On 2021-03-18, Mayayana  wrote:

> "Charlie Gibbs"  wrote
>
>>> The only hope for General-Purpose Computing is to make
>>> it somehow "cool". Otherwise there will soon be nothing
>>> but Specialty computers, all produced/owned by the tech
>>> giants, designed to only serve their purposes.
>>
>> Unfortunately, J. Random Luser is easily hypnotized by
>> shiny things.  I've heard this referred to as "trout
>> management": dangle something shiny with a hook in it
>> in front of them and they'll strike every time.
>
>   It's easy to express contempt for non-tech people,
> but it's mainly the techies who are hypnotized by video
> games. They're mainly the people who got suckered into
> "invitations" to gmail. They're the ones pushing the
> switch to Chrome, using their phones to pay for things,
> supporting unregulated exploitation of workers through
> Uber and Lyft, shopping via Amazon, buying crap food
> in unrecycled containers via GrubHub or DoorDash...

I do none of these things, yet I consider myself a techie.
Perhaps we should replace "techies" with a more appropriate
word, like "technophiles".  There are lots of techies who
are not hypnotized.

>    You might not be a Facebookie, but if you live by your
> phone then you're exploited by either Google or Apple...
> plus dataminers. And you're cultivating a lifestyle
> mediated by middlemen.

Hear, hear.

>   Why? Because tech hipsters thought it was "cool".
>   Lately there's talk of a COVID vaccine cert that will
> require a cellphone. Why do we now just assume that
> life happens on a cellphone? Instead of selling everyone
> a PC, how about putting down your phone.

From time to time, the term "digital divide" comes up.
Some people are pushing to widen this divide (often while
shedding crocodile tears about discrimination), because
they are personally benefiting from it.



> Do you play video games while being over 16 years old?

I do fire up Portal from time to time - but only as a
diversion (one of many), not to validate my existence.

> If so then look in the mirror to see your trout. There's
> no super-mind plotting control over you. There are just
> confused, power-hungry, driven people like Bezos and Gates
> and Jobs and Cook and Schmidt.

I wouldn't apply the word "confused" to these people.
They know exactly what they're doing, and their plotting
is more like China's long-term plans for conquest than
your typical company's obsession with quarterly dividends.

--
/~\  Charlie Gibbs                  |  "Some of you may die,
\ /        |  but it's a sacrifice
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus     |  I'm willing to make."
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |    -- Lord Farquaad (Shrek)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05