Oh my god I've had it with the surface web. I am just so sick of the javascript infested mobile first world. I am so sick of dumbing everything down for the masses so some jerk can make a billion flipping the site. I am so sick of the fact that everything useful is now hidden behind 7 layers of advertising trackers. I am sick of the enthusiasm for Chat GPT as if it's not a 50 foot swell threatening us all individually with disaster if we don't join the AI collective.
We are just about finished. I'm honestly suicidal thinking about it, thinking about how far I've been pushed into a corner, about how completely my social world has been cannibalized by these tech maniacs leaving me nothing.
4 months ago
Just realized I don't need to @ you since I'm replying to your post already 🤦 haha. But let me conclude my saying that the dream of genuinely improving the internet for everyone is a beautiful one, one that I'm all in on. And insofar as alternatives to http are a part of that, gemini has helped to lay the path. I believe, however, that by and large the people here have modest hopes for Gemini, and for good reason. And that anyone who tries to change Gemini into something that it's not is just going to be banging their head against a wall. · 4 months ago
@Chime_23 Yes, you could say Gemini is a toy. I'd say it's more of a pleasant way to do some random things online without getting assaulted by the web. It's meant for recreation, as an aesthetically pleasing project which can be started and finished, and like you said, it's really a small dream at the end of the day. · 4 months ago
@chime_23 But Gemini is not a proselytizing religion. Gemini was not intended to be palatable to the maximum number of people, it's not meant to replace the web, and it's not meant to fix the world's problems. Why? Because that's a really fucking huge job, and it's not anyone's responsibility to fix it. · 4 months ago
@chime_23 Look, as @drh3xx articulated below, I agree that the world is fucked up. If you're on the web, you see the consequences of that, concentrated. The web is really fucking awful, it's being used to exploit and it's causing billions of people harm. So it's not hard to relate with your feeling. (1/?) · 4 months ago
@chime_23 The modern web is a cesspool of scammers, marketers and other bad actors. Not to mention all major governments have effectively rendered it a permenant warzone. We're all F'd andx most people are oblivious and willingly give up their freedom. *Forgot to rant on the spread of Amazon style checkoutless physical stores* · 4 months ago
@chime_23 the spread of AI into all manner of solutions and the heavy marketing of how it's absolutely required for you to get on in life (Grammerly etc) is doing my head in currently. AI has its place but it doesn't need to be in most of the places its being applied. There are numerous things going on in the UK that effectively force iOS or Android smart devices as a requirement for folks and increase hardware churn for bisinesses. At this point I pretty much consider the state a hostile actor (and I don't even live in the likes of North Korea). · 4 months ago
@chime_23 I can completely relate. I'm not suicidal about it because Ive developed a likely unhealthy level of Fuck You attitude over the years so Ill stick around just to effectively give them all the middle finger. Big tech and legislatorrs have all but destroyed techs potential benefit to humanity. Pretty much 24/7 monitoring of your activity on and offline. Most western goverments publiclly slate China whilst simulataneously effectively emulating their monitoring and control of citizens. · 4 months ago
This pessimistic attitude will make you go crazy mate · 4 months ago
The Gemini Protocol is either a Great Task or it is nothing. You decide. · 4 months ago
But you continue to say Gemini doesn't need markdown. What is Geminispace but an elite pondering the absence of their privilege? "Aw shucks! We we not the chosen ones?" Elites don't need a shovel because they don't need to dig. Can we post more than 700 characters? "Blasphemy!" Downloading files? "Fool, use bittorrent!" "We're keeping Gemini small, like our dreams!" Gemini is just a toy, a plaything for trust fund babies to babble about. That's why its dying, like all the world, small and getting smaller.
Soon it will be an empty room, just you sitting in a chair, another soul to be devoured by Chat GPT. · 4 months ago
I dream of writing software, but I fear there is nobody left to write software for. The cutting edge is writing javascript and selling out to tech companies. The cypherpunk movement is dead. Cryptography didn't solve anything. E2e encryption promised everything and delivered nothing. Tor is dying. And governments are sharpening their swords to ban encrypted messaging, to "save the children". Nobody dares to argue against this bulldozer as it transforms every forest into a paved parking lot.
Where are the people who lived before? Where are the dreamers? In the Warsaw Ghetto survivors retreated into their diaries. And that was all that was left of them in the end. Diaries and dust. · 4 months ago
I left my homeland a long time ago, seeking better fortune, which I found. But the digital world found me, and colonized my new world. Smart phones appeared where they had never been before. A second wave of cultural and technological colonization. The people I used to trust were now married to their devices. They got more out of devices than they got out of me. The tenor and mood had changed. Their minds were first distracted, then degraded, then seemingly replaced. Human beings were transformed into avatars for tech companies. Since then I've been living off the crumbs of yesterday, building a nuclear bunker against the coming digital attack. · 4 months ago
People have been so brainwashed that having an unsecured network camera in their presence 24/7 is not only a fact, but a right. How dare I take away their rights? Who am I to impose such absurd limitations? These are the human beings in my vicinity. Who are they, these strange monsters? And how can I send them off? I close the door more than I open it. I say goodbye more than I say hello. What was once a wonder of technology--talking to someone half way across the world--has turned into a tragedy. I can't be the only one for whom radical interconnectivity has resulted in a shrunken and hollow world, with everyone turned into ghosts and shadows. · 4 months ago
Does anyone else feel surrounded by cameras? Networked cameras in everyone's pocket, without any lens cap, every moment of the day, every person you meet? It turns every human encounter into a possible interrogation when we don't know when the record button is being pressed. We all know somebody who has been destroyed because of a 10 year old tweet. Now we're all subject to being videoed and being exposed on social media. Our homes are being turned into stages for Tik Tok and Instagram videos, exposing our private worlds to to unknown parties. I don't let anyone come into my home without covering the camera. I've fought people over this, and ended friendships. · 4 months ago
Right now I'm specifically thinking about Reddit. I'm so upset that I have to use this site for various reasons, since everyone poured their heart into it, and it's now an almost completely useless hell hole. But just multiply this sentiment across practically every site. What website isn't garbage these days? And what billionaire isn't trying to make it worse, to milk 10 more microseconds of attention off us so they can make another billion? We are truly living in hell, folks. The nightmare is upon us, and there is little hope. Solderpunk mused that Gemini is the retirement home for Web 1.0. A hospice is a better metaphor. We're in collective terminal decline. · 4 months ago