Category Archives: Society

News regarding society.

Inside the Romanian Sex-Cam Industry

Leave a comment

After the recent revelations about the way pornography influences our society^, here’s another sobering piece, this time about the sex-cam industry, the fastest-growing sector of the global pornography business. In Romania, thousands of women work as “cam-girls” from studios and from home.

Let me be clear: it’s not shameful to have a job, and this job is less demeaning to women compared to other jobs in the pornographic industry. But from an ethical perspective, it’s a highly debatable topic. Often, it’s one step away from abuse and in general it tip-toes on the edge of the knife between legal and social inequality.

If you ask the models involved in the business (there is a small percentage of men as well), you can get very different perspectives. One former cam-girl says: “the next step is prostitution, I see that now.” (or filming demeaning pornography) According to another cam-girl: “It’s about selling your brain, not your body.” (I believe it’s probably both).

Here’s the full article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40829230^

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/02712-InsideRomanianSexCamIndustry-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Inside the Romanian Sex-Cam Industry’ desc=’A sobering piece about the sex-cam industry, the fastest-growing sector of the global pornography business.’]

Kids Start School Too Early

Leave a comment

A Stanford University study has shown that children who postponed kindergarten for up to one year showed dramatically higher levels of self-control. The study uses data from Denmark, where children have access to good pre-kindergarten (starting as early as 12-18 months).

The results of this study make perfect sense to me. It’s a confirmation of something I long believed to be true. I think that whatever parents can do to delay the institutionalization of their child (enrollment into the current industrialized educational system) will greatly help any young mind. I believe more studies like this will show up in the coming years. The sooner the better:

https://qz.com/546832/stanford-researchers-show-were-sending-many-children-to-school-way-too-early/

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/02702-KidsToSchoolTooEarly-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Kids Start School Too Early’ desc=’A Stanford University study has shown that children who postponed kindergarten for up to one year showed dramatically higher levels of self-control.’]

Painful Facts about Pornography

Leave a comment

When asked, “How do you know a guy likes you?,” an 8th grade girl replied: “He still wants to talk to you after you [give him oral sex].” A male high school student said to a girl: “If you [give me oral sex] I’ll give you a kiss.” Girls are expected to provide sex acts for tokens of affection, and are coached through it by porn-taught boys. A 15-year-old girl said she didn’t enjoy sex at all, but that getting it out of the way quickly was the only way her boyfriend would stop pressuring her and watch a movie.

This was a quote from the article below. The topic of pornography has been debated a gazillion times but there is now a renewed discussion in the light of what is quickly becoming a torrent of painful social studies. These findings keep popping up increasingly often. Through statistics and surveys, we keep finding a direct connection between pornography and dismal changes in the attitude men have towards women. Were women emancipated only to wake up in an age where their freedom is transformed in a choice of what sort of sex object they want to be?

http://fightthenewdrug.org/sex-before-kissing-15-year-old-girls-dealing-with-boys/^

To be clear: this is not to say that all erotic content is dangerous. There is also such a thing as ethical pornography and there are productions that go against the “macho” stereotype. However, this sort of production can’t really compete against a deluge of ego-worshipping, love-destructive porn.

The reason? We keep coming back at it: a lack of education in the most important elements of a happy life: empathy, connection, love. Instead, our industrialized educational system focuses on training kids to perform the work robots should help us with. It is no wonder that a lot of men easily drown in the sea of dick-glorifying deceitful imagery.

Learn more:

http://learn.ftnd.org/^

Update: also worth a read: Inside the Romanian Sex-Cam Industry^.

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/02539-PainfulFactsPornography-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Painful Facts about Pornography’ desc=’Through statistics and surveys, we keep finding a direct connection between pornography and dismal changes in the attitude men have towards women.’]

How the Lack of Touch Is Damaging Men

Leave a comment

Most people feel much more comfortable seeing two women holding hands rather than two men, even if the two men are father and son. The men might be brothers, but still, a large part of society will assume some sort of sexual background behind the simple and beautiful act of sharing the sense of touch. And when it comes to sex, the differences in social acceptance between lesbians and gays is even greater. Why is that?

