<story><title>Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words”</title><url>https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/1516463416885399554</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>2bitencryption</author><text>I think there&amp;#x27;s a valid concern with this; a concern which is not necessarily distilled down to &amp;quot;big brother&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;corporate overlords&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Google is so large that any stance they take, no matter how minuscule, has immense influence.&lt;p&gt;Case in point, from this article:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;google-maps-neighborhood-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;google-maps-ne...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; For decades, the district south of downtown and alongside San Francisco Bay here was known as either Rincon Hill, South Beach or South of Market. This spring, it was suddenly rebranded on Google Maps to a name few had heard: the East Cut.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The peculiar moniker immediately spread digitally, from hotel sites to dating apps to Uber, which all use Google’s map data. The name soon spilled over into the physical world, too. Real-estate listings beckoned prospective tenants to the East Cut. And news organizations referred to the vicinity by that term.&lt;p&gt;My point is, it might seem like a small, inconspicuous change.  But at Google-scale, this actually has an impact on the real world, and personally I don&amp;#x27;t feel confident with Google deciding what words are the correct words.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwaway13337</author><text>There is indeed something deep going on here.&lt;p&gt;When our communication tools nudge us in a direction, they change who we are.&lt;p&gt;This is a profound change when scaled to the society as a whole and when the way we communicate is dominated by the tools we use. Our tools are an extension of ourselves.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s for this reason that it&amp;#x27;s a very scary direction we are going with all tools - smart phones, home automation, email software, brain-computer interface, etc - that are extensions of ourselves but agents of companies acting not on behalf of the end user but on the behalf of their own interests.&lt;p&gt;Tools that are an extension of ourselves need to be the agent only of ourselves. We, as individuals, require that to keep our own personhood.&lt;p&gt;It sound dramatic to say, but our essence of being is what&amp;#x27;s at stake here.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words”</title><url>https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/1516463416885399554</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>2bitencryption</author><text>I think there&amp;#x27;s a valid concern with this; a concern which is not necessarily distilled down to &amp;quot;big brother&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;corporate overlords&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Google is so large that any stance they take, no matter how minuscule, has immense influence.&lt;p&gt;Case in point, from this article:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;google-maps-neighborhood-names.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;technology&amp;#x2F;google-maps-ne...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; For decades, the district south of downtown and alongside San Francisco Bay here was known as either Rincon Hill, South Beach or South of Market. This spring, it was suddenly rebranded on Google Maps to a name few had heard: the East Cut.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The peculiar moniker immediately spread digitally, from hotel sites to dating apps to Uber, which all use Google’s map data. The name soon spilled over into the physical world, too. Real-estate listings beckoned prospective tenants to the East Cut. And news organizations referred to the vicinity by that term.&lt;p&gt;My point is, it might seem like a small, inconspicuous change.  But at Google-scale, this actually has an impact on the real world, and personally I don&amp;#x27;t feel confident with Google deciding what words are the correct words.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mdoms</author><text>This is why I&amp;#x27;m concerned about the word &amp;quot;inclusive&amp;quot; in the original tweet. I don&amp;#x27;t want to see the Americanisation (or worse, San Franciscoisation) of all Western cultures.&lt;p&gt;I worked at an Australian tech company that expanded its offices into USA tech hubs. Very quickly our American staff started complaining about non-inclusive phrases commonly used at the company - phrases like &amp;quot;guys&amp;quot; instead of &amp;quot;folks&amp;quot;. In Australia &amp;quot;guys&amp;quot; is a gender-neutral term when used collectively. It&amp;#x27;s very commonly used and not considered non-inclusive by any Australian I know. But of course they forced the change and the word &amp;quot;guys&amp;quot; was effectively retired from conversation there.&lt;p&gt;Is it more inclusive to force an Australian company of largely Australian employees to adopt an American culture because of a few easily offended Americans on staff? Or is that less inclusive? It seems like forcing people to drop their own cultural affectations and assuming that your American ones are the de facto correct ones is (in a small way) rather imperialist.&lt;p&gt;Yes this is a minor example on the scheme of things. But I think it&amp;#x27;s illustrative.</text></comment>