tanteJul 16
With the browser being such a core part of our digital reality and how we access it I find it incomprehensible to move my life and workflows over to a closed source browser by some money burning "AI" startup that might not be there in a year.
Show threadtante

It's no longer a browser (as in letting you access the web) but a thing that increasingly starts distancing you from the writing, etc.: Why read if you can have a (probably wrong) summary? Of course you still _can_ use it in different ways but the affordances and nudges are clear.

It's like perplexity and such: Not search engines but quite the opposite.

The browser was the platform to make the web accessible to people. "AI" browsers see the web and what's in there just as more stuff to churn through to keep you within the AI provider's ecosystem.

Jul 16 at 11:09amWeb
Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16
@tante I have a draft for a thing I'm tentatively calling "the boundaries of the operating system" where the thing that is supposed to prop up a platform for you to perform your thing ends up crossing that boundary and tries to also do the thing for you
Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16

@tante but it can't do that thing properly or without supervision so they still call it the old thing "a browser" in this case. Like a self-driving car which still has a steering wheel.

If it was actually capable of doing this stuff itself it would be something else and be called something else.

Instead we are expected to accept these limping features as revolutionary

Show threadtanteJul 16
@fasterandworse Finish it and publish it!
Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16
@tante ahh, the eternal challenge!
Show threadtanteJul 16
@fasterandworse Anything I can do to help you finish it?
Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16
@tante you being interested might be enough to push me over the line
Show threadtanteJul 16
@fasterandworse I feel you Gotta finish a book chapter I promised to someone else and my son thinks that a 5 year old should totally be up till 23:00.
Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16
@tante oh yes, I understand that. Plus the work I'm paid to do keeps getting in the way
Show threadtanteJul 16
@fasterandworse day jobs are the worst. (Well being paid is good and all but if you want to get shit done it's a bit annoying)
Show threadHolgintheairJul 16
@fasterandworse Don’t want to raise the pressure but I am interested too. @tante
Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16
@holgintheair @tante haha, SHIT!
Show threadthe roamerJul 16

@fasterandworse @tante

Well said, and yes, please write it.

"where the tool that is supposed to prop up a platform for you to perform your thing ends up crossing that boundary and tries to also do the thing for you"

You have identified the core of the problem with today's intrusive tools: browser, OS, email client, word processor. Why can't you just let me do what I came here to do?

#design #tools #noAI

Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16
@the_roamer @tante thanks! That's two interested parties.
Show threadthe roamerJul 16

@fasterandworse @tante

There will be more!

Show threadIsaac FreemanJul 16
@fasterandworse Piling on: write it please! This is a useful concept. We often refer to pieces of software as tools, and it's valuable to interrogate what makes a good tool.
@tante
Show threadStephen FarrugiaJul 16
@isaacfreeman ok, i'm on it!