The article below explains the developmental and educational roots of what is one of the most damaging discriminations made by society: starting already from early childhood, men are deprived of platonic touch. This is robbing men of the emotional security that touch brings to most mammals and particularly primates.

http://upliftconnect.com/how-lack-touch-destroying-men/^

I think the (male) author pretty much nailed it when it comes to a major affliction that is crippling our society. The extent of the damage is not hard to imagine: it fuels emotional insecurity, strengthens stereotypes and, worst of all, poisons human interaction. Who knows how many terrible disagreements would have been avoided if (most) men would not have missed out on vital emotional education?

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/02524-HowLackOfTouchIsDamagingMen-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’How the Lack of Touch Is Damaging Men’ desc=’The extent of the damage is not hard to imagine: it fuels emotional insecurity, strengthens stereotypes and, worst of all, poisons human interaction’]

About Politics Polarization with Renowned Psychologist Jonathan Haidt

Leave a comment

This is one of the most interesting and informative presentations about the times we’re living. It is about how social factors have created a climate of mutual distrust in the world and about how our society has become dangerously split. Doctor Jonathan Haidt focuses on the political arena because it is there where our future is often decided. In this most critical area, the current social polarization is doing the most damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAE-gxKs6gM^

This talk is of even more value than it was last year, before the democratic catastrophe that took place in the United States, where the electorate was basically asked to choose between two of the least popular candidates ever. The warning is clear: it is up to every single one of us to contribute to the healing of our society, lest even darker days will be upon us.

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/02519-PoliticsPolarizationJonathanHaidt-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’About Politics Polarization with Renowned Psychologist Jonathan Haidt’ desc=’This is one of the most interesting and informative presentations about the times we're living.’]

The Rise of the RoboJournalist

2 Comments

The quality of online journalism has been dropping like a stone during the past decade. The main reason is websites trying to cut corners as a way to survive in a publishing landscape completely transformed by the Internet. Websites have lowered their standards regarding whom can write for them. This leads to such sad examples^ where armies of (mostly) amateur exploited writers generate a humongous amount of content, spamming the web and suffocating quality writing.

An even more worrying development is the so-called “rise of the robo-journalist”. The following article reveals how automated writing is on the rise. The quality of these machine-authored creations might increase, but will continue to lack soul (at least until we develop true AI^). Even more importantly, the low-quality articles spam will explode in quantity:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/05/tech/mci-robojournalist/^

I will speak for myself and admit that sadly I do not contribute financially to any online publication. Even though I consider my contributions here as sufficient payment, I would still like to somehow contribute to the well-being of those online publications that I respect. But with every single one of these publications asking for monthly fees and my need to have at least fifteen different content sources, the expense becomes simply too large. However, I think there’s a way to fix that.

I believe we need a service similar to Audible, Spotify or Netflix, but for online publications. I’m sure very many people thought about the very same thing, but the timing when an idea reaches the market is critical. Is the market ready? Will the idea propagate explosively or will it fizzle and die out?

Later Edit: Apparently something does exist, and it’s called Blendle. Check www.blendle.com^ although it is currently still in Beta.

I’ll throw a spark out there. In order to see if this is the right time for such a service to exist, I have initiated a KickStarter campaign^ for creating a system that will provide online publishers with a share of what subscribers pay. The campaign should be seen as an opportunity assessment (part market analysis and part thought experiment).

In short, the system I envision is intended to work both like an “all you can eat” (a la Spotify & Netflix but with a tiered approach) and like a digital newsstand (for example like Valve’s game-related store, Steam). Compared to other similar services, the system will give a greater share back to authors because it will not be hosting any content by itself but simply act as a gateway back to the publication’s own website (which translates in reduced maintenance costs).

Codexia! Goodbye annoying ads, hello premium subscriptions!

 

 

 

Fun fact: the idea for Codexia came to me while writing this article. There was no campaign yet when I finished typing everything you just read. But as a software engineer and a product owner, I know the importance of sharing ideas with the possible market before doing anything concrete. It’s what opportunity assessments are for.

I knew this won’t be a huge commitment to begin with because I already planned to work in very small iterations. The start will be a micro-campaign draft that will perhaps improve during the coming weeks and maybe months before even daring to think about publicizing it.

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/02496-RiseRoboJournalist-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’The Rise of the RoboJournalist’ desc=’The quality of online journalism has been dropping like a stone during the past decade.’]

