a few articles from the source;

But to skeptics, of whom there are a growing number, it’s a looming public literacy threat — one that arguably dwarfs the recent revelations that Facebook’s trending topics are curated by humans.

They provide information but often leave out any context on where that information came from. That makes it difficult for readers to evaluate the accuracy of the statement or whether it’s the best and most complete of the available options.

But most pertinent to our interests are the modules and carousels linked to Google’s Knowledge Graph, an advanced database sourced largely from Wikipedia and constructed in part from user search patterns.

in a paper published last month in the academic volume Code and the City, how the city of Jerusalem was represented both on Wikipedia and in Google knowledge panels. They found that while Wikipedia may explain the city’s contested geopolitical status in enormous depth — as of this writing, that portion runs to almost 1,500 words

You see at the end they also quote;

“Our goal is to be useful; we realize we’ll never be perfect, just as a person’s or library’s knowledge is never complete,”

I believe you find what you search for, its not more advanced than that.. For your accusations i feel deeply offended..

originally posted by: PanPiper
I think you need to elaborate on that...

Sure, I find them to be banal and vapid.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

That is your opinion, while others find them useful. I believe i provide universal stories across dogmas, some might see different when they are not part of any dogma than their own self delusional illusions.. Like my post about a "man and a doctor"

Just like google tries to offer a universal answer and not a self fulfilling answer of someones illusion.. But as they also say;

“Our goal is to be useful; we realize we’ll never be perfect, just as a person’s or library’s knowledge is never complete,”

originally posted by: PanPiper
That is your opinion...

Exactly, and when I want yours I will give it to you.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Be nice to people, a friendly advice.. =) Have a pleasant day.. And enjoy your beers