HN user
There are lots of automatic ways to make money like this, even more so on the cost side of a business. They are always going to look great on a spreadsheet but what you're missing is the opportunity cost of all the people that are turned off by the experience. They will fade away in a manner that's harder to measure than CTR.
Fragile not for limiting the powers of government but for the tyranny it can enable.
"it is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism" Benjamin Franklin
Sure but how does that change the fact that making it a industry scales it up to today's profiteering system of justice?
Why didn't Kristof help this guy? It's not a systemic failure when a congenital alcoholic ruins his life, it's a human one.
It's mind boggling that a centuries old weapon is a supposition for any problem, let alone such a terribly serious one. It's likely that dog catchers are more advanced in their approach.
I would consider it not only reprehensible but absurd, as these examples are.
I can't think of any advantages a racist bank would have, can you? The approach by this lender is rather to dig deeper into individuals and give them an opportunity based on personal data. It seems just as likely that resulting correlations could help any given race.
I believe algorithmic attempts to understand people are a form of intelligence to support, even if they discover things we might not like or make mistakes along the way. Should they find uncomfortable truths we can own up, have a laugh and grow; it will be a lot easier than fighting facts.
Prejudice is literally pre-judging, making assertions based on fear without knowing the facts. Perhaps it's the algorithms themselves that are in need of protection here.
Are you saying that if one uses a criterion that incidentally correlates with race that is racism? And wouldn't a correction for this itself cause a much more disturbing racist exercise ie; profiling every possible data point against race and forever maintaining such profiles?
This article seems to be instigated by a US policy to control worldwide maritime traffic, likely with an eye towards China. The foundational sources are from the US government and the implied solution is hegemony. Even camera surveillance and wiretapping are contextualized as favorable investigative techniques in the face of too much freedom (the choice of the ship to portray is clearly for it's name Dona Liberta).
The benefits of an open and global shipping network are immense, particularly for developing countries and while the behavior of this particular company is reprehensible the emotions it stirs are little compared to the awe we must feel when we contemplate the progress the maritime system represents for humanity, especially in comparison to government's use of the seas for floating guns.
The Times is an incredible institution with great standards but history shows it is instrument of the US government in all but its finest moments.