Hacker News Reader

Comment by webmobdev | Hacker News Reader

In the future we won't own anything, corporates will. And with the data they will collect, share and collate, and use against us, they will effectively enslave us. But we'll all still be under the illusion that we have autonomy and freedom. .

View on HN

"You'll own nothing. And you'll be happy.", and some likely say: we will own everything and we'll be happier /s.

someone pointed out the percentage of US house sales due to private equity. A nation of renters.

F*ck that. I want no part in that future.

I appreciate your cynicism, but history has shown that slavery is unsustainable and that humans resist and succeed against it time and time again. In this same future you've described, we will value and own the corporations instead of things directly. The reason we will remain under the illusion that we have autonomy and freedom will be, despite having lost the ability to hack everything we own, we will have the ability to choose from many competitors who operate much differently and cater to specific types of users. No longer will we need to be lone islands of hackers to get our use-case working great, we will collectively organize around our use-cases to develop the most compatible products. The wealth of open-source software and specifications will be a foundation for these new businesses to operate from. It's inevitable because the pressure from consumers must be relieved in one way or another. The founding of companies like Framework seem to exhibit this principle at work.

Squeezing on one side inflates the other side.

> history has shown that slavery is unsustainable and that humans resist and succeed against it time and time again

The problem is that technology as a force amplifier is getting better and better. At some point it gives the 1% enough power and artificial smarts to enslave the 99% indefinitely. When people in history have overthrown slavery, the masters couldn't stop all transportation in the country (minus bicycles) with the push of a button. That's where we are headed here. Same with the cash-less society and so on.

The force amplification of technology empowers individuals, not necessarily just the incumbent leaders. This allows other countries to catch up and offer alternative, competing visions for the future of governance. Just like YouTubers have used new prosumer software and hardware to produce content rivaling or surpassing their much larger, legacy predecessors, so to will the upstart governments and economies of the world. Just like there will be more competing businesses for non-serviceable hardware (e.g. ASICs or SoCs), there will be more governments capable of servicing their infrastructure needs. Cash-less societies can mean many things, there will be credit-based barter networks which are hyper-local, regional, national, etc. There are privacy coins. Users can mine new, anonymous coins on other networks to obfuscate their purchases and funds transfers. Technology gives users these many avenues to avoid government monitoring when fighting tyranny. We don't need cash, and we have options if it looks like the enslavement is upon us.

> The force amplification of technology empowers individuals

That's what they want you to believe. When the platform is controlled by the corporates, without any regulation, 99% of the individuals don't matter.

You can still go the DIY kit car option or have a professional do it for you.

Illegal or prohibitly expensive in quite a few parts of the world. Even simple things like converting a car to run on biofuel can be difficult.

A DIY car is a difficult thing to do, but a DIY ebike is easy and relatively cheap.

Good point. It could also become a stepping stone to starting a larger project.

It shouldnt, the concept of an EV is simple, but car companies add to much gadgets. Just look to electric remote toy cars how simple the basics are for an EV. Lets make EV cars just as simple as electric toy cars. Keep it simple, dont make driving gadgets.

When my 23 year old vehicle finally gives in and it gets too expensive to repair I will be getting a side-by-side. [1] Possibly even one that is EV but no internet connections. No fondle-screen. It will cover 99% of my driving needs as I don't even leave this county any more. I see people drive their side-by-sides into town all the time, even the ones that aren't street legal and the troopers don't bat an eye. I will get the street legal version regardless.

Maybe in 10+ years if large EV trucks have options for no internet/cellular network connection and no touch screens I might get one. They have a lot of bugs to work out and competition to create.

[1] - https://ranger.polaris.com/en-us/ranger-ev/

Kei trucks are another option. People really like the Suzuki Carry with aftermarket parts. A bit cheaper than the Polaris stuff too.

Thankyou! I am currently reading up on these. I've seen a couple old ones in town. I didn't know that heating was an option in some of these that would be a big plus here.

> And with the data they will collect, share and collate, and use against us, they will effectively enslave us.

This is the point where we in Europe smugly point to the GDPR.

But most of the largest corporations are owned by us, the public

Reply on news.ycombinator.com