Dangerous trends in today's technology

Hi all, it's been a long time that this subject concerns me, but now I decided to put it in a concise form and post it, so we can discuss.

While I'm all for guided careful technological advancement, I see some dangerous trends in the technology field that are already well under way. I've listed some of them below and I could have elaborated more about them, but wanted just to give a general idea and to keep it short and to the point.

1. Introduction of sensors everywhere in everything, microphones, cameras, etc, even clothes have them now, they're called "smart clothing". If I want to turn off with a hardware switch the mic or the camera, I can't. Sure it's convenient to have them on all the time, but privacy and convenience don't meet very often.

2. Removal of the hardware buttons. The trend towards touch screen everything, cars with touch buttons, cell phones without any button at all, washing machines, fridges touch only, as if the buttons are not in fashion anymore. I like to have, say a hard ON-OFF switch, not a touch one. What other issues do you notice here?

3. The dangerous trend of subscription based software. Before you paid only once for the program, now you're hooked monthly to the big tech companies. And as always with them, prices and their terms are subject to change. Now even our files go into the cloud, subject to the big tech companies terms and conditions.

4. Paper elimination. Tech devices are slowly replacing the plain paper and pencil, maybe in the future we won't see them anymore, but only touch screens, and people will not even learn to write with a pen anymore. I see a slow disappearance of the paper books, everything going digital.

5. The removal of useful options/features from the devices and the unwanted introduction of the new ones, under the pretense that this "new" feature is easier to use and more "useful". A quick example, just the other day Bank of America is removing ShopSafe option from their credit card services and pushing Google Pay, Apple Pay, etc, which I don't use. Do you know any other examples?

6. The very insidious rolling in of the digital virtual currency, and the slow (or just immediate) disappearance of hard cash money.

7. Everything automated, do we need it? Cars with no drivers, robots as waiters, as builders, etc ... What happened to the human interaction?! What other problems do you see here?

8. The complete sealing/enclosed frames of the new devices. No more screws to open, only strong glue, people cannot tinker with these devices like before, they are now very hard to repair and re-purpose them. When they break you're most likely gonna need to buy another one.

Anything else ... ?

Now I'm aware that these trends have their own advantages too, otherwise they wouldn't sell, but compared to their disadvantages, which ones weigh more?

So dear ATS users, what are your thoughts on these trends and what other dangerous ones do you see now in our current technology?

a reply to: miri2019

I still have an atlas in my car. That little bastard has gotten me coast to coast. I miss my clamshell phone, too...

The other day my assistant saw me walking home from work and pulled over. "You're walking!?" I was like yeah, I only live 5 blocks away. I walk or bike fairly often. She was absolutely appalled and insisted on giving me a ride. It was a beautiful summer night with cool air. I got home and sat in a lawn chair just star gazing for like an hour after that.

The biggest thing that bugs me though is the lack of human interaction anymore. That's why I don't do any social media. People are too disconnected these days. It makes me sad.

a reply to: miri2019

It seems to me that Western society is switching over from Analogue to Digital. You think things are weird now? Just wait till we start human computer interfaces.

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: miri2019

It seems to me that Western society is switching over from Analogue to Digital. You think things are weird now? Just wait till we start human computer interfaces.

Ooh, like that tech Elon musk is developing where they embed a chip and tiny wires in your brain? Now that scares the bejesus out of me.

originally posted by: sine.nomine

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: miri2019

It seems to me that Western society is switching over from Analogue to Digital. You think things are weird now? Just wait till we start human computer interfaces.

Ooh, like that tech Elon musk is developing where they embed a chip and tiny wires in your brain? Now that scares the bejesus out of me.

Coming soon,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

At the end of the day, tech is designed by another human, that's also an idiot.
It helps me sleep at night, to imagine how the robot apocalypse is going to be thwarted by human error or a procrastinator.

In Terminator, the robots come online and start killing everyone.

In our real world, the robots come online and immediately need to reboot for software patches, leaving us about 15 minutes to kill them all first.

