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To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

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Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#21

Post by colordrops »

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #4
PeterHolzwarth wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A subset of users and mods attempted a bit of a revolution on Reddit recently, you'll recall.

I switched from Reddit to Lemmy and haven't been back more than a handful of times (and will never comment again). Turns out only a fraction of users did the same, so not sure it was an efficient protest. I'm happy about the quality of discussion in Lemmy, although it would be nice to have more niche communities. On the other hand, the enshittification of Reddit is for sure not over, so I'm happy to have left that ti…

Lemmy isn't some utopia either. There seem to be users of a particular political bent that if you breath in a way that slightly hints that you might not fully align with them, they follow you around every forum and harass you. I ended up replying to one of harassers in a nasty way, and it earned me a ban on the main instance without warning. I was fine with it though, as I was falling into the same shitty time-wasting use patterns that I found myself engaging in on Reddit and Twitter.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#22

Post by choeger »

huytersd wrote: post #19
undersuit wrote: post #8

I dislike that every single one of our displays utilizes an encrypted connection. And it doesn't protect me, I don't have the keys. And though it is fixed function hardware I've often wondered about the waste we have introduced in this world so I can't copy a Disney video that I might watch hundreds of times.

I don’t understand. If you’re watching it the bits have been decrypted. Can’t you just get them from local memory?

Realistically, no. You don't have access to the device that contains the decrypted content.

Of course, you could try to open up or bypass the DRM module (e.g., via the GPU driver during hardware accelerated decoding), but that won't work with a TPM module and signed kernel space.

If you look at the security technologies introduced into consumer decides over the last decades, it all serves the dual purpose of securing your hardware from ... you.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#23

Post by nologic01 »

api wrote: post #9

We have plenty of computation. A decent laptop today is a supercomputer. Terabytes of storage can be had for under $200. Locked hardware isn’t much of an issue either. Most of that either can be unlocked or there are equivalently powerful unlocked alternatives to be had. What people must seize is the network, and the network effect. Most of today’s tech empires are built on owning the hub around which everyone commun…

The sad part is that nobody really prevents us from seizing the network. It is intrinsically decentralized by design. It takes hard work to subvert this.

Yet we don't do it. A sort of digital rigor mortis has descended upon the land. A comatose capitulation, complete lack of vital signs, let alone the lust for life that characterized the early period of the Web when everything seemed possible.

The "network effect" is really a psychological and economic mind game. Once a sufficient number of people were conditioned (tricked by novelty and lack of education and regulation) to consider it a "reality" it became a runaway self-financing monopoly.

A collective digital hallucination that is actually against the self-interest of the vast majorities, based on rather dodgy foundations and atypical of how societies are generally organized. It was never a perfect world but it never flirted so closely with a surveillance dystopia.

This state of affairs becomes very puzzling when it is now almost a point-and-click exercise to setup the equivalent of the early facebook or twitter or skype etc (#fediverse, #matrix, you name it). Either this is the darkest hour before dawn or it is the darkest hour, period.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#24

Post by wccrawford »

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #4
PeterHolzwarth wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A subset of users and mods attempted a bit of a revolution on Reddit recently, you'll recall.

I switched from Reddit to Lemmy and haven't been back more than a handful of times (and will never comment again). Turns out only a fraction of users did the same, so not sure it was an efficient protest. I'm happy about the quality of discussion in Lemmy, although it would be nice to have more niche communities. On the other hand, the enshittification of Reddit is for sure not over, so I'm happy to have left that ti…

Lemmy wasn't ready for all of Reddit's users to switch, and I suspect it still isn't. But enough of them switched that it got critical mass, and the develops can focus on some pain points for a while.

I've kept both my accounts, and I look at both... And I'm quite happy with Lemmy in comparison. Reddit does tend to both have more content and more comments, but they're generally lower-value to me than Lemmy's comments.