Just How Bad Is It to Do Food Delivery for Today’s App-Overlords

2 Comments

As it turns out following this journalist’s two-week investigation, it’s pretty bad. The man could barely manage $4.4 per hour working his legs off (for Uber Eats) in Stockholm, capital of Sweden, where the cost of living has increased drastically in the past decade. The pay was better when working for Foodora, a similar service, but still unfair given the amount of work, not to mention the minimum salary in Sweden. The interviewing procedure for Foodora is outright humiliating. The practical test encourages possible employees to jeopardize their life by breaking traffic regulations. Here’s the story in all its juicy (read gory) details:

https://www.breakit.se/artikel/7599/i-spent-two-weeks-delivering-for-uber-eats-and-made-4-4-per-hour

Some of the things a technologically interconnected world has brought us are great. But damn, some of the others are pretty sad. I bet the argument that “at least they’re creating jobs” will eventually pop up. No, these are not jobs. This is slavery, plain and simple. The fact that the slaves are willingly performing this demeaning work is even worse. This shows the decay of the social structures that were meant to ensure our progress as a species.

Remember this and give a solid tip when you’re delivered food, especially if you’re forced to use a service such as Uber. Even better, protest these tactics and boycott such companies until they offer a minimum wage like any respectable company should. There are other ways you can get food delivered home. Seek restaurants that treat their staff with respect and offer them a stable salary.

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/02432-FoodDeliveryUberFoodoraAppOverlords-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Just How Bad Is It to Do Food Delivery for Today's App-Overlords’ desc=’This is slavery, plain and simple. The fact that the slaves are willingly performing this demeaning work is even worse.’]

About Zuckerberg’s Global Community Vision

Leave a comment

Two weeks ago Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of FaceBook, dropped what I consider to be an ideological bombshell on the tech industry and on business in general. It doesn’t even matter what the true intentions behind it are. It grabbed attention and dared to change – at least for a little while – the tune of the global business discourse.

Mark’s Global Community^ post is very well written and published at the ideal time to provide maximum PR value. I’m not surprised that some have even seen it as a sort of political statement. I liked how this article^ from The Guardian explores the text.

Perhaps this is indeed the beginning of the age of corporations governing the planet publicly (rather than from the shadows). If it is, I’d definitely have Mark run the show rather than somebody like Trump. I try to keep a balanced tone on this website but even though I can understand why Trump has become the man he is (given the society that shaped him), I do believe it’s healthier to leave his world ideology behind and advance to something more akin to what Mark is envisioning.

Mark’s “manifesto”, as some in the press have called it, is of course rich with positive examples about FaceBook’s achievements. What I really appreciated though is the fact that it acknowledged some serious issues with the website, such as the fact that some people’s posts get censored when they shouldn’t and posts that should be removed are not. Mark’s explanation for this makes a lot of sense: “we’re operating at such a large scale that even a small percent of errors causes a large number of bad experiences.”

Still, FaceBook does censorship. It has a special kind of censorship but it’s still censorship. And I don’t mean this respected author^ getting banned for saying bad things about Trump’s supporters. Perhaps that was a good way to break the circle of insults. What I mean is how FaceBook prevents people from being exposed to other opinions, keeping them inside their comfort zones, blissfully unaware of the storm raging outside. I call this phenomenon ideological clumping. FaceBook engages in this probably because a happy user generates more revenue for the company.

This issue of ideological clumping is addressed in the manifesto so I’m curious how FaceBook will deal with it in the future, especially given the fact that its financial model is based on convincing creatives to pay money in order to get their content in front of their followers. By this I mean how the default follow command on FaceBook only means that a user allows the application’s algorithms to sometimes show posts from a followed person, page or group.

The manifesto also addresses the issue of fake news. The viral spread of misinformation using social media is an intellectual disease that has given Trump more than a few votes – granted, he wasn’t the sole benefactor of this phenomenon. Sadly, this is a problem that Mark & co. will have to work much harder to fix than by writing a goody two shoes manifesto.

Last but not least, FaceBook’s visionary CEO mentions artificial intelligence quite often. Trusting A.I. to do the very hard work of curating content is a risky bet with a lot of unknowns – something he acknowledges, but not strongly enough I think. If A.I. were truly intelligent I’d be more inclined to trust it, but right now, we’re talking about some closed-source (sometimes buggy) algorithms that are controlling the information people are exposed to, not to mention able to shut people up. There’s less intelligence in there than there is manipulation for the advertisers’ interests.

I’m quite sure the company has plenty of ulterior motives when it wants to offer free internet to people. Mark actually made some parallels to television in his text. Well, television was free in many countries if only to make it easier to manipulate the masses. “Connect the world” they say. But FaceBook is not only a tool for change. It’s also an advertisement platform, let’s not forget that. And the kind of product that political parties have to sell is much more dangerous than a brand of bad detergent.

