Vespasian 5 hours ago

What exactly am I looking at?

  • tim333 3 hours ago

    A worldcoin gizmo which is basically a digital camera and I think has some face scanner stuff like an iphone. Once they've scanned and checked you are someone who hasn't been done already they give you basically a crypto wallet with some 'worldcoin' shitcoin in. And there's an app.

    You only get a scan at the start, after that it's basically a usual crypto wallet + private key. They don't ask for your name or id or anything at the start. Although they are now offering me like $25 if I'll scan my passport and do kyc stuff. I think they are trying to make it into a payment/investment network.

  • Nursie 5 hours ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_(blockchain)

    A Sam Altman project which seemingly popped up out of nowhere, and offered people free money in exchange for biometric registration on the network, in a lot of countries all over the world. It seemed to be an attempt to set up some sort of global electronic ID system and currency all in one.

    That silver sphere is an iris scanner, IIRC.

    Got shut down pretty hard in a bunch of places as a potentially illegal invasion of privacy.

    • CaptainZapp 5 hours ago

      >A Sam Altman project which seemingly popped up out of nowhere, and offered people free money

      Was it free money? I recall that it was some shitcoin token paid out, which may or may not be worth something.

      I could be wrong, of course.

      • ben_w 5 hours ago

        Depending on degree of cynicism*, both takes are compatible with what was observable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_(blockchain)

        * For what it's worth, my cynicism for Worldcoin and that eye scanner thing is currently about 7/10: moderately high but could be much worse.

        By comparison, I'm 9/10 in cynicism for Facebook and 10/10 in cynicism for everything Musk does except SpaceX, my SpaceX cynicism is only 5/10.

      • tim333 3 hours ago

        It was crypto coins that you could trade for money. I did it and have got about $300 worth.

      • Nursie 5 hours ago

        It was 'worldcoin'. And yes I used the term 'money' very loosely there.

        Apparently the token was only offered in some countries, and in some places where it was offered, that was considered enough of a bribe to render void the informed consent to collect and process private data.

    • Vespasian 4 hours ago

      Ah got it. I've heard about that but apparently were behind how Iris scanners look these days.

      • benterix 3 hours ago

        > but apparently were behind how Iris scanners look these days

        Not necessarily - they look whatever you want them to look. In this case sama wanted to create a feeling of futurism - the story being he is leading a global AGI revolution and you can be a part of it by staring in a metal ball.

    • kotaKat 2 hours ago

      Just another step closer to the creepy desires of building an AI "replica" human. Gotta get the look right (with Sora), the fingerprints and iris (with Worldcoin), the personality (ChatGPT erotic mode)...

tjpnz 3 hours ago

Looks suspiciously like the robot that pumped Princess Leia full of drugs.

bigyabai 11 hours ago

"How does it work?"

"It's magic. All technology is."

  • joomla199 11 hours ago

    Given that we don’t know why electromagnetism exists, this is basically true for many technologies.

    • adastra22 6 hours ago

      What do you mean? We know quite well how electromagnetism arises from U(1) symmetry in gauge theory. What else is there to know?

      • gizajob 4 hours ago

        What does U(1) symmetry in gauge theory arise from?

    • hoppp 9 hours ago

      We don't know why the world itself exists so everything is magic

      • wartywhoa23 14 minutes ago

        This is true, and the fact that humans mostly become blind to this magic past the age of 5 is one of the reasons we live in such a dismal world.

      • KumaBear 6 hours ago

        There doesn’t need to be a why the world exists. It does that’s all there is to know. There doesn’t have to be purpose just an explanation of how not why