4 ms·

It's very interesting to see Tech from the mid 90s all the way to today. From nerds, niche, to Oligarchs. From breaking boundaries to limiting alternatives.

It's very interesting to see Tech from the mid 90s all the way to today. From nerds, niche, to Oligarchs. From breaking boundaries to limiting alternatives. From rebelling against the status-quo to become the status-quo. The nerds now become the slave.

Gothmog69 2y ago
Ya I find it interesting I feel like the nerds have been pushed aside by the mainstream. Social networks for instance were a lot better when it was just nerds.
- ddq 2y ago
  Nerds wield potentially vast collective bargaining power if we refused to contribute to the systems that exploit our expertise and labor for the benefit of the ownership class. We could simply drop out and support one another with all our surplus time. Easier said than done, of course, but at this point I have to dream of bold alternatives to keep myself sane. The status quo and its present trajectory are just too unthinkably broken to have faith in incrementalism while the accelerationists are punishing us for our complacency in replacing rotted, unsustainable systems.
  - fullshark 2y ago
    Good luck with that, i'm gonna indulge in various vices to dull the cognitive dissonance and work in the machine to feed my kids.
- _cenw 2y ago
  Nerds were required on the early internet for community building - to run IRC and TS and phpBB. These days everyone has these tools. But as with the media monopoly dying, this is not a strictly better or worse thing, it's just different. And generally I like it when we get rid of gatekeeping.
- kelseydh 2y ago
  The hot people are now in charge, just like everywhere else.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
janice1999 2y ago
That's a lot of mythologising. Look up all the shady stuff companies like Intel were doing in the 90s, from IP theft to outright bribing companies to avoid their competition (which was better). Apple and Microsoft were starting to polish how to lock in users. Google was created with the help of NSF and MDDS/CIA grants etc. It's not all rebels and outsiders.
- hello_moto 2y ago
  >Google was created with the help of NSF and MDDS/CIA grants etc. Nerds to Oligarchs. Things are so dire than Yann LeCun wrote a post on LinkedIN regarding grants cuts. Chinese scientists who have lived in USA for 40+ years migrated to China to lead researchers just because The Administration decided to pick on minorities.
  - Pigalowda 2y ago
    Yea, China would never pick on minorities! China #1!!
whyenot 2y ago
Blame the tech workers who have been so dazzled by dollar signs that they no longer look at their moral compasses. I belong in this group as well. Of course this is not a problem specific to those in tech. It's just that we are the group that built the prison we now all find ourselves in.
- alexashka 2y ago
  Do you not realize you've been programmed to look for a specific group to blame instead of thinking? Why would you blame tech workers? They're just another brainwashed mass that works for a living. If I were to suggest a wrong solution - I'd at least blame the finance sector. Blaming doesn't solve anything because once you're done with your witch hunt - the problems remain. The systemic problem remains. We need systemic solutions and those require thinking, not reaching for a pre-made solution you've been brainwashed to reach for. Until people recognize modern society to be a complex system that requires thinking to operate, there will be no meaningful progress. We're still operating under the system of I take people willing to dish out violence and go around bullying everyone in sight. I then take the plundered resources and tell nerds to go do their nerd shit to make me a complex society that works wonderfully. It doesn't work. Not because nerds realize working for power hungry dummies is stupid but because we're destroying the planet and regular working people worldwide hate us and we have to work hard to barely keep the thing from falling apart. Constantly lying to everyone and yourself once you realize the fucked system you're in is exhausting, so it doesn't work. But please realize - the answer isn't to blame anyone. It's to find solutions and that takes thinking.
- maeil 2y ago
  Then stop belonging to that group. Today.
morkalork 2y ago
From anti-establishment hacker to omnipresent AI surveillance enabler. Yay!
aqueueaqueue 2y ago
Mid 90s: Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, ... wasn't much different. Just fewer people online.
kelseydh 2y ago
I'm quite a fan of the theory that we can culturally blame the Big Bang Theory TV show for a lot of this: https://www.tiktok.com/@hasandpiker/video/7472501303743155502 https://www.tiktok.com/@hasandpiker/video/747250130374315550...

