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Discussion on: Bad Product Ideas

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almostconverge profile image
Peter Ellis

I agree, and the catch is that as developers we're instantly looking for tech solutions for what is ultimately a problem of human behaviour. Such a solution does not exist.

You can of course use tech to make the work of human moderators easier but the system will still have to rely on human judgment, and its perceived quality will be tied to the quality of decisions moderators make.

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bbookman

Sounds like the AI/ML bias problem - no? ;) . Garbage in, garbage out. How we all wish we were all better than our lizard brains

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Peter Ellis

Well, yes. Maybe.

But I do also feel that without it there would be no innovation, and no software development. For innovation there has to be an urge to optimise things, and once that urge exists, it's inevitable that people will use it on others, leading to exploitation.

In general, everybody being nice with everybody is not a stable strategy (unless like in Asimov's Gaia, we completely cease to be independent agents). The nicer we are to each other, the more there is to be won for that one person who isn't. Of course everybody cheating doesn't work either. It will always be an equilibrium state between the two.

So the best you can hope for is to employ little Maxwell daemons who actively maintain a ratio different to what game theory would predict.