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We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

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Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#11

Post by kranke155 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #8
anon115 wrote: post #6

because we don't really need anything else?

Disagreed. There's a lot of things we need, just that they're against corporate interests, and in some cases those corporate interests have successfully lobbied our governments to make those things illegal. When I want a car for example, I want to have a single client application that will automatically get quotes & availability from Uber, Bolt, the local taxi service, etc and pick me the fastest/cheapest option. Thi…

That’s a great point.

It’s the same thing with social networks. I’ve long said that the way to break FB is to just demand a compatible open API for everything - text messaging, social graph, and potentially even feed. This would allow interoperable social networks and aggregators where you could see multiple feeds collated. You should also be able to have control over your feed.

But of course we can’t because like you said FB will claim this violates their ToS or it’s impossible or anything.

It’s nonsense but like others said - technology has made it so we don’t have any control over what we “buy” anymore. The tech is there to control us, not for us to control it. It’s there to track our choices and mind fuck us using that technology to buy more, consume more, choose the politician that has collated more data to manipulate you. Nothing is made for “us” anymore.

It’s insanity.

Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#13

Post by nomel »

From my perspectives 20 years ago, the context was passion and excitement. Those are the only ones who had an idea of the future. And, people thought they were weird. Nothing has changed. There’s still passion and excitement out there. Just like back then, these people are in the fringe, with exciting predictions of the future, and called weird. VR, blockchain, etc.

Related, the growing majority of people I work with choose tech because it pays well. In the beginning of my career, nearly everyone was in tech because it was their passion.

Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#14

Post by ozzythecat »

Brief excerpt from the article:

> It’s not enough for a refrigerator to keep food cold; today’s version offers cameras and sensors that can monitor how and what I’m eating, while the Roomba can now send a map of my house to Amazon.

I can only answer subjectively here. At some point in the past 20 years, the quality of products deteriorated. We have more options than ever before, but much of it is cheap, plastic garbage. It spies on us, or comes with terms and conditions where we actually own nothing, or is chock full of complexity.

We purchased a bathroom scale from Amazon during COVID. I can’t remember but either Wire cutter or Consumer reports gave it top scores.

The damn thing required installing a mobile app and wanted to connect to my Wi-Fi, and though it gave me an option to skip this step, I couldn’t get it to complete “setup” until I connected it. Once I connected it, there was no option to disconnect it. The scale works okay, but I had to go into my router settings to block it from connecting.

When you think about it, products and services today are drowning in complexity and outright stupidity. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the economics and the race for endless growth. It often feels like innovators are either out of ideas, or maybe because of the few companies who dominate specific industries, it’s just too damn impossible for any new innovative ideas to come to fruition.

Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#15

Post by badinsie »

ozzythecat wrote: post #14

Brief excerpt from the article: > It’s not enough for a refrigerator to keep food cold; today’s version offers cameras and sensors that can monitor how and what I’m eating, while the Roomba can now send a map of my house to Amazon. I can only answer subjectively here. At some point in the past 20 years, the quality of products deteriorated. We have more options than ever before, but much of it is cheap, plastic garba…

planned obsolescence

Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#17

Post by brnt »

fxtentacle wrote: post #10

It's the lack of control. I used to feel excited about new screen technology and I used to upgrade my TV / monitor for watching movies pretty regularly. But now that all the newer models are "smart" which effectively means they limit my freedom, spy on me, and shove ads into my face, I'm trying to avoid upgrading as much as I can. Similarly, I used to feel enthusiastic about all the cool new stuff Apple would put int…

Big Tech is about taking control from our hands and put it into stockholders' or whoever has money for ads. They're trying to sweeten the deal by making things ever 'easier' to use (which aligns in part with removing user control). In fact things have become harder to use, because using should mean understanding, adapting, repurposing. Some products can't even be resold anymore...

Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#18

Post by tuatoru »

Huh? I still am excited about technology. Technologies I'm awaiting keenly:-

  * Electrolysed hydrogen for iron smelting and fertilizer making
  * Reverse osmosis fresh water production
  * Cell-cultured meat
  * Robots in pedestrian spaces / robots around people (hospital and university delivery bots, fruit picking bots, re-taskable robots in factories, etc.)
  * Bio-inspired textiles like artificial spider silk and vegan leather
  * Much better and cheaper assistive technologies (hearing and vision aids, movement aids, cognitive and memory compensation)
Oh, you mean social media and cloudy stuff? Yeah, never was into that.

Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#19

Post by tsol »

We thought the future was gonna look like a movie, or something like The Jetsons. The future like actually much more mundane, and predictable. It's curved tv screens and smaller phones. That's kind of cool, but nothing special. I think part of it is people had very big expectations for the future and those are only rarely met.

I also think we already got a lot of the low hanging fruit. Growing up, I used to dream of being able to use my computer anywhere. Now I can, as a modern phone is even more capable than my computer back then. Phones used to regularly come out with cool new features that put it in front of competitors. Now most phones are identical-- they have all the features and apparently no one has any ideas for any new ones. I can run doom on my fridge and I don't care, but Dall-e impresses me.

Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?

#20

Post by chickenimprint »

bergenty wrote: post #4

I think the problem is that too many critics have a voice. There’s a cadre of dedicated naysayers for every new piece of technology that comes out that creates too much noise to get too excited about. Couple this with technology being used for environmental destruction, racist pursuits and job displacement and you have a generation that’s too jaded to get excited.

The way I understand it, job displacement is the main driving factor behind economic growth. Some jobs have been automated, but most have simply become more efficient to the point that the demand curve no longer warrants most workers.

I have this vivid memory of walking through a market in a Peruvian town. All off those sounds, smells and impressions would probably disappear I thought, to be sterilized and concentrated into a supermarket, and most of the labor lost. There were skillfully painted murals on the walls. "Vota por John Doe para Alcalde". Labor being cheap, it might make sense to enlist a veritable army of specialized painters for each and every election cycle, but they should just have posters printed for much less effort, I thought.

This is when the realization hit me. I knew now what capitalism meant and I felt so wrong for romanticizing life in less developed countries. If we want an increase in wealth, we need an increase in productivity. If we want an increase in productivity, we need continuous job displacement, for ever.

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