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But you can't really download a car, can you? :) Joke aside, I think we are actually going in the opposite direction. Looking at the way Tesla wants/already doe

by mns 5y ago

But you can't really download a car, can you? :) Joke aside, I think we are actually going in the opposite direction. Looking at the way Tesla wants/already does keep a score of your driving, maybe self driving cars in the distant future, I would predict that we are going in the wrong direction when certain people and groups will want cars to drive away from you back to their home base or your car to refuse to start or unlock if you misbehave. Somehow I am not sure why, we as technical people, and I would even think that most of the people in these fields are also into fiction and sci-fi, we are taking only the worst things from novels and stories, instead of the good ones, VERY slowly transforming our society in an dystopian nightmare.

Grustaf 5y ago
Yes that is true, as software keeps eating the world, software mores will eventually rule everything. If it has a microchip in it, it might ban you. For cars I don't think this future is distant at all, ten years max.
c-linkage 5y ago
This is because we work for businesses that are fixated on generating revenue and profits rather than on improving the human condition. Since this is Hacker News I'm sure there will be some who can say the two are compatible, but it will only appear that way to the wealthy and the elites -- the rest of us will gain none of the benefits and will be seen solely as "customers" or "partners" from which revenue must be extracted. One only need look at the transformation of business from selling products to selling services, changing a sales relationship into a rental relationship. For businesses operating key or critical technical infrastructures this is equivalent to a corporate "universal basic income", such as will never occur for the common man.
- Grustaf 5y ago
  > This is because we work for businesses that are fixated on generating revenue and profits rather than on improving the human condition. Not quite. Few businesses have ever been focused on improving the human condition. The new thing is their ability to control our lives, and our acceptance of that, both in terms of laws and our quiet consent.
coliveira 5y ago
I wouldn't say slowly... It seems this thing is becoming a dystopia quite quickly.
CRConrad 5y ago
> taking only the worst things from novels and stories, instead of the good ones, VERY slowly transforming our society in an dystopian nightmare. I have only one objection here: Doesn't feel all that slow to me.

by mns 5y ago

Grustaf 5y ago

Yes that is true, as software keeps eating the world, software mores will eventually rule everything. If it has a microchip in it, it might ban you. For cars I don't think this future is distant at all, ten years max.

c-linkage 5y ago

This is because we work for businesses that are fixated on generating revenue and profits rather than on improving the human condition. Since this is Hacker News I'm sure there will be some who can say the two are compatible, but it will only appear that way to the wealthy and the elites -- the rest of us will gain none of the benefits and will be seen solely as "customers" or "partners" from which revenue must be extracted. One only need look at the transformation of business from selling products to selling services, changing a sales relationship into a rental relationship. For businesses operating key or critical technical infrastructures this is equivalent to a corporate "universal basic income", such as will never occur for the common man.

Grustaf 5y ago
> This is because we work for businesses that are fixated on generating revenue and profits rather than on improving the human condition. Not quite. Few businesses have ever been focused on improving the human condition. The new thing is their ability to control our lives, and our acceptance of that, both in terms of laws and our quiet consent.

coliveira 5y ago

I wouldn't say slowly... It seems this thing is becoming a dystopia quite quickly.

CRConrad 5y ago

> taking only the worst things from novels and stories, instead of the good ones, VERY slowly transforming our society in an dystopian nightmare. I have only one objection here: Doesn't feel all that slow to me.