Is Technology A $ Making Scam?

[ohio_peasant]

Nearly 3 years after this thread had concluded, and nearly 5 years after it started, the cause for pessimism and cynicism is as acute as ever. We have just completed- hopefully! - our global cocooning over the pandemic. So many of us "worked" from home. The technological innovations that enabled this WFH have matured over the past 25 years. 25 years ago, we'd have had to have returned to the office sooner. Gone shopping in-person sooner. Attended school in-person sooner.

Technology enabled the burgeoning of the safety-culture, the risk-averse culture. From that viewpoint, technology is a huge boon. But let's ask ourselves this: if technology enables us to cater to our fears, is that ultimately good? Would it instead have been better to buck-up, facing the virus head-on, opening up sooner (or never closing)?

Beyond the pandemic, consider this: with video conferencing, cloud storage, virtual reality, automation of various sort, there is less impetus to travel. Businesspersons stay in the office (or at home!) instead of flying to Europe for a conference. So do leisure-travelers. Why go to the Louvre or the British Museum, when you can get the "virtual experience" from home? Technology enables a cessile, homebound environment. We get the VR and AI and so on, but not the handshakes. Not the post-conference cocktail party. Not the intimate exchanges and the back-slapping and the chemistry that makes personal friendship. No more awe of actually being-there. The whole world becomes a glorified television screen.

Is that progress?

[Sunbiz1]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

Why go to the Louvre or the British Museum, when you can get the "virtual experience" from home?

Because it's not the same experience, too artificial.
My recent visits to national parks were certainly more fulfilling than the YT vids.

[Sonic_Spork]

I still have a great desire to go out and experience the world in person, however unlike when I was younger, I'm not willing to spend beyond my means or rack up debt in order to do so. A lot of my homebody behaviors wind up being economic choices, as many of the "out of the house" things I'd like to do, aren't free. And the area that I'm presently compelled to live in because of an obligation to assist a family member here, is a very high cost of living place.

To the topic, though. I really, really hate being forced to give up something that still works, or could with a repair that I'm capable of doing myself, to replace it with a new thing. It feels wasteful. And what often drives this are the profit motives of not only the makers of the thing, but the service providers of networks and/or operating software.

I had a perfectly good Samsung phone that I bought at a reasonable price off Amazon, unlocked, and put my SIM into and used for a few years. It was an older model, because I just cannot see spending more than a couple hundred bucks on a phone. I do like a decent smartphone, sure, but I don't need it to have the processing power of a gaming machine. I don't really ask that much of my phones. Not long ago, it began to seriously malfunction. I tried various things attempting to solve the problems it was having, but ultimately the end answer was that because I had not purchased it from AT&T, and because it was an older model (though still 5G capable and on their "white list" of models) ...it was just not playing nice with the shut down of the old 3G network and transition to 5G. I was forced, very much against my will, to trade it in, on a new model. I mean, sure, it's nice that they let me do that for free and all, but I also was forced off my old "grandfathered in" cheaper data plan that they no longer offer, and onto a slightly more expensive "unlimited" plan.

Some might wonder why I didn't just switch providers. Well, one of my adult sons on my plan got himself into a device finance agreement (without my consent and against my express wishes) and unless we pay off his $800 phone, I cannot terminate my service with AT&T. We are stuck with it until that phone is paid off. I don't want to pay it for him, since I didn't agree to be on the hook for it in the first place and would never agree to pay that much for a phone...and he can't afford to pay it off right now. So.

I don't hate my new phone. But I didn't want it. And I am certainly not amused about being forced into such things. It wasn't Samsung that made me, it was AT&T.

Then just last week, my 11 year old laptop finally bit the dust. Diagnostics, while it was still letting me do them, said it was the hard drive. I could have simply taken it apart and replaced the hard drive, but the copy of Windows on it was OEM and so I'd have needed to buy a new license to go with the new hardware config. So all taken into account if I was going to spend that much, I might as well get a new laptop, I figured, though again...I didn't really want to. I really wish that I'd gone as savvy as some of my friends, and figured out Linux, then I would not be tethered to Windows and that'd be pretty cool. Meanwhile as someone who used to have a computer building hobby, and who has used technology for a while, I have a small hoard of obsolete and non-functioning devices and parts (boxes of parts) that I don't really know what to do with. I feel like they could be useful...one day...for something. I just have no idea what or when or how.

