Here's some cheery reading for you: www.lotuseaters.com/the-english-dystopia-29-03-24

@lisapop5219

16 күн бұрын

Carl, did you guys get another strike?

@RyeNorth

16 күн бұрын

The Discman meme strikes me hard because I'm old enough to know SONY made the Discman, not Panasonic.

@Big_Yin

16 күн бұрын

WRONG! Mp3 players where around before the ipod. Boomerism 101

@patrickkihn

16 күн бұрын

You’re trying to cheer us up!

@JaffaGaffa

16 күн бұрын

The eager to spread the word also means a Constance spreading of black pills.

If buying a video game isn't owning, then piracy isn't theft!

@dtps_champion6016

16 күн бұрын

Then*

@danishcartoonist545

16 күн бұрын

*then

@hopelessedgelord

16 күн бұрын

I did always want to own one of the hats

@toml1446

16 күн бұрын

its a theft of wages and income

@snakey934Snakeybakey

16 күн бұрын

Developers who try to forcibly control products that the consumers have already bought are guilty of theft and vandalism and should be prosecuted.

I've said for years: Apple isn't in the business of selling products, they are in the business of selling a lifestyle which includes their products.

@sigiligus

16 күн бұрын

That’s what every company does, genius. The guy who pioneered modern advertising sold cigarettes to women by advertising it as a lifestyle product-“liberation torches” or some such thing. Every commercial shows a party or a barbecue or whatever and ends it with “buy Coca Cola.”

@BurghezulDjentilom

16 күн бұрын

it's a cult. no one can give me a good reason why they use iphone, only stuff like "I like it, I'm used to it"

@zealgaming8161

16 күн бұрын

192gb shared ram on apple pro laptop sounds pretty sweet ngl for LLM inference purposes. Fitting more then 2x3090rtx into a chassis is almost impossible, and that's just 48gb vram.

@chrisc7265

15 күн бұрын

@@sigiligus to greater or lesser extents no one is like, "check me out girls, I'm heading to the party with my new ASUS THINKBOOK"

@NitroModelsAndComics

15 күн бұрын

Much like Bose. Which is a Lifestyle product, not an audiophile one. Though some will say it is.

"You will own nothing and you will be happy." "Nothing" being latest Apple crappy product, apparently.

@CensoredConstantly

16 күн бұрын

Not just crappy, but overpriced made in China crappy. My OnePlus is made in China but at least it's a Chinese company. Apple couldn't even give us the manufacturing jobs but people still obediently stand in line waiting for the latest thing.

@ge2719

16 күн бұрын

Even that they won't own, they will be paying it off in installments.

@ARockRaider

16 күн бұрын

well, you won't own "the latest crap" and that's part of the problem. you will have it until it's taken away from you.

@elLooto

16 күн бұрын

I already dont own apple products. That makes me happy.

@svinkuk2652

16 күн бұрын

i refuse

Kids these days will never understand the simple pleasure of toying with the cord while you talk on the phone.

@bigdiccmarty9335

16 күн бұрын

i was born just in time, the corded home phone disappeared from my home when i was but a wee lad i do remember talking to my grandparents with though, a happy memory

@Sir_Newkirk

16 күн бұрын

The more tangled the spiral, the better. Also it was satisfying to slam the phone down in rage to decline a bogus call.

@nubbyboah

16 күн бұрын

I'm a zoomer, and I did have that luxury as a kid growing up part time with my grandparents. Hell I still do it at work when a customer calls haha

@Krysnha

16 күн бұрын

So true, i use those old phones and were amaising to its own self

@radagast7200

16 күн бұрын

"Kids these days will never understand the simple pleasure of using a chisel on a tablet." "Kids these days will never understand the simple pleasure of using a touchscreen instead of just thinking".

My mother told me, "We're using AI for the wrong things. AI isn't supposed to create art. AI is supposed to do my taxes so I have the free time to create art. Instead, AI is making the paintings while I work to feed the machines."

@sneeringimperialist6667

16 күн бұрын

If I could paint like AI , I wouldn't let anything stop me. As is, it looks like a chimp painted it with it's feet,and I don't really care to waste my time at it...

@Emppu_T.

13 күн бұрын

​@@sneeringimperialist6667 but you painted something the ai couldn't. The ai amalgamated a picture from human sources

@TWO_PLUS_TWO_EQUALS_FOUR

11 күн бұрын

Your mom made a brilliant observation that perhaps most of us have missed. Kudos to your mom.

@lankeastor512

11 күн бұрын

Insightful woman.

@morsmagne

2 күн бұрын

I disagree - what AI is removing is the painful pursuit of artistic excellence. To become excellent at anything to do with art you must practice well beyond the point of enjoyment. For example, think of the pain ballerinas must endure throughout training and practice. Dancing for fun is something completely different.

the Warhammer 40k villain is back...

@typicalsomeone5073

16 күн бұрын

And the 40k fans are happy

@saberknight2474

16 күн бұрын

Long live Sarkon!

@harbl99

16 күн бұрын

It just hasn't been the same since Sassy Census Demographics Nurgling left.

@frdsg8350

16 күн бұрын

First body pillow now miniature?

@midragga

16 күн бұрын

Villain? Hero more like

Making stuff "thin" is also absolutely awful to repair the things. Mostly they are glued together, so you cant open them and not repair anything. Its really bad for the customer.

@TheMaleRei

16 күн бұрын

Which is why Apple does it.

@Noperare

16 күн бұрын

"Not repair anything" that is the goal. You are meant to use it for a year then buy the next Iphone.

@Krysnha

16 күн бұрын

That is what apple want

@LibertarianGalt

16 күн бұрын

As a consumer you choose to get scammed if you buy Apple products to be fair.

@peterc3262

16 күн бұрын

It's not just Apple. Dont look down on Apple users when you're all using phones that are the same.

"Why live life when you can just watch it?" Basically...

When I saw that advert, I was immediately struck by an "all eggs in one basket" shudder down my spine. Your IPad will tackle all jobs for you and run all aspects of your life - until it goes wrong.

@Krysnha

16 күн бұрын

until it blocks you because you said something bad in some social media and lock you up of it

@radagast7200

16 күн бұрын

One of the newer Always Sunny episodes dove into that... it was a pretty good one.

@richardlbowles

16 күн бұрын

@@radagast7200 I hadn't seen that one. Thanks for the tip.