When it’s all said and done, I think that Mark’s step forward volunteering to do what can be done in helping with global problems is a positive example for corporate responsibility. This manifesto was needed and I’m truly happy it’s out there. For this reason, I’m going to give Mark & co. the benefit of the doubt. Let’s see what the future holds. So far, score 1 for FaceBook.

Oh, and one more thing. I am really curious to see how other corporations will respond to this and if they even will. I’m thinking especially about Google, whose “do no evil” mantra 5 to 10 years ago was heading the company towards the same style of social action that FaceBook is doing today. But now-a-days Google’s execs seem even more uninspiring than Microsoft’s.

Today FaceBook has something way more powerful than Google: it has people’s lives, not only their web searches. Combine this with a bright CEO that has a very skilled PR team behind him and you get yourself a serious challenger to tech leadership. If Mark showed anything to these behemoths it’s the fact that in the 21st century a CEO is as much a public figure as any politician and perhaps even more needed.

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/01830-MarkFaceBookBuildingGlobalCommunity-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’About Zuckerberg's Global Community Vision’ desc=’Mark Zuckerberg dropped what I consider to be an ideological bombshell on the tech industry and on business in general.’]

Romania Takes on Corruption in the 21st Century

Leave a comment

Following the proposal and then adoption of a law that would have allowed corruption to thrive, on the 5th of February, 2017, the capital of Romania was the scene of the largest public protest since toppling the communist regime in 1989. The number of people participating in the capital alone was anywhere between 120,000 and 300,000, depending on who did the estimating. The protests spiraled to other cities in Romania as well as many cities around the world that host large Romanian diaspora communities. As a result, the law was repealed.

Here’s a beautiful video showing the scale of the protest as well as some wonderful moments that took place during the peaceful manifestation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZPgJ4spMZw^

Backup version:

https://www.facebook.com/alexandru.damian.73/posts/1425087934176498^

Romania can do it. Romania did it twice in less than 30 years. I think this should be an inspiration for other democratic countries where this sort of manifestation can still take place without the fear of military intervention. So, is the USA just going to sit tight while decades of progress in human rights and empathy towards ourselves and the ecosystem are systematically erased?

I’m happy to see my brothers and sisters from Romania standing up against the system in such a beautiful, peaceful way. I wish I could say that I’m proud of my country, but unfortunately what you see in the video is a protest of the minority. The majority has actually voted in this disgusting government. So even if I would care for a feeling like “pride” (I don’t), I still couldn’t be proud of my country. I am sad that Romania was fooled into voting in the current government. But I would totally be proud of the brothers and sisters that try to wake up the victims of mass manipulation.

The only solution I see is to engage in peaceful but determined activism. Wake up the sleepers, educate those left in the dark by offering them alternative sources of information and patiently allowing them to find the truth themselves, for this is the only way to accept it. Open any discussion, even with the most bitter of enemies with a smile: we’re all in this together.

I wish that one day the human species will discover that the greatest gift of having free will is the ability to transform the primordial “survival of the fittest” instinct into something different. We don’t need to compete by killing each other. There are many other more elegant ways for the powerful to show their might.

In fact, the mightiest of the mighty will eventually find that the ultimate show of force is to surrender to peace and love.

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/01815-RomaniaCorruption21stCentury-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Romania Takes on Corruption in the 21st Century’ desc=’This should be an inspiration for other democratic countries where this sort of manifestation can still take place without the fear of military intervention.’]

Hypernormalisation

Leave a comment

Wait wait wait. Before you start screaming “Whaaat!? An almost three hours long documentary about manufactured truth and propaganda through social media?!”, just watch this short, 1 minute extract from mentioned documentary:

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/chilling-clip-from-adam-curtis-doc-should-make-everyone-rethink-their-online-outrage/^

Now, imagine that there are a lot more minutes like that in the documentary located at the link below. Also imagine that together, these seconds are much more powerful than taken in individual extracts (think “interconnected brains math”: 1+1=3, 3+3=a million). Now feel free to go ahead and advance your awareness of the world:

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/hypernormalisation-2016/^

[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/01511-Hypernormalisation-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Hypernormalisation’ desc=’An almost three hours long documentary about manufactured truth and propaganda through social media.’]