Disconnect

Let's hope we never do. Of course, there's very little hope but we all would be better off if this product didn't exist.

Let me quote Paris Marx's excellent summary from his Apple Vision Pro preview https://disconnect.blog/apples-vision-pro-headset-deserves/

> Tech companies want us isolated and constantly staring at screens because it drives profit

and of course

> The Vision Pro lets users further separate themselves from their surroundings and even create “digital personas” for video calls so other people are talking to a digital, abstracted version of themselves instead of seeing the real person.

Even The Verge acknowledges:

> using the Vision Pro is such a lonely experience, regardless of the weird ghost eyes on the front.

Of course it's Apple so it'll catch on and what in 1969 was predicted to happen in 4545 will happen, well, quite a few years earlier

: In the year 4545

...

: Nobody's gonna look at you

And of course https://img.ifunny.co/images/3461f2f61d0ac8385d0c1985ac415547f6a1ad99783efc91a20dbe94d4158315_1.jpg

Yep, and see https://disconnect.blog/kara-swishers-story-about-sam-altman-is-falling-apart/

> When Sam Altman was ousted as CEO of OpenAI on November 17, 2023, Kara Swisher started tweeting up a storm of “scoopage,” as she referred to her calls with high-ranking tech figures. Over the days Altman was on the outside, Swisher helped to craft a narrative that a board stacked with his internal rivals had pulled off a coup without a legitimate reason. The face of the AI boom had been betrayed and deserved to retake his position at the helm.

> She’s chosen a few CEOs to more regularly criticize now that they don’t give her the access she craves, but there are many more whose narratives she will happily help turn into the official record whenever it will help them. Altman is in that group, and six months after his removal and return as CEO of OpenAI, it’s become very apparent that Swisher was echoing the Altman line and defending his interests.

I'd bear in mind that sometimes things are intentionally impossible fictions, because the authors never intended to actually build something concrete in the first place, but rather to affect the minds of investors and politicians. [0]

Just imagine the anchoring effect [1] on potential investors when the see--in actual newspapers--that a one Infinijillion dollar project of Much Seriousness is centered on Acme Corp (stock ticker: ACME.) Let alone other influences like "invest now or else be consumed by SingularityCorp."

[0] Ex: https://www.disconnect.blog/p/the-hyperloop-was-always-a-scam

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring_effect

> HH has been going off the deep end with his rhetoric for years, the current political environment has made it so that he can't be ignored anymore.

But Shopify is also right wing in its executive team, and via these move they appear to be support DHH:

https://pressprogress.ca/shopify-executives-right-wing-media-website-rails-against-immigrants-while-defending-a-legally-designated-terrorist-group/

https://disconnect.blog/the-conservative-tech-alliance-is-coming-to-canada/

And yeah, Shopify is going to protect DHH because DHH is on Shopify's board:

https://www.shopify.com/news/david-heinemeier-hansson-board

So, using the same logic, Meta should not be liable for what happens on Facebook because users do not pay…

That's some Barlowesque[1] thinking that would play into the hands of big tech.

If Telegram didn't want to answer to French law, they should've blocked French phone numbers from registering users. Problem solved.

[1] https://disconnect.blog/reclaiming-sovereignty-in-the-digital-age/