so i have this stylish mod that zooms emojos when you hover
but it gets silly if the zoomed image wraps to a newline https://octodon.social/media/MLff
In summary: computers were a mistake
further generalization: everything was a mistake
@sydneyfalk @tcql even ice cream?
@tcql I really and truly think that Western civilization was not ready for the personal computer
like, maybe we were doomed to decay at any rate, but the advent of the computer has really accelerated the process and given us one whole generation at least of people who think that digital abstractions are reality
@mona @tcql I'm not convinced personal computers were ever necessary or a good idea. I think that for most people, an ergonomically designed dumb terminal connected to a sufficiently powerful computer running Unix would be good enough.
Unfortunately, the Unix Wars happened because some idiots in DC let AT&T off the leash in the 80s and they decided they were entitled to money for code they had previously given away.
By the time that shit got resolved, Windows and Linux on PCs was entrenched.
@tcql I know this is some sort of hot trend or something, but it's super ableist.
Computers allow blind people to access information at a rate that is actually useful. Computers allow deaf people to communicate with people at a rate that is useful. Computers allow housebound people to have social interaction. There are so many ways that computers help people.
@ThisQueerBashesBack @tcql the whole "computers were a mistake" is a meme, but it's not exactly anti-computer. It's more that the more complex things get, the more some things tend to regress as far as usability goes. (among other sentiments) but i don't know a single person who says that meme that would argue that computers are not highly useful tools.
@archangelic @tcql Okay. I guess I must have missed something in memes, then. It just doesn't *quite* sound like a meme, and it can be hard to understand things without tone of voice and body language. Thanks for explaining it!
@ThisQueerBashesBack @tcql totally! i know that memes get shortened to shorthand after a while and this is definitely an example of that.
@ThisQueerBashesBack thanks @archangelic for stepping in and explaining that so so clearly. yea, it's an indirect way of complaining about the complexity and bad aspects of computers, but 99% of the time the person saying "computers were a mistake" is somebody who is a programmer or works on computers for fun etc etc
i wouldn't give up computers, sometimes i just wish there were less of them (only sometimes)
@tcql i can rave to this