Although it kind of seems to be a combination of the two going on right now; people being distracted by the conveniences so bad actors can put their authoritarian regimes into place. The US gestapo seems to be pretty indicative of an Orwellian society on the rise.
I just finished reading Neil Postman’s book last week. This is an absolute must-read for everyone. I can’t own a lot of hardcopy books because of space, but this is going to become one of them.
Don’t forget to hire famous people to advertise how great these products are and rebrand them as helpful when the truth comes out Looking at you meta and your perv glasses.
I got a free google home mini back when I bought my pixel 2 like 8 years ago. I was on board for a bit, loved that I could turn my smart lights on and off with it, play music in the shower, or start a kitchen timer while my hands were dirty.
But that’s like… all it did. And after a couple of updates it didn’t even do that properly anymore and it was a fight to get it to do anything. That fucking robot voice would argue with everything before just fucking starting the timer with the same command I’d given a hundred times.
Ended up binning the thing, and throwing all my smart shit in the bin (except my dishwasher but I disconnected that too, after I had to wait for an update to use it once. And it’s operated perfectly fine without internet for like 5 years now.)
I think the most predictive dystopian fiction turned out to be Fahrenheit 451. Give it a few more years and we’ll have those screens covering entire walls.
George Orwell clearly overestimated humanity, he didn’t predict people would voluntarily put telescreens into their homes, even pay for them.
Aldous Huxley (Brave new world) didn’t, he saw it coming.
Although it kind of seems to be a combination of the two going on right now; people being distracted by the conveniences so bad actors can put their authoritarian regimes into place. The US gestapo seems to be pretty indicative of an Orwellian society on the rise.
I just finished reading Neil Postman’s book last week. This is an absolute must-read for everyone. I can’t own a lot of hardcopy books because of space, but this is going to become one of them.
That’s exactly how you do it. Tell them it is “smart tech” and “convenient” and they will buy your lies and products as you spy on them for profit.
Don’t forget to hire famous people to advertise how great these products are and rebrand them as helpful when the truth comes out Looking at you meta and your perv glasses.
I got a free google home mini back when I bought my pixel 2 like 8 years ago. I was on board for a bit, loved that I could turn my smart lights on and off with it, play music in the shower, or start a kitchen timer while my hands were dirty.
But that’s like… all it did. And after a couple of updates it didn’t even do that properly anymore and it was a fight to get it to do anything. That fucking robot voice would argue with everything before just fucking starting the timer with the same command I’d given a hundred times.
Ended up binning the thing, and throwing all my smart shit in the bin (except my dishwasher but I disconnected that too, after I had to wait for an update to use it once. And it’s operated perfectly fine without internet for like 5 years now.)
I think the most predictive dystopian fiction turned out to be Fahrenheit 451. Give it a few more years and we’ll have those screens covering entire walls.
Humanity is a Darwin award.