@richardlbowles

16 күн бұрын

@@Krysnha Exactly - the power we are handing to these machines is worrying, and needs to be pointed out more often. Thanks.

@Krysnha

16 күн бұрын

@@richardlbowles indeed, but i am not worry when you see these suppose new machine, like the AI razing or the cleaning robots they normaly fail, so i realize who is going to program, who is going to build the DEI and the woke

"I would like to make some art." "I'm sorry. I can't let you do that, David."

@chrisc7265

15 күн бұрын

more like, "okay David, describe the piece of art to me and I will generate it based on patterns I've found in previous works of human art"

@arklowrockz

15 күн бұрын

@@chrisc7265 The problem with that of course is that since we have abandoned any metaphysical (or even romantic) conception of life if we try to argue with HAL he will just say "All I am doing is optimizing the same materialistic deterministic process that has produced YOUR art previously, you have no basis for objecting to me optimizing the process"

I hate this addiction to smartphones.

@dylans0630

16 күн бұрын

So do I. And I’ve been on my phone all day today ☹️😮‍💨

@peterc3262

16 күн бұрын

The only way to stop it is to stop it. Limit your use. Use alternatives.

@80krauser

16 күн бұрын

I resemble that remark

@stronensycharte64

16 күн бұрын

The best way ive beaten my phone addiction is buying a shitty phone, its so laggy, its so painful to use that i dont use it at all because of how tedious it is, so i dont use it lmfao.

@JackTagar

16 күн бұрын

As Carl said, it's a black mirror. I've also heard Brandon Herrera call it a nightmare brick, which I think is also appropriate.

Ironically you don't need a giant hydraulic press to break that new super-thin iPad.

@peterc3262

16 күн бұрын

Haha lovely point.

@Krysnha

16 күн бұрын

Only change it and it will breack

@sneeringimperialist6667

16 күн бұрын

Super thin Ipad sounds like one of those tv ads for monthly products...

@peterixxx

16 күн бұрын

Yeah, a little extra moisture in the air will probably do it.

@lankeastor512

11 күн бұрын

Just run an update

The fact that Apple's advertisement made it all the way through the gatekeepers indicates there is something deeply wrong at Apple. Any one of the people who were in the approval process that saw this video should have instinctually known something was wrong with the visual messaging. The fact that no one did speaks volumes about how dystopian the company is.

@GodwynDi

16 күн бұрын

Or anyone that did was either ignored or too afraid to say anything.

@doltBmB

16 күн бұрын

WKUK's "grape commercial" is more apt today.

@chrisc7265

15 күн бұрын

not a bug, but a feature

@AndyJarman

15 күн бұрын

Dysfunctional, not dystopian.

@scabthecat

15 күн бұрын

The Samsung advert in response really was a slam dump into an open goal.

I understand Tolkien more and more every day.

@synewparadigm

12 күн бұрын

Please explain. TY.

@iampixel4086

11 күн бұрын

​@@synewparadigmtl;dr Tolkien was anti-tech. Lord of the Rings is actually ultra-critical of what back then was considered to be peak tech: nasty, loud machines producing noxious fumes (Mordor) and destroying the environment (ents, Elvish forests, etc.). Lots of interesting stuff tbh. I don't remember much, but my English course covered a lot of that... im sure there's plenty more online.

Wondering when we'll get a commercial in which artists, writers, programmers and other white-collar workers are stuck into the press to advertise Chat GPT-5

@elLooto

16 күн бұрын

why not ask that video generating AI to do it?

@yaboiportch

16 күн бұрын

@@elLooto 🤯

@Jeremy-Ai

7 күн бұрын

It is painful to watch this happen. The concern is that this Ad was a good idea in the first place. Nevermind actually being invested in, time spent, passing through executive decision process… finalized and shared as “good marketing”. (This is multiple levels of failure) Be advised There wont be another ad “crushing artists , musicians, coders, lawyers, accountants, doctors, and tellers.” Best we remember this one. Apple is not alone… they are just one major company so naive and disconnected, they cant hide their ignorance. I say this asI type into an I phone, using google you tube premium. It is unwise to be a terrible monopoly for too long. Historically speaking. It is just a matter of time and what match ignites good people to pursue and end to abuse. AI is not what we think it is. It is what it is. Regardless. Jeremy

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" -- Dr. Ian Malcom

@lanazak773

6 күн бұрын

Human nature

“Technology will take away your personal skill…” that is why I hate Melodyne and Auto-tune and have done so ever since I heard Cher using it in the late 90s. Nowadays, all you hear on the radio is people who can’t sing using machines to do it for them. I’d much rather hear someone from the 1980s or earlier occasionally miss a note than hear some robot sing everything “perfectly”.

@mistahsusan2650

16 күн бұрын

when you factor in the history of music as an "industry" you'll appreciate that is, was and has always been way of shuffling high face value cards back in the deck without anyone noticing. lots of people coming and going. lots of cash flowing back and forth. most of the time too much to keep a tab on. the decline in the actual talent of the performers hasn't changed the business, just made its true nature more apparent.

@Krysnha

16 күн бұрын

indeed, it feel human, meanwhile having a machine no matter what it feel like plastic, even when the sing is perfect is a machine

@corenlavolpe6143

16 күн бұрын

You're thinking of pitch correction. Autotune is just an effect, and the people who first used it knew this, you were MEANT to hear the vocal distortion, like how a talk box did it. If you can hear the pitch correction, they audio engineers didn't do their jobs, and I agree that it's too much of a crutch for certain artists.

@elLooto

16 күн бұрын

@@corenlavolpe6143 You can hear the pitch correction, though. Because the method uses compression. Bad singers need more compression to continually hit the right notes. Theres literally nothing the engineer can do to hide this, and still have the method be cost effective. In pretty much the same way you can tell when they dont use a real drummer.

@corenlavolpe6143

16 күн бұрын

​@@elLooto I guess the vast majority of artists I've listened to are just already naturally good and only use it for touch ups because I've never heard the compression, and I have very good headphones, mind you. As for digital instruments I've heard plenty of songs that use keyboards to play and turn it into different instruments and it sounds pretty much identical to a real performance, and it's because they use quality plug-ins and actually have skill. Generally though, making digital instruments sound perfect is probably more effort than just getting the real thing in many cases.