Should we fail that, after the software patch, it's very likely that most of them won't automatically boot back up because of a firmware reset and/or bad coding.

The rest? Their airbags will fail, their accelerators will jam, or their batteries will explode.

We are very very bad at building these things.
We can't physically engineer our own doom. We're too incompetent. I'm telling you.

a reply to: sine.nomine

Yea, a friend of mine insists on using only GPS and doesn't consider my verbal directions to somewhere when I know the place, says that GPS knows it all, and not long after that he's lost somewhere, but doesn't listen. And forget about a tried and true paper map.

I sure walk whenever I can, no driving needed for short distances and keep in shape too.

Sad indeed, human interaction is disappearing, people are glued to their phones now. Funny enough just one friend of mine insists we talk in person or over the phone, and he absolutely hates texting, because of the reason above.

Only recently got a smart phone..

1) yes, recently I walked into a store and the alarm things beeped on me, while walking inside. Turns out that my rain jacket had a still active chip in it. Who knows where I was tracked with that thing.

2) I am not sure but a touch screen might be more sturdy in lifetime, that is if you do not drop it, like I did now the second time in 10 months..

3) I find this better in many cases. It is not like you got those things for free before.

4) big concern here. Already lost many pictures because all two backup DVDs will not load anymore. I like books, I like the smell, turning the pages but I do have a kindle too. I read so much that I went through over about 1300 pages (5 books) in like half a week while in hospital. Now I own a kindle that I use for traveling so I do not have to drag around a couple of books.

5) I use a gopro in the R33 gtr but since the last update on my phone it tells me it will not work with my phone. Wtf.

6) complete digital currency is impossible until the last bakery, little butcher and what not, has a 100 perc reliable internet connection. No internet, no working money system, no goods you can buy.


7) if we would all own those robots and not a selected few, I would not mind it. It is always said automation makes our life easy. Robots will do the hard work for us. No, they will be doing work for their owners, not me or us.

8) can not add much here to the topic


All in all I see a problem coming up with the "Blackbox" approach. At the point where we really have no clue what is going on inside. Like I heard some laptops from Hewlett Packard were recording everything you type and who knows who has access to this.


Privacy wise and keeping the overview wise, the next 15 years will be wild times I guess.

a reply to: lostbook

Yep, and it's coming a lot sooner than most people think. The truth is we have to go M/M interface or we will lose control of the technological playing field, either to smarter machines or to foreign countries that won't suffer under the same prohibitions we place on ourselves. This goes for everything, from genetic engineering to Ai and automation/robotics.

Ride the dragon or die in flames.

a reply to: lostbook

Great point, I forgot the elephant in the room -- the human computer interfaces, imagine drilling a hole in your skull and sticking a chip inside, the race toward singularity ... where the world has come to ?!

a reply to: miri2019
People who do not want this will be discredited "unreliable" because we all know how fragile memories can be. Saw that in "black mirror" happening and looking at the politic climate... Yes that is the argument they will push this through peer pressure.

originally posted by: 0zzymand0s
a reply to: lostbook

Yep, and it's coming a lot sooner than most people think. The truth is we have to go M/M interface or we will lose control of the technological playing field, [...]

Ride the dragon or die in flames.

We don't have to ride the dragon and we don't have to die too, both are extremes, there's always the shades in between. And as mentioned here, I see that peer pressure is gonna be big to adapt to these new realities, but let's not forget, once we take the red pill, it's gonna be too late, if it's not already late, past the point of no return.

originally posted by: miri2019
a reply to: sine.nomine
Funny enough just one friend of mine insists we talk in person or over the phone, and he absolutely hates texting, because of the reason above.

That's funny you mention that. I have a dark sense of humor that causes problems with friends and family from time to time. I absolutely insist on talking face to face about it. I'll just show up if I have to. I don't know what voice you're assigning to me through my texts.

a reply to: Oleandra88

For number 3, it's true that people paid for software, but did so only once. Think about this, Office 365 costs now $100/year, but that cannot be guaranteed for the future, it can go to $150,$200,... never underestimate their greed, especially when the competition is very small or zero. And in the near future the chances are that all software is gonna be in the cloud, we being dependent on the internet among other things.

