One of the mainstay strategies of tech companies to try and keep the obscene money making bubble growing is a hostage strategy. In this case, by repeatedly making tech products obsolete so people have to upgrade whether they need to or not. One only has to look at what Microsoft is doing with Windows 11. By killing Windows 10, they are trying to make everyone buy new tech gear to ensure you use not just Windows 11, but more importantly, have to use Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. The tech industry sees nothing but gold in “them thar AI hills.”
What is important to realize is that for most people older technology works just fine for what they need. They don’t need an iPhone 17 or 27 or 37. Most just talk and text and maybe take and share photos on their phones. Same with computers. Most people simply search the internet for basic information, do emails and some word processing.
Most people don’t need AI, especially consumer oriented AI products. How many times can you bring an old photo to “life” before it gets boring? It’s cool at first, but really, how many times? AI consumer products for the most part are just toys. The only AI function that really helps many people relates to writing. This type of AI allows people to cheat by not having to think and write. They simply get AI to write for them. It’s a great way to write scholastic papers or business reports or that email to Aunt Jody with little effort or thought.
So, how do you ensure people have to buy the latest expensive tech offerings? Make what they have that works perfectly fine obsolete so they have to buy the new stuff. You see, at one point in time in the past, there were genuine improvements that were useful to most people. But, it evolved to a point where the legitimate needs of most people were met. They really didn’t need the latest greatest anymore. The solution: make them have to buy the new stuff. They hold you hostage and there’s nothing to stop them from doing this.
This keeps the money printing machine running at full speed at our expense. No longer is it driven by genuine product improvements. As tech continues to expand and control our earthly universe, you can expect this to continue. You also have to remember that as tech sophistication continues to evolve, people will actually understand less and less about the tech world and this is a dangerous thing. Tech will increasingly be weaponized for use against society by a variety of known and unknown unscrupulous entities. We will be held hostage for a long time to come unless we get over our fascination with shiny tech trinkets and demand better.
By the way, for better or for worse, I wrote this entire piece myself without the aid (or hindrance and limitations) of AI.
The World According to Glissando 
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