This is really the of stuff dystopian scifi.
A somewhat cliched saying comes to my mind when reading this article.
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” [1]
Hopefully, there will eventually be pushback against this techno-feudalism and oligarchy. For what it’s worth this seems to always happen in history. Ruling elites (in our case oligarchs and their promoters; the media, economists, politicians) consolidate their power and start to become disconnected from reality.
As a side note, it’s funny that AI-generated videos have themes of dystopia and rebellion against the system.
It’s like in Diamond Age when Nell went to visit her brother later in the book and he spent all day consuming trashy ractives.
I’ve tried a few times to get into Diamond Age, and every time i lose interest within the first 50 pages. Is it worth another try?
The only Stephenson book I managed to “finish” was the first two thirds of Seveneves, totally lost interest in the last third of the book too.
It gets better, but I’ve never gone back and reread it. The ending, IIRC is goofy too.
Honestly, I love his writing, but the books of his I’ve finished are Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, Diamond Age, Zodiac, and ReamDe. The others I’ve either struggled to get into (Seveneves because the first chapter is so damn down) or just never started.
Honestly, ReamDe and Cryptonomicon are IMHO his most readable, maybe because they’re sent in the current time. Though I loved Snow Crash.
As soon as you stop buying pre built SmArT shit and cobble the same together from regular components. I get a smart TV experience from a dumb tv/projector and a media PC with remote access or local kb/m. In the past I had a harmony remote that made it much closer to the real experience
Stop gobbling up corporate slop and these issues stop being an issue. You just have to deal with less slick experiences, but it’s worth it imo.
For TVs now, by buying used. Help yourself and the environment by buying an unwanted “dumb” TV that’s free of this sort of crap.
Or if budget allows, look at industrial displays.
Supply answers demand, is we stop buying junk smart stuff and take our money elsewhere the market will eventually follow.
Just when we think it can’t get worse, some rich asshole has to laugh and say “Hold my beer and watch me enshittify even harder.”
A while ago a company patented a method using eye tracking to monitor whether TV watchers were paying attention to ads.
It can always get worse.
