 Freedom in technology must include freedom from technology. We must not create societies where the price of admission is owning a device controlled by one of two trillion-dollar US corporations. We must safeguard people’s access to public services and the everyday necessities of life via alternate methods. Technology should always be a progressive enhancement. Do not let Silicon Valley privatise your access to modern life. https://mastodon.ar.al/@lrvick@mastodon.social/112079059430275102 39 comments
@aral not really, consider that kids don't usually have bank accounts and are fine with using cash. Why can't adult live that way? @aurisc4 Kids can live that way because they have parents with bank accounts. So should you be able to live without using a bank? Yes. Is it practical to? Not really. Should it be legal to require either an Apple or Google phone to have a bank account? No. @aral strange to say it, but it's sad that Windows Phone died. Even though Microsoft is no better in this context, but competition between 3 is better than 2. Were there 5-6 options for smartphone, landscape likely would be much much different.  @aral @jernej__s @aurisc4 something like 4.5% of US households do not have any sort of bank account, according to the FDIC is 2021. https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/household-survey/index.html Paychecks are just that, checks that you can cash. Or you get paid in cash.  @aurisc4 @aral I don't think banking is a good analogy here. My (US-based) bank has online banking independent of my phone platform. And I do have the option of in-branch banking. If the bank won't provide this, I can bank elsewhere. Medical providers can be local monopolies, especially for specialty care. The neighborhood neurosurgeon or oncologist may not have any local competition. Which means you may be forced into a duopoly phone, just to access medical care. Yeah actually I don't agree with the sentiment, 'get rid of technology' - as it's not technology that's the problem. The problem is the private profit-driven model. Which means we're all going to hell in a hand-basket. Tragically, as it's so silly and unnecessary... we all seem to be running up this dead-end street. 'Dead' being the operative word :ablobeyes: Seems we unfortunately adopted tech before evolving out of our core competitive reptilian brains. Oops.  @aral I remember running frantically (late) to a medical appointment and telling the secretary that I had not gotten a reminder call. No, no, she said. We texted you. They texted my LANDLINE and still refused to see me because I was late having received no reminder. I left that practice, thinking about people with no cell phone.  I could not agree more! Having just read Varouvakis' new book, Technofeudalism, What Killed Capitalism.... and frankly YIKES 😳😳😳  @aral i agree and disagree. agree in that proprietary tech, google, apple, as a condition to access is ridiculous. i do think public funding can create open source alternatives, including hardware, which can be mandatory options for businesses to support if it is an access requirement to basic services or something. Is is quite clear, that you cant access a lot of services without cash or letters, the telephone or motorized transport. ...and so on. that is tech too. time moves on  @serapath @aral While there can be legitimate reasons to require some sort of technology for government services, I do not think that "time moves on" is one of those reasons. It's a values-neutral statement; if you accept that "time moves on" is in and of itself a good reason to mandate technology, then that also validates it as a reason to mandate *unwanted* technology. The actual reasons for mandating technology must be precise, well-scoped, and strongly justified. i do think tech is massively adopted mostly because ppl love the upsides, that includes apple or google pay experience... but it doesnt mean there cant be alternatives without the downsides ...now if a market adopts a new tech in ways that excludes open alternatives, then laws should support and maybe enforce markets to make room for open alternatives... but forcing businesses and industries to always support fax machines will drown progress in enforced technical debt @serapath @aral My phone stopped working recently and I was without proper access to stuff for a while until I was able to get a new one. I think progressive enhancement is very much necessary. It's easy to say tech good until you're without it. Doesn't even have to be about the monopolisation of Google and Apple. Redundancy is good. Actually, that is a half-truth. I had redundancy. But in a world where a smartphone is the only way to access shit, I'd be lost. this world is not science fiction. the tech exists, but it exists in alternative fringes of society, not in mainstream businesses   @aral you're confusing technology with monopoly and capitalism. You can have sustainable/social/community owned technology that doesn't harm you more than non-technological alternatives would do. Technology is a tool, at this point we should also not use printers because they allow to print nazi manifests... The main issue is corrupt or incompetent politicians. Often both. @littletree I’m not sure I am https://ar.al/talks/#free-is-a-lie (And yes, we can definitely have better technology – https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/ – my point is that it should not be mandatory for participation in modern life.) @aral well then stop using literally anything around you. What we don't want is Microsoft deciding that from now on AI should be pushed down your throat because it makes us more productive and all that crap. Technology is everywhere, AI is slowly being used in more domains. It's inevitable. We MUST regulate how it's used it, without doing witch hunting. EDIT: did you ever hear about progress that got stopped? I can't think of anything like that. If it works, why not. @aral @briankrebs If the past month I've come across a variety of things that required a smart phone. No problem for me but I always worry about others. And that people shouldn't be forced to buy one. A college friend who is a Professor or Engineering and designed artificial knees still has a flip phone, his choice. In fact, I don't want to require that people have a mobile phone.  @aral  100% agreed, when we designed the Berlin COVID proof of vaccination/testing (the BärCODE), one of our key criteria was that normal people didn't need to have an app, nor did they even need a phone, the QR code be on a piece of paper and it would still be a verifiable proof of vaccination/negative test. @aral another aspect of this people don’t consider… schooling. My teen in 10th grade requires internet to use her school provided Chromebook for assignments. I’m a disabled single mom. We rent a room. The guy we rent from has been purposely limiting our internet access even though he knows she can’t do her work. It’s infuriating.  @aral how is this even a thing for not having a google or apple device? |
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@aral what about banking?