Quick Thoughts: Black Fungus, Privacy, and Watching Others Play Video Games

(This is my weekly list of quick thoughts based on the most interesting topics I found in my feed.)

Black Fungus

Navin Kabra @NGKabra

@sroy_sroy Everything you wanted to know about fungus but were afraid to ask

scientificamerican.comDeadly Fungi Are the Newest Emerging Microbe Threat All Over the WorldThese pathogens already kill 1.6 million people every year, and we have few defenses against them

Why has fungus suddenly become the new thing to be worried about and where was it hiding all this while? The surprising answer lies in 3 consequences of modern technology: climate change due to which fungi are evolving to survive in higher temperatures, modern medicine which keeps people with weak immune systems alive for longer, and again immunosuppressants (used in treating cancer, but also Covid) which have a similar effect.

Long article, but worth the read.

How Data About You Is Being Collated?

Note, I said collated, not collected. Data that different companies and different sources collect is being collated by marketing companies to create a coherent picture of you.

Robert G. Reeve @RobertGReeve

I'm back from a week at my mom's house and now I'm getting ads for her toothpaste brand, the brand I've been putting in my mouth for a week. We never talked about this brand or googled it or anything like that. As a privacy tech worker, let me explain why this is happening. 🧵

No, this is not because his phone was listening to you (although that does happen in India). There are easier ways:

Robert G. Reeve @RobertGReeve

They can match my Harris Teeter purchases to my Twitter account because I gave both those companies my email address and phone number and I agreed to all that data-sharing when I accepted those terms of service and the privacy policy.

Robert G. Reeve @RobertGReeve

Here's where it gets truly nuts, though. If my phone is regularly in the same GPS location as another phone, they take note of that. They start reconstructing the web of people I'm in regular contact with.

And no, turning off your GPS location on the phone doesn’t help all that much (link1, link2).

Robert G. Reeve @RobertGReeve

The advertisers can cross-reference my interests and browsing history and purchase history to those around me. It starts showing ME different ads based on the people AROUND me. Family. Friends. Coworkers.

How Much Solar Power Is Needed To Power the Whole World?

Tim Urban @waitbutwhy

The cumulative solar arrays that would power the world. Kinda weird that we haven't just done this yet. Image credit: @poweredbyart

The Video Game Streaming Industry

Julia Angwin @JuliaAngwin

This is a win for statistical analysis. @dreamwastaken recorded a controversial Minecraft speedrun. A 29-page statistical analysis showed that his luck was impossibly good. mcspeedrun.com/dream.pdf Dream just admitted that he mistakenly cheated. https://t.co/0KqsYYttw1

Video game live-streaming YouTuber Dream recently admitted that he had (inadvertently) cheated on his record-breaking Minecraft speedrun in October 2020. (A speedrun is a recording of a play-through of a video game in which the player tries to set a record for the fastest time to complete a task.) This was a raging controversy from October to January and involved multiple deep statistical analyses of whether Dream’s dream run was a result of luck, skill, or cheating.

Why is this interesting? Why did a video of some guy playing a video game cause so much controversy that is still bubbling 8 months later? And who wants to watch videos of someone else playing video games?

Apparently, lots of people. In fact, more people subscribed to video game streams and Let's Play videos on YouTube and Twitch than for all of HBO, Netflix, ESPN, and Hulu, combined. The global video streaming market size was valued at USD 50.11 billion in 2020 and it is expected to grow at 21.0% CAGR for the next 8 years. Most kids know this. Most older people don’t realize how big it is.

Those who still don’t understand it, ask yourself this: Why is watching Roger Federer playing tennis any different from watching a video game live stream? And how long before you become a dinosaur in this changing world that you don’t understand.

The other aspect is of course the power of statistics. What was a he-said-she-said argument got converted into a scientific one about probabilities by statistical analysis, and ultimately resulted in the truth coming out.

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