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I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

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Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#61

Post by doubled112 »

zer00eyz wrote: post #21

Cheap radios are in everything now. Think about all the fun wifi, zigbee, matter devices that you can play with (if you are inclined). Meshtastic and LoRa is a great toy to play with. The kitchen is full of interesting things, Sous Vide is great, the air fryer is... interesting and useful. Lots of people love their robot vacuum LED strip lighting has gone from nerdy to high design and has interesting features now. Th…

The cheap radios boggle my mind a little bit. I can order a wireless transmitter for an electric guitar for cheaper than the cable next to it. How is this possible? $18 ESP32 with a camera attached and WiFi for an instant cheap IP camera? Crazy!

Those kitchen advances never feel like advances to me though. Maybe I'm over simplifying it, but I'm tired of "needing" yet another box that gets hot. I am pretty sure an air fryer is just a small convection oven.

You can take my panini press from my cold dead hands though.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#62

Post by redmattred »

Tools for Conviviality (Ivan Illich) has this idea about the two watersheds of new technology.

During the first watershed, it solves an actual problem + improves the lives of those who adopt it.

During the second watershed, it gets institutionalized and the technology shifts into something that requires people serve it rather than serving those it’s intended to help.

His examples are all old technologies like modern medicine, non party line wired phones, the radio, etc. but the ideas fit the shape of the technological advances we’re seeing in our lifetimes as well.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#63

Post by seancavorley »

Now that you mention it, yeah. I remember my mom doing the watch this microwave thing boil a cup of water demo for months everytime someone stopped by. It was a show. The last one I remember like this, with both "I want to show" and "I want see" high demand like that, was the Siri launch. Someone in my office got it running and he had people coming to his cubicle all day asking to hear it.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#64

Post by qsera »

orionsbelt wrote: post #46
Aurornis wrote: post #13

I remember my grandparents making this exact same complaint: All of the new technologies during their younger years were amazing and improved the world. All of the technologies that came along in their later years were only complicating life after they had settled into comfortable routines. In my hobbies and other real world activities I cross paths with people in their 20s a lot. It’s really refreshing to see their…

“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the n…

Does not check out. One of the things I was highly excited about was RF communication. It still is. Another thing was LASERs and it still is.

Computers also was one of them. But modern media boxes are not exciting. Microcontrollers though, are still exciting.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#65

Post by SomeHacker44 »

GuestFAUniverse wrote: post #53

Oh come on... * Putting down the throttle of my first BEV was magic (a rented ID3 Pro rented, it's not even performing like mad, but RWD gets it done). I laughed manically and in tears until arriving at home. Even laid back acceleration is still fun. ICE cars have become boring to me. * The first time generating a longer working script with ChatGPT in its early incarnation was great! Correcting a broken web app by a…

Which e-piano please?

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#66

Post by qsera »

jshaqaw wrote: post #57

I am a bit over 50. Most new computer tech doesn't hit me like it used to but occasionally I still get hit with wonder. I got that feeling trying the Apple Vision Pro in store demo. 50-something me still can't believe I have AI at my fingertips. For the most part though it's not that new tech isn't cool but as I get older, parts of life which seemed mundane as a kid or young man aren't quite so mundane anymore. As a…

>50-something me still can't believe I have AI at my fingertips.

You don't.

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#68

Post by BLKNSLVR »

ericmay wrote: post #28
fantasizr wrote: post #19

I'm excited about self driving cars for aging boomer and drunk mobility. Most consumer tech seems to be pure agitation and slop. Can't seem to think that ways to engage media is getting better (paid streaming now with ads etc.) TVs take a forever to change channel, call quality seems to be worse than analog etc.

Self-driving cars are really cool but they won't really solve our transit problems, they'll probably just make them worse and more expensive. We should be focusing on better development patterns (appropriate density - not skyscrapers and not suburbia), walking, biking, and hopping on a tram or something along those lines. Self-driving cars are an additive technology, and there is certainly a place for them, but they…

You are absolutely right, and the only negative is the utopian-esque description, therefore it'll never quite work as well as it should - but I think aiming for that will still get something better than what we've got.

Your comment just made me think about the whole self-driving car thing as an extension of the car-centric thinking of the US (and how car-centricity is essentially anti-social, but that's beside the point), and now even the US is losing the car race to China, but it will maintain it's car-centric philosophy based on momentum rather than practicality. Could public transport be a national security priority? (mostly tongue in cheek, but just a smidge not).

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#69

Post by julienchastang »

I am not part of the group being polled (firmly ensconced in middle age), but I feel the opposite. Yes, the AI roll out has been shambolic to say the least, and it can also be annoyingly intrusive. On the plus side, AI is allowing me to take on projects that I would never have bothered in the past because the learning curve would have been too arduous. I am currently reverse engineering an embedded system going in there with a multimeter and logic analyzer. It is a lot of fun and I am learning a ton. If you told me five years ago that I would eventually be taking on such a project, I would not have believed you. On the job side, a lot of what I do involves troubleshooting (e.g., looking at reams of logs), and there too AI has been a boon. So, yes, actually excited about where things are going (with some misgivings).

Re: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore

#70

Post by qsera »

liendolucas wrote: post #40

The last technology that truly excited me was the ebook. I truly believe is one of the greatest gadgets ever invented. It's just fantastic the disconnection you get with it, the quality of the screen, how long battery lasts and obviously how many books you can carry in a small package.

>disconnection you get with it, the quality of the screen, how long battery lasts and obviously how many books you can carry in a small package

After a while, It turned out that none of these mattered. And I am back to paper books..

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