I'm Tired of Pretending Tech is Making the World Better
-
Yep, technofeudalism is here.
-
because you know servers don't need that shit.
No. Dead wrong. It's precisely the frontline staff who need customer feedback, and if makes them uncomfortable then so much the better.
It's the rank and file's job to pass criticism of the service offering on in team meetings, culture surveys, etc. My job sucks this week because I have to do x and yet the customers all hate it. Staff will drive change to policy when it's their ears copping the response day-to-day.
'I couldn't possibly bother the floor person' is code for 'I am going to tolerate in silence any corporate policy no matter how obnoxious', and line management and the executive know it.
-
Neither a phone nor website would work if your phone battery is flat. The meter should at least have a way for someone to park their car if they don't have a functioning phone, or internet access, even before the hellscape of needing a separate app for everything.
-
Right, so the buck stops here with FOSS, finally!
...
-
You're in a car. There's probably a charging port there. Sucks if you don't have a phone, but it sucked before when you didn't have change.
Parking has always been a privilege not a right, and if you're not prepared you're going to get a ticket.
I get that it's annoying but if my phone broke and I suddenly had to pay for parking with coins, I don't know what I'd do either. Everything is cashless now, where would I get coins from?
-
As someone who grew up before the negative effects of computer/internet technology, and was excited and impatient for it to develop, I agree with the points made in the article. It didn't have to be this way- in a different kind of society it could have been a boon to everyone. But in our society all the benefits of good things are appropriated by the powerful so they can more readily exploit the less powerful for profit.
So many wonderful possible benefits that might have come from these technological advancements, to help people lead better lives, to address many of society's issues (hunger, climate change, disabilities, education, etc) simply never happened, because in our society money must be invested to develop them, so only things that would make more profits for the greedy were able to be developed. Yes, some things did get funded by governments or foundations, but they're only a drop in the bucket to what could be done.
-
Woo! Let's make this artificial biome that much more inhospitable for the very creatures that build and live in it!
We must imagine Sisyphus fucking miserable! Ants in an anthill made of broken glass and depleted lion batteries!
-
also you can walk into basically any bank and ask for a roll of quaters
-
LOL, as a rank and file, corporate doesn't care. I pass along feedback, but even if they lose 1% of their business, corporate won't stop their bullshit.
-
Yet more benefits to cycling then. Just lock it to any reasonably sturdy object.
-
I just take my brick phone out and say that I can't use their app on this. Although once went to the pub after work and it meant I didn't need to pay for any of my drinks which was nice.
-
The overwhelming majority of software ever written is fucking terrible and causes more problems than it solves.
Since software is easily copiable and mutable, that small sliver of good software gets replicated all over the place and serves as a foundation for other software, both good -- and at the risk of repeating myself -- and mostly bad.
People would be better off considering new tech as the tool it is rather than seeing every piece of software as inherently better than the thing it replaces.
-
Thanks Adam Smith...
-
It didn’t have to be this way; in a different kind of society it could have been a boon to everyone.
Please hold onto this viewpoint even under serious argument from those opposing it. Technology isn't inevitably shit. There are other types of software we can write, and other types of technology we can develop that isn't the result of some sweaty CTO hovering over our shoulders demanding that we make the software shittier for the sake of the shareholders.
We have to imagine better choices. We have to imagine that we can change the course of things.
-
Honestly? Cool that you are asking, but I just want a coffee, not a conversation.
Yes, I'm German, how could you tell?
-
Well said.
-
I like playing video games...
-
Literally just one billionaire could end world hunger. It's such an easy way to go to history forever as a good guy. But they all become corrupt in the soul as soon as they have more than they can use. It's a systematic problem and the problem is the demonic capitalist entities known as the megacorps
-
Which changes rules, but not the resulting balance or lack thereof.
-
Tech =/= megacorps
That's like saying food doesn't make the world better where you mean food industry megacorps producing hunger & poverty.
