site banner

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 26, 2023

This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.

Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.

We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:

  • Shaming.

  • Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.

  • Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.

  • Recruiting for a cause.

  • Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.

In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:

  • Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.

  • Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.

  • Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.

  • Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.

On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.

11
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Eye movement control sounds even more hideous: so blink at the wrong time, and you just deleted all that hour's work.

Hah, this is so hidebound and backward I can't tell if you're being serious. I could just as easily say "click at the wrong time, you just deleted an hours work!" Get real.

KILL IT WITH FIRE is my immediate reaction. I don't want "fun new apps", I want the apps I'm already using to work for me, not for the company using them to data scrape every millisecond of my life.

Unfortunately technology doesn't sit stagnant for long, as much as you want it to. Sorry to break it to you friend.

And how do they pick up on the "minute hand motions"? I am always sceptical of demos because they are so curated and cherrypicked and then polished up later to produce the best looking experience

Not sure, but I linked two in-depth reviews from fairly popular writers that gush over it. There are far more people who have used it and find the control scheme incredibly intuitive and easy to pick up. That's with usually 30min - 1 hour demos.

  • -12

I could just as easily say "click at the wrong time, you just deleted an hours work!" Get real.

Bunky, I just deleted a long-ass comment elsewhere because I hit the wrong key by accident. I am not going to rely on "move your left pupil a nanometer to the left" as a control function and be confident "oh crap, I moved two nanometers and that is the delete!" won't happen.

They do gush over it, they also mention that the headset was personalised to them by a person measuring and fitting it and tutoring them in how to use it, that one of the control features was disabled, and that the entire experience took place in the setting provided by and set up by Apple.

How the kit works in the wild when it's your sitting room and you're trying to follow along to a Youtube tutorial is a different kettle of fish.

Hah, this is so hidebound and backward I can't tell if you're being serious. I could just as easily say "click at the wrong time, you just deleted an hours work!" Get real.

You aren't forced to twitch your finger regularly. Get real. Sorry to break it to you friend.

Hah, this is so hidebound and backward I can't tell if you're being serious. I could just as easily say "click at the wrong time, you just deleted an hours work!" Get real.

The difference is that in one case there's a bright line distinction between when you are and are not using the interface. Which becomes more pronounced in real world use vs tech demos. A gesture system that's comfortable when it's what you're focusing on can become much less so when you're casually using it and want to combine it with eating, drinking or just scratching your nose without accidentally triggering a gesture.

I could just as easily say "click at the wrong time, you just deleted an hours work!"

There are clear and obvious differences between "blink" and "click".

FWIW most vision based interfaces (including Apple's new headset) still use clicking precisely because of that reason, touch is much more intentional.