I mean, we all probably said similar things about Google 20 years ago. It was a liked company that brought a lot of cool innovations to the web. Or even relatively more recently with Chrome. At launch it was liked, but now it’s weaponized.
To be fair, there are far, FAR worse players than Mozilla. I might even be so far as to be convinced they have benign interests at heart at the moment. But corruption always follows domination.
I just read the entire article and I don’t see why Mozilla really wants in on the Fediverse. It covers a lot of how it wants in, but not the driving motivation.
My best guess is they want to be the next Facebook/Twitter. They see a window and think it’s not something to miss.
Never forget: “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish”, even if it’s from a relatively liked company like Mozilla.
As a filthy casual with little to no knowledge of comics outside of a few cartoons…
… I’m incredibly confused and distracted by retro-cyborg’s design.
They’re still in the process of genetically engineering the bacteria, so their efficiency is still a work in progress.
There’s also the issue that economies of scale tip heavily in plastics direction,
It’s not a carbon neutral process. There’s significant both heating and cooling involved.
And, it doesn’t really solve the issue of retiring plastics.
The last update I read on the bacteria, prior to the genetic engineering, mentioned that the bacteria didn’t actually like the plastic and would only really break it down for want of something more practical. Presumably that has been solved, but I didn’t see it brought up in the article.
The article explains that they use the bacteria to basically break down the plastic into two solutions, which they ultimately recombine into plastic—seemingly out of lack of any other practical use for the results.
I’m not a scientist, I don’t know what could be a better use for the results of the bacteria doing their job. And seemingly, neither do the scientists, but it’s still a very young project in the grand scheme of things.
Since 2021, a French company named Carbios has been running an operation that uses a bacterial enzyme to process about 250kg of PET plastic waste every day, breaking it down into its precursor molecules, which can then be made directly into new plastic. It’s not quite composting it back into the earth itself, but Carbios has achieved the holy grail of plastic recycling, bringing it much closer to an infinitely recyclable material like glass or aluminium.
That’s a significant step forward from when the last time I read up on the plastic eating bacteria. Granted, I’d prefer it if it was recycled into something other than more plastic… but I’ll still take it.
While governments can’t directly manipulate Lemmy, you should still operate on the assumption that nothing you do here is anonymous.
Okay, if that’s the case then that is a perfectly reasonable implementation.
I could be convinced that the search engine itself isn’t profiling me.
But if by virtue of loading the ad, the advertiser gains my IP address, MAC address, and a fingerprint based on things like my installed fonts, then that’s not really privacy in any meaningful sense.
Wait… how does that work?
If our searches fund trees, then our searches have to be making them money… and I’m not aware of many advertisers that respect privacy.
Okay, but realistically, how can we prevent this from happening in the future?
We’ve already, according to the article, dodged one bullet; but there’s no reason to expect that it’ll be the only one.
Also, due to the nature of the Fediverse being open source, there’s no way to prevent Facebook or other corporate monstrosities from building their own hooks.
I think we need to be prepared to preemptively defederate from the likes of Google, Reddit, Facebook or whatever. Not just this instance, but the greater Fediverse should have a United policy to reject association with those who would consume us and spit us out.
TBH, I think the Startrek Community has the right idea.
I believe Lemmy instances should treat themselves like ye olde message boards. Have a specific interest and accommodate it. So a Star Wars instance, a Marvel Instance, a DIY instance etc… They should act like message boards, but with the key advantage of linking up with the greater federation.
Things like geography aren’t very conducive to finding content you’re interested in.
Yeah, like how Spotify and the like are trying to take over Podcasts, which were designed to be open.
The risk is that Mozilla is in a position to add features and stability at a rate that smaller developers cannot possibly replicate. By doing so they risk becoming the defacto standard (embrace/extend). Then they get to dictate what the entire platform should or should not do. And you’re either on board or left in the dust. And if Mozilla decides that moderating a social network is too much of a liability, then we’re at extinguish.
To be frank, I’m so jaded by big players in this late stage capitalist world that I don’t trust anyone I might otherwise be fine with, like Mozilla.