> the visceral reaction against FLoC

The article title contains the word "everybody" which is evidence of the authors tendency to deal in absolutes. He is claiming to speak for us all with this loose assimilation of words ("hates" further describes an emotional disposition towards idea proposal, and the tagline is equally charming). Let's make it our mission to be polite for a cleaner archive of Internet Interaction Instances. I will not match the negative energy and instead proceed to be cordial&calculated in the delivery of my opinion (I lost sleep over this last night).

Thiel on Weinstein's "Portal" ventured the "eye of Sauron" metaphor [0] to describe the effect of surveillance on generations developing during the Information Age. The "double-slit experiment" is also relevant here (modern scientific lore suggesting that the act of observation influences outcome - "spooky action"). Tolkien and Wagner both constructed epic "entertainment" sagas that describe elaborate human feud because of a "golden ring of power". Both of these works were written after the Industrial Age had fully (quickly) propelled civilization into a new form, with recent regional warfare fresh in the memories of the aforementioned authors (Wagner would have monitored Franco-Prussian conflict, Tolkien personally participated in the Somme).

The Völsunga saga could be considered the first instance of the same story ("... the ring Andvaranaut serves as a connection and explanation for the characters' troubles." [1] Fafnir turning into a dragon to protect the gold is just a metaphor for the military prowess of an organized fiefdom). Gold exchanging hands to influence the toil of entire populations goes back as far as Egyptian recognition of its malleability, ease of extraction, and resemblance to the Sun.

With Tolkien's childhood propensity for secrecy, enthusiasm for cryptoanalysis, and concern of the postal censorship of his wartime subordinates - it makes sense that he would associate a gold object with "invisibility", that is, anonymity. The "eye of Sauron" will only notice you if you've revealed your desire to move undetected among the ones that operate in your shared civilization. This results in the curse of a painfully long life and a corruption of an isolated mind (Gollum). Your enemy then becomes the people (Nazgul) who have already succumbed to this lust for amplification of their might because of the same "magical" inanimate object. Marvel's Thanos ring-adorned-gauntlet is the recently installed update of the same concept.

What does this have to do with the Federated Learning of Cohorts?

A single search request "cost" 7-10 grams of carbon emission in 2009 [2]. Running your computer or progressively chewing up the limited battery lifetime of your smartphone to locate something on the internet for "free" costs carbon output at some point in a transmission pathway. Soft/hardware engineers will reduce this footprint over time through clever organization of their employers' assets, but nothing is "free". You owe it to society to have your anonymized meta-interests understood&catalogued by the hand that feeds you a conveniently "free" Ranked Page of relevant information (digitally posted efforts of others automatically crawled). The pinnacle of modern technology is in your pocket (at a cost reduced on purpose so everyone can input their thoughts) - but you don't want to share your self with the world? A flock of various cohorts feeding the hive-mind with their intent is supposed to be valuable because this information can eventually generate paychecks and subsidies meant to satisfy the flock's apparent needs (or guide it away from corrosive wants). Regulated Money flow (not gold, aka invisibility) is meant to be documented so that a society can sort itself out.

Perhaps you are resisting FLoC because of distrust in who is pulling the levers? If your paranoia is valid, then the problem will be naturally solved by internal resolution ("Et tu, Brute?").

I am a node in the hive-mind with a duty to transmit new information as soon as it is discovered. Even if it's wrong - at least I said something. I am an open book and entertainer of an open source society.

"I don't care that they stole my idea... I care that they don't have any of their own." - Nikola Tesla

[0] https://youtu.be/nM9f0W2KD5s?t=9870

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lsunga_saga

[2] https://searchengineland.com/calculating-the-carbon-footprin...