This also shows how insulated the Silicon People are from actual reality. To rural folk, who still live in reality (despite, obviously, having technology which we do use too much and too often, to be sure), the idea that you would compress all of life into a piece of technology that costs a fortune and will have to be replaced every few years is utterly insane. That tech won't feed my chickens, clean my gutters, paint the guest room, do dishes or laundry, pack the lunches for the school week, change the oil in my truck, or anything else of actual value. It is a mortgage payment for distraction and removal out of life. Only a pod-person who have a need or be willing to sacrifice so deeply for pure, vapid, and sub-par entertainment (as the entertainment MUST be sub-par, because satisfaction is the enemy of consumption).

@AndyJarman

15 күн бұрын

Is that because food production has been languishing as an economic priority since the green revolution of the 1960s? Lab grown meat and insect sourced protein is much more to the tastes of the progressives. All of it "grown" in polyethylene boxes flushed out by hoses. The land Liberated for "biodiversity" and cordoned off for "investment" purposes by the Gates Foundation?

I play trumpet. And it broke my heart to see one destroyed. I think everyone should learn to play an instrument. It's an experience that transcends time

@The9thMonth

15 күн бұрын

Same, but for the piano. Especially considering how picky I am and only like playing an ACTUAL piano instead of electronic ones. I actively avoided using electronic ones unless I quite literally had no other option.

@Emppu_T.

13 күн бұрын

The sound they make and the craftsmanship

@VladK-1

12 күн бұрын

Yeap. It's like an on-screen keyboard. It will never offer the same experience as an actual one though it may look like a picture of it.

@lankeastor512

11 күн бұрын

Learning an instrument is often the closest one gets to mastering something. In many cases, it even teaches people how to learn other difficult subjects. No wonder they dont want us to engage with it. Just focus on today, sheople.

@Contentibus

10 күн бұрын

same here. It angered me. Last time I buy an Apple product.

C. S. Lewis must be weeping for us all from heaven, wishing that he has been oh so wrong, but lo the Abolition of Man marches ever onward.

I took direct damage to the soul when I saw that Gameboy Advance SP in that picture.

@sneeringimperialist6667

16 күн бұрын

Game over...

@bluecoin3771

16 күн бұрын

We need to preserve what physical games we have left. I have a PSVita, now I just need a working memory card and I can play some Tales of Hearts R.

@corvus_armatura7595

16 күн бұрын

I remember one of the old versions of that thing survived a bomb in the gulf war. All for something that needs so many hoops to jump just to even play the same games.

@Emppu_T.

13 күн бұрын

​@@bluecoin3771 they really shot themselves with requiring expensive m2's

I love my Samsung phones because they package the best features set and performance for my use case, but... The problem with giving Samsung any credit is that they'd happily crap on Apple's anti-consumer marketing and product decisions. But then, within a couple of years, Samsung will basically do a lot of the same thing themselves.

@minakat369

15 күн бұрын

Yeah I have no delusions that Samsung is my friend but I am the last person in my family both nuclear and extended to still have a Samsung phone. If I want to use a tablet to read I have my Kindle. And about 5,000 books.

@lankeastor512

11 күн бұрын

@@minakat369they cant take your physical books (or alter them) without a fight.

So, I think one of the big differences is that the LG ad is collapsing tools into one. Kind of an 'all in one' kind of thing. That's why the crusher was enclosed on all sides, so _nothing was lost._ The Apple ad didn't collapse tools, however, it collapsed _art,_ and, by leaving it open, to leak out the edges, there was no sense of conservation, only _destruction._ Worse, half the tools (a posing model, a clay bust, etc.) were things that _cannot_ be replicated by an Ipad at _all,_ because you can't have both a posing program and an art program up at the same time. And the shot with the little emoji toy being crushed... those are supposed to represent _human faces,_ to better convey emotion, and thus, they were implying this would also crush/condense _people._ Which... I mean, is funny, in a philosophically barren, childish way, almost cartoonish, but when taken with the gestalt, sends a _very very bad message._

@Fronzel41

16 күн бұрын

There were multiple instances of the objects in the press being visually cast as victims. Was it supposed to be funny?

The Samsung slap back is on point. Good marketing there.

SNL has a skit called "Jeffery's" where they mocked the excessive materialism and dematerialization nearly two decades before Steven Pinker wrote his book. People are not entirely creatures of material. This is why unbridled materialism, while benefiting out material condition, has resulted in one of the most depressed and suicidal eras of human history, and at a point its completely unjustified under materialism.

@zealgaming8161

16 күн бұрын

That's not materialism, but disharmony with ones nature. Most health issues stem from a lack of proper living. Beauty, fitness, health, will to power. As man is the apex of creation, we should strive towards strength and glory, not weakness and guilt. Morals has been flipped upside down. Where now the weak are the just, while the strong are the oppressors, the tyrants, the evil. Even though in nature, that is self evidently wrong. In nature, the strong, the beautiful, the clever are the ones who thrive.

@MidlifeCrisisJoe

15 күн бұрын

As it turns out, humans need struggle. We complain about it a lot, but we actually *need* to solve problems as we battle against life to feel like we have any sense of purpose. You make that battle too easy or the problems to simple with technology, and life becomes a dull sludge many would rather not participate in at all.

@Emppu_T.

13 күн бұрын

And how soulless and dehumanising overt minimalism looks like

I saw a video today comparing Kelly Clarkson with Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" and (with some analysis software) the presenter was able to point out how Clarkson was pitch corrected verses Garland's unaltered performance. One of the main points I particularly liked was where he said it was not that pitch correction was used but it was used _too much:_ the natural tone of the singing voice is never going to be perfect even with a skilled singer and what might look like an imperfection in a pitch chart doesn't necessarily need to be fixed. We feel like we are living in a sterile world because it's been sterilized for us by people who think they know better.

@malcolmapplet4313

16 күн бұрын

I resisted clicking on that video. Like everything else.

As someone who loves his gadgets, robotics and believes the good that scientific advancement can bring. I know nothing can replace the human experience, the human sensation and authentic stimulation. In otherwords: There is no upgrade to the human soul.

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

That's what philosophy is for, which tech can help deliver to more people, but is irreplaceable in its function.

