Edric
Leaning heavily on @pluralistic I wrote a thing about how the intertwined enshittification of our public and private sectors requires us to think hard about what we mean by ‘progress’.
https://savemefromwhatiwant.blogspot.com/2026/03/progression.html
Progression

What does the word ‘progress’ mean to you? What do you think of when you hear that word? Does it conjure up a relentless march of technology...

Apr 5 at 9:39pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadHexApr 6
@edric @pluralistic Progress is the realisation of Utopias.
-- Oscar Wilde, 1891
Show threadGeofCoxApr 6

@hexmasteen @edric @pluralistic

I don't think there has been much 'progress' at all in the 'western world' over the last 40 years.

My grandfather lived from a time you never saw a car or an aeroplane - indeed a world in which there were no aeroplanes - to see men walk on the moon. In Europe, at least, the big advances - pretty universal utility connections, radio and television, public health and care services, understanding disease transmission - you know, all the things that really make people safe and happy - were made in my grandfather's lifetime.

My life, by comparison, has seen relatively little 'progress'. Different screens in people's homes, some medical advances - but nothing on the scale of public water supply or sewer installation, or state healthcare, to really impact the health of millions; indeed, I have even lived to see the start of decline in life expectancy, and return of diseases we thought had gone.

The only big area of progress I see now is green technology - mainly imported from China.

Show threadMidgePhotoApr 7

@GeofCox
#Green tech is as big as any of those earlier advances.
The steady decline in #religion mediated partly through those earlier communications advances is possibly another. (The concentration of nasty weird grifting in the religious #rump* is a downside, probably temporary.)

* They might claim Right

Show threadGeofCoxApr 7

@Photo55

Yes - I too see the current developed world extreme right/religious shenanigans not as permanent reverse, but as desperate last-ditch reaction to the increasing acceptance by most people of social equality and justice, and the need to protect our environment.

Show threadspangheroApr 7
@GeofCox @hexmasteen @edric @pluralistic Coincidentally I shared similar thoughts with Mrs. Spanghero on Sunday. In Torquay they've placed copies of artwork around the seafront and one of them was a painting of an early steam train with a horses 'working the field' in the background. It's Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed from 1844.
Show threadRhyme ReparteeApr 7

@GeofCox
Indeed, the last 40 years has all been about the perfection of the business model. Segmented market pricing, planned obsolescence, offshoring and plastics, and in online industries unrelenting shift to the subscription model.

You may have purhased something, a computer, a car, but you certainly can’t control how features work, or independently repair it.

And unrelenting marketing claiming “new and improved”

#business

Show threadGeofCoxApr 6

@edric @pluralistic

It's certainly true that most tech business 'productivity' gains are made simply by shifting the actual work to externalities - mainly getting your customer to do it for you for free - self-service, self-checkout, online shopping, identity checks, etc...