Why 'Smart' Products Have Started to Look Like the Dumb Choice

[hunter]

7. I have a "dumb" flip phone. I'm sorta cranky about having to carry a cell phone.

Thankfully I'm not forced to drive any kind of "smart" automobile yet. I am cranky about having to own an automobile at all.

My use of computers hasn't changed much in the past 25 years or so. The nicest thing about that is that I never have to buy new computers. Usually I divert mine from the e-waste streams, install Linux, maybe a bigger hard drive or more memory, and I'm good to go.

The television in our house isn't directly connected to the internet. We stream television through whichever dongle happens to be coming in last in the race towards total enshitification. Google, Amazon, Roku, whatever. They are all shit.

In my formative years it seems I fully embraced the KISS principle and the Unix Philosophy.

The only complex systems that truly interest me are those that have evolved naturally -- mostly biology, geology, and whatever physics, chemistry, math, and computer skills I need to better understand these natural systems. Any understanding I have of complex artificial systems arises from those interests.