Tomorrow is Today

Analysis: Kurzweil AI on The New Kindles and Silo Culture

This ought to be a formidable platform for education, but no, it will be yet another dumbing down device milking the consumer.

[T]his trick to lock you in a silo of possible purchases from the seminal acquisition of the device, has been pioneered by Apple with the Macintosh strict GUI guidelines and its specific market place, but at that time it was a more open process as Apple didn’t control the entire market stack. Individual software brands could thrive without special ties with Apple.

Then, the model has been emphasized by the big Telcos with their subscription plans where they made no money on the (smart)phone itself but on the services.

Now, it’s epitomized by Amazon and its Kindle brand. But with the ever expanding capabilities of consumer electronics, the trend is going from bad to worse now that the device is constantly spying on you, reporting your habits, location, reading patterns (e.g. from monitoring page shuffling, the new Kindle will present you at the bottom of the screen an estimated time before chapter completion!).

In our soft Orwellian world, dominated not by an all-powerful state but by a cartel of mega corporations dictating their vision of “progress”, the way to push technology is not through collective empowerment anymore. Instead, in an unabated promotion of individualism, people are lured to technology by teasing of their lower instincts. Abiding to this trend, yesterday Amazon didn’t present devices for empowerment but yet another mean aiming at narcissistic entertainment fulfillment for dumbed down consumers.

(via SSS | KurzweilAI)