McFilter

Interesting Things on the Internet: August 30th 2021 Edition

• Cybersocialism: Project Cybersyn & The CIA Coup in Chile (Full Documentary). Nice documentary on Project Cybersyn (as featured on these pages in the past.
• Went homeless. Done Guerrilla Grazing by choice ever since. A shorter video documentary, of a modern-day nomadic shepherd.
• Forget privacy: you're terrible at targeting anyway. "You know this is how it works, right? It has to be. You can infer it from how bad the ads are. Anyone can, in a few seconds, think of some stuff they really want to buy which The Algorithm has failed to offer them, all while Outbrain makes zillions of dollars sending links about car insurance to non-car-owning Manhattanites. It might as well be a 1990s late-night TV infomercial, where all they knew for sure about my demographic profile is that I was still awake." Online advertising, the trench warfare between those of us who point out that the "personalised ads" don't work and think we should stop surveilling everyone; and those who point out that the "personalised ads" don't work and think the answer is more invasive tracking.
• Microfinance and public shaming in Nigeria. "When you hear an optimistic new idea for financial inclusion, imagine the worst way it can be weaponized and work to eliminate it."
• We need to revisit old frameworks to cope with the 2020s.