I think there’s good reason to wind back smartphones too. Finding some way to keep the good utility and stripping out the evil attention sucking parts.

There are numerous new projects like the Clicks Communicator and the Minimal 2 that are trying to strike that balance

I refuse to install an app if the website functions fine.

And often times if they gimp the site to force the app, I just don't use the service. There are unfortunate necessary exceptions, but by and large I'm extremely stingy about what I install on my phone.

I recommend it. I have been what I call "phone-lite" for a few years now. It lives in my sock drawer, and I only take it out if I know I'll need it for GPS when traveling. For the most part, my mobile computing is entirely done through my Daylight Computer tablet, which as a wifi-only e-paper device, I find to be minimally attention sucking.

> parasitic technologies

Great turn or phrase. (And/or, great company name. Probably both :)

Sounds more like some sort of neo-noise-rock/electronica band.

Smartphones started in a very different time. Our point of reference were PCs and laptops, where we were the owner and could do pretty much anything we want. They took a lot of that away with smartphones, but because smartphones started in the in-between times, they (at least Android) still have side-loading, the possibility of installing browsers with ad blockers, heck even the source code in the form of AOSP, etc.

You can be sure that almost twenty years later, they will use a new device type as an excuse to lock things further down. Remote attestation, no side-loading, no or little browser competition, etc. This has kind of already happened with smart watches, where there is no AOSP-equivalent, virtually no models with unlockable bootloaders, etc.

AR glasses will be the next venue to further trample on your rights. The difference compared to smart watches is that they could potentially replace smartphones.

All this is without taking into account the grave privacy violation AR glasses are to other people. Yes, phones can also make photos and film, but it is much more visible.

Luckily, at least where I live, most people find AR glasses creepy and there is a majority of parliament that wants to ban them (though the government is kinda weak as usual).

You're right, we should stop innovating entirely, because bad people and slippery slope fallacies exist in the world.

...sorry but that ain't happening.

> You're right, we should stop innovating entirely, because bad people and slippery slope fallacies exist in the world.

There are plenty of areas where innovating would help people tremendously, with much fewer slippery slopes. Just because people ask you to be mindful of the areas where abuse is already the default use case doesn't mean there's nothing you can do.

Making the world a dystopia isn't "innovation".

Sorry state of things indeed.

> innovating

Innovate what, exactly? The demise of democracy? Authoritarian rule? Technology innovation ain't societal progress, and we should aim for the latter.

It sounds like you already understand what technological innovation is, and that failure of a country to govern its own people effectively has nothing to do with that... so I'm not sure where the misunderstanding is.

We need not stop innovation entirely, of course. But tech should not be in the driver's seat. Tech for tech's sake, and the maximised profits. To ensure that technology is better aligned to the interests of people a helluva lot more and better regulation is in order imho. There are obvious useful aspects to many new technologies, but it is also in a balance to all the negative externalities. Unfortunately the latter are more long-term consequences and the former are more on the short-term gains. There are obvious dystopian tendencies to all the stuff we are inventing now, and somewhere we should call a halt to that, before there is no easy return.

The main problem with smartphones is not that they started at an "in-between" time, but that they started in an "in-between" place as a hybrid of a PDA and a traditional cell phone. Cell phones tended to be very closed in large part due to the influence of traditional phone companies, which wanted control over every device plugged into the phone network, and smartphones inherited some of that.

Unfortunately, new devices tend to inherit from smartphones instead of desktop computers; even VR devices like the Steam Frame are clearly based on smartphone hardware, even though it doesn't have (for now) a cell phone modem.

Currently AR headsets are all just mobile platforms with exotic UX. If they could lock down AR glasses why wouldn't they do it with smartphones?

If anything the current set of HMDs are more capable and open than the average phone. What's special about the headsets that make them easier to lock down?

Some of us still do the majority of computing on traditional PCs, a market which remains healthy despite the growth of alternatives, and use "dumb" doorbells, lightbulbs, and freezers.

And given the recent flood of security and privacy problems with smart devices, it's not inconceivable that the tide will turn against locked-down, always-connected devices in the not-so-distant future.

Maybe it is time to reconsider buying a smartphone. Just speaking for myself, I'm tired of how easy it is to get distracted by technology nowadays (I wrote a bit about this on my blog[1]). Plus, we're seeing various (albeit small) movements towards dumb phones and phone bricking. Hyper-mobile, general-purpose tech like smartphones/AR is a recipe for distraction. The value of it is real, but at a certain point it just becomes a way to avoid having any moment of quiet contemplation.

[1] https://bdvorak.com/blog/tech-is-disrespectful/

Social media and games can be addicting, but smartphones themselves aren't.

It'd be kinda like me saying I find refrigerators addicting, rather than food.

Smartphones seem like critical infrastructure to people that spend a lot of time on their phone. This is less an indication of utility than how inured someone has become to the ridiculous bullshit that smartphones have become.

Well, where are those useful things? Google Glass was 13 years ago, today's devices don't do much different, and neither has convinced anyone outside of enthusiasts to walk around with one strapped to their face all day.

To be ancedotal, I have never in my life seen anyone anywhere using these devices even one time. By no means does this feel like a technology that is "coming"

I totally would go without a smartphone for what it's worth, the negative impact on my life far outweighs the positive in my opinion. Annoyingly, society has been set up to exclude people without smartphones at this point so they're necessary.

A decent compromise I've tried is an e-ink phone, not a dumbphone or a minimal phone but an actual Android smartphone with an e-ink screen.