c/RTFA · by eureka@aussie.zone · 77d

Going Critical (an interactive article about things spread in social networks)

https://meltingasphalt.com/interactive/going-critical/

This phenomenon applies especially to the spread of ideas and to the spread of infectious disease.

10 points · 3 comments · view on lemmy.world

3 Comments

Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 75d (2 replies)

Why is this not top of the feed. What an interesting and fun interactive essay.

Firstly, I know why Eureka decided they must share this, 😆

A flash of inspiration strikes and — eureka!

Just as the first cities were a hotbed for diseases that couldn't spread at lower population densities, so too is the internet a breeding ground for malignant cultural forms like clickbait, fake news, and performative outrage.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this these last few years, ever since I found out about Activitypub and its potential to deliver a more natural network/marketplace of ideas than the ultra-centralised platform model thats existed since Web2.0. As he says in the essay theres a lot of effect that can be put down to simply the structure of the network and its density.

Take the ability of One Nation to gain traction so quickly, or any Social Media driven campaign. Centralised platforms like Facebook have created a network where mis/disinformation isn't reliably refuted or even tracked by third parties (or even by FB themselves), coupled with micro-targetting it means anybody with a cause and the financial strength can increase their reach to many more of those susceptible to the ideas, and worse actively close out any other ideas their targets (users) might be susceptible to by stacking their feeds.

If 90 percent of your country is engaged in subsistence agriculture, and most of the remaining 10 percent are performing some form of commerce (or war), it doesn't leave a lot of people with the free time to ponder the laws of nature. Perhaps this is why most science in premodern times was done by the children of wealthy families.

I really thought he was going to say religious careerists here. Thats who I think of when I hear this point. And its a good additional point to show that it doesn't matter the ideology or wealth its the structures those have created in time that have led to sustained advancements.

This is fantastic news because it means we can get a this reproducible effect due to network structure in more equal societies without the ideological divisions and/or class stratification and gain an even more impactful and sustained set of advancements. Which I think Australia excels at already if you consider our comparatively high rate of technology innovation and it's subsequent use.

Our 'classless' (less divisions in a society would increase the rate of 'susceptibility' to ideas, and decreases 'immunity') society directly increases the Australian networks ability to communicate, modify and progress ideas.

Perhaps a better model is one in which careerist nodes aren't just impervious to knowledge, but are actively spreading fake knowledge. Fake knowledge might include minor results that get hyped up and oversold, for example, or genuinely false results that arise from p-hacking or fabricated data.

Imagine if politicians did something similar about subjects like climate change or immigration...

But regardless of how we model them, careerists certainly have the potential to stifle our scientific communities.

Much like politicians spreading their hate and selfishness have stifled the advancement of Australia.

What an excellent and thought provoking essay. Thanks Eureka for sharing, I shall share it widely as well.

Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 75d

To add an anecdote,

I had a conversation with u/bandhmo when they were still hanging about AZ. In that conversation we talked about the higher rate of communists here, and I said I's was comfortable with them, in fact I found it refreshing, a sort of contrast to constantly seeing the same old Neo-lib, conservative, or libertarian talking points on places like Reddit that I used to frequent.

This, I think, is an under-evaluated element of the Lemmy network and its developers. It'll be down to network effects and structure to see how the communists influence continues if Lemmy or other related and readable activitypub projects grow. But for now its been refreshing to be exposed to another type of network that is more or less absent in other social media networks.

eureka@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 75d

Why is this not top of the feed. Funnily enough, you bumped it back up and it's still on the front page, so thank you for the (excellent and insightful) reply :)

What an excellent and thought provoking essay. Thanks Eureka for sharing, I shall share it widely as well.

Thanks, I found it through a related interactive "exploitable explanation" I knew about years ago, made by Nicky Case (whose other ones are listed at the bottom as an inspiration) - "the wisdom and/or madness of crowds". It's more surface-level and less academic than this article, but also discusses historical events and more directly explores the structure of the network and their density (like friend groups). And this one shows the kind of thing you're talking about with ON microtargeting on social media - the first interactive task is basically to manipulate a group into thinking an unhealthy habit is common and normal, when it's a minority position. An unpopular opinion can be "what everyone's thinking".