I completely agree. The good parts of the web are on the margins, now. Everything is hyper-surveilled otherwise. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid that, too. Even if you don’t own a smartphone or use a computer, what are the odds your face has been digested by a company like Meta to train their AI? Or that your car’s license plate has been picked up by a Flock surveillance camera?

When I was young I thought more technology would lead to better, liberated lives. I studied computer science because I’m genuinely interested in programming and computers.

Now I think we have passed an inflection point. More technology will worsen our lives. It’s harmful to the planet and climate.

Also, the people who get into programming now seem to lack curiosity and are only in it for a paycheck (for which I cannot blame them, because the avenues to a good, stable life are receding rapidly). And the places we are putting the most collective effort, as directed by our capitalist overlords, is either in furthering surveillance technology to be used against us or otherwise vulnerable populations like Palestinians, or toward unchecked society-rending technology like generative AI.