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Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

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Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#41

Post by normalaccess »

danielbln wrote: post #12
bell-cot wrote: post #11

> ...visit a friend in Washington DC ... an apartment complex could never be occupied by an Orthodox Jew like me (since I cannot use my phone on Shabbat and the holidays), because at every turn the most essential tasks are accomplished with a smartphone. IANAL, but that sounds like some sort of lawsuit and/or PR disaster just waiting to happen.

While I agree with the general sentiment of over-use of smartphones and useless apps, someone who won't use their phone because someone scribbled something about not doing work on certain days on some parchment six thousand years ago is not someone we should cater to. To each their own delusions.

7 Day cycles are not an abstract invention but a fact of biology.

Link to research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27830946/

Link to full PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309898157_Seven-day...

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#42

Post by rozap »

aeblyve wrote: post #14

I feel that this is a basically reactionary perspective, despite the author's assertion that it is not. Doomscrolling, like drug addiction, is largely the product of the holistic social-biological environment of the actor. People generally do not intentionally throw away stimulating, happy, healthy lives to become destitute drug addicts, and a comparison of opening a parking payment application to being offered alcoh…

> Doomscrolling, like drug addiction, is largely the product of the holistic social-biological environment of the actor. People generally do not intentionally throw away stimulating, happy, healthy lives to become destitute drug addicts, and a comparison of opening a parking payment application to being offered alcohol seems hyperbolic.

Even taking this statement at face value, it's easy to point out how absurd it is.

A huge segment of opiod abusers started off with prescriptions. These were functional members of society and availability to dangerous substances absolutely led to bad outcomes. [1]

Or take another vice, gambling. Recently legalized pretty much everywhere, gambling help lines have seen a huge uptick in traffic [2]. It's only been a few years since sports betting has become mainstream, and already it's a drag on society.

But going beyond the face value of that statement, there's a deeper issue which is, huge segments of the population are not leading "stimulating, happy, healthy lives". There's a reason why purveyors of drugs, scams, cults, gambling tend to go after these demographics; people that are desperate for relief. Does that make it okay? Does it excuse the peddling of harmful wares? Because it sounds like you're saying it's fine to sell harm because these people should know better. I think that's a rotten way to live.

You are entitled to your opinion, but I think this line of thinking is wildly antisocial. It's absolutely the "fuck it, i just gotta get my bag" thinking that is ruining trust in our industry.

[1]https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/about/prescription-o... [2]https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/articl...

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#43

Post by Aurornis »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #2

I don't have a problem with technology. I have a problem with technology trends that are irrational. For example the smart phone. A physical button or even alexa is easier to turn off the lights. A smart phone menu is just stupid. I want to decouple stupidity away from technology. That's not possible though. Most places where I worked... just a exploring the code for a couple minutes I encounter something stupid. So…

> For example the smart phone. A physical button or even alexa is easier to turn off the lights.

These aren’t mutually exclusive.

I usually press the physical button for my lights but it’s great to be able to pull out my smartphone and turn off lights across the house, or even in the same room if I’m doing something like holding a baby who is falling asleep.

Putting the common light controls on easily accessible phone widget screens is really easy these days.

I think people who get irrationally angry at the ability to control things from a phone are missing out at this point. You don’t have to use it or buy it, but I’ve derived a lot of value from it.

> Stupidity is intrinsic to humanity and since humanity builds technology, stupidity is therefore intrinsic to technology

This is a deeply cynical and unhappy way to navigate life.

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#45

Post by danielbln »

normalaccess wrote: post #41
danielbln wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with the general sentiment of over-use of smartphones and useless apps, someone who won't use their phone because someone scribbled something about not doing work on certain days on some parchment six thousand years ago is not someone we should cater to. To each their own delusions.

7 Day cycles are not an abstract invention but a fact of biology. Link to research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27830946/ Link to full PDF: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309898157_Seven-day...

Biology doesn't mandate avoiding technology on specific days. Last I checked, circadian rhythms don't prohibit elevator buttons or smartphones.

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#46

Post by insane_dreamer »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #2

I don't have a problem with technology. I have a problem with technology trends that are irrational. For example the smart phone. A physical button or even alexa is easier to turn off the lights. A smart phone menu is just stupid. I want to decouple stupidity away from technology. That's not possible though. Most places where I worked... just a exploring the code for a couple minutes I encounter something stupid. So…

A good example of this is the glovebox on the Tesla Model 3. There's no button to open it with. Instead you have to press a button on the steering wheel to activate Google Assistant, then say "open glovebox" in a clear voice so it doesn't misunderstand, then wait a second or two, and then finally the glovebox opens. It bothers us to no end.

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#47

Post by aeblyve »

rozap wrote: post #42
aeblyve wrote: post #14

I feel that this is a basically reactionary perspective, despite the author's assertion that it is not. Doomscrolling, like drug addiction, is largely the product of the holistic social-biological environment of the actor. People generally do not intentionally throw away stimulating, happy, healthy lives to become destitute drug addicts, and a comparison of opening a parking payment application to being offered alcoh…

> Doomscrolling, like drug addiction, is largely the product of the holistic social-biological environment of the actor. People generally do not intentionally throw away stimulating, happy, healthy lives to become destitute drug addicts, and a comparison of opening a parking payment application to being offered alcohol seems hyperbolic. Even taking this statement at face value, it's easy to point out how absurd it is…

That wasn't my intent at all. Because we actually /create/ that social-biological environment, it very much places the ball in the court of people creating these things.

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#48

Post by Aurornis »

bdcravens wrote: post #29

Being old enough to straddle the manual and the automated world (48 this year), but absolutely loving technology (so I feel I haven't entered my "get off my lawn" era yet), I find myself looking for ways to augment, not replace. Of course, that's as much working in technology for 20+ years (and knowing how it's not magic and how things can fail) as much as it's good sense lol.

> I find myself looking for ways to augment, not replace.

This is how most people operate and prefer their products (Learned from years in the smarthome industry).

You can find simple products where all the controls are inexplicably moved into a phone and they’re generally not well liked. It makes sense for something that augments the phone (e.g. playing music through Sonos) but it doesn’t make sense when you have to use your phone to do things that should have been controls on the device. The latter group is universally despised and products like that never do well.

There’s a growing technology backlash where some people pretend like every smart device is dumb and useless, but they’re almost always fixated on that group of devices that doesn’t do well. They ignore the devices that people actually like because those would invalidate their stance that technology integrations are bad.

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#49

Post by insane_dreamer »

getnormality wrote: post #19
aeblyve wrote: post #14

I feel that this is a basically reactionary perspective, despite the author's assertion that it is not. Doomscrolling, like drug addiction, is largely the product of the holistic social-biological environment of the actor. People generally do not intentionally throw away stimulating, happy, healthy lives to become destitute drug addicts, and a comparison of opening a parking payment application to being offered alcoh…

> Doomscrolling, like drug addiction, is largely the product of the holistic social-biological environment of the actor. Drug addiction is also a product of the availability of drugs. China has much less problems with opioid overdose than America because they learned their lesson in the 19th century.

Putting drug traffickers to death is an effective deterrent.

Re: Should We Decouple Technology from Everyday Life?

#50

Post by hidroto »

bdcravens wrote: post #32
danielbln wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with the general sentiment of over-use of smartphones and useless apps, someone who won't use their phone because someone scribbled something about not doing work on certain days on some parchment six thousand years ago is not someone we should cater to. To each their own delusions.

Additionally, varying interpretations would say you shouldn't use the lights, elevators, etc, so modern living in any manner may be incompatible with orthodoxy.

there are workarounds for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbat_elevator
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