What I’m becoming worried about now is all these corporations now realizing that they can simply supply price the average consumer out of owning electronics or any kind of compute. And locking them into renting or leasing access to data center compute and keeping the power of information further consolidated in corporate interests.
That out of context quote takes a lot of shit for something that was supposed to represent a futuristic socialist utopia.
The idea was that 14 years after that article was published, mankind would have such immediate access to services and those services would be free, that people would just sorta stop caring about owning things. For example, since food and necessities would be free, you could go home and print your dinner. If you wanted someone else to cook, you’d get something delivered. But, if you wanted to try something truly novel that most people don’t do anymore in this society, you could rent kitchen equipment and it’d be ready as soon as you need it, and you’d use socialized appliances and utensils. Why? Because your home doesn’t need that clutter. If you wanna cook all the time, you can own whatever you want. But most people will want to use that space for something else, so they’ll just print their meals.
You would have quick and easy access to transport, so why waste the money and space to own a car? You wanna drive? Push a button in your app and a car arrives for free. Or take the free train or bus.
The essay isn’t about “you won’t be able to own anything,” it’s about “you won’t want to own anything, but you’ll have everything you could ever want or need.”
And we’re really headed in the right direction for this amazing future. Except, you know… Corporations are bleeding us dry instead of supporting us…
That does sound lovely, but like every other utopia it’s a fantasy. It’s got the same fatal issue as every other utopia - people. A person can be good and decent, but people suck. I’d say the modern use of that quote is more accurate to reality than the rose tinted view of its origin.
Even if the initial intention is positive, I think this degree of dependency on external services is not realistic even if mega corps were not as bad as they are currently.
The vast majority of people who surf the web don’t use a computer to do it. People who do belong to niches. People over a certain age grew up with and still buy computers. People who game still buy computers or consoles. People who stream/create content still use computers and other electronics for that purpose, same with like. Engineers and hobbyists using CAD and other software in creative spaces.
But the smart phone has overtaken the computer as a personal computing device by quite a large margin now. And at every turn companies are trying to make cell phones a den of ad service, slop, and addictive content while stealing any user data that’s not nailed down to increase their revenue and continue the circle.
with being a walled garden i have a feeling we will eventually see phones become genuinely free because you will not have an option to keep your data away from advertisers. AOSP is barely holding on to maintain a safe place for users. when all hardware is locked down we will be stuck.
I’m assuming you mean that phone software will be free, because phones (while they can be heavily subsidized) aren’t free and are getting up to ridiculous prices. I own a phone that retails for $1000. That’s a ridiculous price for a phone. Except that phones now are just very tiny personal computers.
the crazy prices will eventually lose users. so the price will drop but the phone manufactureres won’t just accept the loss. instead they will sell you as a commodity even harder.
Holy cow that’s a very real danger I hadn’t thought of! The industry needs a new trend to reuse all this capacity they built, because AI will likely scale back as many startups fail to reach profit.
Renting your home computer might be the next trend, and it could be gratis at first so people get used to it. Why spy on users when you can actually own their computers?
I hope they do, it will just break stuff more and people will be more likely to go with Linux and open source software. My 10 year old computer still is super fast if it’s not bloated.
Linux won’t make bullshit pc part prices cheaper. RAM, SSDs, GPUs are all rising in prices because of the AI bubble, used and new are all being affected. Can’t run Linux if the parts are too expensive to even get in the first place.
I think it’s a lost cause. Essentially both crypto and AI were big because someone figured out how to offload shit to a GPU efficiently. There’s probably a ton of other appllications for GPUs we haven’t even tapped.
Keyboard prices soared this month, as tech giants pivoted from failed AI projects to employing hordes of monkeys typing randomly. One CEO was quoted as saying, “Just a few trillion more dollars, and I think our random typing model could reproduce the lost contents of the Library of Alexandria.”
Even when the bubble bursts, they’re going to have an insane amount of computing power just sitting there, it will get sold off in bankruptcy proceedings, and some company will gobble it up and operate at a loss while continuing to secure future supply contracts.
There’s a very real chance that we’re witnessing the slow death of home computing.
The way things shake out it might end up being prohibitively expensive compared to cloud computing, and once that’s the norm they price gouge like Walmart did to destroy small businesses.
Instead of dropping a couple grand for a PC every couple years, we’ll have steady contracts paying for month at a time indefinitely.
Nah. Web devs will create even more bloated web pages to keep home computing in business.
For real though, most people don’t need that much computing power, and we reached the plateau 12 years ago. That’s why we’re seeing crypto and AI grifts happen. They recentralize decentralized systems. The elites are striking back.
You know the saying“information wants to be free; information wants to be expensive”? This is the expensive part where people try to horde knowledge by making it inaccessible to everyday people.
I can only hope that the A.I. bubble bursts in time when I need to buy a new computer.
What I’m becoming worried about now is all these corporations now realizing that they can simply supply price the average consumer out of owning electronics or any kind of compute. And locking them into renting or leasing access to data center compute and keeping the power of information further consolidated in corporate interests.
“You will own nothing and be happy”
That out of context quote takes a lot of shit for something that was supposed to represent a futuristic socialist utopia.
