Always interested in what Cory Doctorow has to say. While this particular blog post isn't about DRM, his work is benefiting everyone (except those who would rather enrich themselves at the expense of humanity). It's probably bigger than you think. I highly recommend reading up on what Cory has to say on DRM and the war on general purpose computing. It may change your mind.<p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/cory-doctorow-says-fight-against-drm-laws-more-important-than-blogging/" rel="nofollow">http://www.zdnet.com/article/cory-doctorow-says-fight-agains...</a><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/press/releases/cory-doctorow-rejoins-eff-eradicate-drm-everywhere" rel="nofollow">https://www.eff.org/press/releases/cory-doctorow-rejoins-eff...</a><p>Also watch the various youtube videos of his talks, like this one: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYXBJOFgeI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYXBJOFgeI</a>
A bit odd to open an article about an arms race for my attention and see an ad for a book (A whirlwind out-of-this-galaxy adventure! #1 New York Times best selling author...) in the menu that takes up the top half of the page, and then only the title of the article and no actual text before scrolling (mobile safari)... and then a donate now box also came up over 80% of the screen. Also a nice touch to have all the social media widgets connected so my attention can be weaponized while I read about my attention being weaponized.
><i>"Not everyone has this reaction, of course: people in the fifth or sixth sigma of slot-machine susceptibility go out and[...]"</i><p>Every time a new one of these mental attacks gets invented, a new five-sigma cohort falls off the "normal life" wagon. How many times can this happen before expansive hordes of people who have had their priorities destroyed start a new social crisis?
Cory is a great writer and gives an entertaining history of attention-grabbing in advertising and games. His main point is that we are continually able to adapt to escalating intrusions that attention grabbers throw at us.<p>However, overall I disagree that we are adapting fast enough. Not only is the escalation so rapid that most cannot adapt, the cultural shift in what is an acceptable level of intrusion is like boiling us frogs alive.<p>On the Web, it is absolutely acceptable nowadays to have a fullpage interstitial or a whole-page darkening nag box on a news article. And to block adblockers. Wat. A newspaper or the web of just 5 years ago would never have considered this acceptable.<p>This makes me worry about the future, especially augmented reality. Don't you want ads right ON YOUR FACE!? It's OK. You'll adapt!
I would highly recommend reading Matthew Crawford's <i>The World Outside Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction</i>.<p>(<a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/World-Beyond-Your-Head-Matthew-B-Crawford/9780374292980" rel="nofollow">https://www.bookdepository.com/World-Beyond-Your-Head-Matthe...</a>)
I'm not sure if I agree with the tone of his conclusion - don't worry, that we always evolve defenses. <i>It doesn't matter</i> we evolve defenses. They're always in lock-step with new attack vectors. Which means the only thing that changes is <i>the players</i>. Yesterday it was Zynga and Upworthy, today it's Cambridge Analytica, tomorrow it will be something else. Bad new for individual attackers, yes, but it's also bad news for all of us too - because we don't know and can't predict what the next attack will be and where will it come from.<p>Basically, the defense can't outpace offense, and we're doomed to forever be pwnd by manipulative people.
><i>As we all know, time travelers have to be very careful when they visit the past, because their evolved immune systems allow them to harbor pathogens that the olde timey people are defenseless against.</i><p>Actually it goes both ways. Evolution doesn't have an arrow, and a because their evolved immune systems allow them to harbor pathogen that the 10.000B.C people had evolved to defend against might be lethal in the 22nd century.
> "There may be a rump of voters who’ll remain susceptible to Mercerism and its persuasion tactics,"<p>Having just read "Do Androids Dream Of Electrical Sheep", I see what you did there Cory.