Dare Obasanjo

There’s a lot less optimism about tech today than a decade or two ago. One reason is that people no longer expect new tech to make things better.

People still expect tech to be disruptive but disruption is no longer assumed to be a good thing by default.

Feb 21, 2023 at 9:32amWeb
Show threadNick LockwoodFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life it's because we've all witnessed the companies that made us optimistic in the 00s (Google, Apple, Netflix, Valve, etc) turn around and become the monopolistic, rent-seeking dinosaurs they were supposed to save us from.
Show threadtrishandertonFeb 21, 2023
@nicklockwood @carnage4life And others, such as Uber, clearly set out to cut costs by exploiting workers right from the start
Show threadJohn McLearFeb 21, 2023
@nicklockwood @carnage4life 100%
Show threadobrhoffFeb 21, 2023
@nicklockwood @carnage4life This always comes into my mind when I think about these topics. Basically there are to many MBAs now. https://youtu.be/P4VBqTViEx4
Designer's Digest - Steve Jobs on the role of product and marketing people.

YouTube
Show threadAphrodite (recharging)Feb 22, 2023

@obrhoff @nicklockwood @carnage4life

nevermind the b-schools seem to b producing automatons repeating a par t line rather than engaging in any productive pursuit

“must produce 5% yoy”

Show threadwb x64Feb 22, 2023
@Aphrodite @obrhoff @nicklockwood @carnage4life all of this is an inevitable result of capitalism too. You can say "don't be evil" all you want until you go public and Wall Street is your owner now. I think that's why all the interesting stuff isn't a new website or bunch of servers, but rather a platform that anyone can run and use peer to peer. Federated / darknet, as it were, without masters.
Show threadSiderea, Sibylla BostoniensisFeb 22, 2023

@nicklockwood

Yes, but/and: it's not just companies doing wrong in the world. It's companies shipping shoddy crap.

Airbnb has taught a lot of people about why hotels are great. Someone I know who always used Lyft and had a bad experience just asked me how taxis worked. Everyone who has gotten serious about using their cell phone and had it crap out on them for no obvious reason has finally developed an opinion about planned obsolescence.

Disruption doesn't just mean exploitative, it also means cutting corners.

@carnage4life

Show threadCharles RoperFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life Yes, and that many if not most of those bright young rebels intent on disrupting the status quo turned out to be wankers and just as status quo as that last miserable lot. Rich humans gonna rich human.
Show threadSpicewallaFeb 21, 2023

@charlesroper @carnage4life

♫ Meet the new boss, same as the old boss ♫

Show threadJD Long ✅Feb 21, 2023
@carnage4life we should be cautious though… you and I are biased by age. My 15yo is quite optimistic. I, however, have seen some shit.
Show threadSylvainFeb 21, 2023

@Cmastication @carnage4life

I have 4 kids between 10 and 20yo, none is as excited by new tech as I was at their age.

Probably because since they were born, no technology had the same kind of impact it had in the 80's and 90's.

Going from tape to CD to MP3 was huge! Going from no internet to dialup to ADSL was HUGE!

Our kids have faster internet and bigger screens, but it's still just internet and screens...

Show threadjollyrogueFeb 22, 2023

@Cmastication Age and wisdom does change things. 🙂

The ideas are worse though. Web3 centralizes decentralized systems, AI used to fence copyrighted works.

A real natural language bot would be awesome. Cutting out the card processors would be awesome for businesses and people sending remittances back home.

But this ain’t it.

@carnage4life

Show threado ifrit 🌱Feb 21, 2023
@carnage4life People expect tech to be a biblical plague in miniature.
Show threadBastian Blankenburg 🤝 🛡Feb 21, 2023
@carnage4life Well, exactly 2 decades ago we were just coming out of the dot com bust, and thing weren’t looking great either. But go a few years back or forth and you‘re right…
Show threadJohnVoltzFeb 21, 2023

@carnage4life Agree. Going further back technology had democratizing effects. A good deal of visible tech was of two types:
1. Wildly expensive yet amazing — and funded through collective effort, or
2. Cost lowering, time saving and fairly ubiquitous — so everyone benefited; think improvements in cars or hvac or early computers or phones or even packaging.

In the last few decades there’s been more and more tech (and more visibility of tech) that essentially only helps those with $$.