The idea was that 14 years after that article was published, mankind would have such immediate access to services and those services would be free, that people would just sorta stop caring about owning things. For example, since food and necessities would be free, you could go home and print your dinner. If you wanted someone else to cook, you’d get something delivered. But, if you wanted to try something truly novel that most people don’t do anymore in this society, you could rent kitchen equipment and it’d be ready as soon as you need it, and you’d use socialized appliances and utensils. Why? Because your home doesn’t need that clutter. If you wanna cook all the time, you can own whatever you want. But most people will want to use that space for something else, so they’ll just print their meals.
You would have quick and easy access to transport, so why waste the money and space to own a car? You wanna drive? Push a button in your app and a car arrives for free. Or take the free train or bus.
The essay isn’t about “you won’t be able to own anything,” it’s about “you won’t want to own anything, but you’ll have everything you could ever want or need.”
And we’re really headed in the right direction for this amazing future. Except, you know… Corporations are bleeding us dry instead of supporting us…
That does sound lovely, but like every other utopia it’s a fantasy. It’s got the same fatal issue as every other utopia - people. A person can be good and decent, but people suck. I’d say the modern use of that quote is more accurate to reality than the rose tinted view of its origin.
“To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem.”
The link doesn’t work for me.
Even if the initial intention is positive, I think this degree of dependency on external services is not realistic even if mega corps were not as bad as they are currently.
Aren’t we already seeing that though?
The vast majority of people who surf the web don’t use a computer to do it. People who do belong to niches. People over a certain age grew up with and still buy computers. People who game still buy computers or consoles. People who stream/create content still use computers and other electronics for that purpose, same with like. Engineers and hobbyists using CAD and other software in creative spaces.
But the smart phone has overtaken the computer as a personal computing device by quite a large margin now. And at every turn companies are trying to make cell phones a den of ad service, slop, and addictive content while stealing any user data that’s not nailed down to increase their revenue and continue the circle.
with being a walled garden i have a feeling we will eventually see phones become genuinely free because you will not have an option to keep your data away from advertisers. AOSP is barely holding on to maintain a safe place for users. when all hardware is locked down we will be stuck.
I’m assuming you mean that phone software will be free, because phones (while they can be heavily subsidized) aren’t free and are getting up to ridiculous prices. I own a phone that retails for $1000. That’s a ridiculous price for a phone. Except that phones now are just very tiny personal computers.
the crazy prices will eventually lose users. so the price will drop but the phone manufactureres won’t just accept the loss. instead they will sell you as a commodity even harder.
Holy cow that’s a very real danger I hadn’t thought of! The industry needs a new trend to reuse all this capacity they built, because AI will likely scale back as many startups fail to reach profit.
Renting your home computer might be the next trend, and it could be gratis at first so people get used to it. Why spy on users when you can actually own their computers?
I hope it means the return of old, old hardware and the software that comes along with it. This is why projects like collapseOs are important.
I hope they do, it will just break stuff more and people will be more likely to go with Linux and open source software. My 10 year old computer still is super fast if it’s not bloated.
How’s your 10 year old computer going to look when it’s 30 years old?
Linux won’t make bullshit pc part prices cheaper. RAM, SSDs, GPUs are all rising in prices because of the AI bubble, used and new are all being affected. Can’t run Linux if the parts are too expensive to even get in the first place.
Software needs hardware Linux dose nothing but make it easier for them.
I think it’s a lost cause. Essentially both crypto and AI were big because someone figured out how to offload shit to a GPU efficiently. There’s probably a ton of other appllications for GPUs we haven’t even tapped.
I’ve got this crazy idea where we can use GPUs to render 3D scenes efficiently.
First it was GPUs because crypto, then this. Wonder what useless thing the tech bros will cover up with in a few years!
Article in 2027:
When in a gold rush, be the one selling shovels.
I’m off to buy stocks in bananas.
Water.
It’s already happening in parallel though, not next.
Good luck…
Even when the bubble bursts, they’re going to have an insane amount of computing power just sitting there, it will get sold off in bankruptcy proceedings, and some company will gobble it up and operate at a loss while continuing to secure future supply contracts.
There’s a very real chance that we’re witnessing the slow death of home computing.
The way things shake out it might end up being prohibitively expensive compared to cloud computing, and once that’s the norm they price gouge like Walmart did to destroy small businesses.
Instead of dropping a couple grand for a PC every couple years, we’ll have steady contracts paying for month at a time indefinitely.
Nah. Web devs will create even more bloated web pages to keep home computing in business.
For real though, most people don’t need that much computing power, and we reached the plateau 12 years ago. That’s why we’re seeing crypto and AI grifts happen. They recentralize decentralized systems. The elites are striking back.
You know the saying“information wants to be free; information wants to be expensive”? This is the expensive part where people try to horde knowledge by making it inaccessible to everyday people.
People thought they’d hang onto CDs and DVDs too…
How is this applicable to the comment? Companies never figured out how to charge rent for those.
Devs see home computers as a free resource, and the burden is on the consumer to buy a computer which runs their software.