890
You'll have to kill me first. No way in good Satan's Hell will pedophiles put their software on my computer. Eat dick bitch. (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world
174 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 9 points 8 months ago (10 children)

So… this is really THE conversation. How do we roll the Internet back to around 1999? Obviously we include Wikipedia But pretty much every other so called innovation would ultimately infringe the rights of users or manipulate them.

We all sing the same song here.

We love our MP3s played on private devices.

We love our anonymity.

But we also love access to like minds and information.

Yes — nature is a great solution and we need to have it in our lives every day, but it shouldn’t be an either or situation.

For a brief and shining moment - right around 1999, we had the ability to opt in only where we wanted and to protect ourselves completely when we did not. Corporations had not figured out total surveillance.

This is the sweet spot. And Lemmy is a part of this — I consider all of the Fediverse prime time 1999.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (9 children)

    I'm afraid you can't just take the good parts of modern technology without the bad. You either let everyone have access to modern tools and we go extinct or you limit access to a small group who will have total control over everyone else. Or simply get rid of the technology. The sweet spot wasn't 1999, it was before we had TV dumbing us down, before we had microplastics making us sick and before we had cars destroying local communities.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (8 children)

    Well… yes, embrace nature. But if we push your line of thinking… the sweet spot comes before the locomotive, the pen, the compass.

    I’ll venture that individually, groups of people, like the Amish, can and do take the good parts of tech without the bad.

    I’m not so keen to go Amish, but I like to communicate with people who understand how instances work. How donations and service work.

    I’m just not so quick to give up on 1999.

    I’m willing to let others be distracted to death by their toys while they pour out money to the tech bros— I just won’t be one of those.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (7 children)

    I definitely think the Amish way of life is happier, healthier and more beneficial to others than American life for the past 100 years. But the way they managed that is by rejecting modern technology with very little picking and choosing like using radios but not phones or cars but not planes. I'm sure when they do pick and choose (e.g., I heard some use pesticides like Roundup) it will usually have negative consequences (see Roundup).

    But unfortunately the Amish will die along with everyone else if there isn't a global stop to technological progress. Forming anti-tech communities is an important step in the right direction but awareness of the issues needs to spread to most people on the planet - and fast.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (6 children)

    Here we’re are on a distributed network talking about tech. And agreeing.

    I like my records and MP3s.

    I like my camera and word processor.

    But I agree with you that the Amish live a more healthy life style.

    I have a family but if I didn’t… i might show up with my two hands and throw my lot in to that lifestyle. Do they allow books? That’s the one thing I could not live without.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (5 children)

    Yes, they allow books. But unfortunately you wouldn't be able to join them unless you hold their specific religious convictions.

    My hope is that intentional communities can form that support each other so that they are not subject to strong competitive pressures that practically necessitate anti-consumer practices and the use of modern technology that does more harm than good. The central principles would be belief that doing things the natural way is (almost always) best and that societal wellbeing is largely unrelated to efficiency, economics and material goods once the basic needs have been met. No other religion or beliefs would be required. Through their positive example these communities would influence the rest of the world in the right direction too so that we might not become extinct.

    To this end I started https://lemmy.today/c/StopTech and https://lemmy.today/c/ParallelSocieties. I'm working on groups on other platforms as well and trying to start a community in the real world.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Such communities would benefit from grant fund seeding.

    As you know, intentional communities were very popular in the 70s and likely align themselves to your values already.

    You might visit these and see if they might not provide a foundation for the work your hope to engage in.

    I’m all for your vision.

    I wouldn’t be reading stop tech if I weren’t.

    But as you know… my goals are more humble: get everyone reading paper books and using flip phones and mp3 players and meeting in parks to play frisbee and kick hacky sacks

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)

    Unfortunately most intentional communities don't last very long and many are cult-like, overly collectivist or based on (what I would consider) wacky ideologies. There's a few that have lasted and seem reasonable but I haven't looked into them much yet and doubt I would be able to visit them. My ideal has some overlap with back-to-the-land movements but it goes further in that it strives to ultimately get away from the internet, cars, drugs and other modern tech. I'm not aware of any intentional communities specifically trying to do that.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    So… I long for this as well. But I haven’t even set aside one day a week… call it COLD TURKEY no tech day. I haven’t even done this.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    That sounds like a good place to start. Take it one step at a time. You can even start with just an offline morning a week. You said you like reading books so that's one thing you can do in those times. I'm sure you have other hobbies or tasks you can do that don't require digital devices.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago

    This is the hard work of creating a sensible balance.

    I use Lemmy because it lacks the predictive analytics and addictive features of the mainstream streams.

    What does your off-time look like? How much are you 1999 tech or earlier?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent