Amazon Echo

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:07 PM, darreichungsform said:

But that doesn't mean that it will happen and that we will live in a world that's like a dystopian sci-fi novel.

a certain measure of paranoia is appropriate.

Will be interesting to see how this develops over the coming years. Haven't used the Echo or Siri or the Google one, but Cortana still isn't great (I think it works better with American accents though), I mostly use it for setting reminders and stuff, but still do it with the mouse and keyboard. The next version of windows in a few months has big improvements there though, should work properly from the other side of the room and with background noise, which Cortana can't handle at present, hopefully it'll do better with other accents as well as they build up more data to feed into their neural networks. I would imagine that in 5 years the experience will be pretty seamless, or at least a lot better than it is currently. A big thing will be controlling all the shit in your house by voice, setting the heating, putting timers on things, lights, ovens, that kind of thing, controlling various entertainment systems (replacing remotes).

Does your Amazon Echo play this song? 

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:15 PM, phling said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:07 PM, darreichungsform said:

But that doesn't mean that it will happen and that we will live in a world that's like a dystopian sci-fi novel.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

a certain measure of paranoia is appropriate.

 

Yeah, but that still doesn't answer why you are paranoid towards Amazone Echo more than towards your phone. If you have one of them it doesn't matter if you have the other one. And living with anxiety does definitely not change anything to the better. If you have the oppotunity to do soicial engagement and defeat civil rights in a way that can make a difference, do it. But when you're at home sitting in front of your laptop it doesn't change much if you think about surveillance all the time. It just is as it is

I don't need to explain these things to support the thesis - obviously phones have the same issues. This thread got brought up and here we are. It's really obvious stuff.

If you really want to know: my old iPhone is off right now, as it is most of the time. I use apps which I think are safe. I use Facebook, Gmail and Twitter only for marketing my iPad app. I've been developing iOS apps for six years now and feel like I have a somewhat ok knowledge to be able to judge risks regarding to such devices since I spend a lot of time working with them.

And I do stand by my conviction that this new breed of assistant devices is in another ballpark relative to phones though. You're not really buying a device. You're subscribing to a service. Eventually these devices will come for free, with certain strings attached so to speak. It's quite obvious isn't it.

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:41 PM, phling said:

I don't need to explain these things to support the thesis - obviously phones have the same issues. This thread got brought up and here we are. It's really obvious stuff.

...beeeeeeecause you were the one who started talking about it?

People have been getting creeped out lately cause of ads about things they've talked about on their phones popping up. As in, you call your father and you tell him youre thinking about buying a lawnmower, and you start getting lawnmower ads on your browser, without having ever looked up landmowers on google or amazon.

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:45 PM, Squee said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:41 PM, phling said:

I don't need to explain these things to support the thesis - obviously phones have the same issues. This thread got brought up and here we are. It's really obvious stuff.

 

 

...beeeeeeecause you were the one who started talking about it?

^ at least you had the smots to delete your stupid gif shitpost. But still.... meh, mate.

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:49 PM, phling said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:45 PM, Squee said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:41 PM, phling said:

I don't need to explain these things to support the thesis - obviously phones have the same issues. This thread got brought up and here we are. It's really obvious stuff.

 

...beeeeeeecause you were the one who started talking about it?

^ at least you had the smots to delete your stupid gif shitpost. But still.... meh, mate.

 

Because I quoted the wrong guy.

so post it again and quote whatever you thought I wrote was looloo? It'll only make you look not very clever, imho.

Anyway I'm not looking to start a fight. Just thought it would be a good idea to bring up potential issues wrt to amazon echo. Carry on.

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:57 PM, xxx said:

https://youtu.be/r5p0gqCIEa8

https://youtu.be/ZfCfTYZJWtI

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:15 PM, caze said:

Will be interesting to see how this develops over the coming years. Haven't used the Echo or Siri or the Google one, but Cortana still isn't great (I think it works better with American accents though), I mostly use it for setting reminders and stuff, but still do it with the mouse and keyboard. The next version of windows in a few months has big improvements there though, should work properly from the other side of the room and with background noise, which Cortana can't handle at present, hopefully it'll do better with other accents as well as they build up more data to feed into their neural networks. I would imagine that in 5 years the experience will be pretty seamless, or at least a lot better than it is currently. A big thing will be controlling all the shit in your house by voice, setting the heating, putting timers on things, lights, ovens, that kind of thing, controlling various entertainment systems (replacing remotes).

