We see stuff like this here everyday. General user hostility based on profit incentives and monolithic services, predatory schemes for payments, the psychologically abusive tendencies in advertising, all the other problems with advertising, the endless SEO trash of search engines, exacerbated by profit incentives.
While of course there are some exceptions, the crowd here seems generally aligned that these things are bad (I think they are all bad too). This, naturally, leads to the idea that there should be something done about it, and people try. Being probably more charitable than I need to be, but what is web3 but a massive project aimed at at least a few of these issues.
But either way, I don't want to argue with or naysay anybody who is trying to fix these things, or even just have ideas about it, but I am personally a total pessimist about this stuff. Basically, it seems rather clear to me that all these things cannot and will not be resolved on the implementation level, so to speak. We are totally at the mercy of the grand economic system that sustains these things, and there is no hope or reason for them to change, because the people with all the money are the ones that have any measure of influence to these matters, and they have that money precisely because of these issues.
It is structurally impossible to design your way out of capitalism, or program your way out, or talk your way out; even if its just the internet part of it you really want to fix. You will not be able to convince people to divest from it, and while you may gain some ground proselytizing changes in lifestyle, changes in how we individually use these things, you will always be paddling against an absolutely huge current of finance capital. Short of economic changes that are completely outside the particular problem domain that these kinds of posts tackle, there is nothing at all to be done.
I just don't see how things will get better, and that's ok, it is quite literally an unprecedented global social order that connects and generates these things, the very same one that gave us all the good things too.
I know it sucks, and it is grim, but best not set yourself up for further disappointment. This is what technology is and will be; for as long as the people who develop this stuff and the people who buy the servers and even the ruffian scammers live in a world where things cost money, and profit == success.
It's best to simply recognize this, and do what you can for yourself and your loved ones to survive despite it all.
> it seems rather clear to me that all these things cannot and will not be resolved on the implementation level
Absolutely! This is why we need good legislation. Tech issues will never be solved by tech builders. All tech measures invariably have a tech counter-measure. We've been round this loop so many times over the last two decades. It's a Sisyphean nightmare.
> It is structurally impossible to design your way out of capitalism
This is what good legislation can do for us. The only problem is it takes a lot longer to introduce good legislation than it takes to build bad tech. I'm optimistic that we're approaching the end of the bad tech era.
> Short of economic changes that are completely outside the particular problem domain that these kinds of posts tackle, there is nothing at all to be done.
I reckon legislators in the EU would disagree. They are doing a lot and it's starting to work.
While of course there are some exceptions, the crowd here seems generally aligned that these things are bad (I think they are all bad too). This, naturally, leads to the idea that there should be something done about it, and people try. Being probably more charitable than I need to be, but what is web3 but a massive project aimed at at least a few of these issues.
But either way, I don't want to argue with or naysay anybody who is trying to fix these things, or even just have ideas about it, but I am personally a total pessimist about this stuff. Basically, it seems rather clear to me that all these things cannot and will not be resolved on the implementation level, so to speak. We are totally at the mercy of the grand economic system that sustains these things, and there is no hope or reason for them to change, because the people with all the money are the ones that have any measure of influence to these matters, and they have that money precisely because of these issues.
It is structurally impossible to design your way out of capitalism, or program your way out, or talk your way out; even if its just the internet part of it you really want to fix. You will not be able to convince people to divest from it, and while you may gain some ground proselytizing changes in lifestyle, changes in how we individually use these things, you will always be paddling against an absolutely huge current of finance capital. Short of economic changes that are completely outside the particular problem domain that these kinds of posts tackle, there is nothing at all to be done.
I just don't see how things will get better, and that's ok, it is quite literally an unprecedented global social order that connects and generates these things, the very same one that gave us all the good things too.
I know it sucks, and it is grim, but best not set yourself up for further disappointment. This is what technology is and will be; for as long as the people who develop this stuff and the people who buy the servers and even the ruffian scammers live in a world where things cost money, and profit == success.
It's best to simply recognize this, and do what you can for yourself and your loved ones to survive despite it all.