But I do feel a little proud that I finally got around to getting rid of all the old telephone cords, like, the ones you used to use to plug a landline phone into the wall?...yeah, those lurked in my "cables" box for years beyond any use I might have ever had for them.

Exploitation is possible in absolutely any scenario theme of a society. Work well within the system. Or outside of it. Takes almost no real effort whatsoever if posessing natural wisdom.

For lower wage countries, just absolutely have to create tech items(Computers, cell phones, cars) for consumers at totally rational prices.

Can't believe in Chennai Tamil Nadu India, Android/IOS mobile phones were really $100 to $130 USD minimal=7,812 India Rupees/10,156 overpriced. Doesn't sound like the right price for even the India middle class. Can offer tech items at relaxing low prices, and continue to have massive profits. So, the CEO's might be in moral eternal trouble when establishing such relatively off limits expensive prices.

[Sand&Salt]

Originally Posted by

Exploitation is possible in absolutely any scenario theme of a society. Work well within the system. Or outside of it. Takes almost no real effort whatsoever if posessing natural wisdom.

For lower wage countries, just absolutely have to create tech items(Computers, cell phones, cars) for consumers at totally rational prices.

Can't believe in Chennai Tamil Nadu India, Android/IOS mobile phones were really $100 to $130 USD minimal=7,812 India Rupees/10,156 overpriced. Doesn't sound like the right price for even the India middle class. Can offer tech items at relaxing low prices, and continue to have massive profits. So, the CEO's might be in moral eternal trouble when establishing such relatively off limits expensive prices.

What bugs me is that poorer folks (like down here) feel they too MUST have all the tech gadgets. So everything is priced by making payments, assuming that's how one will pay. I had wondered how the average wage ($400 a month) could afford a smart phone, well that's how. Payments.

And electronics are MORE expensive here due to importation issues. Not rational prices at all.

We bought a new printer--HP brand and now tech requires that to even USE it, we must "create an account" with passwords and all that clap-trap. What on earth! I can't just push a button and print, for crying out loud. This kind of stuff infuriates me. Like the non-replaceable batteries in cell phones. Just a money-grab.

[engineman]

I was given a computer that ran on XP because it was obsolete.

I took it to a local computer club and they replaced Windows with Linux. It worked well.

I replaced it when my daughter bought me a new one that runs Windows 10.

[cb2008]

It is not all scam, but it is scam. You could buy a package of Microsoft Office, load it and it was forever. It was perfect, did the job, and you could install it when you have to get a new PC, and you are in business. Now you have to subscribe to it, and that is a free income stream from the software with some tweaks, most of which are not needed. The original did fine.
I still love maps, and it is going to get harder to get them because of electronics. On a long trip i like to orient myself. The lighted rectangle anchors you to this one small place with no sense what direction you are going.
Instill like to read books. It is just easier to grab easier to read and hold.
But i do love my ipad and phone. I love my car, the bluetooth, the podcasts for my walks, music, calendar, all of that. But i mourn the loss of pay phones that were easily available to make emergency calls. And you stored all the phone numbers in your head. Now if i forget my phone i am stranded. Even if i borrow a stranger’s i don’t remember the phone number.

[Listener2307]

In 1859 there was a solar flare so powerful the resulting geomagnetic storm caused fires in telegraph stations. The northern lights were seen in Florida and were so bright people thought the sun had risen. It is called The Carrington Event.
There have been several other near misses since. They missed only because earth did not occupy that particular portion of its orbit when the solar flare struck empty space.


If a Carrington Even were to occur next week, technology would turn on humanity like a rabid bobcat. No one can say for certain what would fail, but it is possible entire powered grids may fail to the point where they will not be repaired for months. And even when power is restored to your home you may find that almost nothing works. It may even effect vehicles.
The world wide death toll would be enormous.



No, I don't think technology is a scam. But I can sure see a day when we humans might wish we had never heard of it.