@arklowrockz

15 күн бұрын

The problem with that mate is that neuro-science has instructed us that "self" is an illusion "soul" is an illusion and "free will" is an illusion. Our experience of our "selves"is illusory. We are just a materialistic deterministic process. We have been been busy dissecting the goose which lays the golden eggs and it ain't producing any more golden eggs. Just regular functional omeltte eggs fron here on out.

The cancer of presentism embodied in one ad

@Armameteus

16 күн бұрын

The mindset of the eternal "now", as predicated by the continual increase in rapidity with which things come and go, appear and disappear, are created and replaced ever faster, is eponymous of the erosion of the human soul. When there is no time to contemplate and appreciate things because there's always something new vying for your attention, it grows ever harder to truly immerse yourself in something real - something that inspires and uplifts you as a person into someone with deep knowledge, practiced skill, a font of passion and _meaning_ from which you manifest your sense of self. When nothing means anything anymore because it can all be so easily replaced, slowly, you realize _you too_ exist similarly, as all you are has been predicated on those same ephemeral, meaningless, replaceable things. When everything is disposable, including everything that is supposedly so important to you, you start to wonder if you might be too.

I don’t know about you, but I’m skeptical of the book that Bill Gates said is his favorite book of all time

@roachfamily2434

16 күн бұрын

His actual favorite book is by Anton LaVey

@AllHailSeizure90

16 күн бұрын

Wouldn't be surprised if it was something a little more "colorful" like the Talmud being who he is

@Mackenway

16 күн бұрын

Have you read it?

@heathclark318

16 күн бұрын

Island of Doctor Moreau

@cyrusevans1009

16 күн бұрын

What is it?

LG's ad had a bunch of new, off-the-shelf, generic items. Apple's ad had a bunch of priceless historical artifacts.

@ostsan8598

15 күн бұрын

Apple's ad had a bunch of computer generated items.

Great essay. Apple seems to have missed that the iPad is primarily a media consumption device masquerading as a creative one. Sheet music on a screen can be more convenient than paper pages which need to be turned. That doesn't make the musician more creative. And the children who grew up with iPads are far less likely to play or practice an instrument because they are constantly entertained by videos and games.

@Emppu_T.

13 күн бұрын

Life distractor

Who the fuck saw this ad and thought "yup, that's a great ad right there! Release it!"

@theodoreganymede2095

16 күн бұрын

Silicon lifeforms are not real people.

@JamesBrown-rd8og

16 күн бұрын

A WEF pusher or a woke MF

@giin97

16 күн бұрын

Someone without a soul.

@threewiseman1

16 күн бұрын

'Wokeness' in a nutshell. Rather, I should say 'wokeness' is a by-product of this mentality. DEI, in and of itself, shouldn't necessarily produce the soullessness we see in our modern media, but it does because, as we all know, DEI is a smokescreen for it's exact opposite - a conglomerate of people who all think the same way. 'If it ticks the boxes, it must be good.'

@CivilizedWasteland

16 күн бұрын

seeing how the japanese reacted reminded me how corrupt my soul is

Imagine an ad where artists, gamers, athletes, photographers, etc pull out their favorite tools from within the iphone, enabling them to have a great time with the ad closing by all those people pocketing the super slim iphone and getting on with their day. It'd highlight a super convenient device which helps people do what they love.

@zoeen5650

16 күн бұрын

You're hired!

The most sinister application of digitization is not taking creative labor out of the hands of creators, it's establishing dependence upon their tools and their services for life. Analog is not only appreciated for its robustness, it's also for the freedom from specific avenues of the market that you are "marched down" to be another cog to be datamined and catalogued. That is why the tools that offer freedom must be "crushed" under the weight of their total control.

@AndyJarman

15 күн бұрын

This is why architecture has been erased from buildings. The delight the engineer finds in performing special effects has erased the real purpose or telos of a building as a place for people. People work from a context, a history, their share sentiments and creature needs that need reassurance. Boastful displays of alienating scale and materials reduced to digital printed "stuff" void of character or evidence of passing time will be loved by nobody. The moment those edifices stand in the way of making more profit they will be demolished. Like the wrappers, cartons and bottles containing and promoting our groceries, buildings are little more than promotional advertising.

@chantellegiardina5098

14 күн бұрын

Bang on

@lankeastor512

11 күн бұрын

@@AndyJarmanare you re-reading Fountainhead as well?!

@lankeastor512

11 күн бұрын

It almost sounds like you’re saying it’s immoral to force people to buy product X to do their work/endeavor, while selling them the line that they (the customer) are a self-centered, materialistic s***. And that it’s immoral to hook these people up to this rent-like pipeline that will tax them / dominate them / enslave them, as long as they opt to engage with anything. Im glad that’s not what you’re saying though, because pre orders for the next $1500 iphone are gonna open soon and I have to have it. Wowee I love Apple.

The aesthetic experience you talk about is one of the big reasons I play tabletop games a lot and video games only on occasion these days.

These videos are getting good. Hyper focused sa style is great little bite sized video articles. Great work man.

As Jonathan Pageau would say: "Anchor yourself in the analog."

A swap meet vendor who specializes in VHS cassettes told me her strongest demographic is 18-22 year olds. They don’t mind rewinding, or the less-than-4K picture. There’s a tactile experience, a less-rushed and more flawed throwback they seem to crave. We’ve taken all that from them, and owe them something of an apology.

Having not read the book I can't be sure, but having read other things he's written, he likely missed one key thing about the Enlightenment.... It wasn't JUST the scientific method and that ethos that drove the advancement of society. It was that in combination with the West's moral & societal foundation built around Judeo-Christian morals/values. Considering the societal state today, we've lost one half of that equation. Ironically, I would argue the loss of that moral foundation is/has been compromising the scientific method's application. To quote George Clooney's character from Oh Brother Where Art Though.... "Damn, we're in a tight spot".....

If they'd did the press thing in reverse it would have been a great commercial

@Xplora213

16 күн бұрын

That’s a great point. It wouldn’t be true. The iPad doesn’t create pianos and paintings, but the sentiment is great. But the people making these things and part of that machine are not interested in creating a piano on the iPad. They are just making content consumption devices and they don’t realise it. We got most of the way around 20 years ago. Genuinely didn’t need to go further.

@AndyJarman

15 күн бұрын

But it would make the claim the iPad 'contains' the world we really value?

