Do you remember NFTs? I remember NFTs. They exploded onto the scene in 2020 and were *everywhere* in the public discourse. At their peak in 2021, there were something like $25 billion in NFT sales globally. There were NFT Super Bowl ads. Jimmy Fallon had Paris Hilton on his show to awkwardly shill for NFTs.

And then, by 2022, 2023 at the latest, the bubble had burst and NFT market had lost up to 99% of its value.

Blessedly, I never have to think about those fucking Bored Apes ever again.

I remember thinking, when NFTs first appeared, that they were so obviously a scam, but also a vague sense of surprise that such an obvious scam was proliferating while we were still living through the previous blockchain-related scam, cryptocurrency. And since the NFT bubble burst, we moved on absurdly quickly to the next tech scam-bubble, AI.

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@HeavenlyPossum

I found Cory Doctorow's recent post about reverse centaurs useful in understanding what is going on with AI and tech in general. One takeaway: it's all about trying to keep the valuation of the stock high after the company has stopped growing rapidly.

@johndgriffith

Thank you; I haven’t seen that yet but I’ll take a look.

Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI (05 Dec 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

@johndgriffith Thank you, John, that was a seriously good read.

@HeavenlyPossum