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> If my mac had a built-in cellular modem, I'd leave the phone at home most days. I can’t imagine having to open my wallet every time I want to pay for somethi

by f6v 2y ago

> If my mac had a built-in cellular modem, I'd leave the phone at home most days. I can’t imagine having to open my wallet every time I want to pay for something. Apple Pay is my favorite feature out of all. Instant communication comes close second. The way we used to live… not being able to ask your partner if we have enough milk in the fridge.

brailsafe 2y ago
But.. none of that does or should require a smart phone really. Even for the cellular modem bit I mentioned, I could find another way to do it; people had devices for this before these black mirrors came around. But a cellular modem built into my laptop would reduce the amount of crap I have instead of add to it, and I'd still use the smart phone for other reasons at other times, just not if I'm going to a cafe to work necessarily. Using technological conveniences with more intentionality instead of chronically is where I think we screw ourselves. With the car comparison, my hunch is that a not insignificant contingent of car owning bi-pedal able-bodied people fit into the category of both not having any athletic pastimes/hobbies and also walk or move their body to get somewhere for less than 30 min a week. Just a hunch though. To do that without having had the influence of a car at some point would be remarkable; you'd have to be exceptionally sedentary, live immediately adjacent to a transit stop and do everything in your life right next to another. If I took the cost of a car and put that into anything else in my life, it's the difference between hypothetically having access to the most expensive outdoor hobbies that don't directly depend on cars themselves, like rally. Not to shit on cars as hobbies either though, not requiring a car means I could afford to have a project car just for the hell of it. Without an Apple Watch, I just.. tap my card, and retain 2 month's worth of food budget because I didn't get the damn thing.
- f6v 2y ago
  > But.. none of that does or should require a smart phone really Well yes, it doesn’t. I used to ask people for directions without a world map, not understand the street signs in a foreign county, come how to a spouse telling me go buy milk since we’re out of it. Most of technological advances in the last 30 years are conveniences. You could argue ad absurdum since you don’t need most of technology to survive. Like, you don’t need a laptop if you think about it. You could just do all your work in the office.
  - brailsafe 2y ago
    But it's not ad absurdum, it's a degree of visceral discomfort for tolerating either the most shallow of discomforts, or the least shallow such as experiencing the vulnerability of navigating a culture without knowing exactly where you are at all times. A laptop is just a marginally different tech choice according to whether I like a bit of variety in my office setting. I don't have a printer or scanner at home, I walk down to the library, but if I no use for laptop over a desktop I'd pick that, which I do for my gaming pc. If I couldn't pick a laptop, that one could argue I've adapted to having, I'd just adapt to not, it's not a big deal.

by f6v 2y ago

brailsafe 2y ago

But.. none of that does or should require a smart phone really. Even for the cellular modem bit I mentioned, I could find another way to do it; people had devices for this before these black mirrors came around. But a cellular modem built into my laptop would reduce the amount of crap I have instead of add to it, and I'd still use the smart phone for other reasons at other times, just not if I'm going to a cafe to work necessarily. Using technological conveniences with more intentionality instead of chronically is where I think we screw ourselves. With the car comparison, my hunch is that a not insignificant contingent of car owning bi-pedal able-bodied people fit into the category of both not having any athletic pastimes/hobbies and also walk or move their body to get somewhere for less than 30 min a week. Just a hunch though. To do that without having had the influence of a car at some point would be remarkable; you'd have to be exceptionally sedentary, live immediately adjacent to a transit stop and do everything in your life right next to another. If I took the cost of a car and put that into anything else in my life, it's the difference between hypothetically having access to the most expensive outdoor hobbies that don't directly depend on cars themselves, like rally. Not to shit on cars as hobbies either though, not requiring a car means I could afford to have a project car just for the hell of it. Without an Apple Watch, I just.. tap my card, and retain 2 month's worth of food budget because I didn't get the damn thing.

f6v 2y ago
> But.. none of that does or should require a smart phone really Well yes, it doesn’t. I used to ask people for directions without a world map, not understand the street signs in a foreign county, come how to a spouse telling me go buy milk since we’re out of it. Most of technological advances in the last 30 years are conveniences. You could argue ad absurdum since you don’t need most of technology to survive. Like, you don’t need a laptop if you think about it. You could just do all your work in the office.
- brailsafe 2y ago
  But it's not ad absurdum, it's a degree of visceral discomfort for tolerating either the most shallow of discomforts, or the least shallow such as experiencing the vulnerability of navigating a culture without knowing exactly where you are at all times. A laptop is just a marginally different tech choice according to whether I like a bit of variety in my office setting. I don't have a printer or scanner at home, I walk down to the library, but if I no use for laptop over a desktop I'd pick that, which I do for my gaming pc. If I couldn't pick a laptop, that one could argue I've adapted to having, I'd just adapt to not, it's not a big deal.