@viermidebutura

15 күн бұрын

@@AndyJarman yea but i would use something non destructive

@Alknix

13 күн бұрын

@@AndyJarman They could've made the iPad transform into every one of those things in turn.

This is why we reject the current CGI shit fest that is hollywood, we can feel it's fakery and soullessness

Well said Sargon. Big tech is no fan of flesh and blood humanity.

Early 2000s were the sweetspot for tech. Video games hadn't yet been turned into casinos by F2P, CDs and DVDs were still huge (and a huge source of revenue for artists), and of course there was no social media inviting everyone to lie about their happiness to strangers. Fortunately, you can go back. Simply put down (or better yet, put aside) your smart phone.

Mouse utopia experiment.

I hadn't seen that add. Damn, if I wanted to make a short film about the down sides of cell phones I couldn't have come up with something that good.

@LoponStormbased

13 күн бұрын

I wasn't paying attention when it came on screen, and had no idea it was from Apple until rewinding because I thought it was it's own art performance meant to elicit uncomfortable feelings about a "technological crunch" and wanted to know who made such a thoughtful piece of art. I laughed when it turned out Apple made it themselves and it was them trying to sell me something in a very uncomfortable way.

This is why, at the end of the day, I view AI-generated art as a sort of whitepill. It will not diminish art, or artists. At its end stages, AI art and its generated apathy that society will seek to destroy will reverse the death of the author. It will resurrect the author. No one that has something to show the world will be affected. What's that? People will no longer be hired to create homocorporate artwork that no one wants to see? Good. What's that? Talented artists will no longer be coerced by media franchises with salaries they can't refuse to slave away at masterfully crafting worlds that mean nothing, at the altar of brain-hemorrhaging blockbuster/viral media slop? Good. What's that? The concept of art in and of itself will begin to lose its mass market appeal in mainstream society? Good. Good. Very, very, very, very good. Gatekeep everything.

So, crystal spires and togas. Fuck yeah. As long as we don't create Slaanesh first.

@Svevsky

16 күн бұрын

Slaanesh already exists

@dianabarnett6886

16 күн бұрын

@@Svevsky Slaanesh cultists, certainly.

Indeed, the issue with Pinker's argument and those like him is that they rely on invoking _ends_

@HenriFaust

16 күн бұрын

All morality, even deontology, invokes ends. Any system that says the ends don't matter reduces to moral nihilism. Consequences matter even if they aren't everything that does matter.

@Spazzboy911

16 күн бұрын

it's the sin of 'techno optimism' and my own bias is that i'm getting pretty damn tired of moral systems being replaced with 'techno optimism'.

@SacClass650

16 күн бұрын

@@HenriFaust Of course _ends_ are a factor, but 'what someone does or makes is not the same as that _by_ _means_ _of_ _which_ he does it or makes it'. The _means_ is nigh on everything. The issue with the Pinkers of the world is that they rely too heavily on ends; their argument for progress and modernity, then, is often a consequentialist one.

@jw6588

16 күн бұрын

​@@HenriFaustWhat a profoundly pointless statement.

@harbl99

16 күн бұрын

Pinker trying to resurrect Whig history? Ironic.

Any ideology based on materialism will inevitably fail to satisfy.

@AndyJarman

15 күн бұрын

But MacDonalds! Right?

Pinker's Dematerialization argument fails to notice that all "17 things the iPhone has replaced", are all still being manufactured and consumed, more or less.

@Anton43218

16 күн бұрын

I haven't seen cameras or recorders in stores since the early 2010s. Dunno what you are speaking.

@SirAirlessDaVacuum

16 күн бұрын

​@@Anton43218the world doesn't end at the borders of the west.

@theodoreganymede2095

16 күн бұрын

Not that it means much considering smartphone production went through the roof since it hit the market. It's almost like there are more brands for phones than there are for MP3 _and_ cameras combined.

@MrRem7600

16 күн бұрын

@@SirAirlessDaVacuum not really - the calculator has been deflated to the point it became an app, and then just included as free standard software on a device because it's economic value was reduced to nothing by evolution of technology. Even in the third world a smartphone meant most people can skip entire generations of technology. Why would you buy or carry a calculator when you have it in a phone?

@Armameteus

16 күн бұрын

​@@Anton43218Cameras still exist; they're just more in the professional niche now, for when you need absolute control and the absolute best possible image quality. Before smart phones, cheap, low-grade cameras existed for the average user, but now that smart phones have cameras in them, that market is gone; professional-grade cameras, though, still exist. They're just, ya know, for professionals, in settings in which they're needed. The same can be said for recording devices, like video cameras or audio-recording equipment; all smart phones have done is replace the cheaper, lower-grade versions of those things that were originally produced for non-professional users, while the professional film and audio equipment versions still exist and are used all the time. This is simply a case in which you aren't looking in those markets.

"Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures...But by the sweat of a man's brow, and the strength of his back alone! Y'all know this to be true!" - Barbosa

I personally find it quite therapeutic to engage with analogue versions of the activities I enjoy. As much as I love using my computer, doing a jigsaw puzzle, painting with brushes on canvas, listening to vinyl records, reading a book, etc., the tangible aspects of these things sort of ground me in reality. Being able to actually touch something gives it more value and makes it less disposable.

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

This in neon lights; I clean ancient Roman and Greek coins, it's a very soothing experience and allows me to restore a forgotten piece of history, whose bare surface was last touched by someone in the ancient world. It's like having a 2000 year old handshake

The problem with crushing paint and instrument into a smartphone is that it is exchanging creative tools for consumer entertainment and convenience. Sure for the listener recordings can be as good as a live musician but for the musician buttons on a phone dont replace a real piano, guitar, or trumpet because you cant play a phone

@psluxton

16 күн бұрын

Or "jam" on a phone and find/create something new from the heart and flow of your fingers.

@hatchhermit77

13 күн бұрын

And the brush. I paint as a hobby and some of my best looking aspects of some of my pieces were "mistakes".

Watching that Apple advert made me think of the movie Equilibrium. The Apple product is the cold sterility of the tyrannical regime compared to the moment Christian Bale turns on the record player and the first notes of music ring out. When he bursts into tears at the joy of hearing beautiful music for the first time. Music made by human endeavour, by many people coming together to produce something full of very human emotion, that moves the hearts of all who behold it - especially those that have never experienced the marvel that is music before. The tearing down of barriers and the unleashing of the soul via the experiencing of a labour of love and the obvious effort that was involved in it's making. And Apple... crushing it all flat. All the excitement, all the wonder, all the joy, crushed into what looks like nothing. All the HUMANITY and LOVE is gone and replaced by a lifeless THING. 🥶🥶🥶🥶 Chilling.

