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Rebecca Mbaya's avatar

This actually ties directly into the piece I wrote about Anthropic’s opt-in/opt-out “choice” (deadline: Sept 28). On the surface, it looks like user empowerment. But in reality, it’s performative:

• If you opt-out, you’re excluded.

• If you stay, you play by their rules.

• And none of it undoes the fact that our communities’ knowledge has already been scraped into the system.

By the time this “choice” is offered, users are already dependent so almost nobody will leave. Later they’ll say, “we gave people the option,” when in fact the script was written from the start. A perfect example of how we think we’re resisting, but we’re only moving along the path the game creators laid out.

Some might say, “But you do have a choice, just opt out or walk away.” But let’s be real: by the time these “choices” are offered, dependency has already been engineered. For most people, opting out isn’t viable: you lose access, you lose functionality, you lose “community”. Is that not coercion dressed up as consent?

Others might argue, “Well, at least this is progress. At least they’re being transparent now.” But transparency without alternatives is performative. It doesn’t undo the fact that the knowledge scraped has already been absorbed into the system. Saying “you can stop us from using more of your data going forward” is not the same as accountability for what’s already been taken.

Yes, collective action could, in theory, shift the power balance. But collective action depends on having genuine alternatives. Right now, there are none, only platforms designed by the same playbook. Which is exactly your point: we’re moving inside the rules the creators set.

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Donald E. Felch's avatar

This really resonates. The tech is already here — language models, data streams, GPS, robotics — nothing “sci-fi” required. The real barriers are human: Business/Profitability, Liability, Compliance, and Trust. All legitimate, but together they create the kind of “safety theater” you describe. Prohibition won’t solve misuse; it just entrenches incumbents. The problem isn’t missing capability — it’s missing alignment.

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