Techno-skeptics’ objection growing louder [Agreement between grass roots left & right?]

Washington Post ^ | 12/26/15 | Joel Achenbach

[SoFloFreeper]

Astra Taylor's iPhone has a cracked screen. She has bandaged it with clear packing tape and plans to use the phone until it disintegrates. She objects to the planned obsolescence of today’s gadgetry, and to the way the big tech companies pressure customers to upgrade.

Taylor, 36, is a documentary filmmaker, musician and political activist. She's also an emerging star in the world of technology criticism. She's not paranoid, but she keeps duct tape over the camera lens on her laptop computer - because, as everyone knows, these gadgets can be taken over by nefarious agents of all kinds.

Taylor is a 21st-century digital dissenter. She's one of the many technophiles unhappy about the way the tech revolution has played out. Political progressives once embraced the utopian promise of the Internet as a democratizing force, but they've been dismayed by the rise of the "surveillance state," and the near-monopolization of digital platforms by huge corporations.

[SoFloFreeper]

That net neutrality crap is part of this.

I think this progressive woman has a point.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Hand raised. I’m one and I’m a conservative. The ‘trans-humanists’ are scary and want to ‘play G-d’.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"Net neutrality" puts the Internet under the absolute control of feral government bureaucrats.

What could go wrong.

[Steely Tom]

There’s nothing to be afraid of.

They rescued millions of people from those “crap, substandard” medical insurance policies they were living under.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The ‘net neutrality’ issue is really a fight between one group of crony capitalists and another. Whether consumers are helped or citizens are protected is of less concern than whether the content providers or content distributors get the lion’s share of the profits.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Transhumanism is one of those frustrating topics where people will laugh at you for bringing it up as a valid concern, until that day when everybody will claim they knew it was coming, are all on board, and can’t wait for their technological enhancements.

[jsanders2001]

There is a thing called “planned obsolence” and the techno-gadget companies use it to make people want to buy new upgraded versions of their gadgets. There are rumors that some companies may cause the failure of their gadgets with timer circuits built into chips. Google it. There is one company that comes up quite a bit. I don’t buy their products after having several of their devices suspiciously go out on me after the warranty expired; not just once either but multiple times.

[grey_whiskers]

And she thinks she’s being “old school reactionary”?

I still use the vi editor.

[KarlInOhio]

She's not paranoid, but she keeps duct tape over the camera lens on her laptop computer - because, as everyone knows, these gadgets can be taken over by nefarious agents of all kinds.

Clipping out a small section of a Post-It Note and putting it over the lens works well. I wish I could block microphones as easily.

[Mrs.Z]

Transhumanism is their ultimate goal.

They want a free pass to immortality.

There is a troubling verse in Revelation 9.

Verse 6 says: “And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die and death flees from them.”

I can’t think what that could possibly be other than the “enhanced”.

[cuban leaf]

but she keeps duct tape over the camera lens on her laptop computer

---

I was working at my desk at work one day and noticed the “on” light next to the camera on my laptop was on.

I’ve put frosted scotch tape over all cameras ever since.

[rbg81]

Though I’m an engineer, I do think technology makes a lot of people stupid. Not everyone mind you, but a very large (and growing) group. In particular, technology insulates people from reality and enables them to believe that things are what they (or their friends in their electronic echo chambers) say—not how they really are. One symptom of this is the transgender movement, but there are many others.

[ResisTyr]

To read later. Thanks.

[kevao]

There is nothing old-school reactionary about vi. Vi (Vim now) are widely used today. Vi is still installed by default on every Linux distro I know of. There is even a commercial plug-in to give Vim functionality to MS Word.

I can’t imagine a more efficient editor ever replacing Vim. I’ve been using it for years but continue to discover more amazing things that can be done with it. My productivity skyrocketed after I made the modest investment in time to learn Vim. Highly recommended.

[willk]

Hey Astra! You can get your phone screen fixed. You can also continue to use your original iphone if you want.

[familyop]

"I still use the vi editor."

Same here. I'm glad that our friends on the various UNIX projects are pack rats. Lots of good older stuff in the repositories.

[ResisTyr]

I’m almost there...if the world keeps going like it’s going. And with ISIS on our doorstep.:( I’m expecting 2016 to be a nightmare.

[Nifster]

Pick up the phone. Alex needs to chat

[Nifster]

You better not purchase anything then because planned obsolescence exists in every industry and has for nearly a century

[familyop]

"Though I’m an engineer, I do think technology makes a lot of people stupid. Not everyone mind you, but a very large (and growing) group. In particular, technology insulates people from reality and enables them to believe that things are what they (or their friends in their electronic echo chambers) say—not how they really are. One symptom of this is the transgender movement, but there are many others."

Well said! I'd like to see more open source equipment design projects (especially transportation and small heavy equipment). Too few people have enough desire to work with both their minds and their hands. With more open source equipment design and actual building and development of equipment, we could be freed from some rackets that brought us contemporary slavery (lack of work) and the ongoing decline of the do-nothing debt regime.

Artificial scarcity, planned mechanical failures and trivial obsolescence must go. There's plenty of earth, water and air (materials needed for production) for a much larger population.

We need to see the dumping of many regulations (especially state and local) and much more distributed manufacturing efforts for many new minds to draw from. So far, I'm only seeing a few engineers and flighty interns being too clumsy with their hands. Skilled techs and trades people and too often shunned because of the ever-increasing tendency toward academic over-generalizations (in speech) and acute sensitivities.

Many academics should try watching "Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil." I don't usually advise fiction for education, but that's a movie that many could learn from. Technically inclined rednecks are not often the monsters that the media have made them out to be. Some of them can be mighty useful, indeed, and sometimes even entertaining to work with. I've been one of them, can repair or build almost anything and continue to dress like an unstylish, rural "goon" and drive an old vehicle. Can you tell from my writing? And have another look at the new, common state of literacy in big journalism.

After the end of the defaults currently in motion, those who are more technically inclined toward useful products and maintenance will rise.