Gothmog69 2y ago

Ya I find it interesting I feel like the nerds have been pushed aside by the mainstream. Social networks for instance were a lot better when it was just nerds.

ddq 2y ago
Nerds wield potentially vast collective bargaining power if we refused to contribute to the systems that exploit our expertise and labor for the benefit of the ownership class. We could simply drop out and support one another with all our surplus time. Easier said than done, of course, but at this point I have to dream of bold alternatives to keep myself sane. The status quo and its present trajectory are just too unthinkably broken to have faith in incrementalism while the accelerationists are punishing us for our complacency in replacing rotted, unsustainable systems.
- fullshark 2y ago
  Good luck with that, i'm gonna indulge in various vices to dull the cognitive dissonance and work in the machine to feed my kids.
_cenw 2y ago
Nerds were required on the early internet for community building - to run IRC and TS and phpBB. These days everyone has these tools. But as with the media monopoly dying, this is not a strictly better or worse thing, it's just different. And generally I like it when we get rid of gatekeeping.
kelseydh 2y ago
The hot people are now in charge, just like everywhere else.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

janice1999 2y ago

That's a lot of mythologising. Look up all the shady stuff companies like Intel were doing in the 90s, from IP theft to outright bribing companies to avoid their competition (which was better). Apple and Microsoft were starting to polish how to lock in users. Google was created with the help of NSF and MDDS/CIA grants etc. It's not all rebels and outsiders.

hello_moto 2y ago
>Google was created with the help of NSF and MDDS/CIA grants etc. Nerds to Oligarchs. Things are so dire than Yann LeCun wrote a post on LinkedIN regarding grants cuts. Chinese scientists who have lived in USA for 40+ years migrated to China to lead researchers just because The Administration decided to pick on minorities.
- Pigalowda 2y ago
  Yea, China would never pick on minorities! China #1!!

whyenot 2y ago

Blame the tech workers who have been so dazzled by dollar signs that they no longer look at their moral compasses. I belong in this group as well. Of course this is not a problem specific to those in tech. It's just that we are the group that built the prison we now all find ourselves in.

alexashka 2y ago
Do you not realize you've been programmed to look for a specific group to blame instead of thinking? Why would you blame tech workers? They're just another brainwashed mass that works for a living. If I were to suggest a wrong solution - I'd at least blame the finance sector. Blaming doesn't solve anything because once you're done with your witch hunt - the problems remain. The systemic problem remains. We need systemic solutions and those require thinking, not reaching for a pre-made solution you've been brainwashed to reach for. Until people recognize modern society to be a complex system that requires thinking to operate, there will be no meaningful progress. We're still operating under the system of I take people willing to dish out violence and go around bullying everyone in sight. I then take the plundered resources and tell nerds to go do their nerd shit to make me a complex society that works wonderfully. It doesn't work. Not because nerds realize working for power hungry dummies is stupid but because we're destroying the planet and regular working people worldwide hate us and we have to work hard to barely keep the thing from falling apart. Constantly lying to everyone and yourself once you realize the fucked system you're in is exhausting, so it doesn't work. But please realize - the answer isn't to blame anyone. It's to find solutions and that takes thinking.
maeil 2y ago
Then stop belonging to that group. Today.

morkalork 2y ago

From anti-establishment hacker to omnipresent AI surveillance enabler. Yay!

aqueueaqueue 2y ago

Mid 90s: Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, ... wasn't much different. Just fewer people online.

kelseydh 2y ago

I'm quite a fan of the theory that we can culturally blame the Big Bang Theory TV show for a lot of this: https://www.tiktok.com/@hasandpiker/video/7472501303743155502 https://www.tiktok.com/@hasandpiker/video/747250130374315550...