Is so crazy to explain people I played games in an spectrum in 1987 back when many didn’t knew what a “computer” was in my country cause like less than 10% of the people in my country. And now you put a helmet and you’re inside the game!
Most of the kids I know who have this attitude would also call IT if they accidentally opened the Command Prompt or BIOS.
Personally I love being part of the evolution of computers. I was born at a time where I could be part of “moderne” or rather “not too nerdy” phase of computers, and to see the whole evolution of electronics and so on. I don’t envy the younger generations that kind of skipped to the “end part” (computers being “easy”). I know that a lot of things will still be developed and we are only seeing the first of AI stuff now and VR is also still a minor thing but could evolve into a much bigger thing. Electrification of cars is in full swing. Robots do more and more things by theselves (lawnmowers, vacuums, cars) because the “brain power” in the devices are pushed all the time, enabling more advanced sensors to be taken more advantage of.
I feel both cuddled and attacked
Ah yes the people who ran their video games on DOS are being left behind.
Help son, how do I open this app?!? With my finger???
I stood in line for VHS tapes. I also know that the blockchain is slow as hell and that cryptocurrency is glorified gambling for people with too much money - and I had a friend in the early 2000s that was trying to make a Bitcoin exchange.
But crypto is borderline useless that consumes more electricity than the entire AI industry while enabling alot of illegal activities and money laundering. I was quite susprised when my drug money found their way into normal people’s lives.
But crypto is borderline useless
As decentralized money it’s great. Even central banks are making their own crypto. It’s a great technology for supply chains.
that consumes more electricity than the entire AI industry
AI and cryptocurrencies consumed around 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity
Bitcoin is estimated at 155 TWh per year to 172 TWh per year
while enabling alot of illegal activities and money laundering.
Given the public and immutable nature of crypto, it’s a really bad way to do anything illegal. In 2024 Illicit volume dropped to USD 45 billion, down 24% since 2023. This represents 0.4% of overall crypto transactions
As decentralized money, it’s great
It’s not money. It’s not accepted as money anywhere that matters.
It’s a market speculation vehicle built on the fucking aether, that you can currently sell easily enough in small quanties in order to get some actual currency that retailers will accept.
But it sure as fuck ain’t money. It’s just a bunch or techno-utopians huffing farts.
As decentralized money it’s great.
I think you mean, it’d be great if it took off… as money. Right now it’s an investment barely more useful for buying things than corn futures.
The estimated amount of money laundered globally in one year is 2 - 5% of global GDP, or $800 billion - $2 trillion in current US dollars.
If crypto was so great for money laundering and illegal activity, we’d see so much more of it. The number is as high as it is because Bitcoin is super convenient, so people go out of their way to try to make it work.
Older X’er here - I keep telling my wife - for all the shit we’ve had to live through, we damn sure better get first contact with ET in our lifetimes too!
Im still not convinced that crypto is worth it. It seems like just about everyone either loses money in crypto or makes very little, chasing a dream laid out to them by some youtuber who is part of the very small group to make any nice amount from it. Just seems too volatile and sketchy
everyone either loses money in crypto or makes very little
And this is why people misunderstand crypto. The point isn’t to make money, and it never was. Profiteers have twisted it into that to make a quick buck from pump and dump schemes, but it shouldn’t be considered “investing” in any sense of the word.
Cryptocurrency should have two primary uses:
- Facilitate transactions - needs successo widescale adoption by merchants and fast, cheap transactions
- Store of value, like a bank account
BTC transaction costs are way to high and slow for #1, so it’s unlikely to get enough volume of regular transactions to even out valuations. The lightning network helps, but I think it also has problems. And unfortunately, coins with lower transaction costs that should scale better either get banned (e.g. privacy coins in some areas) or don’t catch on.
I’m still holding out hope that it’ll stabilize and become useful for transactions, but I’m not putting any significant money in until that happens because I don’t see it as an investment.
Im still not convinced that crypto is worth it. I
That’s because it isn’t. In fact it is a completely destructive concept, which utilises a shitload of energy which could have been better applied elsewhere, and only facilitates scams and other crimes.
It’s a decentralized pyramid scheme. It’s a way for the rich to syphon money from the gullible and gambling addicts.
That’s all there is to it, it’s not really hard to understand.THIS. This is not being communicated enough.
The issue is the new(er) generations think they have discovered something never seen before, all the while truth being - the only new thing is the way people are being manipulated into investing in trickster scheme.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been there when internet was born. We have witnessed it and we have learned from our mistakes. It is not you who are smarter, it is us knowing not to buy tulips.
May I interest you in renting this fine pineapple?
Intellectually I know that all currency systems are constructs and are volatile. That said, what bothers me so much about crypto is how it’s either an obvious scam or it appears to behave like company scrip requiring various exchanges or participating vendors, etc. It’s annoying enough using credit cards or systems like PayPal cash app, and crypto reads like a more annoying PayPal with all of the instability of a stock.
I rarely place much value on authority, but I trust a central bank or national treasury much more than three dudes at a startup promising to disrupt how we think of money.
I thought you were talking about NFTs for a moment there
Crypto is basically a ponzi-scheme. I made a little bit off of it, then sold too early. Then bought back in, and sold way too early. Then bought back in, then lost a lot. The only real benefit is anonymity, which I don’t really need and only really benefits criminals. I don’t see it taking over if someone like the EU introduces fee-free digital transactions.
