Tag: Elon Musk

The Rise Of Techno Neo-Feudalism

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One curious thing that I’ve noticed is how many people are eager to worship someone like Elon Musk. It’s a very “what the what?” moment for me because I find any form of parasocial hero worship very dubious. But, then, all my public heroes are dead — I’m not one to worship anyone or anything.

The OpenAI chatbot is spooky good.

I think a lot of this has to do with an individual’s relationship to male authority. A lot of people — especially aimless young men — want someone they can imbue with their hopes and dreams. This, in turn, leads to fascism. But I also think there is an element of neo-feudalism, or techno neo-feudalism to what’s going on around us.

Because of a growing number of plutocrats who control the world’s economy, people like Elon Musk can step in and change the fate of global history. They have the means, motive and opportunity to take control of something as powerful as Twitter and bend its mission to their will.

Of course, the rise of techno neo-feudalism brings with it an element of innate instability. The could very well come a moment in the not-so-distant future where the global populace rises up against this shift in human existence and God only knows what happens next.

A Fourth Turning, a Great Reset, you name it.

And all of this would be happening not just in the context of America struggling to figure out what to do about Trump, but also the potential rise of hard AI that may upend the lives of everyday people in ways no one — especially not me — can possibly predict.

It could very well be that history is about to wake up in a rather abrupt manner, not seen since the end of WW2. The entire post-WW2 global liberal order could come crashing down in a rather dramatic fashion with little or no notice. If you game out current macro political and tech trends, it’s even possible that not only will the United States be facing the existential choice of autocracy, military junta or civil war in late 2024, early 2025, Humanity as a whole might be waking up to the mainstreaming of hard AI at just about the same time.

A great book that addresses this type of massive clusterfuck is one of my favorite scifi novels, The Unincorporated Man. It’s definitely thought provoking given how turbulent the next few years might be.

The Media Football That Is CNN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Given that Warner Bros. Discovery has some $50 billion in debt, the company is going to face a lot of pressure to not just cut costs but to merge again. And to me at least, the ideal company for WBD to merge with is NBCUniversal.

But by definition, doing this throws the fate of CNN up in the air because of the obvious existence of MSNBC. The only way the two companies could pass anti-trust concerns would be CNN being sold off.

There are a number of different scenarios one could think of as to the fate CNN. One possibility is some MAGA plutocrat buys it and turns it into a Fox News clone. Another is someone like Jeff Bezos buys it and makes it his play thing along with the Washington Post.

Then, there is the possibility that Elon Musk could swoop in and buy CNN. Remember, CNN was built upon the ego of Ted Turner. So, it would be a return to its origins for it to be the plaything of something like Musk.

But the key thing you have to remember is, given how important CNN remains to be, there’s a good chance that it’s current drift towards MAGA is going to accelerate.

Twitter Killer Use Case: ‘Advertisers’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, let’s go through how an advertiser might use this Twitter killer that I’ve come up with. To me, the main appeal of this hypothetical service is you have a lot more freedom in what type of ads you push into the platform because they can pretty much be the same size as a Webpage. AND you have the option of using traditional banner ad sizes within Posts in the system as well.

Groups
Anyone would be able to create a Group about anything you liked. It would be attached to your account ID, which would allow for redundancy, which would allow for scalability. This is a very flexible nature of the service — at least in this specific aspect. You would have to have a robust discovery feature for that to work, of course.
Threads
These would be presented much like a traditional blog inside of a Group. This would allow for huge page-sized advertisement. There would also be a subthread feature which would be pretty cool.
Posts
What would be interesting about this would be you would have inline, collaborative editing like you might find with a Google Doc. You would have, say, six people able to inline edit a Post before a new Post in the Thread is spawned because you would run out of colors.

So, here’s how an advertiser might use my Twitter Killer.

Remember, using their account, they can create as many different Groups as they like about whatever aspect of the service or widget that they’re selling. AND, what’s more, they can control who can Post into the Groups they’ve created.

So, if you were a major advertiser, you could have a variety of Groups devoted to discussion about any number of not just a widget, but an element of a widget that you felt people might really want to talk about. And also remember there would be an Excerpt feature that would work with a Feed feature like you might see with Facebook or Twitter, which would cut through the service to allow people to know when a new Thread or Post was created in Groups they might be monitoring that were run by people they might be monitoring.

