Horrors of the Night category archive
Seeing Isn’t Believing 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Belgium’s Ghent University’s Learning and Implicit Processes Lab takes a deep dive into “deep fakes.” A snippet:
Although this new technology has many beneficial uses, it’s also ripe for abuse. Deepfakes are increasingly being used to harass and intimidate political activists, and harm those in the business, entertainment, and political sectors. Female celebrities are being Deepfaked into highly realistic pornographic scenes, while worry grows that politicians could be made to “confess” to bribery or sexual assault. Such disinformation may obviously distort democratic discourse and election outcomes.
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*Follow the link for the link.
Facebook Frolics, Defending the Indefensible Dept. 0
The Zuckerborg is implementing a new Ministry of Truth.
Once again, we are reminded that “social” media isn’t.
Vaccine Nation 0
David analyzes the latest COVID vaccine FUD from Fox News. (Short commercial at the end.)
We Weren’t There 0
The Rude One watched the New York Time’s compilation video of the January 6 insurrection so you (and I) don’t have to. (Warning: Language.)
All the News that Fits 0
We are a society of stupid.
The Trollish Trait 0
Frontiers in Psychology presents a study of those who participate in hate-full conduct on line and finds a common trait. The full report detailing the study’s methodology and findings is at the link; here’s a bit (emphasis added).
The Disinformation Superhighway, Short Attention Span Theatre Dept. 0
One man saw it coming.
He even foresaw “influencers.”
An excerpt from Charlie Warzel’s article about him in last Sunday’s New York Times (emphasis added):
In June 2006, when Facebook was still months from launching its News Feed, Mr. Goldhaber predicted the grueling personal effects of a life mediated by technologies that feed on our attention and reward those best able to command it. “In an attention economy, one is never not on, at least when one is awake, since one is nearly always paying, getting or seeking attention.”
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Jon Gabriel thinks we could ameliorate much of the incivility in our daily lives if we were just to butt the heck out. A snippet:
(snip)
Today, everyone has a smartphone and records everyone else in their worst moments. There’s the guy yelling at a cashier, a driver following a commuter home because she flipped him off, and the woman losing it because the restaurant ran out of guac.
I’m not sure I buy his arguments completely, but methinks he is onto something, particularly as regards “social” media. There’s too much conclusion-jumping and not enough thought in the knees of jerks.
From an Epidemic of Epidemiology . . . 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Dr. Eva Ritvo notes the dissonance:
She goes on to offer some hints for remaining sane as the coronavirus goes, you will pardon the expression, viral.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
At Science 2.0, Hank Campbell explores the role of “social” media in fomenting untruth and the sometime complicity of journalism in perpetuating the disinformation.
Methinks that “distrust but verify” is a good guideline as regards “social” media.
Epidemiology, One More Time 0
William Haseltine digs into the question if why, when the flu by the numbers is clearly much more dangerous, so many persons are wigging out over the coronavirus. Here’s part of what he has to say; follow the link for the rest.
Why does the 2019-nCoV outbreak rile our fears so? The discrepancy has to do with how humans perceive risks. Novel threats provoke anxiety in a way that everyday threats do not, triggering a fear response that begins with the part of the brain known as the amygdala and travels via activation of “fight or flight” motor functions throughout the body.
While this evolutionarily honed instinct for the unfamiliar and foreboding can sharpen the senses—a sort of physiological priming for confrontation with a predator—it can also confuse the mind.
