In a previous post I mentioned the Industrial Revolution as a good early example of exploitation of workers for the benefit of industry owners. Naturally, this wasn't the first or only time this happened[1]. The Industrial Revolution, however, is specifically an example of technologies driving out the workers, while their...
Today’s innovations and progress swoop humanity into a neat cycle of anticipation and acquisition through deceptive notions that guide it to dependence. We’re sold on products and ideas through questionable but politically acceptable marketing tactics. We buy, pre-order, take out loans, only to supposedly upgrade later to a somehow inferior...
Good point, Google's products were not at all a good example. Rethinking it now, I'm not sure why it sounded right at the time of writing.
As for your example of Signal's strategy amendment, aside from my personal opinion on the subject[1] (which I'd prefer not to focus on), I'm not sure that's relevant to the general discussion here. I'm not advocating that every product made follow this path, I even state that it doesn't fit everything. Even for those that fit, there will always be exceptions. If a rewrite is deemed necessary, why would that not be prioritized under my model?
Frankly, it seems to me you're not focusing on the general idea.
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Good call, OSS projects definitely quickly catch up to major non-niche products.
No, I don't think this can really work elsewhere. Ideally, competition would have to be controlled judicially, the idea would have to be implemented at the government-owned level, but I don't believe that powerful men can always make ideal decisions to make this work.
In a previous post I mentioned the Industrial Revolution as a good early example of exploitation of workers for the benefit of industry owners. Naturally, this wasn't the first or only time this happened[1]. The Industrial Revolution, however, is specifically an example of technologies driving out the workers, while their marketing suggested otherwise. The hope was that technological improvements were supposed to make life easier, to decrease manufacturing costs, therefore increasing resources for the people. Of course, that never happened: the income flowed to the owners and founders, then due to competition and product pricing adjustments - into the ether, though we can speculate that theoretically the better price point did help
You're right, there definitely have been positive innovations - my writing may have been a bit too strong-winded there. I suppose it's the side effects of these that ruin it for me: the advertising, smartphone games, in-app purchases - the useless.
I obviously ended up in some kind of a middle ground: while I use latest computers for work and infrequent video gaming, my phone is a Nokia 8110 4g mostly because I can't stand how modern ones look: but there's also nothing one can't fix with them at home, as opposed to weird computer issues new ones run into (I don't believe I need to provide examples, but if this is disputed I certainly can).
Overall my issue is clearly not just with needless innovation but with capitalism at large, and it's all so hard to grasp at in writing. You're right, just like with anything else, the trick is finding the middle ground happy path.
Cheers, thanks for the commentary!
Today’s innovations and progress swoop humanity into a neat cycle of anticipation and acquisition through deceptive notions that guide it to dependence. We’re sold on products and ideas through questionable but politically acceptable marketing tactics. We buy, pre-order, take out loans, only to supposedly upgrade later to a somehow inferior product.
We were always conditioned for this, like many others, back in school it was suggested by adults to perceive school and homework as a real job. Having little visibility into what I got out of this job - little freedom, no money, - the desire for an actual job was obvious. A whole streak of professions later, I’m engulfed in work that... (read 577 more words →)
Good call, I did find vast evidence on the subject.
Industrial revolution was just an example of automation not being beneficial for the worker, I'm not trying to link events that are two hundred years apart.