7 ms·

Nah, it's not exactly like that. I get through regular life okay, but this a $1T company with hundreds of billions in cash, profit driven, using child labor in

Nah, it's not exactly like that. I get through regular life okay, but this a $1T company with hundreds of billions in cash, profit driven, using child labor in China indirectly, and engaging in walled-garden policies makes it worse. They make all these gadgets that replaces incomes from many manufactures and puts it on a single hand. That's bad enough. Now, they destroy all these beautiful things- a piano, a guitar, a camera, and a lot of valuable things to make a point that this single silicon-made, soulless corporate company-produced, cheap exploited labor induced thing is going to replace them. Those things of aesthetics and soul are destroyed to give rise to this thing. That hits hard for me. Seriously. I thought that I was being a real snowflake when this ad made me uncomfortable, but was glad to see this backlash in large numbers. Maybe people still have souls. You can give a thousand lessons in "nature of real circumstances and geopolitics", and this ad with all its backstory will still be wrong to me.

mindwok 2y ago
Thanks, this for me is the best articulation for why someone might feel so strongly.
macspoofing 2y ago
[flagged]
- itishappy 2y ago
  Really really. What makes that so hard to believe?
  - macspoofing 2y ago
    Because it's the most generic ad you can have. All it says is: "Look how many things iPad can help you do". This ad could have been made for any computing device released in the last 20 years (or more!). It's completely generic and corporate. This is a quintessential first-world freak-out - take something that is completely inconsequential and work yourself into a hysteria.
- svaha1728 2y ago
  It’s also because in real life I know musicians and artists who are struggling to survive.
jhbadger 2y ago
Except what are pianos, guitars, cameras etc.? Also products made by companies that are equally "soulless" (they make these things to make money just like Apple). And in terms of aesthetics you can think technological products are just as beautiful as those other products. I personally get angry when I see things like classic Macintoshes turned into fish aquariums and the like, as I see it as beautiful technology destroyed, but even so not that angry.
- yterdy 2y ago
  It's a bit of a stretch to call musical instruments - which are often handcrafted and not manufactured because an object that produces a particular sound requires tolerance that shift with the source material and that are difficult to generalize to a machine process - "soulless". On top of that handcrafting, they're objects made specifically to tap into one of the deepest parts of the human psyche (again, by hand, ephemerally). It's hard to think of something less soulless.
  - ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
    Do you think hand crafted instruments were used for the ad or cheap Chinese shit?
    - yterdy 2y ago
      https://youtu.be/XL7Wxqr2ZRk https://youtu.be/XL7Wxqr2ZRk https://youtu.be/0SvfNhMlnBE https://youtu.be/0SvfNhMlnBE Even "cheap Chinese shit" is made by hand.
      - filleduchaos 2y ago
        I'm not sure how to articulate it but there's a deep irony in how people are scoffing at the emotional reaction to this ad, when the sentiment in it - that all things can be done/subsumed by Computers™ - has infiltrated the public consciousness as deeply as it has. There is so much that is still only doable at least in part by hand, from making certain musical instruments to things like crochet. There are even more that use machines but are nowhere near as automated as people believe they are (see e.g. practically all tailoring, where even mass produced articles still need a skilled hand to guide the cutting and sewing machines). But people love the fiction of some sterile production line that spits out all the cheap things they buy, in no small part because acknowledging that even "cheap Chinese shit" is made by the skilled hands of actual human beings would require acknowledging the gross exploitation that enables you to buy their work for absurdly low prices.
niek_pas 2y ago
> Maybe people still have souls. What exactly are you trying to achieve with this sentence?
cranium 2y ago
I would add that the atmosphere really feels dystopian – kind of a soul-less machine (crusher in a warehouse) vs symbols of human creativity. Despite the music, it's not a light and fun representation.
- goatkey 2y ago
  It reminded me of Fallout or Bioshock, which is kinda funny and likely not at all what they were going for.
- __rito__ 2y ago
  Yes, that too. What man with a soul would destroy a guitar with a crusher for any purpose at all? That's psychopathically problematic to me.
moralestapia 2y ago
Yeah ok, do you carry a smartphone with you? Or do you carry a bag with a camera, a dumb phone, a notepad w/ pens and markers, books, an mp3 player, a pedometer, a measuring tape, ... No one's forcing you to buy the former, so, why don't you do the latter?
- notaustinpowers 2y ago
  Ah, the classic "You criticize technology and yet you have a smartphone, checkmate". There are genuine uses for this technology, but symbolically showing that pianos, violins, paints, etc are out of date by crushing them, replacing them with an iPad removes any of the "humanity" from it. If I swipe a violin string on an iPad, it's going to sound the exact same no matter what. But if I play a real violin I have control over the vibrato (I guess, I'm not a violinist), I can start a note slowly and then quickly cut it off for effect, or slowly fade out a note by relieving pressure on the strings. The real thing allows for artists to put their heart and their soul into the music. An iPad can only immitate the note in it's most pristine, mathematic, sterile form.
  - moralestapia 2y ago
