[OT] Re: Fwd: <nettime> living under algorithmic governance

[Mirimir]

On 09/10/2016 08:07 AM, Cecilia Tanaka wrote:
> [OT, OT, OT]  Answer very, very, very OFF TOPIC about Facebook, but it's
> part of a discussion that I already had with Mirimir and some friends here
> before.
> 
> On Sep 9, 2016 10:27 PM, "Mirimir" <mirimir at riseup.net> wrote:
>>
>> Anyway, Facebook is not our friend. They're just monetizing love.
> 
> I have an old account on Facebook that I used to keep only to read private
> invitations on groups of Hackerspaces, Law and  - hahaha!!! -  Internet
> Privacy, all owned and managed for friends.  I am not using it anymore, but
> I simply do not have courage enough to delete it forever.  Tried before and
> gave up because of old sweet memories, very important for me.
> 
> There are two dead friends among my contacts.  One of them was so special
> for me that you never will understand, my dear.  He was one of the fnords
> of my life.  He was one of the best hackers that I've knowed and had a huge
> heart, bigger than the whole world.  And he was fucking intelligent,
> brilliant, wow!  I was always asking to that son of a bitch donate me some
> of his neurons, because he never would miss them and I needed much more
> than my two neurons, Ceci and Lia, to study more and more and more subjects
> and, maybe after some decades, become someone like him...
> 
> If I delete that fucking stupid FB account, I will lose for complete the
> access to his private profile and his amazing posts, funny pics, his crazy
> stories, private conversations, everything, part of his life that still
> exists online...  I will lose him twice and I know I won't manage well this
> pain.  It still hurts so, so bad after years...

You could scrape what you want.

> I know it's stupid, but, sometimes, I like to pretend he is still alive,
> laughing, telling the most creative stories or the craziest conspiracy
> theories, the best jokes, explaining me something completely useless,
> stupid and silly, but in a so interesting way that I always would think
> "Wow!  God, how could I survive without knowing it until today?"...

You're not the only one doing it. Maybe Facebook will eventually use
"AI" to expand on that desire. Maybe eventually dead people will even
think that they're still alive ;)

> I never deleted my dead stupid Orkut account for the same reason, but
> because of another dead friend.  He was my best friend for almost 15 years
> of my life.  Years of friendship and he decided to kill himself without
> saying anything.  No good bye, no I love you.  I just received a very
> expensive Edith Piaf's collection few days after his death.  No words to
> say 'adieu', only music.  He had lost my favorite Edith Piaf's CD years ago
> and before the suicide, he remembered it.

Again, scrape what you want, and delete the account. Or not.

> I was beta tester for some Google products that I simply don't use anymore,
> but still contain sweet memories.  This Gmail account is really, really
> old.  I still remember when received the invite to have it...
> 
> Well, more than slave of Facebook and Google, I am slave of my own
> memories, of my past.  I already lost so many dear friends, teachers,
> heroes and loves and my heart never heals for complete.  I always feel it
> completely destroyed after every loss.  I die when someone that I love dies.

So you say. Or so something says, pretending to be you.

> It was fucking strange, but when I tried the suicide, I destroyed lots of
> important data and things, including notebooks and devices able of being
> used against friends and activists, but, in the end, had no courage enough
> to delete that stupid FB account forever.  I imagined that some friends
> would like to see my old pics smiling on Facebook after my death...

I get that. And yes, Facebook will eventually be mostly dead people ;)

> So, probably, I will never be a really good cypherpunk.  And also a good
> anarchist, because, in several senses, I am a slave.  Maybe of companies,
> maybe of my own past, but not so free and independent as I should be.

So what would freedom look like?

> -----
> "La vita non è un problema da risolvere, ma un mistero da vivere."
>