In history we had four media revolutions (printing press, radio, television, Internet), each greatly disrupting and reshaping society. This is the fifth (social media and maybe AI).

All these revolutions had the same theme: increased reach of information, increased speed of transmission, increased density (information amount per unit of time), and centralization of information sources. Now we seem to reach the limits of change. No more reach, since our information networks span the entire globe. No more speed, since transmission times are close to how fast we can perceive things. The only things left to change are even more centralization and tighter feedback loops (changing the information based on how the recipient reacts).

Given all that, this media revolution might be the last one, so there is a gold rush among the elites to come out on top.

2. https://github.com/ohenley/awesome-ada has links to pretty much every Ada topic and resource; if you want to try Ada using open source tools, the best starting point is https://alire.ada.dev/docs/

3. Compared to C/C++ I can't really think of any pitfalls. It requires more discipline and formal reasoning, but you will get used to it (and appreciate the lack of footguns, at least I did).

Congrats and good luck.

This is not literate programming. The main idea behind literate programming is to explain to a human what you want a computer to do. Code and literate explanations are developed side by side. You certainly don't change your mind in the process (lol).

> Working with LLMs is quicker though

Yes, because you neither invest time into understanding the problem nor conveying your understanding to other humans, which is the whole point of literate programming.

But don't take my word, just read the original.[1]

[1] https://www.cs.tufts.edu/~nr/cs257/archive/literate-programm...

I wonder if it would be possible to extract the spreadsheet data model and logic into a library completely separate from the UI. This would enable a diversity of UIs, and also interoperability between different tools.

Sounds very interesting, but may I ask how this actually works as a hobby? Is it purely theoretical like analyzing and modeling, or do you build real rockets?

The next steps highly depend on where you live. Your HN profile says Australia, so at least safety-wise you are in a better spot. Connect to people in your area (preferrably offline), for example by organizing a local meetup, maybe there is one already. Activities can range from exchanging ideas to spreading awareness in your community to actively going against corrupt affairs. Make sure you know what and who you are up against, or you will have a very bad time.

Anticorruption is a group effort because it requires a lot of work and often special knowledge (info tech, law, finance, opsec, public relations and propaganda, ...) and, more importantly, a group provides safety from corrupt actors. On your own you will not be able to deal with lawsuits, misinformation, character assassination and worse.

IMO this is the most important idea from the paper, not polarization.

Information is control, and every new medium has been revolutionary with regards to its effects on society. Up until now the goal was to transmit bigger and better messages further and faster (size, quality, scale, speed). Through digital media we seem to have reached the limits of size, speed and scale. So the next changes will affect quality, e.g. tailoring the message to its recipient to make it more effective.

This is why in recent years billionaires rushed to acquire media and information companies and why governments are so eager to get a grip on the flow of information.

Recommended reading: Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. While it predates digital media, the ideas from this book remain as true as ever.

Xenocara (X on OpenBSD) improves security by dropping privileges and using features like pledge [3], but I don't know how this affects the feasability of keyloggers.

[1] https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.6/doc/xextproto/security.ht...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44768745

[3] https://man.openbsd.org/pledge.2

Oh, look at that. A fresh account just to make this comment. What a coincidence.

> Thorn works with a group of technology partners who serve the organization as members of the Technology Task Force. The goal of the program includes developing technological barriers and initiatives to ensure the safety of children online and deter sexual predators on the Internet.

> Various corporate members of the task force include Facebook, Google, Irdeto, Microsoft, Mozilla, Palantir, Salesforce Foundation, Symantec, and Twitter.

Apparently Thorn scratched that list from their current website, but the Wiki page has an archive link.

My take from Hannah Arendt's work is that normal people will do evil things if they think they can get away with it.

The question a user should ask is why is this website collecting my data. Marketing and adtech companies are trying to shift this question to why is the EU making websites worse.

> there is no need for government regulation here

You don't need to care about this if you respect users' privacy in the same way you don't need to care about waste water regulation when you don't pump waste into rivers.