Techdirt Podcast Episode 442: Does AI Remove Or Provide User Agency?
Techdirt Podcast Episode 442: Does AI Remove Or Provide User Agency?
Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps
https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/malleable-software/
#HackerNews #MalleableSoftware #UserAgency #LockedDownApps #OpenSource #DigitalFreedom
The original promise of personal computing was a new kind of clay. Instead, we got appliances: built far away, sealed, unchangeable. In this essay, we envision malleable software: tools that users can reshape with minimal friction to suit their unique needs.
A bit more of the same vibe as one of my older posts (https://mastodon.top/users/lispi314/statuses/109939247576402187), #mobile hardware being a disappointment in its lack of any tooling for #programming and general #computing self-sufficiency.
Fun thing about People of the Phone vs desktop & #anime. After watching #SerialExperimentsLain, long before I got a #mobile, I was deeply disappointed when the one I acquired had no ability to code anything on it. None of the #agency that would be very feasible to implement on them. Post by @[email protected] that brought this to mind. https://universeodon.com/@siderea/109938645057405956 #Programming #UserAgency
Fun thing about People of the Phone vs desktop & #anime.
After watching #SerialExperimentsLain, long before I got a #mobile, I was deeply disappointed when the one I acquired had no ability to code anything on it.
None of the #agency that would be very feasible to implement on them.
Post by @siderea that brought this to mind. https://universeodon.com/@siderea/109938645057405956
@[email protected] There's a reason Google Search sucks that most people don't know about. (Actually I think there's several, but one that is not remotely on the radar of people like the sort on Mastodon is...) There is a profound class divide in internet users. Originally this was framed "digital haves and have nots". While that is still there, it has been eclipsed by another dichotomy it's morphed into: People of the Desktop and People of the Phone. People of the Desktop are people who learned to use the internet on an "actual computer". This population winds up understanding the internet very differently than the other. The socioeconomic factors of who gets access to desktop/laptop computers mean that this is also a filter for other things like likelihood to have a college education and being comfortable with abstractions. People of the Desktop tend to retain access to desktops, because they find phones wanting, and know what they're missing. People of the Phone don't.