This is a far more powerful brand tool than either Reddit or Usenet — or even Facebook, for that matter.

I’m Willing To Give Elon Musk The Benefit Of The Doubt…But…

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about Elon Musk is he’s so erratic that it seems within the realm of possibility that he might just pull the plug on Twitter and walk away in a huff — hence all the tweets by people on Twitter talking like the service is about to go under.

Elon Musk

But there are a lot of reasons to believe that while possible, that’s just not going to happen. The biggest issue is, of course, banks. Because of the whole bank situation, it’s far more likely that Musk will find someone to run Twitter for him THEN walk away.

And, yet, there is the issue of not only all the money that Twitter is losing but also how it is going to survive long-term without any advertising. What if is just stops working for 24 to 48 hours? Would that be enough for people to stop using the service en masse?

I doubt it. I think, in the end, Musk might actually pull off a pretty interesting turn around of Twitter or, at least, take credit for it. And I think that’s really his ultimate goal — he wants to take credit for saving Twitter from itself, even if he’s not the one who does it.

Twitter Is In Chaos — Is Anyone Interested in My Replacement Concept Based on The Best Bits of Usenet’s UX?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

With the crazy, fucked up things going on with Twitter at the moment, I find myself still daydreaming about my startup idea that cherrypicks some of the UX elements of the long-dead Usenet.

The key issue is, of course, the idea of Groups. I am well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both Google+ and Reddit. But I have really thought through how to use this service. Here’s the basic elements of the service as I imagine it

Groups
Anyone would be able to create a Group about anything you liked. It would be attached to your account ID, which would allow for redundancy, which would allow for scalability. This is a very flexible nature of the service — at least in this specific aspect. You would have to have a robust discovery feature for that to work, of course.
Threads
These would be presented much like a traditional blog inside of a Group. This would allow for huge page-sized advertisement. There would also be a subthread feature which would be pretty cool.
Posts
What would be interesting about this would be you would have inline, collaborative editing like you might find with a Google Doc. You would have, say, six people able to inline edit a Post before a new Post in the Thread is spawned because you would run out of colors.

Of course, there is the problem — but very necessary — issue of controlling who can Post. Having a lot of the service Read Only for most people is the only way that any sort of service based on Groups can scale and be successful.

The fact that absolutely no one cares about this very well thought out concept despite the chaos surrounding Twitter at the moment is enough for me to realize that maybe….it’s time for me to give up and put all my attention on the six novel project that I’m working on.

And, yet, occasionally I get drunk and need to vent about something OTHER than all these novels I’m working on. All this talk about Twitter ending once and for all makes me think — then what? And if Elon Musk pulled the plug on Twitter, which I don’t think he will, then there’s a greater-than-zero sum chance that someone might take me up on all my rantings about a startup based on Usenet’s best bits.

I’m Not Prepared To Count Elon Musk Out Just Yet When It Comes To Twitter

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is a lot of talk these days that Elon Musk is going to drive Twitter into a ditch, declare bankruptcy and then walk away. While that may happen, I’m not yet prepared to write his chances of success off entirely.

Elon Musk

He has a track record of (turbulent) success to the point that it’s possible he’s going to pull this off — maybe. We’ll wake up a year from now and all these fanciful things that Musk wants to do with Twitter will be taken for granted as a part of life.

I say all this because the more I see how Musk operates, the more I see myself. I would do the exact same thing if I was Musk thrown into such a situation. I would make a lot of mistakes at first, but once I got my sealegs, I would shock everyone with how well I did.

But, then, I’m just a loser in the middle of nowhere, so I don’t know if anyone should take the above as any sort of ringing endorsement of Musk. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how all of this works out. It could be that social media is a whole different bird than SpaceX or Tesla. It could be that being an eccentric is so off putting to the userbase of Twitter that it’s inevitable that someone will swoop in with a better mousetrap.

And, yet, I’m just not prepared to assume this is the case. I’m taking a wait and see approach.

A Unique Feature Of My ‘Twitter Killer’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As I keep saying, unless I win the $1 billion Powerball, what I’m writing about here just isn’t going to happen. Not only does no one listen to me, but I can’t code and definitely don’t have any money. But this is an entertaining thought experiment, a way of letting off some steam in between novel copy writing sessions.

