3 ms·
The great beast of late stage capitalism is devouring computers just as it does everything else. You don’t need to control your computer sweetie just come to th
by zaptheimpaler 6y ago
The great beast of late stage capitalism is devouring computers just as it does everything else. You don’t need to control your computer sweetie just come to the store and pay us $200 to do it for you.
Collectively, devs have decided that a high paying salary at FAANG justifies whatever trash they inflict upon the world. Even a highly sought after programmer is only a programmer, one cog in the machine.
Keep pissing in the common pool and stuffing your own pockets. Keep dissolving every semblance of community (as a force for collective action on the world, not just buddies having a drink). This is what a divided society looks like. Easily controlled by whichever crooks happen to be in charge.
- pram 6y agolol what does this even mean? When was anything you said not the case? Were computers more democratic when they were obscenely expensive time-sharing mainframes living at places like universities and Bell Labs? Were developers ever anything other than a 'cog in the machine' at any point during the 20th century? You can't just say 'late stage capitalism' and somehow have it morph into a meaningful (or even coherent) point jfyi
- zaptheimpaler 6y agoComputers were more open and about as powerful for a brief period a few years ago, say 2012-2018. They were certainly more open for the many decades between when PCs came out and now. We didn’t just jump straight from time shared mainframes to modern PCs... Yes, great developers were much more powerful than cogs in the machine until recently. Being a dev was not a mainstream, sexy, or high paid career until recently. So the kinds of people the profession attracted were quite different. Maybe you feel anything with the words late-stage capitalism can be discarded immediately. Maybe it sounds hysterical or anti-progress. But we certainly can make technology better for non technical people without taking away configurability and freedom for experts to truly own their machine as well.
- pram 6y agoSoftware Development and IT weren't sexy or mainstream during the Dot Com bubble? That is quite an ahistorical opinion imo. I'm old enough to remember the mountain of 'Learn Java in 24 Hours' books at every bookstore in the 90s.
- unishark 6y agoI view it as more like developing country capitalism. I remember a BBC description several years ago about what the internet was like in the middle east and India. It was awash with annoying ads and privacy violation but people didn't seem to care, presumably since it was all they knew and so much better than going without. With technology changing extremely-fast now, it is the wild west here too. Once AI is a commodity every can profit from, including on the defense side in finding you content without needed to give your data away, it will probably settle down again.