Planned Obselescence: A thread for Luddites

[VinylGuy]

a friend of mine had that issue. His name was Trag and he died.

[spike]

[lvc]

a friend of mine had that issue. His name was Trag and he died.

Wait, I just got that this is implying that I'm Trag.

I'm kind of afraid that if I drop in here all like "I am the resurrection, the Trag, and the life" then you'll crucify me. So I will continue to maintain that I am in fact a distinct individual.

Anyway, I thought of another thing that stinks. How the market for used video games has all but been killed for any newer consoles with the death of physical media. I've even heard a rumor that if you buy a physical game for the Switch 2, it's basically just a download code that can't be traded/sold to anyone else. Bummer.

[contamination]

I think this fits here:

[contamination]

a friend of mine had that issue. His name was Trag and he died.

Wait, I just got that this is implying that I'm Trag.

I'm kind of afraid that if I drop in here all like "I am the resurrection, the Trag, and the life" then you'll crucify me. So I will continue to maintain that I am in fact a distinct individual.

Well, the mods know the truth anyway, because they can see the IP address from which you've logged in and when they click the IP they get a list of all users who have posted from that same IP address. Of course there's always the option to use VPN.

[contamination]

I guess my problem with modern technology has more to do with power and understanding of how it works. As technology becomes more and more complex, it means that people who use it have very little or no understanding of how it actually works.

Most of us can figure out how a bicycle or the clockwork of an analog clock works. Maybe we can even understand the function of a combustion engine, because we can see with our own eyes how the mechanics of the engine operate. But what about a cellphone or a modern EV engine?

This ignorance leads to a situation like the one you described, where you can no longer fix things yourself, and even your local car repair shop can't do anything. It also means that we lose more and more control and give more power to the corporations creating the technology.

I’m not anti-technology, but it does bother me that we are surrounded by all this modern technology, and then when our phone stops working, we try to shake it or talk to it to make it work, because we have no idea how it actually functions.

[E.H. Ruddock]

a friend of mine had that issue. His name was Trag and he died.

Wait, I just got that this is implying that I'm Trag.

I'm kind of afraid that if I drop in here all like "I am the resurrection, the Trag, and the life" then you'll crucify me. So I will continue to maintain that I am in fact a distinct individual.

Well, the mods know the truth anyway, because they can see the IP address from which you've logged in and when they click the IP they get a list of all users who have posted from that same IP address. Of course there's always the option to use VPN.

We have ways around making behind a vpn

[lvc]

I guess my problem with modern technology has more to do with power and understanding of how it works. As technology becomes more and more complex, it means that people who use it have very little or no understanding of how it actually works.

Most of us can figure out how a bicycle or the clockwork of an analog clock works. Maybe we can even understand the function of a combustion engine, because we can see with our own eyes how the mechanics of the engine operate. But what about a cellphone or a modern EV engine?

This ignorance leads to a situation like the one you described, where you can no longer fix things yourself, and even your local car repair shop can't do anything. It also means that we lose more and more control and give more power to the corporations creating the technology.

I’m not anti-technology, but it does bother me that we are surrounded by all this modern technology, and then when our phone stops working, we try to shake it or talk to it to make it work, because we have no idea how it actually functions.

I don't know who you are or where you came from, but your post is thoroughly sound. And the less people understand how something works, the easier it is to make digital technology do things people don't know about. So the opacity extends beyond the devices to all sorts of seedy parts of town (namely wealth distribution, access to/ability to distort information).

Also your picture reminds me of the McNugget mascots from the 90s.

[spike]

I mean, most meatbags don’t understand how their own body works.

[lvc]

I mean, most meatbags don’t understand how their own body works.

I mean obviously kill all humans.

But in reality I would argue that the human body to a human is just intuitive. Hunger = eat. Fatigue = rest. Thirst = you should have been drinking water yesterday but may as well get started. Also, the human body is very obviously limited to its physicality. You can touch what you can touch, you can only jump so high and run so fast and hold your pee for so long.

I think the real problem with humans is that we all kind of inherently know that technology is always benefits along with costs. We're just so easily amused by shiny new things that we dive in without thinking it through and by the time the rot grows enough to be visible on the surface it has pervaded the entire system.

[contamination]

I guess my problem with modern technology has more to do with power and understanding of how it works. As technology becomes more and more complex, it means that people who use it have very little or no understanding of how it actually works.

Most of us can figure out how a bicycle or the clockwork of an analog clock works. Maybe we can even understand the function of a combustion engine, because we can see with our own eyes how the mechanics of the engine operate. But what about a cellphone or a modern EV engine?

This ignorance leads to a situation like the one you described, where you can no longer fix things yourself, and even your local car repair shop can't do anything. It also means that we lose more and more control and give more power to the corporations creating the technology.

I’m not anti-technology, but it does bother me that we are surrounded by all this modern technology, and then when our phone stops working, we try to shake it or talk to it to make it work, because we have no idea how it actually functions.

I don't know who you are or where you came from, but your post is thoroughly sound. And the less people understand how something works, the easier it is to make digital technology do things people don't know about. So the opacity extends beyond the devices to all sorts of seedy parts of town (namely wealth distribution, access to/ability to distort information).

Also your picture reminds me of the McNugget mascots from the 90s.

Absolutely. I guess we would need more transparency, regulation and legislation, but considering how the big tech companies work (steal now and apologize later) I'm not too optimistic about that.

I do think we should somehow integrate the history of technology and its effects on humans and societies more into our education system. For example, bringing a combustion engine into the classroom and explaining what made it possible: which inventions in human history preceded it, how it transformed societies, and so on.

You could teach math, physics, chemistry, history, sociology, etc. through that one example while also helping students understand how it works, how it can be repaired etc.

[contamination]