I’m only 20 years old but I am very afraid for younger generations who have been/are/will be sentenced to these prisons at age three via unfettered access to a smart device. Just like Red warned in Shawshank Redemption: you’re in there long enough and you become institutionalized. How can people unplug if it’s all they have ever known? Nowadays it seems like a real privilege to NOT grow up interacting with highly advanced technology from a young age.
That's a perfect question. Thank you. This is what younger generations can do as well for themselves - help each other out of the narrow places, using smart and amazing means, along with whatever sense of morality, as you are showing here. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."(Eccl: 3:1.) We are only bound to laws and means that have worked successfully and still do and can be improved as long as we keep the room for improvement available through our actions. Words are only comments and thought forms; actions spell them out. Many blessings! And don't forget to call on us older folks for whatever we can give. 89 here.
Once young brains get conditioned to using and living with AI I suspect it will more often be a case of AI programming them rather than the other way around.
That's a huge concern I agree. We'll have to come up with a whole new set of educational tools, not the least of them being able to work with brain plasticity. I'm sure people are working on this already, first by banning phones in school. Legislation is definitely needed a legislators who are computer literate which tells me that we have to elect of a lot of younger legislators for starters...
Most young people i know who have children are not allowing or strictly rationing screens to enable their kids to develop brains, reading and thinking skills. Too bad that's largely a privileged people phenomenon - everyone has been sold this idea that being "connected" is so important...
Many thanks for this article. Although your metaphor is painfully apt, I am more perplexed by another point you raise. Why has Google become so worthless? Even the "advanced search" feature frequently goes hopelessly off-topic. YouTube is a complete joke. I have asked for recordings of Mozart or Beethoven on period instruments and been shown videos/clips from Westerns, karate/kung fu movies, performances of other composers, and (of course) recordings of different works by the given composer(s) on contemporary instruments.
These are all recent developments. Ten years ago, Google's "advanced search" was remarkably good, and YouTube could lead me directly where I wanted to go. Thus, the (other) big question: why?
Could it be that the people assigning classical music into a different type of music category don't know the meaning of Classical Music and how to identify it?
Yes. There's a great deal of classical content on YT right now.
I'm genuinely puzzled by some of the things folks are saying in replies, if only b/c my recent experiences with the internet haven't been anything like as bad as the consensus here.
Thanks for that news. I am getting a lot of "action" movies -- Reacher, Bruce Lee, Westerns. 90+% of my YouTube use is for classical music, and the majority of that involves period instruments. Maybe you and I should swap urls!
Try entering a search for the precise web address of the site you want. There will STILL be a bunch of 'results' ahead of the one site that you specifically requested.
There's a good series of four articles on this by Cory Doctorow - Who Broke The Internet, and Ed Zitron had a piece The Men Who Killed Google Search. Basically, the marketing team realized that crappy search results meant more searches and more scrolling so that Google can sell more ads. The technical team balked. Marketing won. Google Search is now shit.
Google's business (bid-net) model has changed. It began as a consumer search engine that was successful enough to monopolize a nearly global market. Now, however, instead of we searching Google, "Google searches us...."
So explains Harvard Business School Social Psychologist Prof. Shoshana Zuboff in a series of her charismatic lectures, Public Interest talks with enlightening and never condescending Q&A's and the many varieties of Town Hall Meetings and Public Forums she has spanned the globe offering since approximately 5-6 years ago when her New Market Paradigm and book entitled The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power became available.
Like her earlier books titled In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power and an even younger oracular publishing effort: The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and her collaborative Next Episode of Capitalism, co-authored with James Maxmin along with a tri-fecta seminar at Rutgers offered as an open invitation to the appropriately curious public via this online special event announcement held live via Zoom through Rutgers U. and to the public locked down during Pandemic (and Protest....):
"As this summer of pandemic and racial justice protests draws to a close, Naomi Klein will host a landmark conversation between Shoshana Zuboff, author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," and Simone Browne (U. of Texas at Austin), author of "Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness." The three authors will discuss how both governments and tech giants are using our moment of overlapping crises to push through discredited surveillance technologies that threaten privacy, democracy, and any hope of equality."