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

Equilibrium reference, all of you plebs bow before this man of sublime culture

They want to prepare you for the life in the pod. - Resist.

Enjoying the recent videos! Glad youre posting again

Part of me hopes whoever made that mePhone ad knew *exactly* how it would be taken and meant to say as much.

@AndyJarman

15 күн бұрын

Yes the cultists enjoy the thought of ridding us if a past of "false consciousness". They want to Liberate us from contact with imperfections, the soil, unregulated temperatures and light levels. It's their aesthetic. Predictability, consistency, accountability, CONTROL.

Soul has no purpose in the pursuit of progress. We have brought this upon ourselves.

@psluxton

16 күн бұрын

Soul is EVERYTHING in the pursuit of progress or why bother in the first place? I would rather be surrounded by the things I love than be surrounded by an empty sterile room.

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

@@psluxton The people who have conflated progress in service to the aggrandizement of the human spirit and civilization with progress in service of progress are almost as dangerous as the folks merely fueling the progress for progress' sake. We should better ourselves, we should always move forward and be better, wiser, stronger, more resilient; accepting OPs logic shunts us back to the beginning of our story, with no guarantee of returning to where we've arrived.

@istvantoth7431

16 күн бұрын

Well said.

@larsliamvilhelm

16 күн бұрын

@@psluxton Progress can go on without soul.

@rRekko

15 күн бұрын

@@theeccentrictripper3863 this. It's caught my attention more and more people are becoming anti-tech because "it robs us of our soul and our humanity, it promotes lazyness by making everything easier, etc". I find it very alarming, progress is needed and inevitaable, it depends of us how we want to tackle progress, which direction we will take our species towards. Fighting tech because of the soul argument, it is so dumb. You can still have a soul (if you believe in it) and pursue progress and humanity's evolution. Yes, if we don't end our species, we will ultimately evolve in however many milennia, we are not the end all be all of our species, it is extremely narcissistic to believe such a thing. I'm not saying we should reject humanity, im just saying we should embrace the fact that humanity will keep evolving and turn into whatever it may turn in the future, we are not so important or a figure of maximum potential, and tech is one way of figuring out where we're going to go next, we don't need to be so grumpy because of all the things technological progress has achieved just because we believe it has no soul because it's just not the same we used to do when we were younger.

One day, I would love to see the assumption that progress is either inevitable or good be crushed, like the relics in the advert were.

I've never trusted seeing Steven Pinker the moment I saw him dance, and the company he keeps around him.

Yeah that anti skip was a miracle, just a bit of memory buffer, though i suppose back then it was a lot of memory buffer.

@andresgreene4913

16 күн бұрын

It was pretty valuable on bumpy bus rides on dirt roads on my way to school.

@captainsausages1205

16 күн бұрын

It wasn't a lot of memory back then either, nor especially expensive - the real innovation came from ensuring the player could do all those things without eating through the batteries in about five minutes.

Mobile devices also offer a wholly inferior presentation of entertainment, productive,and games media. The slide towards everything being on cell phones is a bad thing.

There are many things I still like about old technology, devices being independent from another, if something broke then it doesn't compromise another devise, no subscriptions, a higher quality of the experience. The gradual loss of tactile interactions makes it all quite dull. Technology is a great tool and that's all it should be, not a replacement. Keep up the great work.

You said just what I was thinking at the start, they're taking away from the physical act of creation which is part of what makes us Human.

@TheSpicyLeg

16 күн бұрын

Your comments reminds me of something that happened here locally. They came up with an “autonomous” landscaping system that eliminated the need for human interaction. All sorts of sensors and gadgets watching the area, it’d send out a lawn mowing robot when the grass got so tall, water the plants, all that. The test was to see how well it maintained the area. What they found quickly was the people using the space just trashed the hell out of it, because the robots would pick up litter, so people just threw trash in the grass. This led to “paths” being run into the grass because the robot was constantly running a circuit around picking up litter. By the mid-point of summer the area looked terrible, because people dumped their drinks out into the grass, making the sensors read enough moisture when there actually wasn’t. It was a total failure. So of course, the brainiacs running it argued it would all be fine without people. And that is going to be the end result of all this technology. It works great if we just got rid of the people. Music isn’t better because we got rid of the people. Art isn’t better because we get rid of the people. Technology is not a replacement for people.

@BladeTrain3r

16 күн бұрын

Creation comes from the mind, the physical part is to bring that creation into the world. There is value in the journey, lessons in performing the acts that come with it, but let's not forget that the tools are merely extensions of the mind expressing itself.

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

@@TheSpicyLeg Literally communism, "This would work if people would just stop being people." It'll never happen and any technology not designed to account for the human condition will at best be useless and at worst be an active impediment to mankind.

@khajiithadwares2263

16 күн бұрын

@@BladeTrain3r Tell that to the writers and drawing artists that lost their job to AI. I'm sure they'll understand. AI is mind, what you wrote is just an extension of mind, therefore AI. Cool? You're fired.

@fwa8590

16 күн бұрын

​​@@BladeTrain3rYes, but it's an extension of the mind of multibillion dollar company. Essentially, they're trying to monopolize the process of creation. That's the source of the problem.

"There was a whole chain of separate departments dealing with proletarian literature, music, drama, and entertainment generally. Here were produced rubbishy newspapers containing almost nothing except sport, crime, and astrology, sensational five-cent novelettes, films oozing with sex, and sentimental songs which were composed entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of kaleidoscope known as a versificator." - Nineteen Eighty Four

The company that markets to the artsy tech illiterates, creates an ad on how they're going to replace the artsy tech illiteres. Haven't seen marketing this brilliant since Bud Lite.

When Apple says "reduce carbon", does that mean the children making apple products in China will have to work harder?

@mistahsusan2650

16 күн бұрын

how much harder can they be made to work? they already selfdelet just from the manufacturing/assembly jobs. not even getting into the horror that is the mining side of things. they won't need to be made to work harder, the customer will pay more and more.

