NPR: How internet platforms die

webecedarian · 3 Feb 2023, 07:51 AM

Do any of you listen to NPR?

I like this about the three stages.

A theory of how internet platforms die
Marketplace Tech
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/ma...platforms-die/

TenFour · 3 Feb 2023, 08:48 AM

Cory Doctorow's essay on the enshittification of internet services. https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/

webecedarian · 3 Mar 2023, 07:48 AM

Thanks. I was just trying to read one of his novels and gave up.

hadaso · 5 Mar 2023, 11:34 PM

In the distant past there were only single celled organisms on this planet. Then some of them started to cooperated and eventually multicellular organisms evolved, and the single celled organisms became enslaved to these beings. We are some of these multicellular organisms. Each one of us is guilty of enslaving billions of helpless and clueless cells.
Now us humans have learned to cooperate, and created corporations, and we are enslaved by these corporations. We are their employees, their customers, their supplier.
When we die, our cells are set free but they die too because they have lost their ability to survive independently. When corporations die we seek other corporations because we have lost our ability to survive without them. Can we still regain this ability ot have we lost it for good?

TenFour · 5 Mar 2023, 11:59 PM

One thing many of us struggle with is that we become very dependent on these technical systems and when they become enshittified we are unable to wrench ourselves away from them without severe disruption. I endured a minor version of this for the past few days when I was locked out of one important account because of vague and unwritten rules, or lack thereof, that imposed some sort of waiting period after changing a password. Nothing I could do or support could do would get me back in, and support apparently had no clue as to what the problem could be. I eventually found clues on various Internet forums from people who had experienced the same problem. In any case, my point is that our lives become so wrapped up in these systems that it becomes a real burden when they don't work as we expect them to. And, with the ever-worsening status of supposed "support" in the world, we are left to our own devices to deal with the problems created.

3 Feb 2023, 07:51 AM	#1
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 479	NPR: How internet platforms die Do any of you listen to NPR? I like this about the three stages. A theory of how internet platforms die Marketplace Tech https://www.marketplace.org/shows/ma...platforms-die/

3 Feb 2023, 08:48 AM	#2
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,722	Cory Doctorow's essay on the enshittification of internet services. https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/

3 Mar 2023, 07:48 AM	#3
webecedarian Essential Contributor Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 479	Thanks. I was just trying to read one of his novels and gave up.

5 Mar 2023, 11:34 PM	#4
hadaso The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Holon, Israel. Posts: 4,837	In the distant past there were only single celled organisms on this planet. Then some of them started to cooperated and eventually multicellular organisms evolved, and the single celled organisms became enslaved to these beings. We are some of these multicellular organisms. Each one of us is guilty of enslaving billions of helpless and clueless cells. Now us humans have learned to cooperate, and created corporations, and we are enslaved by these corporations. We are their employees, their customers, their supplier. When we die, our cells are set free but they die too because they have lost their ability to survive independently. When corporations die we seek other corporations because we have lost our ability to survive without them. Can we still regain this ability ot have we lost it for good?

5 Mar 2023, 11:59 PM	#5
TenFour Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: USA Posts: 1,722	One thing many of us struggle with is that we become very dependent on these technical systems and when they become enshittified we are unable to wrench ourselves away from them without severe disruption. I endured a minor version of this for the past few days when I was locked out of one important account because of vague and unwritten rules, or lack thereof, that imposed some sort of waiting period after changing a password. Nothing I could do or support could do would get me back in, and support apparently had no clue as to what the problem could be. I eventually found clues on various Internet forums from people who had experienced the same problem. In any case, my point is that our lives become so wrapped up in these systems that it becomes a real burden when they don't work as we expect them to. And, with the ever-worsening status of supposed "support" in the world, we are left to our own devices to deal with the problems created.