KINDRED - Transmission 12
A podcast studio; a demand for reason.
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MAY
“Whether you’re on the ‘tube, or the ‘cast—welcome to you all! Steve Perry again for your weekly dose of Inspirational Entrepreneurs. Well, folks, have I got a surprise for you! Our more attentive listeners will remember back a week or so when we had on the show the venerable Campfyre CEO Trent Robinson. Well, Mr Robinson has so kindly agreed to come back and see us once again in the studio today. Welcome, Trent. We’re so lucky to have you here a second time!”
“Thank you Steve—and, can I assure you, the pleasure is all mine.”
“Ha, always the charmer! Look, Trent, when you were last here, we spoke about the future of Campfyre, and can I tell you—since then, the comment section has been in meltdown. There was tons of interest in—”
“That’s encouraging, Steve!”
“Yes it is! And frankly, people are bored of listening to me—so we’ve done something a little different… My team have lined up a few members of your adoring public, who’d like to—uh, ask you a few questions of their own. I hope you don’t mind?”
“Ask me… Ha—certainly not, Steve! I always say it’s important to keep in touch with the people.”
“That it is, Trent... Okay, let’s see now… Aurelie, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here, Steve.”
“Hi, Aurelie! For the benefit of our guest, and of course our listeners, Aurelie is a doctoral student in social psychology, with a particular focus on social networks…and their impact on mental health. Aurelie, you had a couple of questions you wanted to ask our friend here?”
“Yes, Steve, thank you. Trent, first of all, hello.”
“Hello there, young lady. That’s a lovely accent you’ve got there. Where are you from?”
“I’m French, but that’s not important.”
“No, I don’t suppose it is, I just—”
“Trent, is it true that your company has been involved in research into social manipulation tactics… and trying to exploit the massive amounts of data that you collect on your users… to—to profit from it?”
“Well, uh—profiting from our users is a rather crude way of putting it… I—don’t know where you would have heard tha—”
“It’s all over the internet! And my research suggests the information collected daily on your network is used to profile the personalities of your users, to try and predict their every—”
“It’s called advertising, we—we’re giving people what they want… before they even know it—”
“But Trent! You’re not taking responsibility for the outcomes… Your—uh, advertising—it creates addiction, anxiety… depression. You’re not just responding to behaviour, you’re shaping it. I mean—isn’t there a line somewhere… where prediction becomes—control?”
“Now, just wait there! I don’t know where you’re doing your research, young lady—but I won’t have you slandering the name of my company—”
“But, I wasn’t… slandering, I was just—”
“We’re perfectly entitled to try and improve the communication with our users, to improve their experience, to make it more relevant—Let’s get real here, young la—uh, Aurelie—if we’re not doing this, someone else will… And there are many out there who might be more, uh—loose with the ethics, here…”
“Well, uh, I—”
“Sorry, Aurelie, Trent! I’m going to have to interrupt you both there. I’ve just had word that we’ve got another caller on the line. It’s Trent’s Campfyre co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Alan Maddox.”
“What the hell—?”
“Alan! Thank you for calling in—I believe you had something you wanted to say to Trent?”
“Yes. Trent! What are you doing on here? What are you going on about? I told you we can’t talk about this—we don’t know what we could get ourselves into!”
“Alan, do you mind? I’m trying to do a bit of press relations here—you know, that thing you never do? Besides, what do I care what you have to say? You’re always wanting to give your opinion, always thinking you know best. This—this is the best chance we’ve had as a company—dammit, this might be our last fucking chance! You want to bring people together? Well, that’s what I’m fucking well doing!”
“Trent, as usual, all you care about is the goddamn valuation... Can’t you see that this is larger than that? More important? We’re talking about people here, Trent, real people—”
“Don’t give me any of that shit, Alan! These people know what they’re doing. They signed up to it. They agreed to the terms and conditions. They’re fully bought in members, and… they owe it to us!”
“They owe it to us? What the hell do you mean? When will you see this is not about us, Trent—do you even care about the future—not for us… for everyone?”
“Ah, you’re all— Fuck! I don’t need this kind of—”
“For the benefit of our listeners, Trent is once again leaving the studio. Wow, it’s like a replay of the last show. Trent! Hey, somebody stop him!”
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