    >Ah, the classic "You criticize technology and yet you have a smartphone, checkmate". I never wrote anything remotely similar to that in my comment. I'm talking about the convenience of carrying a single thing vs. many of them. >removes any of the "humanity" from it No, the iPad didn't remove the humanity from those activities, you did, right now. Let me tell you something, there's some really good pieces of art out there, music, short films, photography, etc... that were created using a modern digital device like the iPad. Does that make those less human? Less artistically valuable? Absolutely not!
    - notaustinpowers 2y ago
      This conversation isn't about "convenience of carrying a single thing vs. many of them". This discussion isn't about portability. Musicians don't carry their pianos or an orchestra with them to Trader Joes. On your other point: Correct, there is INCREDIBLE art out there that is only possible thanks to technology. EDM music, 3D animation, the hyperpop genre (RIP Sophie), etc. The insinuation of the ad, however, is that those "old" ways to create art are no longer needed, the iPad does it all!! Give two jazz artists the same music sheet and an iPad and tell them to recreate it and they'll both make music that sounds the exact same, because the iPad doesn't allow them to insert those little things like I mentioned in my previous comment. Give those same two jazz artists the same music sheet but give them a full orchestra and they'll both be unique. This doesn't make digital art less artistically valuable. I'm saying that technologies such as the iPad, which inherently remove the ability for human uniqueness to be included, insinuating that physical methods of artistic expression are outdated is both demeaning to artists, and frankly a dangerous method of thinking when it comes to art.
pera 2y ago
> Maybe people still have souls I agree with everything you say except for this part: not having an emotional reaction to the destruction of objects doesn't imply you don't have a soul (whatever that means to you). Not everybody had the opportunity in life to learn to play an instrument or make art, and I can see how for people like this a music instrument is not more sentimental than, say, a hammer. Maybe you should feel good about feeling bad after watching that ad: it means you had the chance to experience the beauty of creating art.
rib3ye 2y ago
Actual number is $26B in cash source: 2023 10k
sanderjd 2y ago
I mean, they obviously didn't execute it well, since so many people had this kind of reaction to it, but the point seemed to me to be that all those "things of aesthetics and soul" are smushed into this one very thin thing, not that they are destroyed. But sure, I can see why people don't like it.
- dtjb 2y ago
  they were gratuitously and violently destroyed, with shrapnel and debris flying in all directions. these hydraulic press videos are popular because they crush things. they don't create artful unions, they pulverize.
sheepscreek 2y ago
I think you got very close to the real issue. One aspect could bae related the affordability of things. Imagine that beautiful grand piano - how many would have dreamt of owning one in their homes but can’t. Because: a) they are expensive b) need a lot of space (so you need to have a big home to begin with) Seeing a lot of new things being destroyed, along with the stress all emoji’s eyes popping out, was a bit much.
culopatin 2y ago
Why does Apple destroying things outrage worthy but Hollywood destroying many more things (in my head for example many classic cars) for a shot, not? Is it because one is entertaining and one is not?
- boringg 2y ago
  The advertisement statement is destroying all these things and replacing them by an iPad. I.E. thats the sales pitch -- you don't need any of these things anymore just this iPad. Hollywood does destroy all sorts of things but that's not their sales pitch to you. It happens in the background. Also it isn't replacing those soulful cars with a new car -- it's using them for a shot.
  - culopatin 2y ago
    So as long as things happen in the background and we continue to be numb to the destruction is all good? I think that says more about you(as in us, the viewer, not you HN user) than about Apple to be honest. And I’m not pro Apple here, could be anyone. Could be that Australian girl on Instagram that crushes things and dances to their shape.
    - boringg 2y ago
      There's a step function difference between a large megacorp making their message about crushing artistic merit/individuality and selling their device as a replacement to all compared to hollywood using a couple cars as a stunt in the background. Apples to oranges. If you can't see the difference here I think this says more about you being able to put together reasonable comparables for arguments then anything else. For example using "Australian girl on Instagram that crushes things and dances to their shape" as a comparable is so completely different as to be irrelevant except that there is similarity in something being crushed. It's like comparing a military jet and a mosquito because they can both fly.
      - culopatin 2y ago
canadianfella 2y ago
[dead]
bitexploder 2y ago
I feel this is a highly romantic and nostalgic view of objects humans make. Calling them “beautiful” vs “this thing”. I know this is all subjective, but what makes a piano more soulful than an iPhone? This is a genuinely curious exploration of the emotions involved here.
- amelius 2y ago
  The iPhone is a vending machine in our pockets, controlled by a large corporation. I'm not at all surprised people don't feel emotions around it. The moment a piano starts selling tablature in the TabStore™, I'm sure that people won't mind to see a piano being crushed in a hydraulic press.
8338550bff96 2y ago
Snowflakes are normally found en mass

mindwok 2y ago

Thanks, this for me is the best articulation for why someone might feel so strongly.

