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Comment by dmkolobov | Hacker News Reader

I used to read pop-sci mags and get excited about the latest advancements in X, but nowadays I feel one of two things about X:

1. Neither I, nor my friends will ever be able to afford X

2. X is going to make my life worse

Usually I feel both.

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I’m sure at some point people said similar things about stuff like hot shower and telephone.

There's a chapter in one of the Great Brain books where their family is the first in town to get an indoor flush toilet. Everyone else is agog--why would you want a filthy, stinky outhouse inside your house?

Sure. Now imagine the toilet came as a subscription service, with DRM restricting you to premium brands of toilet paper and cleaning products, and built-in sensors that secretly analyze the chemical composition of your excrement, collecting data which the vendor sends to advertisers. Oh, and the toilet is always connected, which means it'll stop working if you lose power, Internet, or if the vendor abandons it or goes out of business.

That's the problem I have with technology today. All new inventions come with some degree of this bullshit. I'm no longer excited about any new technology - because the businesses productizing it will almost surely ruin it.

Not too far off from Japanese toilets

You’re not wrong, but my philosophy is to use these things only as long as they’re friendly. I had “free” Netflix until a few days ago. I enjoyed it, but not enough to subscribe. I’ll just move on.

You can’t use some restrooms in China without a face scan.

> All new inventions come with some degree of this bullshit. I'm no longer excited about any new technology - because the businesses productizing it will almost surely ruin it.

Then you could consider company Purism, https://puri.sm/products, who offers lifetime updates for their devices, FLOSS, no DRM.

I love Purism with that stance. There are a handful of other companies that I consider "sustainable businesses", based on proper ethics and values and following humane practices. They are hard to come by, and often struggle to get enough revenue. I would like to do ever more biz with these type of companies, prefer and consume their products to the other BS.

Where can I find lists, directories and such that keep track of these sustainable businesses? Any good resources around?

https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v11/

https://www.defectivebydesign.org/guide

https://ryf.fsf.org

I think it is more of a land grab, "capturing the value" as it were, that's prompting this rot in the tech industry. And as with anything on the Internet, it is either ruined by the advertisment dollars or pressures of taking VC money.

The new-age investors (post-2005), though, "founder friendly", tend to somehow favour extreme user hostile behaviour because "growth".

There was a time when inventions where products. The businesses saw their inventions as products, to be sold to people, which would become owners. Now it seems that businesses are constantly trying to invent new... crowbars, to leverage their users in novel ways. Products belong to the past, there are only services. /rant

Plus

"X is never quite what it seems"

X comes with subscription, microtransactions, ads, wants your personal data, and/or is the result of regulatory capture.

X comes with its own blockchain.

the troubling part: not at first.

Then when something is "normal" stuff is "added" and when people complain they are ridiculed by others who don't realize or don't care.

I think we should normalize a little common sense. You know, the golden rule.

If you would not snoop on other people, why should other people snoop on you (phone app, iot, car, whatever)

Sounds like your brain is looking for the darkest sides of everything. How do you feel about life in general? Are you sure you are not depressed?

Please do not conflate cynicism with depression, or try to diagnose people with medical conditions over the internet.

1) I don't 2) why not exactly? Of course a diagnosis over internet shouldn't ever be taken as a ground truth, but it can many times give meaningful thoughts and provide good perspective and information.

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