Show threadJ$Feb 21, 2023
@carnage4life Tech disillusionment. It pairs well with emancipation disillusionment, that I’m sure I’m not the only one having experienced in the last few decades. It seems strange that once it was a quite commonly held hope that bringing communications to the people would inform, elevate us all. “The Internet treats censorship as damage, and routes around it”, that sort of thing. Wrong! We underestimated the extent of peoples manipulability and the lure of convenience over everything.
Show threadshyduroffFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life … +++ …
Show threadMatt FranzFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life Perhaps also because old shit is still around? New tech means new and additional complexity on top of legacy that can't or won't die?
Show threadEshwar NagFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life I think there is a section of people who feel like you but I don’t think that’s in any way representative of the everyone or majority even. I personally don’t feel that way and with the anecdotal evidence I see more people like me.
Show threadbenjohnFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life My prior expectation is new tech will make things worse.
Show threadstephen ryner jr. 🦉Feb 21, 2023
@carnage4life because it’s just going to disrupt all our money to a couple more assholes and make more people suffer than before
Show threadChuck O'Rourke:verified:Feb 21, 2023
@carnage4life @marcoarment You aren't an adult if you don’t approach everything with a healthy skepticism! It so common for people with a following to take on the manner of an American kids show host. Always smiling, always positive, both siderism so you don't lose a follower.
Show threadsamFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life well, tech has done a lot of harm in the last decade! maybe if meta, twitter, and amazon hadn’t spent so much energy ruthlessly sucking money out of us and being cavalier with our safety, we’d have more optimism left over.
Show threadJared CherupFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life sharing this with you in case you aren't already familiar. https://kottke.org/18/08/five-things-we-need-to-know-about-technological-change
Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change

In 1998, author and media critic Neil Postman gave a talk he called Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change. Here a

kottke.org
Show threadaoctavioFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life I think there is also a factor of service. It used to be that google was useful, now everything is full of little anoyances and a lot of less serving the customer.
It may be a factor of ad supported industries, they start out as "we give you something you want and you see ads" but ends up as "you see more and more ads with little in exchange". A screw the customer philosophy.
Show threadjollyrogueFeb 22, 2023

@aoctavio It’s working great for the customer, but we’re not the customer.

Everything has to be monetized and have a subscription. It’s hard to escape these days.

@carnage4life

Show threadaoctavioFeb 22, 2023
@jollyrogue Yes, I get what you are saying, but not sure is working. If you want change "eyeballs" for customer in what I said. At the end, you need to convince the eyeballs to watch the customers ads, and that doesn't work if the eyeballs do not feel they get anything in return. At least, not for long.
Show threadPēteris KrišjānisFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life I am very optimistic about technology. Much less so about people who have financial means to implement it or provide services.Short term profit and ever growing profits in general ruins all aspects of economical society.
Show threadElsieFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life #truth
Show threadKen Kinder Feb 21, 2023

@carnage4life I think it’s just that tech companies burned through their goodwill.

In the 80s and 90s, a company that sold you your computer was a trustworthy supplier of a straightforward product. The software you bought was acting simply on your behalf. Tech was sold as product to people.

Now it’s all about subterfuge and deception. Companies selling you things have ulterior motives.

Show threadJulien AvérousFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life Me each time I see a new Swift cr*p proposal which makes it look more and more a C++ nightmare mess…
Show threadEthan WaldmanFeb 21, 2023
@carnage4life yes, because “disruption” is just doublespeak for taking profits from a legacy industry and increasing them, by squeezing consumers.
Show threadbobFeb 22, 2023
@carnage4life ten years ago the new frontiers were in consumer products and now they're not
Show threadmaxelcatFeb 22, 2023
@carnage4life I used to welcome tech with open arms. Now tbh I resent it, while constantly using it for my work, my relaxing, my social life etc I sometimes wish it would all just go away. It has become a vampire. I didn't ask for it and the future looks bleak... controlled, dehumanising, coersive, dulling and dumbing down. Corporate greed and profit has ripped any vestiges of heart and humility out if it. Please make it stop
Show threadPeterD 🇩🇪 🇨🇦Feb 22, 2023
@carnage4life I have been in Tech since 1960. As a senior, 82 years, I find it cost money to stay up to-date both hardware and software. How many iterations of Office? When things go wrong and or one needs???? to update it takes hours and hours hours or days and days and days where I could be walking the dog down by the lake and stay healthy. #UGH
Show threadjollyrogueFeb 22, 2023

@carnage4life It’s a shift in mindset. Instead of “How can tech make the world a better place”, it’s “How can I monetize everyone around me”.

People quit trying to build a utopia, and started building a dystopia to chase dollars.

@derwinmcgeary

Show threadjollyrogueFeb 22, 2023

@carnage4life Basically, the people in charge are ghouls, and people know it.

@derwinmcgeary

Show threadVegetable Gremlin ⍼​👻Feb 22, 2023
@carnage4life weve all seem that our problems are not primarily technological and the tech solutions are vapor sold by inane weirdos