(no subject)

[psybelle]

People talk about the shift from old print-based journalism to the new world of social media and the sites adapted to serve it. These are fast, responsive, and only just beginning to discover the power of controversy. They are memetic evolution shot into hyperdrive, and the omega point is a well-tuned machine optimized to search the world for the most controversial and counterproductive issues, then make sure no one can talk about anything else. An engine that creates money by burning the few remaining shreds of cooperation, bipartisanship and social trust.

Epistemic parasites and the toxoplasma of outrage - I think this may be the most important single essay I've read recently.


Ferguson? Gamergate? PETA? Uber? The skeleton of the virality in all these things is here...