I think the plan is to make everyone rent all the machines and computers.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

RE: https://toot.cat/@clarfonthey/116083645763442349

I think the plan is to make everyone rent all the machines and computers. You can't buy them, can't fix 'em, can't mod 'em or put any new software on them.

Just sit there and pay your rent and your ink fees while talking to the obnoxious chatbot.

That's the only way this insensitivity to what this is doing to consumer electronics prices makes any sense.

[faithisleaping@anarres.family]

@futurebird That's not everyone's plan but it's not far off.

[tootbrute@fedi.arkadi.one]

@futurebird that will take all the fun out of computers.

[josh0@babka.social]

@futurebird if that’s the plan, they needed to wait a little longer. There are still too many of us who remember how to do things without computers.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@josh0

I will use the Apple II that I still have. I do not know how to live without a computer at all, but I can be happy with an old computer.

[lily_and_frog@mastodon.art]

@futurebird

I think it's worse: they don't have a plan. But when you're rich above a certain threshold, you can fuck up as much as you want and still manage to gain from it.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@Lily_and_frog

This is more realistic. I really want this to be a little more dramatic and sinister when really it's just kind of desperate and unfortunate.

[josh0@babka.social]

@futurebird the best part is there are enough #retrocomputing enthusiasts out there that it probably wouldn’t be that long before we bootstrapped our own Internet to support Bulletin Board Systems, and probably even the Fediverse.

[synack@corteximplant.com]

@futurebird I think it's indicative of the effect that the tech industry has on all the other industries around it because it's become so ingrained into the fabric of business.The techbros want to control the means of computation and production, which has a cascading effect into all the other industries that supply materials for it.

I think you might be right that maybe that wasn't the intended plan initially, but I do think it became the plan once somebody realized what they were sitting on. The hyper-wealthy have been playing the long game for decades and this is just the latest way that they can monopolize the means of production.

Landlords gonna landlord and seek rent wherever they possibly can because it's never really been about the consumers.

[burnitdown@beige.party]

@futurebird

yes, why aren't you drinking your Victory Gin and watching your telescreen? don't you know that Eastasia has always been at war with Oceania?

[lily_and_frog@mastodon.art]

@futurebird

I feel the same.

And it's probably why conspiracy theories are so attractive: no one likes the idea of being ruled or exploited by really stupid and dumb people.

[cavyherd@wandering.shop]

@Lily_and_frog @futurebird

Worse, really stupid & dumb people who got into positions of power by heredity & blind luck.