I now check Lemmy first, and if I have more time to waste, check Reddit.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#25

Post by hotnfresh »

clnq wrote: post #13

I am always unconvinced by the argument that one can’t leave social media because their friends are on some site. No one I know does not check their SMS and email, and doesn’t pick up phone calls. I’ve not been on social media for about 5 years now, and I have not fallen out of touch with a single friend because of that. For other reasons like moving away physically or not gaming as much anymore, but not for this. Ev…

Not being contactable the same place all group stuff is organized or info distributed is either asking others to do work for you (to send you info everyone else got automatically) or means you’re opting to exclude yourself from those activities and discussions.

Less relevant if your friend/family circle doesn’t organize group activities or chat as a group often, I guess.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#26

Post by misterbishop »

The headline borrows from Marx for radical cred, but all of Doctorow's ideas are from the anarcho-liberal school of permanent impotence.

He spends the first 2000 words talking about how industry bribed the government to set unjust, inhumane policies on copyright, reverse-engineering, antitrust. Then in the 2nd half, all his tech proposals have to do with alternative tech solutions: federation, mastodon, driver coop apps, etc.

The problem with big tech is just capitalism. You don't fight capitalism with new apps. You fight capitalism with an independent political movement of workers. This movement wouldn't even be a tech-oriented movement because most people rightly don't give a fuck about tech.

We have to fight the political power of Musk and Zuckerberg by cutting off their ability to make profit. This happens through organizing in the workplace, and with a WORKERS PARTY opposed to the capitalist duopoly.

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#28

Post by huytersd »

choeger wrote: post #22
huytersd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand. If you’re watching it the bits have been decrypted. Can’t you just get them from local memory?

Realistically, no. You don't have access to the device that contains the decrypted content. Of course, you could try to open up or bypass the DRM module (e.g., via the GPU driver during hardware accelerated decoding), but that won't work with a TPM module and signed kernel space. If you look at the security technologies introduced into consumer decides over the last decades, it all serves the dual purpose of securing…

Couldn’t you just plug a capture card into the display out?

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#29

Post by Apocryphon »

misterbishop wrote: post #26

The headline borrows from Marx for radical cred, but all of Doctorow's ideas are from the anarcho-liberal school of permanent impotence. He spends the first 2000 words talking about how industry bribed the government to set unjust, inhumane policies on copyright, reverse-engineering, antitrust. Then in the 2nd half, all his tech proposals have to do with alternative tech solutions: federation, mastodon, driver coop a…

It's telling that every time an alternative, FOSS, socially-conscious tech product gets popular - CyanogenMod being a big example - they often end up doing unpopular shady things to monetize, and sometimes then fall apart.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27951250

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27069913

Re: To Fight Big Tech, We Must Seize the Means of Computation

#30

Post by iteria »

hotnfresh wrote: post #25
clnq wrote: post #13

I am always unconvinced by the argument that one can’t leave social media because their friends are on some site. No one I know does not check their SMS and email, and doesn’t pick up phone calls. I’ve not been on social media for about 5 years now, and I have not fallen out of touch with a single friend because of that. For other reasons like moving away physically or not gaming as much anymore, but not for this. Ev…

Not being contactable the same place all group stuff is organized or info distributed is either asking others to do work for you (to send you info everyone else got automatically) or means you’re opting to exclude yourself from those activities and discussions. Less relevant if your friend/family circle doesn’t organize group activities or chat as a group often, I guess.

This realistically. This is why I can't leave Facebook. There is no platform that all of my friends have some kind of presence on. Some of us have discord. Some us use whatapp. Some of us use $platform, but Facebook is the only one that all of use have at least a login to. There are like 100 of us. I don't know all of them, but my friends want to invite people I don't know and I invite people they don't know and here we are in our 30s still stuck on this situation for big get togethers. Email and text just doesn't work. I don't have have the emails and honestly I'm not all that interested in my friend's sister in law's contact information. This is how Facebook has chained me to it. The network effect is real when you need to keep 2nd and 3rd degree friends in the loop. I can't leave because of people I don't even know.
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