AnarchistArtificer

I feel like so many societal problems can be understood better from the angle of basically everyone experiencing chronic information overload. It appears that you're suggesting that people with ADHD/ADD are more vulnerable to this, and I agree. I imagine that in a few years, we'll see research verifying this, and everyone with ADHD/ADD will go "no duh".

I think so, yes. It sounds like your stance is similar to my own. My reasoning is that the internet is so ubiquitous in countries like my own, and for all its ills, I am so glad that I was born in a time where my voracious appetite for learning can put me in contact with an abundance of free learning resources and people who are just like me.

Acknowledging the internet as a basic human right would require addressing the severely uneven distribution of its access; I can't ignore the fact that I'm only able to access all this cool stuff because I live in a country that colonised and oppressed a significant chunk of the world. It's no wonder that it's becoming harder to find worthwhile knowledge and community online when the internet and all the technology that supports it is borne of historic injustices. If we want the internet to do something besides serve the interests of capital, we need to address the structural inequalities regarding its access. It's fucked up that there are so many places in the global South that only have access to internet because companies like Meta went in pretending to be charitable, so they could create and capture a new chunk of the market. Apparently in Brazil, it's not abnormal for official government communication to use WhatsApp. Sometimes it makes me feel hopeless for the future

However, I am bolstered by reflecting on the history of other technologies. I was reading recently about how the printing press disrupted society, by giving far more regular people the opportunity to access written ideas, as well as share their own thoughts with the world. This was not a straightforwardly positive thing. There were (and indeed, still are) many privileged people who were of the sentiment that regular people having wider access to the written word was harmful to society, and to those regular people. Whilst I vehemently disagree with the classist sentiment they espoused, I do see some of their point — someone having the ability to read something doesn't necessarily mean they have the skills to understand it. Widespread misinterpretation and misinformation were side effects of the printing press, and it reminds me of some of the harms of the internet that we're experiencing today.

I've read a lot of scholarly works on the question of "what the fuck should we do about all this online misinformation?", and it seems that we don't really have an answer to that right now. It's too late to close Pandora's box now though, so we'll have to figure that out. I think that working towards equitable access to the internet is an important step towards collectively solving that problem, because the internet is something that affects everyone nowadays — even those who can't access it themselves.

I suspect that the people who are making money are the companies who build and maintain the cloud connectivity — i.e. business-to-business contracts.

I read a thing recently where someone was having a lot of problems with their ~~Beko~~ Bosch dishwasher. They'd gone for that brand because they're known to be one of the more reliable brands, and they thought they were getting one that didn't have silly "smart" features, but they were dismayed to find that they were wrong. I remember it caused them a lot of stress because functions that used to be available via a button on the dishwasher were no longer accessible without connecting stuff.

Edit: and by "recently", I mean a several months ago.

Edit 2: down thread, someone posted a video by the same guy, I think. I read it as a blog post, but this is the video version if you fancy watching a thing that will make you curse the modern world.

I feel like this should be an xkcd explains (if it isn't already one)

I like this response

I don't know if I'm real, but I know that I feel sad if I think about people I care about being harmed. I think this is what Descartes was getting at with his "I think, therefore I am". Because I can experience my own thoughts and feelings, I feel like I'm probably real, even if I don't know if other people are. If I'm real, that means my care for my loved ones is real, even if I don't know if they are real. Given that I can't know whether they're real or not, it doesn't really affect my actions.

If I'm not real, and I'm just a simulated consciousness in a virtual world, then that also doesn't affect things, because all I know is my own perspective. If the only reason why I care about my loved ones is that I've been programmed to, then I can't really do anything about it. If the prospect of not being real hurts me so much, then I could kill myself, to "exit the game", so to speak, but that would hurt my family. Caring about that is perhaps silly, given that this hypothetical would also involve them not being real, but I don't think that makes a difference. I just know that I feel sad when I think of them being sad, and that's one of the most real things I can comprehend.

I think of it sort of like how I think about a prospective afterlife. I'm agnostic, so I don't actively believe in somewhere like heaven. We can think of heaven as being "the real world" to this hypothetically virtual one. I haven't seen any compelling evidence to make me believe in heaven though, so whilst I'm open to the possibility that it exists, it seems that the most sensible thing is to focus on living as well as I can in this life. It's all I can do.

I'm not especially familiar with the term, but I do know quite a lot of people who go to raves sober, as well as a more widespread sentiment of "if you have to drink to have a good time, it's not a good time". Some of these people do consume intoxicating substances like alcohol occasionally, but it feels like they have a healthy attitude towards it, even if they're not strictly "straight-edge"

Seeing this news makes me happy. My country has only recently recognised the Palestinian state, and they don't seem like to be backing up this symbolic gesture with concrete action any time soon. Italy is currently putting countries like mine to shame.

I can't fathom the courage of the people on these boats. They are likely well aware of the likelihood of dying on this quest; I can imagine that one of the things they're hoping for is that, if they do die, that their sacrifice may contribute to the growing Palestinian solidarity.

If nothing else, I think I read about an Italian dockworkers' union being strongly supportive of the Flotilla, which is a heartening example of solidarity.

I think this is why so many people are pulled into this kind of thinking. I can't say I don't sympathise. I do believe that a better world is possible, but it feels increasingly unlikely that I'll get to see it.

I do what I can to push for things to improve, through political organising and supporting my community in whatever way I can, but it's hard not to become morally burnt out when I know that I'm doing only a fraction of what I theoretically could be due to constantly struggling to keep my head above water. That's how the capitalist engine continues to chug onwards as it does.

Here's the part where I wish I could say something reassuring, but I can't. I'm far younger than you are, so I know that if I'm feeling exhausted, then it would be trite and foolish to think I could make you feel hopeful about your future when I don't even know if I have hope for myself. In lieu of hope, please accept this offer of solidarity. It doesn't do much to change the suckish reality we find ourselves in, but nonetheless, it feels important to highlight that you're not alone in feeling this way. For what it's worth, I'm glad you're still with us, and I hope that you find some solace, in this life or the next.