"I find the discussions about technical matters to be liberating and self-empowering, and I identify as “non-technical”. To be sincere, it was in the slow accumulation of technical knowledge and skills that I became excited about the future again. […] This feels antithetical to how people approach the internet today, but I don’t think that’s the case for the future."
https://coolguy.website/writing/the-future-will-be-technical/background().html
Damn, those parentheses really do throw off Mastodon. Let's try this: https://coolguy.website/writing/the-future-will-be-technical/background%28%29.html
@kensanata
It is interesting, yes.
@kensanata I found it a definite mixed bag. I started phlogging about this (half a year ago - gopher://circumlunar.space:70/0/~solderpunk/phlog/thoughts-on-the-future-will-be-technical-1.txt) but never came back to it. Might have to pick this thread up again.
@solderpunk I‘ve read those pages about detox and they don’t have that same kind of appeal as the beginning. We‘ll see how it goes. And I’ll have to read your post again!
@kensanata Yeah, that's one of the parts I found really weird. When the comparison to manipulative spouses was made I realised the author and I lived in very different mental worlds.
I did enjoy the part about the environmental and social impact of computer manufacturing and the moral imperatives stemming from this, it gets too little attention IMHO.
The manifesto has good parts and bad parts. It's certainly worth reading,
@kensanata
Wow, this has always seemed impossible to me...
I always found it hard to explain technical stuff to non-technical people, especially when I can't expect them to know any of the terminology that I'd use.
And it seems like they either get bored quickly, or weren't willing to understand from the very beginning.
I'd love to see how you can get non-technical people to get interested in the technical stuff.
@Wolf480pl Yeah, me too! 😅
@kensanata
I was hoping the author would have an example of how they got a non-technical person interested in the technical stuff.
Like default_conversation(), but a successful one.
Without it, the whole idea of getting non-technical people interested in technical details may as well be a dream.
@Wolf480pl I guess the author considers themselves the best example and extrapolates from there?
@kensanata I know they consider themselves an example. It's okay to extrapolate a hypothesis, but one should look to confirm it before announcing it to others as the best strategy.
@kensanata
this looks like it may be a kind of confirmation of the hypothesis:
https://coolguy.website/rituals/enchantment-ritual.html
@Wolf480pl I could only skip the beginning. That is not how I communicate with people. Then again, perhaps it works. Shamanism probably “worked” for thousands of years but it seems fundamentally opposed to the ideals of enlightenment.
@kensanata
But I think both share the belief that "there's a vast amount of knowledge that I don't have yet, but here's the path to learning it", as opposed to "Push a button, two pancakes come out. Simple. What's there to learn?"
@Wolf480pl good point!
@kensanata
I really like structure()
When the same idea emerges indipendently at several point in space nearly the same time... something deep is going on... 😉
https://coolguy.website/writing/the-future-will-be-technical/fighting-the-phantoms.html
> Your world is guided by an algorithmic tangle that you know is there, but you don't know what exactly it _is_.
or, IOW:
Trinity> [...] he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did.
Neo> What is the Matrix?
Trinity>The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.
@Wolf480pl Noooooo not the Matrix please no!! 😂
@kensanata
why not?
IMO it's relevant.
@Wolf480pl I have always considered the dialogues in The Matrix to be beautiful Word Magic – words to confuse and delight but to be taken seriously. Are you proposing that I rewatch it?
@kensanata
>words to confuse and delight but to be taken seriously
do you mean "words to confuse and delight, but ones that should not be taken seriously", or without the "not"?
@kensanata anyway, you probably should.
The Matrix is a deep methaphor that I keep rediscovering, as it applies to more and more situations.
@Wolf480pl Yeah, my bad. I have always thought about the Matrix as not to be take seriously.
@kensanata
I think it is to be taken seriously.
IMO it's a deep metaphor, talking about important philosophical issues.
"The present moment is one where companies are obscuring the depth of their technical processes to quietly profit off surveillance, oppression, and depression. The future is one where technology is reclaimed by everyone; it is open and welcoming and asking to be built by hand. I want us to grow towards that future with everything we share." https://coolguy.website/writing/the-future-will-be-technical/background%28%29.html
I'm liking this manifesto already.