"Early in the pandemic, Klein wrote that these forces have aligned to “advance a vision of a future in which our every move, our every word, our every relationship is trackable, traceable, and data-mineable.” For the privileged, “almost everything is home delivered, either virtually via streaming and cloud technology, or physically via driverless vehicle or drone.”
But, Zuboff warns, “We’re not necessarily locked into this deterministic narrative that too many pundits are hawking and the tech companies are salivating over — that post-Covid-19, we’re going to have comprehensive biosurveillance of all of society. ... People are worried. People are asking questions.”
"Racial justice movements are also winning major victories against surveillance technologies like facial recognition. And as Browne reminds us, “surveillance is nothing new to Black folks.” In "Dark Matters," Browne traces modern surveillance practices back to the policing of Black lives under slavery, comparing the branding of slaves to present-day methods of tracking, surveilling, and commodifying people."
"In this live conversation, Klein, Zuboff, and Browne will unpack the dangers of surveillance capitalism — and how we can rise to this crisis and create a fair and equitable future. " While checking in with the Big Tech (Big Bros)
In partnership with Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
I'd very much recommend you search U. of Tube and sit in on her posted classes and course-work or dynamic dialogues with far better interviewers beyond U.S. Pay2Play broadcast borders. Or, this introductory Public Forum on billionaire Pierre Omidhar's early Public Interest platform and his own toy The Intercept (co-sponsored with the non-profit Public Interest org Common Dreams) where this nifty bit of duet intellectual presentation and interactive Town Hall meeting keeps working for me each time I watch it anew and the more experience I have added using the ever-expanding world of online sourcing:
Having worked along Hadrian's Wall, your article struck a note with me.
There are another couple of aspects of ancient wall building that archaeologists are familiar with. One is that their openings were a pinch point for trade and taxation. Hadrian's Wall wasn't so much as a means to keep out the Scots as it was to collect taxes at every milefort. Anyone bringing goods in or out had to pay the fees. The forts along the Tyne River were mainly fortified warehouses where grain was stored until it was shipped to the continent. Your analogy holds true on the web too, as we have to opt in, not with cash, but by relinquishing our personal data every time we use a search engine or visit a site. Google et al amass data about all of us and store it for whatever they might be able to glean from it.
The second part of wall building is that it kept restless soldiers busy when they weren't fighting. Despite all the fortifications, there's almost no evidence of combat along Hadrian's Wall. Restless soldiers are not a good thing, and so wall building was an exercise in keeping them distracted and occupied. That sounds a lot like most social media platforms when it gets boiled down.
Giovanna - excellent points! Really, it was gatekeeping + profit. (I've read a fair amount about how Hadrian's Wall was used. It's so different than what I'd assumed until recently.)
I like the analogy with the decline of the Roman Empire. So we should expect 21st century Vandals to sack eventually the Tech behemoths. Or maybe they'll collapse due to their avarice and hubris.
Bluesky is one the few remaining social media platforms where you can use links however you want - TikTok and IG were anti-linking from the start, FB have limitations and Twitter under Musk...forget about it.
The other current physical wall you failed to mention is the gated community. Drive through much of the Palm Springs area (or greater Phoenix and I'm sure other cities I haven't visited) away from a downtown core and nearly everyone lives in a gated community. That to me is frightening...
The apparent attitude is "I am unwilling to pay to make the whole community safe for everyone, but I will pay a bunch more than that so that I feel a bit safer in my own home". That seems shortsighted and very selfish.
It just gets worse and worse. The algorithm ain't one. Seems harder to navigate, sorting my faves. I use the site a lot to jam with different tunes. Recently the suggested tunes that pop up are by nobodies. they probably figure they'll never have to pay them. If I'm listening to Jerry Garcia I don't want to check out your crappy band's cover. you're just not that good.
and the ads are becoming more frequent. sometimes in the middle of a song too, which ought to be a capital offense. I know I could "subscribe" to get rid of the ads. but i'm not sure that would fix the other issues, and one cannot subscribe to everything.
yesterday I came up with the drug dealer analogy. hey try this, you'll like it. now we're hooked, and it ain't that easy to quit.
Yahoo, my email address for what 30 years now? long as I can remember. their spam filter just doesn't work anymore. from a tech perspective, a simple and obvious fix. yinhwyuwyvbfeuecznjmjxpthiianuwteungazzkdrpvmbqmpynhbvmhpefjdcjrnxhametqhirkx@quatresaisonscreations.com is not a legit person or website. I just pulled that from my email. meanwhile, perfectly legit websites end up in the Spam folder. latest example California DOJ weekly email.
Yahoo . . . just doesn't care. (absolutely not in the same league as Meta/Google/Amazon but still.
the old Yiddish joke about the food being lousy, and the portions are so small!
the fact is, and pardon my French, they're all assholes.
Research Brave before you go there; it too is run by an ultra tech man boy like the others and it is far less concerned about your privacy than you might think. This pains me because it does have a nice UI. You’re better off with DuckDuckGo or ArcSearch.
The walls are being built to contain the slop we will drown in. My husband and I were chatting about the idea that so much of the internet is becoming AI (and non-AI of course) junk, and soon it will be unusable, kind of like putting so much junk into space that we won't be able to fly a rocket ship. I wonder what happens then? Who will tear down THIS wall?
The disproportionate emphasis on money in Western societies has led us to a world in which walls (of various sorts) defend us from attackers (of various sorts) to the detriment of our peace and happiness. (Griffin's The Creature From Jekyll Island is a good primer on this.)
I moved to a cheaper country where food grows year round, so I could live the life I want.
Unfortunately, the obsession with money and things has spread even here. And the upcoming colonization of Space will just extend such values.
People who don't want to live like this need to join/form communities where more wholesome and natural lifestyles can exist without being suppressed by the State. And they are doing it, have been for years.
Thanks for the article, Ted. Yes Google searches are pretty much worthless now, their Maps app simply no longer works, and Amazon has turned to complete shit.
Google Search is constantly throwing ads with the least amount of context for what's being searched for. The AI takes precedence over everything and AFAIK there's no way to disable or opt out of it at the top.
Google Maps seems geared to create a route that passes by businesses who advertise with them as opposed to efficiency in getting places. Likely lots of AI being used to generate the routes as well and it fails at least as often as succeeds.
Amazon will reiterate what is being searched for then swaps it with other merchandise purposely appearing close to what you're looking for. I've been suckered by this more than once. Now I only use it when I absolutely have to, otherwise I look for direct access to sellers. I don't mind paying for shipping and waiting a few days in almost all cases.
Amazon is pure shit. A prime account used to come with commercial free streaming, no more. I cancelled mine in January as they were also hiking rates, and no longer use it at all. If you have a fire stick for TV if you pause a show even on another platform, say Netflix, it will take over your tv and play ads. I despise amazon.
Try a different brand of streaming stick or box. I've never experienced what you describe on any Roku device (just one brand; there are others). While i use Prime Video, I will never sink money into an Amazon device again. What they've recently done to Kindle functions and file types finally made me spring for a Kobo e-reader. It's great! (To be fair, the Kindle is a fine device; it's what is being done to its software that's terrible. I think I might jailbreak mine soon.)
Oh gee Ted, this is so good… and helpful. I’m older than you even (!) and find myself longing for the Before Times… I have always had a mostly-suppressed anti-tech person inside me. He’s being super annoying these days with the obvious “I told you so!” stuff… but all this craziness does focus attention on immediate reality. Musk, Altman, Thiel, Zuck… the story Gil Duran has been telling… I wish i could skip to the last chapter to see how it ends… thanks for your wonderful perspectives.
Wow. Interesting beyond. It answered so many questions for me. I had noticed the AI generated information for any Google search. But I hadn’t put it together as a trend.
I love Substack. I’ve had more success here than on any other platform.
I write on Church and Faith and our culture and I rely on subscribers to pay it forward in a way. I pastored a to church for 30 years and my audience is a bit like a church. It’s free for everyone and then there are those who support it with their offerings.
I will write some paid content and put it behind the wall in the future.
These days I find that I post fewer things online and I read a lot more books. Ted, your reading lists overlap my own. My Google searches are not nearly as productive as they once were. I keep more reference books at home and look things up there. My notes/drawings are written in paper notebooks or sketchbooks and filed. Some I scan and file on backup files stored in a Faraday pouch--like putting messages in bottles for an archaeologist to find. My world is shrinking, but I subscribe to a few good writers like you to keep the flame burning bright. You are indeed an honest broker; I hope you never tire of publishing.
If I lost everything but my mind, I would start again with a small notebook making sketches and notes, observing, listening, and reading whatever I could find. Being willing and able to start again is more important than building a bunker.
I’m only 20 years old but I am very afraid for younger generations who have been/are/will be sentenced to these prisons at age three via unfettered access to a smart device. Just like Red warned in Shawshank Redemption: you’re in there long enough and you become institutionalized. How can people unplug if it’s all they have ever known? Nowadays it seems like a real privilege to NOT grow up interacting with highly advanced technology from a young age.
That's a perfect question. Thank you. This is what younger generations can do as well for themselves - help each other out of the narrow places, using smart and amazing means, along with whatever sense of morality, as you are showing here. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."(Eccl: 3:1.) We are only bound to laws and means that have worked successfully and still do and can be improved as long as we keep the room for improvement available through our actions. Words are only comments and thought forms; actions spell them out. Many blessings! And don't forget to call on us older folks for whatever we can give. 89 here.
Love this! Please keep shining your light into the world - I am inspired that at age 89, you are still positively impacting the world!
Thank you. I was posting my own stuff on Substack up to a few months ago and have lots of stuff in draft form. Comments always welcome.
Once young brains get conditioned to using and living with AI I suspect it will more often be a case of AI programming them rather than the other way around.
That's a huge concern I agree. We'll have to come up with a whole new set of educational tools, not the least of them being able to work with brain plasticity. I'm sure people are working on this already, first by banning phones in school. Legislation is definitely needed a legislators who are computer literate which tells me that we have to elect of a lot of younger legislators for starters...
Most young people i know who have children are not allowing or strictly rationing screens to enable their kids to develop brains, reading and thinking skills. Too bad that's largely a privileged people phenomenon - everyone has been sold this idea that being "connected" is so important...
My niece and her husband have done this with their four boys and it’s remarkable how free of the shit they seem to be.
All it takes is enough 20-year-olds being this concerned to divert future catastrophes :)
The will unplug precisely because they want to know more.
Many thanks for this article. Although your metaphor is painfully apt, I am more perplexed by another point you raise. Why has Google become so worthless? Even the "advanced search" feature frequently goes hopelessly off-topic. YouTube is a complete joke. I have asked for recordings of Mozart or Beethoven on period instruments and been shown videos/clips from Westerns, karate/kung fu movies, performances of other composers, and (of course) recordings of different works by the given composer(s) on contemporary instruments.
These are all recent developments. Ten years ago, Google's "advanced search" was remarkably good, and YouTube could lead me directly where I wanted to go. Thus, the (other) big question: why?
Google monetizes you better by feeding you inaccurate results, forcing you to engage them (and their advertisers) longer.
Now THAT makes sense!
Could it be that the people assigning classical music into a different type of music category don't know the meaning of Classical Music and how to identify it?
I doubt that, simply because YouTube was working quite well a few years ago.
Yes. There's a great deal of classical content on YT right now.
I'm genuinely puzzled by some of the things folks are saying in replies, if only b/c my recent experiences with the internet haven't been anything like as bad as the consensus here.
Thanks for that news. I am getting a lot of "action" movies -- Reacher, Bruce Lee, Westerns. 90+% of my YouTube use is for classical music, and the majority of that involves period instruments. Maybe you and I should swap urls!
ok, now that's deep...
Try entering a search for the precise web address of the site you want. There will STILL be a bunch of 'results' ahead of the one site that you specifically requested.
That's even more perverse. Of course, if I had the web address, I wouldn't be searching for it on google, but that's another story.
You've got to enter it into somebody's browser.
Google monetizes you better by feeding you inaccurate results, forcing you to engage them (and their advertisers) longer.
I can’t bring myself to “like” your comment but it is a plausibly perverse explanation.
There's a good series of four articles on this by Cory Doctorow - Who Broke The Internet, and Ed Zitron had a piece The Men Who Killed Google Search. Basically, the marketing team realized that crappy search results meant more searches and more scrolling so that Google can sell more ads. The technical team balked. Marketing won. Google Search is now shit.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/08/who-broke-the-internet/
Google's business (bid-net) model has changed. It began as a consumer search engine that was successful enough to monopolize a nearly global market. Now, however, instead of we searching Google, "Google searches us...."
So explains Harvard Business School Social Psychologist Prof. Shoshana Zuboff in a series of her charismatic lectures, Public Interest talks with enlightening and never condescending Q&A's and the many varieties of Town Hall Meetings and Public Forums she has spanned the globe offering since approximately 5-6 years ago when her New Market Paradigm and book entitled The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power became available.
Like her earlier books titled In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power and an even younger oracular publishing effort: The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and her collaborative Next Episode of Capitalism, co-authored with James Maxmin along with a tri-fecta seminar at Rutgers offered as an open invitation to the appropriately curious public via this online special event announcement held live via Zoom through Rutgers U. and to the public locked down during Pandemic (and Protest....):
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkFuturology/comments/ix91kc/surveillance_in_an_era_of_pandemic_and_protest/
Surveillance in an Era of Pandemic and Protest
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"As this summer of pandemic and racial justice protests draws to a close, Naomi Klein will host a landmark conversation between Shoshana Zuboff, author of "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism," and Simone Browne (U. of Texas at Austin), author of "Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness." The three authors will discuss how both governments and tech giants are using our moment of overlapping crises to push through discredited surveillance technologies that threaten privacy, democracy, and any hope of equality."
"Early in the pandemic, Klein wrote that these forces have aligned to “advance a vision of a future in which our every move, our every word, our every relationship is trackable, traceable, and data-mineable.” For the privileged, “almost everything is home delivered, either virtually via streaming and cloud technology, or physically via driverless vehicle or drone.”
But, Zuboff warns, “We’re not necessarily locked into this deterministic narrative that too many pundits are hawking and the tech companies are salivating over — that post-Covid-19, we’re going to have comprehensive biosurveillance of all of society. ... People are worried. People are asking questions.”
"Racial justice movements are also winning major victories against surveillance technologies like facial recognition. And as Browne reminds us, “surveillance is nothing new to Black folks.” In "Dark Matters," Browne traces modern surveillance practices back to the policing of Black lives under slavery, comparing the branding of slaves to present-day methods of tracking, surveilling, and commodifying people."
"In this live conversation, Klein, Zuboff, and Browne will unpack the dangers of surveillance capitalism — and how we can rise to this crisis and create a fair and equitable future. " While checking in with the Big Tech (Big Bros)
In partnership with Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshana_Zuboff
I'd very much recommend you search U. of Tube and sit in on her posted classes and course-work or dynamic dialogues with far better interviewers beyond U.S. Pay2Play broadcast borders. Or, this introductory Public Forum on billionaire Pierre Omidhar's early Public Interest platform and his own toy The Intercept (co-sponsored with the non-profit Public Interest org Common Dreams) where this nifty bit of duet intellectual presentation and interactive Town Hall meeting keeps working for me each time I watch it anew and the more experience I have added using the ever-expanding world of online sourcing:
https://theintercept.com/2019/03/01/surveillance-capitalism-book-shoshana-zuboff-naomi-klein/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/01/watch-naomi-klein-and-shoshana-zuboff-discuss-mounting-dangers-surveillance
Keep in touch and do good work!
Health and balance,
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of A-Tonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
Having worked along Hadrian's Wall, your article struck a note with me.
There are another couple of aspects of ancient wall building that archaeologists are familiar with. One is that their openings were a pinch point for trade and taxation. Hadrian's Wall wasn't so much as a means to keep out the Scots as it was to collect taxes at every milefort. Anyone bringing goods in or out had to pay the fees. The forts along the Tyne River were mainly fortified warehouses where grain was stored until it was shipped to the continent. Your analogy holds true on the web too, as we have to opt in, not with cash, but by relinquishing our personal data every time we use a search engine or visit a site. Google et al amass data about all of us and store it for whatever they might be able to glean from it.
The second part of wall building is that it kept restless soldiers busy when they weren't fighting. Despite all the fortifications, there's almost no evidence of combat along Hadrian's Wall. Restless soldiers are not a good thing, and so wall building was an exercise in keeping them distracted and occupied. That sounds a lot like most social media platforms when it gets boiled down.
Great points
Giovanna - excellent points! Really, it was gatekeeping + profit. (I've read a fair amount about how Hadrian's Wall was used. It's so different than what I'd assumed until recently.)
I like the analogy with the decline of the Roman Empire. So we should expect 21st century Vandals to sack eventually the Tech behemoths. Or maybe they'll collapse due to their avarice and hubris.
Blech. Sometimes I hate your take on things because you're right on the money.
Bluesky is one the few remaining social media platforms where you can use links however you want - TikTok and IG were anti-linking from the start, FB have limitations and Twitter under Musk...forget about it.
The other current physical wall you failed to mention is the gated community. Drive through much of the Palm Springs area (or greater Phoenix and I'm sure other cities I haven't visited) away from a downtown core and nearly everyone lives in a gated community. That to me is frightening...
The apparent attitude is "I am unwilling to pay to make the whole community safe for everyone, but I will pay a bunch more than that so that I feel a bit safer in my own home". That seems shortsighted and very selfish.
YouTube is owned by Google.
It just gets worse and worse. The algorithm ain't one. Seems harder to navigate, sorting my faves. I use the site a lot to jam with different tunes. Recently the suggested tunes that pop up are by nobodies. they probably figure they'll never have to pay them. If I'm listening to Jerry Garcia I don't want to check out your crappy band's cover. you're just not that good.
and the ads are becoming more frequent. sometimes in the middle of a song too, which ought to be a capital offense. I know I could "subscribe" to get rid of the ads. but i'm not sure that would fix the other issues, and one cannot subscribe to everything.
yesterday I came up with the drug dealer analogy. hey try this, you'll like it. now we're hooked, and it ain't that easy to quit.
Yahoo, my email address for what 30 years now? long as I can remember. their spam filter just doesn't work anymore. from a tech perspective, a simple and obvious fix. yinhwyuwyvbfeuecznjmjxpthiianuwteungazzkdrpvmbqmpynhbvmhpefjdcjrnxhametqhirkx@quatresaisonscreations.com is not a legit person or website. I just pulled that from my email. meanwhile, perfectly legit websites end up in the Spam folder. latest example California DOJ weekly email.
Yahoo . . . just doesn't care. (absolutely not in the same league as Meta/Google/Amazon but still.
the old Yiddish joke about the food being lousy, and the portions are so small!
the fact is, and pardon my French, they're all assholes.
Use Brave browser: ads free YouTube. If you like a creator, support him directly (Patreon, buying stuff)
Research Brave before you go there; it too is run by an ultra tech man boy like the others and it is far less concerned about your privacy than you might think. This pains me because it does have a nice UI. You’re better off with DuckDuckGo or ArcSearch.
I use Brave only for YouTube, but thanks for the suggestions
The walls are being built to contain the slop we will drown in. My husband and I were chatting about the idea that so much of the internet is becoming AI (and non-AI of course) junk, and soon it will be unusable, kind of like putting so much junk into space that we won't be able to fly a rocket ship. I wonder what happens then? Who will tear down THIS wall?
The disproportionate emphasis on money in Western societies has led us to a world in which walls (of various sorts) defend us from attackers (of various sorts) to the detriment of our peace and happiness. (Griffin's The Creature From Jekyll Island is a good primer on this.)
I moved to a cheaper country where food grows year round, so I could live the life I want.
Unfortunately, the obsession with money and things has spread even here. And the upcoming colonization of Space will just extend such values.
People who don't want to live like this need to join/form communities where more wholesome and natural lifestyles can exist without being suppressed by the State. And they are doing it, have been for years.
Where?
You can easily find out by clicking on her username. A brief look at her blog will yield the answer. But maybe your question is rhetorical?
Thanks for the article, Ted. Yes Google searches are pretty much worthless now, their Maps app simply no longer works, and Amazon has turned to complete shit.
Google Search is constantly throwing ads with the least amount of context for what's being searched for. The AI takes precedence over everything and AFAIK there's no way to disable or opt out of it at the top.
Google Maps seems geared to create a route that passes by businesses who advertise with them as opposed to efficiency in getting places. Likely lots of AI being used to generate the routes as well and it fails at least as often as succeeds.
Amazon will reiterate what is being searched for then swaps it with other merchandise purposely appearing close to what you're looking for. I've been suckered by this more than once. Now I only use it when I absolutely have to, otherwise I look for direct access to sellers. I don't mind paying for shipping and waiting a few days in almost all cases.
Amazon is pure shit. A prime account used to come with commercial free streaming, no more. I cancelled mine in January as they were also hiking rates, and no longer use it at all. If you have a fire stick for TV if you pause a show even on another platform, say Netflix, it will take over your tv and play ads. I despise amazon.
Try a different brand of streaming stick or box. I've never experienced what you describe on any Roku device (just one brand; there are others). While i use Prime Video, I will never sink money into an Amazon device again. What they've recently done to Kindle functions and file types finally made me spring for a Kobo e-reader. It's great! (To be fair, the Kindle is a fine device; it's what is being done to its software that's terrible. I think I might jailbreak mine soon.)
The escape from Shawshank was not one most people would want to make!
Oh gee Ted, this is so good… and helpful. I’m older than you even (!) and find myself longing for the Before Times… I have always had a mostly-suppressed anti-tech person inside me. He’s being super annoying these days with the obvious “I told you so!” stuff… but all this craziness does focus attention on immediate reality. Musk, Altman, Thiel, Zuck… the story Gil Duran has been telling… I wish i could skip to the last chapter to see how it ends… thanks for your wonderful perspectives.
Wow. Interesting beyond. It answered so many questions for me. I had noticed the AI generated information for any Google search. But I hadn’t put it together as a trend.
I love Substack. I’ve had more success here than on any other platform.
I write on Church and Faith and our culture and I rely on subscribers to pay it forward in a way. I pastored a to church for 30 years and my audience is a bit like a church. It’s free for everyone and then there are those who support it with their offerings.
I will write some paid content and put it behind the wall in the future.
“ . . . and least of all for the emperor. Aurelian was murdered—as was almost every other emperor during the course of that unstable century.“
So, there is hope?
These days I find that I post fewer things online and I read a lot more books. Ted, your reading lists overlap my own. My Google searches are not nearly as productive as they once were. I keep more reference books at home and look things up there. My notes/drawings are written in paper notebooks or sketchbooks and filed. Some I scan and file on backup files stored in a Faraday pouch--like putting messages in bottles for an archaeologist to find. My world is shrinking, but I subscribe to a few good writers like you to keep the flame burning bright. You are indeed an honest broker; I hope you never tire of publishing.
If I lost everything but my mind, I would start again with a small notebook making sketches and notes, observing, listening, and reading whatever I could find. Being willing and able to start again is more important than building a bunker.