[Foundation-l] 86% of german users disagree with the introduction of the personal image filter

[David Gerard]

On 18 September 2011 14:38, Yann Forget <yannfo at gmail.com> wrote:

> At the beginning, I was quite neutral about a filter: I had no idea
> how it would work, and I wouldn't use it, but what if somebody else
> wants it?
> But after reading nearly all comments on this list, I think that the
> arguments for a filter do not hold water. The pratical implemention
> would be a nightmare, and the purpose not really within Wikimedia
> mission. The thread above on how to create categories for a filter is
> full of irrational assumptions, impracticable propositions, and
> impossible solutions. It seems it is time to drop the whole idea...


The problem is that "offensive image" is a magical category.

The concept of a "magical category" is useful and important. It's
something that sounds simple in ordinary language, but turns out to be
a nightmare to implement and result in stupidity.

I got the phrase from http://lesswrong.com/lw/td/magical_categories/ ,
which discusses the problem of magical categories in artificial
intelligence. But it's vastly useful in general.

A magical category will be something that is put forward as objective,
and thus reducible to computer instructions, but everyone seems to
have a different subjective interpretation. Worse yet, there is not
even a reducible way to process as-yet-unknown examples, other than "I
know it when I see it".

Magical categories are common in rhetoric and interpersonal human
politics. An example is when someone appears to solve a problem in
words, but you go "what!" because you know the details are subjective,
squishy and not actually reducible in any way at all.

Apart from a simple "all images on/off" filter, *every* proposed
offensive image category in this discussion has been a magical
category: subjective, individual, argued over, and with a ton of "I
know it when I see it."

In passing this resolution, the board appears to have fallen for the
illusion that magical categories are possible to implement. This is
unfortunate.


- d.