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"Technology" isn't just one thing. It's simply been subsumed by a model of technology that actively hurts people, i.e. a16z type projects. That's why we're si

"Technology" isn't just one thing. It's simply been subsumed by a model of technology that actively hurts people, i.e. a16z type projects. That's why we're sick of it. We know that it involves pain and extraction from us of our social circles, sanity, productivity, resources, etc. Compare surveys on AI optimism (tech proxy) for countries where antisocial billionaires are black bagged and sent to an underground prison in Xinjiang and you'll understand where the tech optimism went.

ndriscoll 24d ago
Yeah it's the notion of what is "technology" that's the issue. I'm pretty happy that I can just plug my car (and my lawnmower!) in now instead of going to the gas station every few days. Solar panels and batteries have dropped off a cliff in price over the last few years, so it seems pretty obvious that we'll have ubiquitous clean energy coming simply because it's so cheap. My daily driver computer is now a silent minipc that I paid like $180 for, uses <10 W, and it gives me a perfectly smooth and snappy 240Hz desktop Linux that does everything I need. I can literally talk to my computer and ask it to build educational games for my kids, with them as the main character! Or I can do a quick phone scan of stories I'm going to read with my kids tonight and ask the computer to point out new phonics patterns or irregular words we should go over ahead of time for smoother reading practice (maintaining a list of what we've seen before for me). Since the OP brings up video game consoles, you can now run upscaled GameCube and PS2, everything older, and some things newer on cheap handhelds. If you want games that create "fun at parties" skills, there's e.g. https://got-feedback.org/ https://got-feedback.org/ (formerly slopsmith) or https://yarg.in/ https://yarg.in/. "Big tech" has been trash somewhere between 15 years and always depending on the company. They're all just advertising companies, not tech companies. Mainstream culture has been full of trash too basically always (for similar reasons). You've always needed to be discerning. Blocks ads and ignore their noise. I've never even known when the new apple gadget is coming out.

ndriscoll 24d ago

Yeah it's the notion of what is "technology" that's the issue. I'm pretty happy that I can just plug my car (and my lawnmower!) in now instead of going to the gas station every few days. Solar panels and batteries have dropped off a cliff in price over the last few years, so it seems pretty obvious that we'll have ubiquitous clean energy coming simply because it's so cheap. My daily driver computer is now a silent minipc that I paid like $180 for, uses <10 W, and it gives me a perfectly smooth and snappy 240Hz desktop Linux that does everything I need. I can literally talk to my computer and ask it to build educational games for my kids, with them as the main character! Or I can do a quick phone scan of stories I'm going to read with my kids tonight and ask the computer to point out new phonics patterns or irregular words we should go over ahead of time for smoother reading practice (maintaining a list of what we've seen before for me). Since the OP brings up video game consoles, you can now run upscaled GameCube and PS2, everything older, and some things newer on cheap handhelds. If you want games that create "fun at parties" skills, there's e.g. https://got-feedback.org/ https://got-feedback.org/ (formerly slopsmith) or https://yarg.in/ https://yarg.in/. "Big tech" has been trash somewhere between 15 years and always depending on the company. They're all just advertising companies, not tech companies. Mainstream culture has been full of trash too basically always (for similar reasons). You've always needed to be discerning. Blocks ads and ignore their noise. I've never even known when the new apple gadget is coming out.