thoughts on computers
I don't think I like computers anymore, because the magic is gone. Not in the sense that I've become disillusioned or anything, but rather because the magic has been taken away by a cocktail of influences that mostly revolves around capitalism.
They're not really personalizable anymore, everything must be in a perfectly 'professional' (read: deathly boring and homogeneous) style. Customizing and personalizing things is now a high-spoons time and energy investment, not a thing you do on a lark in a few minutes.
They don't really empower anymore, instead you are perpetually battling an ever-tightening net of scams, deceptions, data greed, enshittification, and good old exploitation.
They don't really emancipate anymore; the cliff between "those who use computers" and "those who make computers do things" is only becoming bigger, and nobody really seems interested in genuinely changing that, other than to 'make everyone a programmer' (usually with profit-minded purposes like labour cost reduction).
Every new system is more locked down than the last. It feels like anything you do still have control over is on borrowed time; until it gets replaced by something you don't control, which you will have no choice but to adopt (see: eg. companies and governments that require you to use Android/iOS apps).
What is the fun in computers anymore? Where's the magic, the wonder, the discovery? What "computers" are today, holistically speaking, has absolutely nothing to do with personal enjoyment or empowerment, and everything with being a tool of control, a tool of oppression.
Can that magic be brought back?
re: thoughts on computers
@mynameistillian At a small scale, yes, but the magic - for me, at least - was in the relative ubiquity of values like personalizability and agency.
Whether intentional or otherwise, it didn't really matter much what software you were using, you could assume that it would give you those things. You didn't have to specifically seek out software that provides it, and be the weird guy who used the thing nobody uses, so to say.
As an extremely mundane example: in the Windows 98 era, any kind of widely-used software with reasonable complexity was likely to let you rearrange the toolbars in the way that worked best for you. You didn't have to specifically use Dave's Highly Customizable Software Suite Community Edition for that.
@joepie91 @mynameistillian I guess back then customizing toolbar was a feature and something exciting. Right now it makes people scratch their heads while advocating for ways of monetization of customizable toolbar.
@khaleer_art @mynameistillian Partly that, partly it was pushed through the interface guidelines (and mechanisms) of Windows Forms, IIRC.
I do think a lot of the customizability and empowerment at the time was more accidental 'collateral benefit' than some grand plan to deliberately improve the world, but for a brief period in time, *we had it*!
thoughts on computers
@joepie91 High spoons instead of a lark really resonated with me... such a good description and something i didnt realize meant so much to me
thoughts on computers
@joepie91 yeah I'm going back to old school as much as possible. Pen and paper. Printed books. I'm feeling the same way
thoughts on computers
@joepie91 Ive been having big fun with my rasberry pi doing basic home server stuff
back in my day (redhat 4 era) id have all theese tools but nothing to use them for, and nothing really to run them on.
Now my little pi is running home automation, a media server, and even some little R+D scripts mucking arround with my solar inverter
I think all your points are valid for comercial/consumer computing but i am having lots of fun right now as an enthusiast
thoughts on computers
@joepie91 i guess only through alternatives that we can build ourselves. but who is going to commit to such an undertaking?