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Make computing personal again [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-01-20

Benj Edwards writes that it's "Time to Make Computing Personal Again," taking the technology back from the algorithms, the business incentives and all the other things that have made computers anything but the "radical idea" they once represented to individuals.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not calling the tech industry evil. I'm a huge fan of technology. The industry is full of great people, and this is not a personal attack on anyone. I just think runaway market forces and a handful of poorly-crafted US laws like section 1201 of the DMCA have put all of us onto the wrong track (more on that below).

To some extent, tech companies were always predatory. To some extent, all companies are predatory. It's a matter of degrees. But I believe there's a fundamental truth that we've charted a deeply unhealthy path ahead with consumer technology at the moment.

Tech critic Ed Zitron calls this phenomenon "The Rot Economy," where companies are more obsessed with continuous growth than with providing useful products. "Our economy isn't one that produces things to be used, but things that increase usage," Zitron wrote in another piece, bringing focus to ideas I've been mulling for the past half-decade.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/01/20/make-computing-personal-again.html

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