But enough about me, how has your existence been Internet?

But alas, this is only momentary position since in the future I’ll aim to be Windows-free.

You may congratulate me on my nerd-prowess in the comment section.

I am here to cast the doom on Facebook.

I have written before about the very basic need of humans to be acknowledged by other humans. The existence of this need explains why we greet people; in the hopes that they will greet us back, it explains why people want to become famous; to have their lives be one huge acknowledgement from day-in day-out. Numerous social customs revolve around this need. We exist because other people think we do.

Not only reaching critical mass, Facebook has also tapped this basic need. They have only gone at it the wrong way. Facebook encourages you to beg for acknowledgement. That’s what constant status-updates, pokes, invites and tags are all about. The computer-network-aided extension of what has, in part, allowed humans to flourish so well. There are dozens of ways you can go about it.

But thats not how you build a long-lasting social networking platform. People get tired of being poked, novelty wears off quickly. A critical mass can be negative, when the right (amount of) people of a certain social circle leave, rest will quickly follow.

The initial chink in the armor of Facebook will be the futility of the way it enables social interaction. It goes about it the wrong way, Facebook makes it rewarding to be acknowledged (with numbers alone, e.g. how many friends do you have, how many people liked this ), not rewarding to awknowledge other people.

If you can come up with a way to achieve that with your social networking, I’d say you are on your way to riches as well as building something a bit more valuable.

Yes, you read it here first! The prize money is now a staggering, teeth-clenching *20* Euros! For those lazy or busy enough to click a link Kimmo Strong Artificial Intelligence is defined as:

“When presented with (whatever means possible) Carl Barks’ whole production of Donald Duck comics, the AI can produce an (practically) infinite number of comics which, in no discernible way, differ in style or quality from any selected one of those by Carl Barks.”

The prize money goes to the first party to succesfully present and demonstrate a KSAI. All conditions to attain the prize money are subject to change on a whim. No shenanigans allowed. Even unsuccessful entries are welcomed and perhaps laughed at. Apply in the comments.

Unfortunate in the sense that in a happening like this, it might be a bit risky to hang yourself on an idea right-off-the-bat. Fortunately the idea carried us to the end. And stop reading this and try out the game!

We have a solid 20 hours to go…

What do you think? Should I take it upon myself to write something on this blog for every day a whole year?

I’ve been slightly discouraged reading (and answering) all the attempts at spam this Blog receives. There seems to be two approaches, one is the obvious google-bombing style; stuff your comment post with as many links and keywords as you can. It doesn’t really matter if they are not that all related, it’s all good for the grand Google.

The other, more disheartening one, the spam contains a comment so generalized, careful not to say anything at else, but yet, trying to appear sincere, that it might appear real to some. I have extracted some fun answering those, as you might have noticed. I was thinking maybe I’d get famous and popular by writing those angry, yet funny replies to obvious spammage. I suspect this will be a type of activity that will get old soon and paying any amount attention to it loans some credibility to the whole activity.

I think spamming reveales one usually wisely hidden aspect of the existence of humanity, namely that we continue to exist solely for the actions and dedication of those who decide to pull _more_ than their own weight. “It’s not my business”, “somebody else can take care of it, there were plenty of other people”, “I couldn’t do anything, I would have only messed everything up”, “I don’t have time for it”, “I have other problems”. If it weren’t for those people, the people who make preceding type of comments would wear us down. Spamming is the unfortunate side-effect of the fact that we have those people.

Now, how’s that for some rambling?