[walterbell]

We need more analysis of "uncanny valley" boundaries between F2F discovery and atomized collaborative filtering. E.g. Amazon reviews can be better than algo recommendations for book discovery. From the article:

"By atomizing our experience to the point of alienation—or, at best, by creating substitutes for common experience (“you might also like…” lists, Twitter exchanges instead of face-to-face conversations)—we lose the common thread of civil life ... Books are not just other luxury items to be shopped for. They are the levers of our consciousness."

[protomyth]

"By atomizing our experience to the point of alienation—or, at best, by creating substitutes for common experience"

I don't know much about the social life in France, but in the US we've done this with the last couple of generations independent of computers and in response to, unjustified statistically, fear. We plan our children's activities and kill opportunities for exploration and organic growth. We lock people up who leave their kids to run as previous generations because we need to make everything safe.

Amazon does not lead, we were already there and they filled a need. Our common thread is planned, isolated, micro-metered, and safe.