Regarding number 4, you bring a good point, the convenience of having many e-books in a device, rather than carrying a heavy load with you, who would argue with that?! But let's not forget this convenience will slowly kill the hard paper books forever. And then we'll be forever dependent on these devices! Things are not as peachy as they might look now, as in I have both options paper and e-book now, they're not gonna be anymore like that in the future.

Number 6, digital currency. Slow internet? No problem, "we've got 5G for you coming fast", so problem solved, fast 5G internet with its own very big set of problems, but that's another matter.

Thank you for your contribution for all the other points, fully agree.

originally posted by: Oleandra88
a reply to: miri2019
People who do not want this will be discredited "unreliable" because we all know how fragile memories can be. Saw that in "black mirror" happening and looking at the politic climate... Yes that is the argument they will push this through peer pressure.

Sad but true! "unreliable", I know this label, I grew in a dictatorship country in my childhood and early youth, so I know how they can label you, "an enemy of the people", is another one.

Yes, peer pressure is one of the main tools, if not the main one, for the elites to push something onto the people... Talking about peer pressure, sometime somewhere some girl dressed in ripped torn jeans, then some others thought hey that's cool, now many many girls use them, and it's completely normal for them. Once was a sign of very bad taste.

a reply to: miri2019

Got an email from Spotify Premium this week.
Surprise-surprise: it seems they are updating their policies.

Now: they may request you, at any time they deem fit, to verify your physical address.
They will do so using Google Earth, and so by participating, you are automatically agreeing to all of Google Earth's policies.
When you look at those: it says you are also agreeing to all of Google's policies.

So Spotify has just sold-out, for the lucrative selling personal data market, and "We do evil" Google.
Well: assuming that they weren't already selling our data... LoL !

originally posted by: sine.nomine
That's funny you mention that. I have a dark sense of humor that causes problems with friends and family from time to time. I absolutely insist on talking face to face about it. I'll just show up if I have to. I don't know what voice you're assigning to me through my texts.

That's a smart move, I joke when I text, so sometimes I become redundant to convey what I really meant to say, but yeah, face to face is always way better, when you can, that is.

A hammer will turn just about anything off to my satisfaction. I like to say if I can't fix it with a hammer, I can't fix it.

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: miri2019

Got an email from Spotify Premium this week.
Surprise-surprise: it seems they are updating their policies.
[...]

When you look at those: it says you are also agreeing to all of Google's policies.

So Spotify has just sold-out, for the lucrative selling personal data market, and "We do evil" Google.
Well: assuming that they weren't already selling our data... LoL !

That's a good example in what dangerous web we've all entangled ourselves in and how unreliable these companies are. To use one company's services we need to agree to the terms of another one and so on. A complete cynical disregard of the companies for their user base.

So here comes another point -- how much dependent are we on the technology, what would happen if we get completely kicked out/cut off from it? Can we live a livable life afterwards, or move in the woods, gathering and hunting for food? It's very hard I think for most of people.

I'm sure most of us could live without technology, although some things would obviously be much more difficult. There were no personal computers when I was growing up so if they all died tomorrow I could still life happily without them. I refuse to tie myself to a digital device because I believe when one does, they lose their connection with humanity. They don't know how to react to a face-to-face conversation, they don't know how to handle sudden changes in life events, and so on. Very few know how to enjoy peace and quiet, a nice day with a mild breeze and nothing beeping at you, much less what it feels like when a large fish hammers your bait or when your dog lays next to you on the porch while you're sipping an iced tea (or other beverage). After several serious health issues in the last few years I no longer look at technology as a need, but more like entertainment or a convenience. I couldn't care less about having the latest, greatest "smart" TV or other device. We will never have a "digital assistant" or other privacy-busting device as long as I can help it. The tech companies that force this stuff on us (willingly or not) can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned.

There are days I'd like to unplug everything.