Posted by alexandra_k on September 28, 2017, at 15:06:45
In reply to Re: politics » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on September 23, 2017, at 15:28:04
> I worked at a Uni library in which they were doing just that. Some were pleased, but maybe a third of use were mournful.
I didn't realise before just how much of a rare skill it was to be able to immerse yourself in a book. Those who are unable to do it... Most of them seem much happier when nobody in their vicinity does it. They set the social norms, now, instead of being asked to leave the space since they are unwilling / unable to use it appropriately.
> the digital age is difficult for me sometimes. Other times it's brilliant. I'm able to talk with you for example. I can research drugs and health and not depend on just one doctor's opinion. And the news! Sometimes it's a boon, and then just as harmful. You probably have heard about the Russian interference the US, on Facebook and other places. Then it's a crazy, 'fact' distorting echo chamber.
It is a mixed thing. Neither good nor bad intrinsically. Like splitting the atom. Enables nuclear power which (when properly maintained) is wonderful. Also enables nuclear weapons which (when improperly maintained) is a lot less wonderful for some people or other...
I am lamenting the researching of drugs or health rather than depending on just one doctors opinion. I think that once upon a time places like Babble really did have diversity of opinion. I think that once upon a time there was a lot of information on the internet. Now... I see the internet mostly being used to undermine quality information (by every 10 year old posting and reposting and rereposting misinformation) and also being used to undermine accessibility of information (I can't access medical textbooks in person walking into university libraries anymore because the whole thing is moving online and only certain logins are allowed to access this and that).
You used to hear stories about parents who were worried about their kid with cancer... They would walk across the road from the hospital to the medical library and start reading... Now they would likely get trespassed and there wouldn't be any books on the shelves for them to look at, anyway.
I worry a lot about online things being easily altered, too. Not by me, obviously, but by the software engineers etc. I mean... Bob has the power to edit our posts here - right? Well, just think about who has the power to edit things on health records... What vaccine batch a person was given. What allele was in what position of their genone. Power to remove particular x-rays from a series or portions of a pathology sample...
I can see that different logins would give you different access. Some people have access to the version that links genetic predispositions to the criminal database. Other people have access to the version that links vaccine batch actually given to... I don't know... Certain kinds of cancer however many years down the track, or whatever. Only people who don't have access to the relevant information is...
Those who have the power to see incoming doom in time to do something about it. Those who are the subject of the information.
I'm sure offshore software companies have all kinds of powers that involve their engaging in quality assurance for their software... That a lot can be done legally in the name of that. Also in future product development. Of software that is better at... I don't know... Selling alcohol to people with no predisposition. Or whatever...
I don't know why anyone in their right mind would be happy about voluntarily handing this kind of information over to foreign interest / a largely unknown company...
All the university research uploaded to the clouds...
Each software update (or is it system upload?) obsoleting various functionaities / contributing towards the not quite just noticably shitter)...
> Maybe the word 'happy' obscures the truth in that statement. As in 'you can make yourself crazy arguing with idiots'.I think the idea is that some people really are happy doing that with their time. They truly seem to be. I keep thinking that nobody in their right mind would be happy wasting their time arguing things round and round... But people really very genuinely do seem to be. There is little to be done (if you don't actually enjoy it - if you don't actually find that to be a meaningful life) but to get away from them. Because it would make me crazy, yes.
> Medicine sounds like a place to do some good, not in as a do-gooder, but as a sometimes satisfying connection and also a position of enough power to effect some minor good within people's lives.
Yes. I think so. I hope so. Knowledge is power... Things like... Learning how to look after teeth properly and then having the power to do just that. Nutrition etc. Oftentimes we have a pretty good idea of what is good for people it is just that there is so very much money to be made in spreading misinformaiton and hype and so on.
> We're in this togther, which is incredibly scary! Silly as the following illustration may be, we saw It, that Stephen King movie. He's incredibly popular, and his best stories are about the tenderness and immediacy of friendship and it's joys that goes hand in hand with alien horror, over which, for awhile at least, these friends exert a modicum of control.
Hmm. I haven't read that since I was a teenager. I'll put it on my summer reading list. I remember enjoying that one... I didn't think of it as being to do with friendship...
> Do you think of yourself as having dealt with trauma? Sometimes that gives an unwelcome sense of the dark side of us.
Yes. I feel... Traumatised most of every day by how this country treats it's people on welfare over here. I'm on disability supposedly through no fault of my own but they really treat people on welfare like sh*t. People generally. I think we treat people a lot worse in the south island... I think so... I think livnig here is giving me a sense of the dark side of us, yes. There is this awful school across the fence and I listen to abused kids scream their rage and pain everyday. I see why people think it would be kinder to blow up the school already. I need to move away from here or I'll lose my humanity, yes.
> Hang in there. You're a good person.
Thanks. You are too. Thanks for talking with me.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1094248
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20140225/msgs/1095145.html