Irenes (many)May 8, 2024
Apple SVP of marketing, apparently: so our core message should really be that Apple will destroy all the things you love, and sell you a joyless piece of glass to replace them
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024

sorry, we know this is low-hanging fruit, just, we can't get it out of our head hours later

the horrible part is we don't think they were trying to horrify viewers!

Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
it's an ad in which musical instruments, fancy cameras, an arcade cabinet, pottery items, representations of well-loved characters, etc are all crushed by a giant press. very detailed videography of each thing being destroyed.
Show threadIrenes (many)

so, like, cyberneticism conceptualizes all phenomena on the same ontological plane

the connection between this and computing is that a lot of computer people, ourselves included, have at some point in our lives thought that it would be nice to not be burdened by physical reality. pulling everything into the computer would be freeing.

May 8, 2024 at 9:07pmWeb
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
in reality, pulling everything into the computer does empower people to some extent, but the reason corporations want to do it has always been so that they can impose their own new constraints in the new context. the goal is not for humanity to solve its problems, but for corporate entities to be in charge of the problems and profiting by them.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
additionally - as we have come to understand through our own spiritual growth over the years - it turns out that some burdens are nice to have. some things you WANT to form an attachment to and be limited by. the people you love; the tools you use for creative expression; ...
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
look at the resurgence of vinyl record sales: now that we all have the ability to access music however we want, free from physical constraints, it turns out that being deliberate about accepting SOME physical constraints can help you to have an emotional experience and lasting connection
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
anyway, this is a larger topic we struggle with as someone who went very, very deep in the inventing-things skill tree. there's a difference between choosing to free ourselves from an unwanted attachment, and forcing everyone else to do the same
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
there is a group, though, who do not struggle with this at all, and that's the executives who make the big decisions about corporate direction. they fully embrace the idea of destroying everything in their path and offering their own replacement for it. no desire to be self-critical at all.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
so, like, sorry to make so much of this one ad, but again it was just an unexpectedly emotional experience for us to watch, and it happens that we've been working on ways to say some of these things in the background, so we had the theory ready to hand
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
remember: from the perspective of C-suite, this is not new, this is a continuation of everything that's gone before. same motivation. yeah :/
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
there is now a Cohost version of this thread at https://cohost.org/ireneista/post/5892016-the-dark-side-of-cyb
Show threadkira :3May 8, 2024
@ireneista the thing i am gathering from reactions of all flavors is that we all found it visceral and upsetting, it is honestly an incredible statement piece, especially when you consider that they managed to not at all notice the statement they were making. it's like they watched the toy story 3 incinerator scene and said "what if we did that"
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
@chrisisgr8 yeah, absolutely
Show threadAsta [AMP]May 8, 2024
@ireneista I keep having this weird criticism, in my head, of people like david whatshisface (the warner brothers CEO guy), which is so minor yet somehow won't leave my head: they lack taste. And I don't mean they're tasteless, although they are, or that I disagree with their taste, which I do; what I mean is they have absolutely no concept of flavor. He 'oversees' a huge company filled with creative (and almost certainly passionate) people and feels nothing, nothing, about destroying works and burning every copy. No one with any idea of taste, or flavor, whether 'good' or 'bad'...
Show threadViolet MadderMay 8, 2024

@aud @ireneista

They perceive only one flavor that matters: MINE.

Show threadAsta [AMP]May 8, 2024
@violetmadder @ireneista me: do not make a joke about hoping they like the iron taste of the guillotine do not make a joke about
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
@aud @violetmadder hey we're on our own instance now, we don't have a personal need to toe any lines but the legal ones... (anyway, you just did)
Show threadAsta [AMP]May 8, 2024
@ireneista @violetmadder ... "... in that you can absolutely use a guillotine blade as a flat cooking implement, like a pizza stone! Iron rich, yum yum. So healthy"
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
@violetmadder @aud it's a good criticism, for sure
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowMay 8, 2024

@aud @ireneista Soylent is food precisely because it is uniform, texturelesd, and flavorless.

(To be sure, I have disordered eating that is adjacent to that, but I try not to warp that into a moral good.)

Show threadAsta [AMP]May 8, 2024
@xgranade @ireneista ah! Fuck, I didn't even think about that. Sorry : ( I definitely should find a better metaphor for this type of thing.
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowMay 8, 2024
@aud @ireneista I think it's a quite apt metaphor, honestly. It's just that I think there's room to explore the ways in which non-billionaires are generally allowed to process similar feelings and reactions.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
@xgranade @aud it's bound up with the whole erasing distinctions thing tbh
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowMay 8, 2024
@ireneista @aud Enclosure of the commons and commoditization of culture go hand in hand.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
@xgranade @aud absolutely
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
@xgranade @aud and like we said above, there's a difference between choosing for ourselves that we prefer to be free of some particular attachment, and forcing everybody else to also not have it
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowMay 8, 2024
@ireneista I fucking love my typewriter, but I'm sure it would get crushed into unibody aluminum all the same. After all, the ability to edit, copy/paste, keep apprised of news, look up meanings, etc. are all seen as benefits in a word processor even as they distract from the meditative act of freewriting.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
@xgranade yeah, absolutely