Re:Let’s Get Better at Demanding Better from Tech
by taeric on Tuesday March 06, 2018 @08:45PM
(#16533720)
I have a hard time reading this as other than paranoia.
There are concerns over expectancy going flat or down. My understanding is that a few points down does not indicate the swing down has started. Should be looked at, but evidence is equally indicative of standard variance in growth.
That is, the anomaly was the constant growth in expectancy. Certainly an outlier in our histories.
And you should try harder in looking for things that are easier in life. It may not have got your life, yet. We should do what we can to spread the rewards to everyone, including you.
Meanwhile, wages remain stagnant and automation threatens the jobs of everyone without an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering or a PhD in computer science. And literally every internet-connected device in our lives are surveillance tools being exploited for some corporate interest.
Yet there are piles of laundry in my home that aren't washing or folding themselves. Anything other than a TV dinner won't cook itself. Cars...might eventually drive themselves, I suppose, until enough bored teenagers poking around on Shodan decide they'd like a turn at the wheel.
Tech has risen to meet the needs of the average household by providing us...cellphone apps that put us in contact with some desperate human willing to perform tasks for those who can afford it, invisible money whose value fluctuates and gets stolen in more ways than is possible to spend, and gypsy cab/delivery services.
I can't think of a recent technological development that has made my life any better or easier. Instead, I spend more time troubleshooting half-assed, overcomplicated black-box shitware (with even less support!) than ever before. No thank you. It's been a race to the bottom since the late 2000s.