Most crypto is only pseudo-anonymous. One identified transaction and everything becomes public.
In 2024 Illicit volume dropped to USD 45 billion, down 24% since 2023. This represents 0.4% of overall crypto transactions
Sounds very similar to what I have heard most other users say. Yeah, not the best. When the whole doge coin thing was going down (feels like forever ago) I ‘invested’ $100 and made a profit of $3. I never got involved in crypto again. Im trying to maintain my 100% success rate. Have a good rest of your day my fellow King
The real brain melter was the societal culture shift.
I grew up witnessing “the end of history” with my own eyes. People were getting wiser and kinder year after year, decade after decade. It was like a feedback loop of positive changes, the only way was up.
Then 2010s hit and I’m still processing the 180 degrees shift. I read dozens of books about nazis, authoritarianism, societal memory, cults, fucking roman empire. But I still have cognitive dissonance every time I open news feed.
Eh, I still think people are generally pretty nice to each other. The problem is that when that same nice person goes online, they behave differently. The more time we spend online, the more impact that “alter ego” has on our “IRL” personality.
So what we need is more IRL connection, but we’re instead spending more and more time online.
The real brain melter was the societal culture shift.
I grew up witnessing “the end of history” with my own eyes. People were getting wiser and kinder year after year, decade after decade. It was like a feedback loop of positive changes, the only way was up.
Then 2010s hit and I’m still processing the 180 degrees shift.
Fucking thank you! This has been hard for me to put into words. (I’m on the older end of Gen-X)
From “The Hunt for Red October”, to “you shouldn’t have started the war against russia then.”
Red Dawn to half+ our leadership bowing down to him, and a president calling him a good guy.
God damn what a wild ride.
The internet came way too quickly, or at least it evolved way too quickly for us. We should still be on 56k and surfing Limewire for what may or may not be what we’re actually looking for. 24/7 access to everyone all around the country, and world, was too fast as well. We can’t acclimate that fast. Our brains weren’t ready for it.
That’s the saddest thing about people born after the 90s. We expected the future to get better. Kids now are just hoping we don’t destroy everything.
Holy shit thank you. You finally put it into words for me. The shift of 'the internet is the greatest tool for knowledge, to what it is now, some cancerous corpo bloated bullshit that ignorant people are harnessing just to find others to support their shitty beliefs. Been such a hard thing to watch and understand how the fuck we got here.
The shift of 'the internet is the greatest tool for knowledge, to what it is now, some cancerous corpo bloated bullshit
Spot on.
The worst part is that anyone who wasn’t around for the first 10ish years of the web has never seen how real and optimistic and grass roots and delightfully human it was.
We really lost a lot.
I think it’s lack of empathy as the root for everything.
Which I believe is opposite of human nature but here we are.
I’m reminded of this article from a couple of days ago in the Globe and Mail, specifically as a response to Musk’s anti-empathy comments: Empathy is not a Weakness, it’s a Strength
Empathy is easily used for propaganda as well. All those “immigrants are going to r your wife” and “radical elites transing your children” are the appeals to empathy that work very well (there are examples from the left too lets be honest, they’re just less unhinged)
IMO you need empathy, rationality and introspection: empathy to feel for your fellow human, rationality to not fall for the grift, introspection to realize in what ways you were an idiot and self-correct.
The wave of scepticism that will inevitably come in 2030s will weed out the grifters, but I doubt it’ll last. Time is a flat circle afterall.
I see your point but I don’t think you’re describing empathy as much as fear in your examples.
There are some who think time is shaped like a Jeremy Bearamy…
Facebook and unregulated social media. Up to now most governments in the world don’t even have a clue or idea that the internet is a very powerful tool that should actually be regulated because there are very evil people who will always act in bad faith to manipulate others for power and control. The Golden era of the internet is definitely over, I think 2016 was a defined shift that will be recorded by historians.
In fairness, most internet users would have been extremely against regulating social media until quite recently
it’s all about how the regulations are designed… for the benefit of corporations? or regular people?
for example, there could easily be rules placing caps on the amount of advertising that’s allowed on any given platform. no fucking way now the government will ever put that cat back in the bag now that the 20 percent of GDP comes from tech monopolies fueled by advertisements.
Early internet was very much regulated. I wish we could all just go back to usenet and no internet on phones.
it was only regulated by its uselessness… it was the wild west of shit otherwise.
Regulated by my uselessness…
KICK MIDWEST.SOCIAL cabinet_sanchez "Fuck youu’
Nice, you’re spot on. We bonded for a while… now we’re in entropy!
I’m old enough to remember going to Hollywood video or blockbuster with my grandma on Fridays. Have a movie night. Those were some amazing memories.
I remember going to friends places for sleepovers, we would all go down to the video rental and pick one movie each, then pick up takeaway on the way home. We’d stay up all night watching each video and pigging out on food
“before 1990” ffs. I was expecting “before 1960”
I’ve been called an “elder millennial” before and I thought that was funny. But just “elder”… bitch, fuck you!
Feels like licking a 9v battery!
elders
1990
My grandparents lived in houses before electricity and lived long enough that computers in their pocket could talk to them. Hopefully it is a few centuries before that much happens in 103 years
I don’t expect them to understand crypto. No one expects them to understand crypto.
I expect them to understand FUCKING FASCISM.
Yeah.
We can move on to “complicated” things like crypto after we’ve made sure people understand basic things like FUCKING FASCISM.
Priorities.
