site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2685 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 25, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I've never been one to follow AI capabilities all too closely - I knew they've been rapidly improving but the particulars have never interested me beyond the headlines. However, with the rise of AI agents like ChatGPT Dot, the increasing integration of AI systems in consumer operating systems, and the growing prevalence of surveillance infrastructure, I'm coming to the conclusion that things are going to get very bad, very quickly.

Essentially, I've developed a belief that everyone is going to be surveilled to the maximum extent possible, and that surveillance is going to be used in all the conventionally dystopian ways. Advanced advertising, thought policing, price discrimination via social credit systems, etc. The usual rebuttal to this is, "well, you should have nothing to hide." I can understand the instinct toward this: who would care to closely watch the data of an ordinary person like myself? The key difference is that capable AI agents remove the labor bottleneck, so we can be monitored 24/7 without requiring a person to tediously comb through hours of data.

I've begun preparations to completely detach my life from big tech, switching to Linux, GrapheneOS on mobile, and taking whatever steps I can to anonymize my data. While AI models might not be capable of this surveillance right now, I want to get ahead of it so by the time they are capable, I've already become as much of a ghost as possible. Am I overreacting? How have you all prepared for the upcoming data revolution?

If things get as bad as the security alarmists are saying, then none of these anonymizing services or practices will save you. It will be insufficient to avoid getting on blacklists. You will have to be on the whitelists. Any account not subject to surveilance will be presumed to be malicious.

Anonymity services will evolve along with the rest of tech. Things are getting worse for privacy in general, but you’ll have holdouts here and there still. AI is changing the security landscape more than privacy at the moment. Not too long ago I was catching up the latest with my best friend over the phone (he’s in infosec) and we were talking about things. The ways threat actors are leveraging the use of AI is making it increasingly difficult for business to make the same use of it as well. You can’t just go in and block the threat by say, blocking OpenAI’s API entirely. That’s like drinking bleach to cure yourself of HIV. Oh it’ll work alright; now you just have to find yourself another job.

AI is changing the security landscape more than privacy at the moment.

It's certainly changing the security landscape, but changes in access control stances seem to be happening very rapidly too: Reddit doesn't allow read access without a login, and I semi-consistently get captchas to do Google searches in browser incognito mode. I've even had Cloudflare get stuck "verifying" and not allowing page loads. And Cloudflare sits in front of even static content these days. The walls are really tightening in, and I'm not sure I buy the "trying to keep out bots" argument: I'd bet a "bot test" is more expensive than serving small static pages, but maybe those are rare enough to be lost in the noise. At this rate, I expect an implicit fingerprinted "social credit score" by user is going to become normalized before anyone realizes it and rallies opposition.

But it's certainly happening more quietly.

I semi-consistently get captchas to do Google searches in browser incognito mode

I'm now getting those 90%+ of the time while using Brave in private mode on my phone.

Wait until you associate your new VoIP number for all your third party services instead of your carrier, and you use different, disposable and revocable email aliases for said services, in addition to using a VPN. Practically every one of these entities thinks you’re a criminal. Awhile back I had to call Amazon customer service for an order that was having some kind of issue and it was the usual, please confirm your email and phone. As I was doing it, the rep transferred me to a higher up in their department and asked for the same information, and then kept asking: “This is your real phone number… your real email…?”, etc. The more mindful you try to be and the more effortful you are in your attempts to reduce your footprint and prevent these places from wanting to tag you everywhere you go, makes them view you with deep suspicion.

I tried to pay a bill online and the payment page wouldn't load. I called the utility company they asked if I was on VPN. I was. They said to get off VPN and try again. That worked.

I don't understand why I can't pay when on VPN. I can't steal their money through the bill pay portal.

VPN’s on mobile break compatibility with lots of different app’s. DNS filtering does that as well. Ethical company I suppose if they don’t want criminals paying their bills, ironically. The issue isn’t necessarily that they’re worried you’re going to steal money through the bill pay. From their vantage point, they have zero idea who you are or what your intentions are. What they are picking up on are patterns that are consistent with who poses a potential threat to their environment.

Right? I've had an order confirmed and then silently canceled simply because I was using a VPN!

It’s because their business model on the backend relies heavily on them being able to fingerprint their customers. I kind of understand why they would do it… From their perspective, they don’t know who the hell I am. If I was on the analyst side of things and I saw a bunch of shady activity with a dude using a VPN, trying to sign into my banking account, that’s going to raise every suspicious red flag in the world. Ordinary customers aren’t going to use a VPN, let alone know what one is, and when you keep adding measures to conceal your identity, you become indistinguishable from a threat actor.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats