enSHITification

[Zorba]

How do you use your mirrors to park 1” away from something behind you? Without getting out to look.

More reading comprehension. I open my driver's door. And yea, there are times I get out to look - hasn't happened in years, but it has and it could again tomorrow. Beats having to pay for un-necessary technology that only shines once every 10 years or so - not worth it.

 

[jjvw]

How do you use your mirrors to park 1” away from something behind you? Without getting out to look.

Imaginations are doing a lot of work here.

 

[Zorba]

In an imagined alternate dystopian future, such things will be impossible without accessing a paid subscription app on a government issued smartphone to open the car door.

I'm expecting something very similar any day now - we're almost there as it is.

 

[jjvw]

I'm expecting something very similar any day now - we're almost there as it is.

Any moment now. Better open the car door and look behind you!

 

[Zorba]

Any moment now. Better open the car door and look behind you!

I'm glad we agree. Smartphone ownership is already pretty much defacto-required in the UK and much of Europe. The US is catching up, but has a way to go as yet. There are already parking lots that require one.

 

[jjvw]

I'm glad we agree. Smartphone ownership is already pretty much defacto-required in the UK and much of Europe. The US is catching up, but has a way to go as yet. There are already parking lots that require one.

Once upon a time, it wasn't almost impossible to exist in the modern world without a car. To do such a thing today, one needs to live in the woods or in New York City.

 

[cliffish]

Once upon a time, it wasn't almost impossible to exist in the modern world without a car. To do such a thing today, one needs to live in the woods or in New York City.

I will take the woods over NYC anytime!

 

[jjvw]

I will take the woods over NYC anytime!

Having spent time in both, the food and museums are better in NYC.

 

[Zorba]

Once upon a time, it wasn't almost impossible to exist in the modern world without a car. To do such a thing today, one needs to live in the woods or in New York City.

The difference is a car is transportation. A smartphone isn't anything. Completely irrelevant to existence.

 

[jjvw]

The difference is a car is transportation. A smartphone isn't anything. Completely irrelevant to existence.

Electricity is also irrelevant to existence. So is the computer you are going to use to respond with. Where is your line for what is and isn't relevant to existence?

 

[InOmaha]

How do you use your mirrors to park 1” away from something behind you? Without getting out to look.

My brother's truck has 360 degree cameras. It will back up and connect to any type of camper hitch without him getting out. Bumper and 5th wheel.

He can back up anything under the sun without them. We backed up 4 wheel hay wagons as kids. But he loves it. Cuts a lot of time out of his day if he needs to rearrange his lot of campers.

He adds them to the back of his RVs if they don't have it. Easy way to look for problems if he's trailering his Jeep behind an RV powerful enough to drag it along without wheels.

I put a forward camera on the Jeep to see obstacles or if my spotter has been drinking too much.

 

[cliffish]

Having spent time in both, the food and museums are better in NYC.

not if I am cooking/smoking the food. I despise NYC with a passion. It is just an obstacle in the way when getting off Long Island.

 

[jjvw]

not if I am cooking/smoking the food. I despise NYC with a passion. It is just an obstacle in the way when getting off Long Island.

In my younger days, I seriously considered moving to NYC. But after the 3rd/4th visit, I knew it was nothing more than a great place for me to visit.

 

[noodles93]

Required or not, backup cameras are an absolute improvement over mirrors when manuvering a vehicle both large and small. I say this someone who parallel parks a small suv nearly every day and spent many years parallel parking large box trucks in cities and is quite good at it.

Connecting a smart phone to extend the functionality and usability of a vehicle is also a wonderously amazing thing.

The inability for this contingency of luddites to get outside their ideological heads is as irritating as needless money grabbing subscriptions for pretend ongoing services support are.

I agree that backup cameras are a net positive, along with other aspects like cross traffic alerting when reversing out. It makes things much safer especially in the parking lot situations. Cars are safer than they were 30 years ago really no argument there. Is what they put out today better than what it was last year or 5 years ago? Are engines more reliable in 2026 than they were in 2018? etc.

Following the video I do wonder if we have hit a 'critical-mass' of improvements and companies have simply shifted to more of an extraction method over trying to sell new/better products. I don't think it would be a wild thing to say that in the future if you want to use your cross traffic monitoring system, well that's $5/month. Already happened with things like Apple CarPlay and heated seats. Unfortunately the slippery slope is very real.

 

[jjvw]

....

Following the video I do wonder if we have hit a 'critical-mass' of improvements and companies have simply shifted to more of an extraction method over trying to sell new/better products. I don't think it would be a wild thing to say that in the future if you want to use your cross traffic monitoring system, well that's $5/month. Already happened with things like Apple CarPlay and heated seats. Unfortunately the slippery slope is very real.

This is where the real complaint is. This is also the basic premise of enshitification, which is simply a critique of late-stage capitalism. Products and services get worse at the very same time these things are designed to extract money from the consumer. Enshitification is the race to the bottom and we did it to ourselves.

 

[Zorba]

Electricity is also irrelevant to existence. So is the computer you are going to use to respond with. Where is your line for what is and isn't relevant to existence?

Something that actually improves my life at a cost that I find tolerable. Its that simple. Most technology advances were just that: advances. The smartphone was/is a retrograde step - it improved little to nothing over what came before. Much technology since is much of the same ilk - useless crap designed to suck money out of the owner's wallet - just ask any BMW owner.

Check out what this guy has to say on the subject:

This is where the real complaint is. This is also the basic premise of enshitification, which is simply a critique of late-stage capitalism. Products and services get worse at the very same time these things are designed to extract money from the consumer. Enshitification is the race to the bottom and we did it to ourselves.

 

[jjvw]

Something that actually improves my life at a cost that I find tolerable. Its that simple. Most technology advances were just that: advances. The smartphone was/is a retrograde step - it improved little to nothing over what came before. Much technology since is much of the same ilk - useless crap designed to suck money out of the owner's wallet - just ask any BMW owner.

Check out what this guy has to say on the subject:

We somehow exist in very different worlds. This guy says his smart phone has been an essential tool for research and problem solving wherever I am. I use it for that to some degree both personally and professionally nearly every day for the last 20 years. This has been what the Internet has been for me over the last 30 years. The smart phone is a tool to access the power of that information.

 

[Zorba]

We somehow exist in very different worlds. This guy says his smart phone has been an essential tool for research and problem solving wherever I am. I use it for that to some degree both personally and professionally nearly every day for the last 20 years.

I believe we do. I research stuff all the time - that's what I do (I have a LOT of interests!). I cannot comprehend using such a crippled device to do so, never mind bearing its considerable costs. But you do you.

 

[jjvw]

I believe we do. I research stuff all the time - that's what I do (I have a LOT of interests!). I cannot comprehend using such a crippled device to do so, never mind bearing its considerable costs. But you do you.

A very useful piece of the world has left you behind.

 

[Zorba]

A very useful piece of the world has left you behind.

Not feeling left behind at all - feeling more like I've left a huge hassle - and expense - out of my life! Just because "everybody else" is doing something doesn't mean I have to participate.