Charlie StrossFeb 25

RE: https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/116127740444038853

The unadmitted reason this is happening (and the AI bubble besides): Moore's Law *has ended*. The only way for hardware sales to go in future is *down* because your next PC or Mac will work just fine until it breaks or dies of old age. So by ramping prices artificially via this RAM/SSD futures bullshit, they're keeping profits high for as long as possible.

Show threadGraydonFeb 25

@cstross I am willing to entertain the "we're going to get rid of consumer computer hardware that isn't rented" scenario.

In the 1970s, there was a thriving market for making, selling, and applying custom/aftermarket car parts. The entire auto industry systematically murdered it by successively moving cars into a space where you couldn't do that. It's not like we don't know a large market can't be expunged.

The incumbents have a strong general incentive to keep people from having options.

Show threadDressToKILTFeb 25
@graydon @cstross just remember, communists are the ones who want to take your private property!
Show threadGraydonFeb 25
@dresstokilt @cstross "Every accusation is a confession" is not limited to skeevy remarks and musings about genocide. Pretty much everything ever said about the perils of communism also counts.
Show threadCharlie Stross
@graydon @dresstokilt Yep: it is glaringly obvious today that "the menace of the communist international conspiracy!!!" was 100% right-wing projection (of what they wished they could get away with, or what—once the Heritage Foundation got going—of what they were actively trying to achieve).
Feb 25 at 11:01pmWeb