dwkdnvr t1_j41zg3f wrote on January 12, 2023 at 4:59 PM

Reply to comment by birdlives_ma in Did decentralization hit a plateau? by quaintSloe

Exactly - a properly conceived decentralized system is basically impossible to monetize, and so there is very little to no incentive for any company with R&D $$$ available to explore it.

There will certainly be continued academic research, but how you grow a user community large enough to be useful is a bit of a question when

a) there's no money in it

b) you have to assume everyone is a bad actor and will attempt to exploit/co-opt the system wherever possible

PompiPompi t1_j43adcx wrote on January 12, 2023 at 9:44 PM

When you assume the worst case scenario, your algorithm will get the worst performance.

BardicSense t1_j45ptis wrote on January 13, 2023 at 10:06 AM

Why not assume the best in people until empirical evidence provides you with no room for benefits of the doubt? After all, if human nature is ultimately mostly corrupt, as your assumption might suggest, then it matters little what good your decentralized system might try to do if it will ultimately be corrupted and exploited.

Instead you should give people lots of leeway and benefits of the doubt, and if you detect certain rhetoric that is based on a well established pattern of misinformation campaigns or some type of nefarious propaganda, then you eliminate the user's access or whatever, but it seems like being a control freak about the whole thing is the opposite intention of what decentralization was supposed to be.

regalAugur t1_j46dj96 wrote on January 13, 2023 at 2:09 PM

we've already seen how people interact on the internet

BardicSense t1_j46llvg wrote on January 13, 2023 at 3:05 PM

Yeah but different platforms with different rules encourage different types of interaction. People act differently on different sites. Theres a lot of effort going into designing ways to encourage prosocial behavior through "nudging" and various other psychological tricks. I dont believe that the perfect algorithm or website design exists that would make everyone suddenly wonderful and excellent to each other, but curbing people from having total meltdowns, making rage filled rants, or stalking/harrassing people, would be a good thing.

The point is humanity is still in its early infancy with its use of internet technology. 1991 is when it went public, and the species might need some time to adjust properly to this new capacity for communication. We dont know for sure that it has to end in a corporate sponsored dumpster fire every time. I think theres hope for improvement.