The World According to Glissando

Tag: artificial-intelligence

  • Held Hostage: The Tech Industries’ Not So Secret Weapon

    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.

  • Baby Carrot at the End of the Stick

    You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to understand how our financial system works. It’s in plain view. It is drilled into us from birth. Do these things and you will get your carrot at the end of the stick. The only problem is, the carrot continues to get smaller and smaller and smaller. Today, it’s almost disappeared. But because this is the economic system we were brought up in, we don’t question the system. It takes us out of our comfort zone which is deliberate. So we put up with constantly rising prices (massive inflation), debilitating interest rates, market manipulation, poor quality products and increased stress in our day to day lives. We work more and more to make less and less. Yet, we cling to our financial system because it is what we know. We are duped by our emotional fear which is no accident. We’ve been taught that to question the system is ridiculous and dangerous.

    Our financial system is purposely designed to benefit the few. It is no accident or natural evolution. But we are taught not to question it and told there are no better economic systems. No matter how gruelling our day to day lives become, we cling to this system. You have to come to the realization that there are people who have the power to manipulate situations to enhance their wealth at our expense.   

    Do these people who manipulate our financial system and our society care at all about us. No! Talk is cheap. Actions speak the truth. How can a tech company owned by a billionaire that is making enormous amounts of money still lay off 20,000 workers? This is truth. This is the reality. They don’t care about us at all, how it disrupts and even destroys our lives. We don’t matter to them.

    What to do about this? For now, just think about this subject and understand what is really happening. True understanding eliminates fear which opens your mind to possibilities, and right now in these manipulated economic times where so many are suffering, possibilities are what we need more than ever. Aren’t you tired of chasing what is now the baby carrot at the end of the stick?

  • The Digital World Con

    You know, the powers behind cell phones, apps, AI, social media et al…everything digital tell you they make your life better and easier. I don’t believe the con much anymore. Saving time? It’s our culture, our society, our financial and organizational systems that keep us running in multiple directions at the same time. And everything has to be now they tell us!

    Some things are truly urgent, like getting an ambulance to take you to the hospital. But many things are not although we’ve been constantly told otherwise. We’re always in a hurry it seems. That’s because there’s big money in urgency. The less time we have to think about something, the more likely we will make poor decisions including economic ones.

    The people behind our digital world know this, so they make or create lots of junk and gadgets and tell us it will save us time and it’s easy. Sure, you will need to spend money to get it, often a lot, but it will be wonderful. Not necessarily. Digital companies always pitch their technology to other companies by saying it will save them time and money ergo staffing, and the conversion to our system is painless for you and your customers. From my experience, that’s just not true, regardless of the industry. Look how often air travel systems go down.

    One other thing to consider: all of this is designed to reduce our capacity to think critically, so that the powers behind our digital world can do whatever they want while distracting us and eroding this vital ability. Making it easy for us, they say. No, making it easy for them. Let’s talk AI. The average person really has no big need for it in their day to day life. And what do we do with it? We use it to write scholastic term papers or business presentations. Sure, this is easier but, you are not having to think about it. It’s all done for you. Do you have any idea how much ChatGTP is used for these purposes. Hey, you can use AI to create things you really don’t create, a machine does. What a wonderful distraction animating old photos, but really, how many times can you keep doing it. Or make videos you don’t have to. Again, you’re really not making it either, but you think you have created something amazing, just like two billion other users. This is how the digital powers want you to think.

    Finally, I am actually starting to resent and even rebelling against (oh yes…shhh) the big digital machine. I don’t know why I have to tell anyone everything about me to pay for downtown parking or tickets to a show or a myriad of other non-life threatening situations.   But, to use any app, you have to tell them, and that means everyone. I really never had a problem having change in my car for a parking meter. It’s pretty simple and easy too with no special technological requirements. And I didn’t have to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for me to be able to do this.

    By the way, I’ve never been against technology, only against the way humans try to abusively monetize it, especially to the extreme extent seen today.

    It really is a con. Don’t buy into it totally. Leave some thinking capacity in your cranium. Lose this, and you lose your freedom and are at the mercy of the tech gods, which should leave you feeling squeamish and wary. You know, that ambulance ride, which is vital, does not require you to have an app. I think that’s reassuring.