Techno-Pessimism and Advertising rant
To elaborate on the title: It ruined my excitement for new developments and most people care so little about the figurative neon red flags hovering above every new announcement that it frustrates me.
Windows 11 is a recent example of this, for me personally there is no improvement going from 10 to 11. Yet we need to upgrade, and we wil have to accept Copilot in everything. It's even in notepad, an app that you use to take some notes. Theres also advertisements for things in the start menu now, windows store items but with recall they will target advertisements based on what you're researching soon enough, then intergrate that data in your Copilot conversations and suggestions within minutes.
Smart fridges! I remember telling friends in 2018 that the only reason they want a screen on that thing is to show ads someday. There is no reason a fridge would need a screen, and advertisements on a device that expensive is just nasty on so many levels. What about literal screens in your living room, the television. Pretty sure multible brands (Can only find LG and Samsung right now) have pushed updates that suddenly started showing ads in the home screen and even when idling. Disgusting.
Cars as well. I love old cars and analog buttons knobs and thingamajings. New cars are just screens all around and boring bad design. Beyond that, in a couple years the car will detect when you're stopped at a red light and show a quick ad when not driving. Gas stations already do this anyways, you're just standing there and they know you'll listen to the ad because you need the gas and cant leave. You can pay for the privilege of heated seats while at it, and unlock 20% more efficiency for a fee.
AI! The GPT sized elephant that will, and is, transform (heh) our habits in no time. It's enabling a level of advertising I have not yet seen at a consumer level. People are trusting these models with data not even their best friends or loved ones know. If a company pays for advertisements to be snuck in to users that are most vulnerable to the suggestion, would they even notice it as an advertisement or is it just a trusted entity trying to help? This is probably already happening and the likely endgame of transformers.
Smart glasses will detect what you're looking at, for how long, measure your biometrics and make an on the spot calculation about what is needed to push you over the edge, what to show you. The next ad in your vision will be generated on the spot to try and appeal to you and your wallet. Oh, it takes picture to share on whatever platform is popular by then as well, maybe even subtitle your conversations for a premium.
What if we look beyond this. What about something like computer-brain interfaces like neuralink? You would not even notice you're being influenced at all probably. The jokes people made after the Covid 19 vaccines, the ones about suddenly feeling compelled to buy Microsoft products, those will be real. Before getting into your robot taxi you have to watch 20 years of simulated advertising in order to get a 5% discount or something simillar. But hey you can interface with 100 subway surfers at once, which is a nice distraction.
The last real launches that made me go wow was ChatGPT at the start, when the possibilities felt endless. Before that probably Apple M1 laptops, generational leap in performance. These days it all feels like slop generated to feed us advertisements. To the point where I'm enjoying the analog side of life more due to advertising burnout. Techno-Pessimism I guess. I dont even use social media so cant imagine what those trenches look like currently.