@jasse85

16 күн бұрын

@@mistahsusan2650 I don't know, but i know Apple doesn't care.

@Cyrus_T_Laserpunch

16 күн бұрын

If they have room to work harder, they're slacking off, if they do not, they must work harder anyway,

@frdsg8350

16 күн бұрын

They are the carbon

Working on my car with the sun on my back and my phone in the house is nothing short of pure bliss.

@grumpycat5991

6 күн бұрын

I leave my phone on my desk, it lives there.. plugged in 95% of the time. I only use it to log into websites with "2fa" Basically my phone is a corded token generator. I havnt answered my phone in 5 years... unless its my wife or other family/friend ... "Progress" has basically made me revert to the corded landline that I totally ignore.

This is worse than the time all those Pokemon died in a car crusher.

First, hope you're well Carl. Havent been doing great lately but grinding on. Thanks for the upload.

@SamM-gl9zc

16 күн бұрын

It's nice when somebody you like and who doesn't put videos out constantly puts one out. You are not alone. SO many of us are out here just grinding along, slogging it out, day after day, for no other discernable reason than that you Gotta just keep going. I think one of the harder parts of life is learning to push through the crap and slowing down to enjoy the good times, whenever you're fortunate enough to find them.

@davestevenson9080

16 күн бұрын

@@SamM-gl9zc if either of you lads go postal please take a politician, journalist or NGO CEO with you please for the rest of us ta x

@peterc3262

16 күн бұрын

​@@SamM-gl9zchow did we get the idea that this isn't what everyone does? Were we convinced that at some point we'd have to slay the dragon and climb the mountain? 99% of people just keep going and always did. Is accepting that the dragon and just keeping going the mountain?

@andrewdornan587

16 күн бұрын

@SamM-gl9zc thanks man, very true.

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

Troubles are temporary but the glory of Rome is forever. The words of Seneca always lift me up out of my funk: "Of all men they alone are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They annex every age to their own; all the years that have gone before them are an addition to their store. Unless we are most ungrateful, all those men, glorious fashioners of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life. By other men's labours we are led to the sight of things most beautiful that have been wrested from darkness and brought into light; from no age are we shut out, we have access to all ages, and if it is our wish, by greatness of mind, to pass beyond the narrow limits of human weakness, there is a great stretch of time through which we may roam. We may argue with Socrates, we may doubt with Carneades, find peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, exceed it with the Cynics. Since Nature allows us to enter into fellowship with every age, why should we not turn from this paltry and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past, which is boundless, which is eternal, which we share with our betters?" - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Chapter XIV, On the Shortness of Life

There is a secondary effect to this dematerialization. Since a phone can do many things badly, it leaves a market for better versions of the things it replaced.

To say the hacks at Apple are out of touch with the rest of society would be the understatement of the year

Mans entire business is built on the use of technology. Even his last job advert asked for someone who "keeps abreast of the latest technology". Samsung "hit the right note"...but they're just going to sell you a similar soulless product ... Its not the technology, or even the people behind the technology... Its the consumer...its YOU Carl, the one using the technology to garner every facet of their life, while also blaming the technology for their own lack of drive and ambition to not do that thing you criticise everybody else for. I agree that the technology can help to facilitate a person being lazy, but that person can and will make choices...lazy choices most likely, thats their choice.

@zealgaming8161

16 күн бұрын

My dream art project is building a longboat for my son's and their future companions so that they got a proper vessel to raid the nearby coastal villages. I hope they bring with them lots of spoils and contine to spread my seed far and wide!

And so long as conservatives and people on the right continue to gleefully and proudly run away from new tech, see folks like the Daily Wire on videogames and the AI stuff, this will continue. Technological progress cannot be stopped but it can be directed.

@GeeeEmmm

16 күн бұрын

Daily Wire are not conservatives, they're classical liberals

@elLooto

16 күн бұрын

@@GeeeEmmm Daily wire are corporatists.

@doltBmB

16 күн бұрын

It can be stopped, and forward movement is not necessarily progress. You are simply regurgitating a slogan.

@zealgaming8161

16 күн бұрын

AI can't be stopped, neither can tech. Trying to regulate progress is ultimately doomed to fail. Especially with such transgressive tech as AI. Neither are those the issue. The issue is how man now live in disharmony with his own nature. People feel like shit because their living in-properly. Eating unhealthy, not enforcing their will upon others, not getting enough sunlight and exercise. Not working out or engaging in competitive physical activity. Not enough sleep.. Etc, etc.

@AndyJarman

15 күн бұрын

​@@GeeeEmmmthere are a number of forms of "Classical Liberalism". Scottish and English liberalism being distinct from each other and neither accepting the Continental liberalism concept that the state can create or destroy "rights" - such as those decreed by the UN. Conservatives are merely right of centre in the liberal spectrum. Americans have the Democratic party which has been dubbed 'liberal' because it went through a period in the post war years of eroding state controls imposed during WWII. This is a move to the left within Classical Liberal system. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were extremely 'liberal' or deregulatory in terms of economic issues. Socially they were pretty conservative if not downright straight laced.

This is something I've been feeling about AI Art, and you articulated it very well, Carl. No matter how hard I try, I will not be better than the computer and its millions of perfected data points. But it's the act of making the art, learning how to do it, seeing with my own eyes and feeling with my hands how the paint, pens, and markers flow across the paper or canvas, that makes it worth it. I don't care that my art isn't perfect: it's mine. I made it.

Apple is like the older brother taking the thing away from the younger brother who is using it, doing it for him faster, then the younger brother cries, and the mom yells at him and says he needs to learn himself. Except the younger brother is you and you have no discernible skills at the age of 30.

Yeah, they clearly missed the mark: from what I can tell, their intention was to convey compressing down, not destroying, all of the luxuries and conveniences into their smallest package yet... but who can resist cool destruction shots...

@elLooto

16 күн бұрын

and finishing with paint leaking out like rainbow colored blood....

Instruments in the press was absolute sacrilege. Some corpo types want us endlessly consuming but it's nice to see at least one ad showing that people can also be encouraged to produce instead. It's far more fulfilling ❤

For me the thing about that Apple ad wasn't just the crushing of the human experience, it was the colour tone that was reminiscent of Apple's "Big Brother" ad for the introduction of the Macintosh. Apple has become what it hated 40-odd years ago.