macspoofing 2y ago

[flagged]

itishappy 2y ago
Really really. What makes that so hard to believe?
- macspoofing 2y ago
  Because it's the most generic ad you can have. All it says is: "Look how many things iPad can help you do". This ad could have been made for any computing device released in the last 20 years (or more!). It's completely generic and corporate. This is a quintessential first-world freak-out - take something that is completely inconsequential and work yourself into a hysteria.
svaha1728 2y ago
It’s also because in real life I know musicians and artists who are struggling to survive.

jhbadger 2y ago

Except what are pianos, guitars, cameras etc.? Also products made by companies that are equally "soulless" (they make these things to make money just like Apple). And in terms of aesthetics you can think technological products are just as beautiful as those other products. I personally get angry when I see things like classic Macintoshes turned into fish aquariums and the like, as I see it as beautiful technology destroyed, but even so not that angry.

yterdy 2y ago
It's a bit of a stretch to call musical instruments - which are often handcrafted and not manufactured because an object that produces a particular sound requires tolerance that shift with the source material and that are difficult to generalize to a machine process - "soulless". On top of that handcrafting, they're objects made specifically to tap into one of the deepest parts of the human psyche (again, by hand, ephemerally). It's hard to think of something less soulless.
- ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
  Do you think hand crafted instruments were used for the ad or cheap Chinese shit?
  - yterdy 2y ago
    https://youtu.be/XL7Wxqr2ZRk https://youtu.be/XL7Wxqr2ZRk https://youtu.be/0SvfNhMlnBE https://youtu.be/0SvfNhMlnBE Even "cheap Chinese shit" is made by hand.
    - filleduchaos 2y ago
      I'm not sure how to articulate it but there's a deep irony in how people are scoffing at the emotional reaction to this ad, when the sentiment in it - that all things can be done/subsumed by Computers™ - has infiltrated the public consciousness as deeply as it has. There is so much that is still only doable at least in part by hand, from making certain musical instruments to things like crochet. There are even more that use machines but are nowhere near as automated as people believe they are (see e.g. practically all tailoring, where even mass produced articles still need a skilled hand to guide the cutting and sewing machines). But people love the fiction of some sterile production line that spits out all the cheap things they buy, in no small part because acknowledging that even "cheap Chinese shit" is made by the skilled hands of actual human beings would require acknowledging the gross exploitation that enables you to buy their work for absurdly low prices.

niek_pas 2y ago

> Maybe people still have souls. What exactly are you trying to achieve with this sentence?

cranium 2y ago

I would add that the atmosphere really feels dystopian – kind of a soul-less machine (crusher in a warehouse) vs symbols of human creativity. Despite the music, it's not a light and fun representation.

goatkey 2y ago
It reminded me of Fallout or Bioshock, which is kinda funny and likely not at all what they were going for.
__rito__ 2y ago
Yes, that too. What man with a soul would destroy a guitar with a crusher for any purpose at all? That's psychopathically problematic to me.

moralestapia 2y ago

Yeah ok, do you carry a smartphone with you? Or do you carry a bag with a camera, a dumb phone, a notepad w/ pens and markers, books, an mp3 player, a pedometer, a measuring tape, ... No one's forcing you to buy the former, so, why don't you do the latter?

notaustinpowers 2y ago
Ah, the classic "You criticize technology and yet you have a smartphone, checkmate". There are genuine uses for this technology, but symbolically showing that pianos, violins, paints, etc are out of date by crushing them, replacing them with an iPad removes any of the "humanity" from it. If I swipe a violin string on an iPad, it's going to sound the exact same no matter what. But if I play a real violin I have control over the vibrato (I guess, I'm not a violinist), I can start a note slowly and then quickly cut it off for effect, or slowly fade out a note by relieving pressure on the strings. The real thing allows for artists to put their heart and their soul into the music. An iPad can only immitate the note in it's most pristine, mathematic, sterile form.
- moralestapia 2y ago
  >Ah, the classic "You criticize technology and yet you have a smartphone, checkmate". I never wrote anything remotely similar to that in my comment. I'm talking about the convenience of carrying a single thing vs. many of them. >removes any of the "humanity" from it No, the iPad didn't remove the humanity from those activities, you did, right now. Let me tell you something, there's some really good pieces of art out there, music, short films, photography, etc... that were created using a modern digital device like the iPad. Does that make those less human? Less artistically valuable? Absolutely not!
  - notaustinpowers 2y ago
    This conversation isn't about "convenience of carrying a single thing vs. many of them". This discussion isn't about portability. Musicians don't carry their pianos or an orchestra with them to Trader Joes. On your other point: Correct, there is INCREDIBLE art out there that is only possible thanks to technology. EDM music, 3D animation, the hyperpop genre (RIP Sophie), etc. The insinuation of the ad, however, is that those "old" ways to create art are no longer needed, the iPad does it all!! Give two jazz artists the same music sheet and an iPad and tell them to recreate it and they'll both make music that sounds the exact same, because the iPad doesn't allow them to insert those little things like I mentioned in my previous comment. Give those same two jazz artists the same music sheet but give them a full orchestra and they'll both be unique. This doesn't make digital art less artistically valuable. I'm saying that technologies such as the iPad, which inherently remove the ability for human uniqueness to be included, insinuating that physical methods of artistic expression are outdated is both demeaning to artists, and frankly a dangerous method of thinking when it comes to art.

pera 2y ago

> Maybe people still have souls I agree with everything you say except for this part: not having an emotional reaction to the destruction of objects doesn't imply you don't have a soul (whatever that means to you). Not everybody had the opportunity in life to learn to play an instrument or make art, and I can see how for people like this a music instrument is not more sentimental than, say, a hammer. Maybe you should feel good about feeling bad after watching that ad: it means you had the chance to experience the beauty of creating art.

rib3ye 2y ago

Actual number is $26B in cash source: 2023 10k

sanderjd 2y ago

I mean, they obviously didn't execute it well, since so many people had this kind of reaction to it, but the point seemed to me to be that all those "things of aesthetics and soul" are smushed into this one very thin thing, not that they are destroyed. But sure, I can see why people don't like it.

dtjb 2y ago
they were gratuitously and violently destroyed, with shrapnel and debris flying in all directions. these hydraulic press videos are popular because they crush things. they don't create artful unions, they pulverize.

sheepscreek 2y ago

I think you got very close to the real issue. One aspect could bae related the affordability of things. Imagine that beautiful grand piano - how many would have dreamt of owning one in their homes but can’t. Because: a) they are expensive b) need a lot of space (so you need to have a big home to begin with) Seeing a lot of new things being destroyed, along with the stress all emoji’s eyes popping out, was a bit much.

culopatin 2y ago

Why does Apple destroying things outrage worthy but Hollywood destroying many more things (in my head for example many classic cars) for a shot, not? Is it because one is entertaining and one is not?

boringg 2y ago
The advertisement statement is destroying all these things and replacing them by an iPad. I.E. thats the sales pitch -- you don't need any of these things anymore just this iPad. Hollywood does destroy all sorts of things but that's not their sales pitch to you. It happens in the background. Also it isn't replacing those soulful cars with a new car -- it's using them for a shot.
- culopatin 2y ago
  So as long as things happen in the background and we continue to be numb to the destruction is all good? I think that says more about you(as in us, the viewer, not you HN user) than about Apple to be honest. And I’m not pro Apple here, could be anyone. Could be that Australian girl on Instagram that crushes things and dances to their shape.
  - boringg 2y ago
    There's a step function difference between a large megacorp making their message about crushing artistic merit/individuality and selling their device as a replacement to all compared to hollywood using a couple cars as a stunt in the background. Apples to oranges. If you can't see the difference here I think this says more about you being able to put together reasonable comparables for arguments then anything else. For example using "Australian girl on Instagram that crushes things and dances to their shape" as a comparable is so completely different as to be irrelevant except that there is similarity in something being crushed. It's like comparing a military jet and a mosquito because they can both fly.
    - culopatin 2y ago

canadianfella 2y ago

[dead]

bitexploder 2y ago

I feel this is a highly romantic and nostalgic view of objects humans make. Calling them “beautiful” vs “this thing”. I know this is all subjective, but what makes a piano more soulful than an iPhone? This is a genuinely curious exploration of the emotions involved here.

amelius 2y ago
The iPhone is a vending machine in our pockets, controlled by a large corporation. I'm not at all surprised people don't feel emotions around it. The moment a piano starts selling tablature in the TabStore™, I'm sure that people won't mind to see a piano being crushed in a hydraulic press.

8338550bff96 2y ago

Snowflakes are normally found en mass