It has occured to me there is a crucial feature of the old Usenet that we just don’t have available anymore — inline editing. The last time I checked, with Reddit — which is the closest we have to Usenet these days — you can’t go into the main post and inline edit its text. You have to quote the copy in the comments below the main post.

Back in the day with Usenet, you had a full page to work with and within that full page you could have some pretty interesting discussions as various people inline edited the Post’s text. Think of it as a very primitive, public form of Google Doc’s collaboration feature.

So, this was an interesting way to add value to the conversation about something of interest, over and above the robust threading that Usenet had way back when. This is a feature that modern users simply do not have access to and if you gave it to them as part of a Twitter Killer based on updated, more modern Usenet UX concepts, they probably would love it.

But remember, Jack Dorsey is developing an open protocol for Twitter-like services that might upend everything. And, like I said, absolutely no one listens to me. So, lulz.

Well, It’s Now Or Never For a’Twitter Killer’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t know what to make of Twitter at the moment. It could really go either way, depending on if Musk pulls it out of its current nosedive or if his mercurial nature proves to be too much.

As such, if you’re interested in building a “Twitter Killer” now is your moment. I would do it — I have the idea — but I can’t code and have no money. And the only way I would ever have the money to found a startup is if I won the $1 billion Powerball drawing coming up.

And that, I’m afraid, is rather doubtful — to say the least.

But the idea I’ve come up with, whereby everything one did in the service would be done in the context of Groups, is pretty cool. It’s a lot easier to understand the concept of a Group than it is a Circle like was found with G+. And, besides, what would be found in the Group is a lot cooler — full page multimedia Posts in threaded discussions.

The service would have all the other accoutrements of a modern day social media platform. I keep trying to find new angles on my social media start up and I find it a real struggle because the entire concept is so strong that I don’t really need to explore it anymore.

I know in my mind exactly how it would work, what it would look like and its strengths and weaknesses. It doesn’t help that I’ve talked about and written about this idea in the past to an embarrassing degree.

Anyway, it will definitely be interesting to see which direction Twitter goes — if it explodes in popularity or if it implodes and turns into another failed social media platform that was once popular.

Only time will tell.

Is It Time For Blues to ‘Secede’ From Twitter?

By Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The uncertainty surrounding Elon Musk owning Twitter has generated a massive about of Twitter liberal angst in the days since the acquisition closed. I’m not prepared to go so far as to say Blues should leave the service, but I do think it’s something to keep at the forefront of our minds going forward.

Being an “edge lord” is all fun and games when you don’t own the service that, at the moment, is at the center of national discourse in the United States. By definition, is public profile is significantly more potent. He’s so wealthy, of course, that he is rather oblivious to this change of state.

So he continues to be his usual provocative self, filling the media space previously inhabited by dingus Trump.

The risk is, of course, that the very prospective changes to Twitter that is going to give MAGA cocksuckers a boner will also be the very thing that drives that 10% of the user base that makes Twitter useful in the first place. And, really, at the moment, the missing ingredient is a Twitter-like platform for Blues to decamp to.

Jack Dorsey is developing an open source protocol that would allow for a number of different Twitter-like companies to access it at the same time. But that’s still in the development stages.

If I win the $1 billion Powerball lottery, I’m going to use that money to make my dream of starting a Twitter Killer using an updated Usenet UX. The usual caveats about that being delusional and not happening apply, of course.

But the point remains — if someone could found a fleet footed startup that did what Twitter does, only better…I think Twitter would be doomed. But the window to do such a thing is very, very narrow. It can probably be counted in months, not years.

Twitter Is Woefully Underdeveloped

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the many reasons why there seems a narrow window of opportunity for someone to swoop in with a new Twitter-like service is how low people’s expectations are when it comes to that space. It’s my impression that on a corporate level, Twitter has always been seen as a loosely controlled, very lucky shitshow that stumbled into its current importance.

Now that we have some sense of what people want, if you had a few million lying around, you could scoop up my “updated Usenet UX” concept and people would be so in awe that they could post a full webpage in the context of threaded discussion in a Group that you might have a real hit on your hands.

Or not, who knows.

But there is, if nothing else, Jack Dorsey’s “Bluesky” startup floating around, which apparently is going to be an opensource protocol that would allow for multiple Twitters to share the same feed — I think.

There is just a lot of potential untapped innovation within the Twitter-like space that would not require that much thought to develop. Or, I could win the lottery soon and do all of this myself. Wish me luck!