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I'm perfectly content with Amazon's product. I am happy to fund it in exchange for the utility it provides me.

rglullis 5y ago
It's interesting to point out that your answer does not defend the ethical aspect of Amazon and consequently your own choice. And you don't think that you can do anything to counter the bad side of it? Don't you think there is no externality that you should be paying for?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dangrossman 5y ago
  You're a funny guy. I'm going to go ponder the ethical aspect of the bagel I'm about to make for lunch now, and whether there are any externalities I didn't pay for when choosing a toaster oven to warm it up. This should interest you, so maybe I'll report back later.
- cheeze 5y ago
  It's a smart speaker that people ask "how many teaspoons in a cup". I don't care about the ethical aspect. I care about the basic utility that it adds to my life. I don't see much unethical here, HN people are just weirdos.
  - Levitz 5y ago
    And Facebook is just a site to read stuff and talk to your friends, I guess? I'm baffled that the third biggest corporation in the world by revenue having a microphone listening 24/7 in millions of homes doesn't raise any questions about ethics, there are a truckload around advertising alone.
    - dangrossman 5y ago
      Were you also baffled by the ethics of telephones? I don't mean the cell phone in 6.4 billion pockets that's always listening, I mean the POTS. AT&T was once the largest corporation in the world, and they had a live wire going directly to almost every house in the nation. The telephones were always on, and the other end always capable of remotely listening in to anything you said, if you picked it up. Little different from an Echo device that's always waiting for its wake word to start transmitting. Almost everyone that's alive right now has always had a remote listening device in their home, controlled by a major corporation, from the moment they were born.

It's interesting to point out that your answer does not defend the ethical aspect of Amazon and consequently your own choice. And you don't think that you can do anything to counter the bad side of it? Don't you think there is no externality that you should be paying for?

deleted 5y ago
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dangrossman 5y ago
You're a funny guy. I'm going to go ponder the ethical aspect of the bagel I'm about to make for lunch now, and whether there are any externalities I didn't pay for when choosing a toaster oven to warm it up. This should interest you, so maybe I'll report back later.
cheeze 5y ago
It's a smart speaker that people ask "how many teaspoons in a cup". I don't care about the ethical aspect. I care about the basic utility that it adds to my life. I don't see much unethical here, HN people are just weirdos.
- Levitz 5y ago
  And Facebook is just a site to read stuff and talk to your friends, I guess? I'm baffled that the third biggest corporation in the world by revenue having a microphone listening 24/7 in millions of homes doesn't raise any questions about ethics, there are a truckload around advertising alone.
  - dangrossman 5y ago
    Were you also baffled by the ethics of telephones? I don't mean the cell phone in 6.4 billion pockets that's always listening, I mean the POTS. AT&T was once the largest corporation in the world, and they had a live wire going directly to almost every house in the nation. The telephones were always on, and the other end always capable of remotely listening in to anything you said, if you picked it up. Little different from an Echo device that's always waiting for its wake word to start transmitting. Almost everyone that's alive right now has always had a remote listening device in their home, controlled by a major corporation, from the moment they were born.