Simply: most everything got overrun with ads. Also, IP law is stifling innovation.
We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#22The mainstream commercialisation of tech may be tedious, but life on the tinkering fringes is about as exciting and engaging as ever.
There's a lot more noise to filter out, of course. Perhaps that falls under "careful what you wish for" - that is, as 80's/90's youngsters we all wished that the world was more tech and computer -centric. Well, we got our wish.
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#23Peak tech. This feels rather behind the curve, like the author is just figuring out what we've been saying here for many years now. But the difference is that it's now okay for an MIT professor of AI Ethics to say it. That's the crucial change. People are saying it. At the school. At the hospital. Out in public amongst friends one used to "keep up appearances" for. I can discuss it with my boss. Even my aged but high…
Traditionally, the government would simply write laws making the bad things illegal.
"Vacuum cleaners may not upload any information about a person's home to any server or through any network, else fines and prison." "Televisions and monitors may not, of their own volition, display advertisements, else fines and prison." Or at least very clear labeling rules.
I think that the underlying problem, as is often the case, is the Citizens United ruling. Fixing that doesn't solve everything; it doesn't solve disinformation challenges, but it does take care of a lot.
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#24Huh? 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 lea…
> Electrolysed hydrogen for iron smelting and fertilizer making
Yes! Will be fascinating to watch the inventors & scientists in hydrogen & energy make this happen
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#25It'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…
I agree with your starting expression a lot. I worry that this reflection on how we've been muddied though shades what is valuable.
Microsoft used to ask, in their ad campaigns, "Where do you want to go?" There was a semi-symbootic relationship, part machine, part man, working together, with users still expected to be prosumers, being invested in their tech, & working it, setting it up, customizing it, exploring it. The personal computer was a blank slate we got to push forward, each of us. And yes by huge contrast, the modern tech world is much more pre-set up, easier to adopt, and most of it runs on far off clouds we have no real control into.
We've arrived at a much stricter consumerism, with prebaked applications, with less ability to explore & push frontiers. A couple hours of poking around will probably expose almost all capabilities of an app or network today. Fewer & fewer systems enable maturation of the user into an expert.
There was a great submission today, Maggie Appleton talking about Programming Portals, ehich talks some to how we might start to open windows between the glossy, pre-baked GUIs that define modern consumer computing, and a more empowered realm that begins to let users Under the Hood[2]-- another fine submission today!
There's also the Malleable Systems Collective which very much is about reempowering users.
Im less concerned with the bad. It'll sort itself out, if we can reemerge a good. But weust envision & create new good computing, that befits this much more connected time we are arriving at.
[1] https://maggieappleton.com/programming-portals https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33310344
[2] https://aeon.co/essays/computers-are-so-easy-that-we-ve-forg... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33310402
[3] https://malleable.systems/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22857551
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#26Because we no longer own it. We are licensed it.
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#27I blame venture capital for a lot of this. A bootstrapped tech company can keep making products for consumers at a modest profit. A vc backed startup has to grow and grow, so selling out their customers is just an expected part of that journey.
It sucks. I hate it.
Maybe we will see the rise of some label that companies might adopt, to signal that they are not trying to profit from what they know about you, they just want to sell you the product.
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#28People can say what they want about RMS being a creep. But we continue to piss and moan about these things restricting our freedom and take over our lives.
Tada, the writings on the wall
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#29Everything comes with a catch these days.
Our relationship with brands used to be closed-end. Widget Mark II is 30% faster than my old Widget Mark I? Here is a stack of dollars for it, and we're done until five years from now when I'm ready to consider Widget Mark III+ with Chili and Lime.
Now everyone's all about the back-end relationship. It's gotta come with some subscription service, account, or back-end drip revenue from harvesting data. Half the time it's deliberately crippled to serve some business interest.
It's hard to be as wide-eyed when you have to be reading the fine print to see exactly how you're being screwed.
Re: We used to get excited about technology. What happened?
#30Peak tech. This feels rather behind the curve, like the author is just figuring out what we've been saying here for many years now. But the difference is that it's now okay for an MIT professor of AI Ethics to say it. That's the crucial change. People are saying it. At the school. At the hospital. Out in public amongst friends one used to "keep up appearances" for. I can discuss it with my boss. Even my aged but high…
Traditionally, the government would simply write laws making the bad things illegal. "Vacuum cleaners may not upload any information about a person's home to any server or through any network, else fines and prison." "Televisions and monitors may not, of their own volition, display advertisements, else fines and prison." Or at least very clear labeling rules. I think that the underlying problem, as is often the case,…
While I mostly agree I think this one is more about older people in government simply not understanding tech and data in the age of IoT. I know they do have some small understanding because I have recently read up on SOX, HIPAA and Graham Leach Baily act which all have to do with protecting data and securing IT in some way. What they mostly boil down to is, write stuff down, make sure consumers know it, and protect your computers, and then we will make another group of qualified people who oversee the enforcement usually under the FTC or FCC and make more recommendations.