Bots are Buttheads - Why we need "Content Courts" for Social Media

Response to "Why was I Demonetized?" by HealMyTech

HealMyTech is a YouTube channel that does helpful videos on diagnosing and fixing problems with P.C.s and other tech. Pretty innocuous, right?

Still, YouTube found some arbitrary and completely opaque reason to demonetize one of his videos.  

This isn't anything new and complaints are rampant of this happening. Clearly this video, like so many others, didn't deserve to be demonetized but that's what happens when bots are allowed to police content. They take it out of context or interpret keywords or keyword combinations in the worse possible way.

I don't know for sure but the content bots might have thought (stupidly) that HealMyTech's video was aggressively political because it used the keywords "give you authority" and "rule them all" along with many uses of "pc" that could be (again stupidly) confused with "politically correct" (often used by Alt Right channels as an insult.) So, as dumb as it sounds HealMyTech may need to avoid keywords and phrases that sound even vaguely political and maybe use "desktop", "laptop", "workstation" or just "computer" more often instead of "pc."

Collectively, though, we need to fight this nonsense. Even if bots get smarter, I strongly believe viewers and creators need to lobby YouTube (and Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to create the equivalent of "Content Courts" on each platform with clear rules and appeal processes with the following features: 1) No channel should be deplatformed and no video demonetized without "due process" i.e. specific charges are sent that explain a violation. 2) There should be a probation period and chance to correct the offending content, and 3) Creators should be able to argue their case and viewers should be able to petition YouTube to appeal a ruling.

Anyway, keep on creating your great content and keep advocating for fair platforms. They'll come eventually.

Can corporations justly govern content communities? No

Current examples: OnlyFans banning porn. Tumblr, Flickr, Del.icio.us, YouTube, Twitter.

Yahoo bought Tumblr after it had already established itself as a massive haven for sex-positive content and a thriving community of support. It's valuation (like all Web properties) was utterly contingent on Tumblr's immense daily traffic and engagement. Inevitably after the sale, the Yahoo "suits" got involved (lawyers worried about copyright infringement and liabilities based on capricious "community standards") and summarily committed community genocide. They didn't just kill the Golden Goose but ground its eggs and bones into dust. (FYI: Yahoo's track record on nuking communities it bought into is consistently bad, having previously alienated similar thriving sites like Flickr, a photo sharing site, and del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site.) 

Of course, YouTube, Twitter, etc. are also guilty of some of the same corporate cowardice, cancelling and demonetizing legitimate content for spurious reasons or on behalf of corporate interests.

Bottom-line: Private enterprise can never be the safe cradle of community because it ultimately is not beholden to the community only to its shareholders and accountants. Instead, we need to develop "Content Co-ops" run by and for content creators themselves. It's the only model that avoids unaccountable censorship by 'bots and content dictated by corporate fear.

Hologram Circus Animals: Humane or False Cause?

Response to: German Circus is using holograms instead of live animals

An Austrian circus company has responded to a general outcry against animal cruelty by replacing its performing animals with larger-than-life holograms. They're stunning and hugely innovative while preserving much of the wonder and spectacle of traditional circuses.

Article & Video: TheDodo.com | This Animal-Free Circus is such a Stunning Show

Still, here's the thing. All the well-meaning people that cry "Animal cruelty!" at circuses and "Don't cage animals!" at zoos aren't wrong but are also missing the big picture. The more we sanitize and distance ourselves from nature, the fewer people will give a damn. If your children never see the charm, mystery and grandeur of animals up close and only see animals as timeless, invincible characters in HDTV, holograms, or CGI then it won't be long before the actual existence of the real things won't matter anymore.

In short, let's stamp out cruelty wherever we can but not whitewash or hide our utter dominion over these creatures. Keeping them out of circuses and zoos doesn't somehow erase or negate our absolute power over them away from the spotlight and our responsibility to not exploit them out of sight or wipe them out entirely. In the end, every species is precious but if a few ambassadors of their kind have to suffer the most humane treatment we can provide in order to leave an indelible impression on the hearts and minds of human adults and children, then that's a price well worth paying.

Response to: The Lie of "Judeo-Christian" Science

Response to:

YouTube | Ben Shapiro and the Lie of "Judeo-Christian" Science

The video argues against Ben Shapiro's claim in a debate that Judeo-Christian values are the root of democracy and scientific reasoning. Rebecca Watson seems to be saying that neither democracy nor scientific progress owes anything to Judaism or Christianity. In fact, American democracy was explicitly created as a non-theistic state and the seeds of science were planted by Greek and Arabic scholars long before Christianity asserted itself.

