The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on March 14, 2018, 08:41:27 pm ---The only article I was able to read so far in last week's NY was the longish one on Christopher Steele: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier
The latest issue arrived today and I have read half of it already, online. Watch out for the Reddit story. Be prepared for a look into the obscene world of online trolling:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/reddit-and-the-struggle-to-detoxify-the-internet?mbid=&mbid=nl_Magazine%20Weekly%20031218%20without%20Web&CNDID=18632875&spMailingID=13105294&spUserID=MjI2MjM0MTY1NjYyS0&spJobID=1361154261&spReportId=MTM2MTE1NDI2MQS2
--- End quote ---
I posted a warning about this article back in late March.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on June 12, 2018, 11:35:38 am ---I posted a warning about this article back in late March.
--- End quote ---
I wondered if anyone had already discussed it, since it's a couple of months old. I can't say I found much of it surprising, but then I've read a lot about internet trolling. I reviewed a book about people who were attacked so harshly on the internet that they lost their jobs, got death threats, were afraid to leave their houses, etc. I was kind of gratified that in the Reddit story, the admins had decided that the gross stuff had gotten out of hand. And the ending is somewhat, if not entirely, hopeful.
I've been the subject of trolling myself. I have a google alerts out for my name but somehow I'd missed this one. I was looking (in vain, it turned out) to see if old, pre-internet newspaper articles of mine were available on the internet. I stumbled across one of those horrifying sites (not a Reddit -- even their admins would probably ban it) where posters treated the c-word as synonymous with "women" and the front page said that people should avoid using the n-word because it's considered offensive, then offered a bunch of other common racial slurs to be used instead.
Jeff Wrangler:
Another good reason to read TNY (column filler):
"A former meerkat expert at London Zoo has been ordered to pay compensation to a monkey handler she attacked with a wine glass in a love spat over a llama-keeper."
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on May 22, 2017, 03:18:32 pm ---Do undergamekeepers really say things like "Come without fail" and "We shan't never be parted"?
(At least the second one has a double negative.)
Notwithstanding the lack of impression Maurice made on me, I really have always been a fan of Merchant-Ivory films. You always knew a Merchant-Ivory film would be a classy, high-quality production.
--- End quote ---
Well, Jack said, "Nothing ain't never come to me the right way," and many other multiple-negative constructions. So, maybe gameskeepers and cowboys are related, in literature.
Front-Ranger:
hehe, I came here to write about Tad Friend's piece in the May 14, 2018 issue and I ended up reacting to a post from a year before that! Am I living in the past, or what? Anyway the article "Superior Intelligence" is witty, data-packed and chilling. He quotes from many sources on the subject of artificial intelligence as well as countless TV shows and films. "customer service bots will need to be designed, updated, and managed. Experts in unexpected disciplines such as human conversation, dialogue, humor, poetry, and empathy will need to lead the charge." Vladimir Putin is quoted as saying, "whoever becomes the leader in [AI] will become the ruler of the world." and most agree that AI can only be managed or fought with stronger AI.
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