Arent there already devices that you can control with your brain? You need to train that (starting with mimic gestures until you can only use brainwaves) but after that you can move the curser only with the power of will. That sounds super Sci-Fi but it already exists. I think that's how we will control devices in the future. We will not even need to talk for that.

another possibility is subvocalisation, where you sound out the words in your head, but in doing so actually make the relevant movements in your larynx and whatnot, so you'd just need some kind of contact mic to pick that up and process it in basically the same way as is currently done with voice recognition networks. a common trope in science fiction books, but no idea if anyone has done any real work on it, or if it's actually workable in practice.

friend of mine has researched and worked with brain interface things for a while... not sure if there have been recent breakthroughs but he said then that these brainwave activity detectors were more or less very basic and borderline fake. I.e. when you thought "move cursor left" you would train it on involuntary muscle contractions you would reinforce on yourself instead of actual brain activity.

  On 12/30/2016 at 4:09 PM, span said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 3:59 PM, darreichungsform said:

Yes, it's getting out of topic. But we all saw Black Mirror and know what happens when we jerk off to childporn. So the lesson is: Don't jerk off to childporn

First they came for the pedophiles, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a pedophile.

ha

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:46 PM, span said:

People have been getting creeped out lately cause of ads about things they've talked about on their phones popping up. As in, you call your father and you tell him youre thinking about buying a lawnmower, and you start getting lawnmower ads on your browser, without having ever looked up landmowers on google or amazon.

Is this genuinely a thing that's happening? Anywhere I can read about this? I only ask because me and my girlfriend have been discussing getting married recently and ever since she has been getting ads for bridal shite, dresses and rings and whatnot, and she's adamant she's not searched for anything like that in browser (I believe her as she brought it up as something weird that had started happening).

Amygdala, hippocampus, etc

  On 12/30/2016 at 9:03 PM, Amen Warrior said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:46 PM, span said:

People have been getting creeped out lately cause of ads about things they've talked about on their phones popping up. As in, you call your father and you tell him youre thinking about buying a lawnmower, and you start getting lawnmower ads on your browser, without having ever looked up landmowers on google or amazon.

Is this genuinely a thing that's happening? Anywhere I can read about this? I only ask because me and my girlfriend have been discussing getting married recently and ever since she has been getting ads for bridal shite, dresses and rings and whatnot, and she's adamant she's not searched for anything like that in browser (I believe her as she brought it up as something weird that had started happening).

If she ever mentioned it in an email, that'd do it.

I've seen Reddit posts about ads seemingly coming up based on conversations, but nothing substantiated.

  On 12/30/2016 at 10:02 PM, doublename said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 9:03 PM, Amen Warrior said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 5:46 PM, span said:

People have been getting creeped out lately cause of ads about things they've talked about on their phones popping up. As in, you call your father and you tell him youre thinking about buying a lawnmower, and you start getting lawnmower ads on your browser, without having ever looked up landmowers on google or amazon.

Is this genuinely a thing that's happening? Anywhere I can read about this? I only ask because me and my girlfriend have been discussing getting married recently and ever since she has been getting ads for bridal shite, dresses and rings and whatnot, and she's adamant she's not searched for anything like that in browser (I believe her as she brought it up as something weird that had started happening).

If she ever mentioned it in an email, that'd do it.

 

I've seen Reddit posts about ads seemingly coming up based on conversations, but nothing substantiated.

 

There's more to it than just what she may have searched for or discussed online. I'm assuming she's of a generally marrying-age, so she likely gets some random ads for marriage stuff because of that...if she clicked one, even once, that would be recognized. Hell, even pausing on an ad, static or video, in a feed can be recognized by the algorithms and its potential for marketing interest is rated accordingly.

  On 12/30/2016 at 4:37 PM, Squee said:

Also, if anyone wants to listen in on me asking Siri a million dumb questions about what she's wearing etc. then be my guest.

Yes please.

It's probably just confirmation bias, she never noticed them before, but now that she's getting married it's sticking out.

  On 12/30/2016 at 10:27 PM, Plum said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 4:37 PM, Squee said:

Also, if anyone wants to listen in on me asking Siri a million dumb questions about what she's wearing etc. then be my guest.

Yes please.

 

Terrifies me this stuff. I did get rid of my smartphone for a year but kept missing work appointments because I'm so reliant on the calendar app. I may do it again because surveillance stuff aside, I've developed impulsive Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/email/Soundcloud checking, on a permanent loop throughout the day, fucking pointless.

  On 12/30/2016 at 11:07 PM, Squee said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 10:27 PM, Plum said:

 

  On 12/30/2016 at 4:37 PM, Squee said:

Also, if anyone wants to listen in on me asking Siri a million dumb questions about what she's wearing etc. then be my guest.

Yes please.

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so many potential uses i've been thinking about for this: like hooked up to some kind of wifi doorbell and able to unlock your front door when asked, some sort of security feature that guards your home when you're out, maybe connected to a wifi camera...real time translation would be cool too. maybe voice controlled banking, but that could be dangerous i suppose...perhaps just checking your balance or something. i keep asking for alexa's opinion of things too, but she claims not to have one.