I mostly agree, especially about democracy. However, there were two "Judeo-Christian" values that helped scientific reasoning to survive _despite_ religious fantastical thinking and myth-making:

1) The vigorous Jewish tradition of Talmudic debate where Jews young and old were expected to reason and challenge each other about meaning and application of doctrine. This even played out in the New Testament story of young Jesus in the temple. That tradition possibly contributes to why so many great scientists were Jewish because of the cultural esteem for scholarship and critical thinking. I am not sure the concept of peer review and adversarial defense of proofs would be as strong without that tradition.

2) Christian devotion to understanding God's works. The same "fanaticism" that made monks argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin also led to (as one commentor pointed out) aristocratic patrons and the church to support scholars and monks exploring how stars and planetary orbits work or how peas inherit their characteristics (genetics). These pursuits often generated ridiculous astrological, alchemical, numeralogical, and cryptozoological ideas but also gathered essential data and a few not-so-crackpot theories of astronomy, chemistry, math and biology.

To be clear: It may be merely a happy accident or side effect of religion that reasoned debate and pseudo-scientific exploration helped keep the flame of Enlightenment alive during the Dark Ages but we can be grateful for that, nonetheless.

Digital Victorian Music Box

Muro Box sounds exactly like a 20-note steel comb music box your great grandmother might have had on her nightstand as a little girl but this isn't a Victorian-era relic. This digital update gives you an infinite playlist that you can program via a smartphone app.

Already a successfully crowdfunded campaign in Taiwan, Muro Box will soon kick off its Indiegogo campaign.

VR Lets You Live Bug's Life

ABCNEWS.com: 3-D Machine Lets People Explore World of Bugs
An HP researcher has hooked up twin microscopes to motion-tracking VR headgear so that you can immersively experience life at millimeter scale.

The Grid: Worldwide Web for CPU Power

The Grid: The Next-Gen Internet?
An international conference of scientists is discussing how to put together The Grid, a worldwide network for the allocation and exchange of processing power, something like the successful SETI@home project on steroids.

Scientist Put 11 Terabytes on a Credit Card

Financial Times: Scientists in memory advance
English researches claim to have developed new storage technology that allows 10.8 terabytes of data to be stored in an area the size of a credit card, with no conventionally moving parts. They also contend that a production unit might be produced in two years and cost only $50 retail.

Ultrawideband Going Commercial

New Ultrawideband Technology Makes Headway
UWB is one step closer to commercial reality with the Feds clearing way for trials limited to safe frequencies.

Code Is Free Speech: Academics call for 1st Amendment Protections

Code Is Free Speech: Computer scientists claim protection under First Amendment.
A host of computer scientists and academics are appealing the MPAA's suit against hacker journal 2600 for publishing information on decrypting DVDs.
"Our basic argument is that computer code is speech and it is entitled to First Amendment protections," says Andy Hertzfeld
They argue that: computer code is nothing more than a piece of information and doesn't have an impact until it is executed upon. In other words, they say, publishing the recipe for cracking a DVD isn't theft, only following the recipe to violate copyright is.

The Great Off-Loading: Apps Move Compute Off the Server

The Two-Way Internet
Here's a contrarian view about networked applications: Web servers are too far away and do too much; PCs are close by and have nothing to do. Conclusion: Move apps back to PCs or at least regional servers. In this "2X (two-way) Internet" world, desktop servlets would tap into the "XML dial tone" for data and do all the heavy lifting locally, freeing up server resources and bandwidth while harnessing all that unused PC for improved usability and better performance.
More: Two-Way Internet Desktop Web Sites On The Horizon
John Robb goes on to predict that the "2X Internet" will be the demise of content-management systems (like Vignette) and single-purpose instant messaging systems.

Bullet-Time Instant Replays for Sports TV

3D Instant Replays
Princeton Video Image Announces Agreement With CBS Sports and Core Digital Technologies to Launch EyeVision Technology
The same company that brought you virtual first down markers inserted into live video and those whizbang, pop-up virtual scoreboards during the Super Bowl, will now provide 3D instant replays for Super Bowl XXXV. This will be like The Matrix's "bullet-time" effect where CBS will be able to stop motion and show a play from anywhere in 270-degree arc around the action.
More: ZDNet: Super graphics make a super Sunday