Manager: "And just a reminder to download Megahappyfunproductivityapp if you haven't already done so. It's really important in helping us to stay on top of our deadlines and work together more effectively as a team."

Me: :Downloads the stupid app:

Notification: "Here's your one-time login code."

Notification: "You have a message!"

Notification: "You have a task due later today."

Notification: "Here are some random files from the intranet that might be relevant to your meeting."

Notification: "Rate us on the app store!"

Notification at 8am on Sunday morning because Sharon from accounts wants to let everyone know she's a workaholic with no life: "You have a message!"

Notification: "Here's an AI summary of your upcoming tasks!"

Notification: "Love using Megahappyfunproductivityapp at work? Check out Megahappyfunproductivityapp Personal Edition!"

Notification: "Join our upcoming user conference in Melbourne to hear tips, tricks, case studies, thought leadership, and best practices"

Notification: "Don't miss out! Upgrade to Megahappyfunproductivityapp Premium Edition today and SAVE 15%!* T&Cs apply."

Me: :Deselects everything except critical notifications and message notifications:

Notification: "We've updated our terms of service" (We won't mention it was because our lawyers weren't 100% certain "share your data with third party vendors" would prevent us getting sued for selling your data to ChatGPT. So we're making it explicit, and burying it on page 327 of our terms of service.)

Notification: "Someone is trying to message you on our app!"

Notification: "Here's your one-time login code."

Notification: "Here's your one-time login code."

Notification: "Here's your one-time login code."

Notification: "Rate our customer service."

Notification: "Check out our new AI features!"

Notification: "DON'T FORGET! You still haven't rated our customer service!"

Notification: "We miss you 🥹"

Notification: "Here's your AI task report"

Notification: "Here's some people you might know!"

Me: :Disables notification:

Colleague: "Did you get my urgent message on Megahappyfunproductivityapp?"

Me: "Nope, I turned off notifications."

Colleague: "Okay, can you turn on notifications so you don't miss another important message like that?"

#tech #enshittification #iOS #Android #capitalism #latecapitalism #business

Over 40 years, we were collectively told to give tax cuts to rich people.

And we were told that if we did that, wealth would trickle down and everyone would be better off.

Over 40 years, pretty much everything got cut to fund these tax cuts.

Schools. Hospitals. Public housing. Public transport. Universities. Roads projects. Mental health services. Welfare payments.

People literally went homeless or starved, so rich people could get tax cuts.

Because the wealth would trickle down.

Eventually the eroding of public goods caused social dislocation.

So governments further cut those public goods to fund more police and prisons. To continue giving tax cuts to rich people.

But they said the wealth would trickle down.

Eventually the climate started changing because of the amount of toxic fossil fuel pollution in the atmosphere.

So governments chose to keep the tax cuts rather than fund infrastructure to reduce emissions.

(Many of those billionaires getting tax cuts made their money selling toxic fossil fuels.)

And as the oceans and atmosphere warmed, the bushfires, droughts, hurricanes, cyclones, floods, and droughts got worse.

But they said the wealth would trickle down.

Eventually people were getting pissed off at the dire state of the world.

The rich misdirected that anger at immigrants!

And First Nations!

And trans people!

And neurodivergent people!

Anyone but the billionaires who got the tax cuts.

So governments chose to keep the tax cuts. (For the rich. Everyone else got new tariff taxes.)

But they said the wealth would trickle down.

So did the wealth trickle down?

Well...

A group of billionaires saw this kinda cool tech demo.

It predicted the next pixel of an image, based on the colour patterns of every image on the internet.

It also predicted the next word in a sentence, based on an analysis of every piece of writing on the internet.

The rich decided that this clearly showed that a sentient computer was just around the corner.

The problem was these tech demos needed servers with a lot of GPUs to work.

So the rich took all the money they got from those tax cuts.

And they bought GPUs.

Millions and millions and millions and millions of GPUs.

All the tax cuts? All the underfunded schools? All the draconian welfare cuts? All the public housing shortages? The delays in funding clean energy.

In the end, it didn't trickle down.

And instead of all the public goods it could have bought...

...We'll be left with millions and millions and millions of GPUs in a landfill.

#ChatGPT #Claude #AI #LLM #capitalism #socialism #business #politics #Nvidia

@joannaholman I think you raise a really great point.

One of the insidious things about neoliberalism is that most people now think of themselves as being "individuals" first, rather than citizens or members of a community.

Social and structural problems get reframed as being issues of individual choice and personal responsibility.

And power, especially economic power (but also the patriarchy, race, heteronormativity, etc.) get framed out of the discussion.

It's so pervasive that many people and movements advocating for social, environmental, or in this case tech change fall into the trap.

IMHO, the default choice should be the ethical choice. The sustainable choice.

If that's not the case, then structural change is in order.

And conversely, people should choose the ethical option not because it's the ethical option, but because it's the best option.