They don't have the right to remove redundant systems. Thus is the nature of tyranny.

I prefer the content style you upload here rather than the Lotus Eaters stuff. Here its more personable and less New BBC news reporter. Its also nostalgic.

Someone offered to sell me an iPhone today, and I asked if they had any Samsungs. 🤣 Apple is basically a Chinese company who gets to technically claim to be American. Samsung still manufactures a lot of their actual hardware in South Korea itself, and when they offshore, they tend to send it to non-communist countries like Thailand or the Philippines (if I remember correctly), or even if they use (anti-Chinese, pro-Russian) Vietnam occasionally, they're anti-China so that still balances out to a net anti-communist country (ironically, similar to how Ukrxxnx balances out to a net anti-whxtx country despite being literal Nxzxs).

Yes. Out of many, one. The goal is always the convergence of things into a new synthesized whole.

Too right mate. If they had just crushed a series of Apple devices it would make sense

Funny thing is im throwing alot of crap out right now 😮

@JamesBrown-rd8og

16 күн бұрын

Lets go brandon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recorded/digitized music is actually great, especially with the mass availability of the internet, because it allows people from almost anywhere, to listen to music from almost everywhere and every _when_ . None of us were alive to listen to jazz bands play in the 1920s/30s, and most of us can't afford to travel to wherever jazz bands are playing now, or whatever musician/group/band you like, if they're even still alive.

The amish are right about technology

@o.o5816

13 күн бұрын

Just not radical enough. Ted K was right about technology.

The iPad ad didnt miss the mark at all, it hit it right on the head. Of course im not surprised the CEO doesnt get it, or at best he's feigning ignorance.

How many of our grandparents and great grandparents were able to play an instrument, sing , and actually spend time socialising musically, compared to today? Another human bond broken?

@pwh1981

15 күн бұрын

I'm very glad that my school system had a string orchestra program, probably the brightest point of school life for me was playing violin in it. Met many friends, first love, and found something I genuinely wished to pursue greatness in, even if I only recognized that at the end of it. The bond is strained as more people move to independently produce music electronically, but it is not broken just yet.

Part of the problem behind this concept, is that in reality these new devices are so poor in quality, or have planned obsolesce in mind, that an old camera, piano, radio, telephone etc... Can last for a hundred years, your new device might just stop working within a year to a decade, and thus endless waste is being thrown into landfills, and ever more precious resources are dug out of the Earth.

The ad is also misleading, ipads, and pretty much all Apple products aren't made using a hydraulic press.

Enlightenment thinkers trying to solve the problems caused by... Enlightenment thinkers

@PebbleLove

10 күн бұрын

I'm curious if you think China before modern times was a good thing. Since they rejected the enlightenment and technological progress altogether. It's quite obvious what happened to China in the 20th century is the inevitable outcome of any reactionary state.

There's a concept in Christian Theology called "Telos" which basically means that there is a higher purpose to all objects. It starts with the antimaterialist presupposition that all things have a "telos" or higher purpose and that the way to best improve oneself and one's surroundings is to bring everything into the proper Telos. This extends to the natural world, cultivating and caretaking the environment and ecosystem, but also applying a similar process to oneself, where you cultivate virtue and align your thoughts, prayers, motivation, and spirit with the higher purpose God is calling you to. Having a Teliological view of the world can make even the most mundane tasks magical. (Which is a word I know Mr. Benjamin loves using.)

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

Telos brother, telos, and teleology started with Plato and Aristotle, it's a pagan idea. Which should be fine, plenty of really great pagan philosophy undergirds Christianity, but that doesn't mean Christianity should get all its credit.

@sethd.8381

16 күн бұрын

@@theeccentrictripper3863 thanks for the correction! (For those reading this comment after the edit, I misspelled telos.)

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

@@sethd.8381 No problem brother, happens to the best of us lol. My favorite philosopher Plotinus writes in less than stellar Greek yet he produced some of the most profound ideas ever conceived, but I figure someone else would've leapt on such a small thing and tismed out over it, to nobody's benefit.

@Emperordmb

16 күн бұрын

@@theeccentrictripper3863 Oh yeah, Thomas Aquinas gives due respect to the Greeks. He even refers to Aristotle simply as "the philosopher"

@theeccentrictripper3863

15 күн бұрын

@@Emperordmb Christianity has a very quirky relationship with pagan philosophy, but its foundations are built on it and the greatest theologians, Aquinas but also others, all give due respect to the great philosophers of Antiquity. We probably wouldn't even have Christianity as it exists without the Neoplatonism of Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus; their work, as strained through the philosopher Proclus but others as well, enters Christian thought from multiple vectors, the most sublime being Pseudo-Dionysius. Every Christian should learn these systems and admire their philosophical weight.

@1:40, Hah! I remember when tubes were being replaced with solid-state components. Less than ten years later, they were replaced in turn by integrated circuits. Ten years after that, it was "Dude! You're gettin' a Dell." Now we're herea

People who can't control their emotions will try to control others behaviour.

I've just come home from seeing the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform, and I could not agree any more with your point about live music. My first orchestra experience was fairly recent, and it was a revelatory experience. It has forever changed my understanding of music, both in live performance and generally. Today, I witnessed a cellist playing an instrument constructed in 1717 Rome - it was marvellous. It's incredible to listen to such a thing and get to participate in 300 years history of performance; it's truly magical.

@theeccentrictripper3863

16 күн бұрын

But look how thin that iPad is!!! Jokes aside that indeed sounds like magic. I haven't been to a proper orchestra but I played viola in school, even as a bunch of middling school-age kids the experience of being in an orchestra and playing together, reaching a grand harmony as everyone falls into their place, is a truly mystical experience.

@zoeen5650

16 күн бұрын

Because we are mostly made of water. The sound waves literally vibrate our body depending on the instrument. Nothing beats a non amplified orchestra in a building or location designed for acoustics. 😍

Ahh Metallica. With hair. Obvioulsy, pre technology...

Crush is the perfect inversion of Apple's 1984 commercial.

Smartphone generation is still waiting for their IBM PC moment. It was not a great thing for IBM itself and industry learned their lesson really well, so this moment might never come, but if we get a phone/tablet that we actually own, I wouldn't mind replacing everything with a glass monolyth that day. Until then, you can pry my computer from my cold dead hands.