(talking about when he tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope) Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals.
Came to the comments to talk about this same story from Vonnegut. I think about it everytime I have the feeling of “ugh I don’t want to have to leave my house to go get ___”
I love this comment. And the article its commenting on.
I learned something today on substack!! The experience-clarifying word “technofeudalism." I’ve long thought of that mega-corporation Amazon as a company store — you know, the store where sharecroppers MUST purchase all their supplies at whatever price the storekeeper sets. Stuck in debt. We are stuck in debt, mostly attention indebted...for now. But attention is hugely valuable.
(Rabbit hole: There’s also a catalog business called “The Company Store” which sells sheets and towels. In the same psycho settler-colonial retail-naming system as "Banana Republic." Doubtless there are others. Humans are weird.)
I too came to the comments because this reminded me so much of the same story by Vonnegut. And I also love both this article and that story, Thank you!
Eliminating serendipity is merely one aspect of technofeudalism.
Primarily you know technofeudalism when you no longer know the person you're doing business with. Who receives your money. Let alone having any physical contact with that person. That's the biggest indicator.
By patronizing local merchants, the regular, simple social exchanges of greetings -- even just acknowledgement of existence -- during Covid lockdowns were some of the highlights of my otherwise-indoor day. It truly is community.
Certainly much more community than sending jobs, profits, and taxes away from your neighborhood to an out of state profit center run by Amazon. I will gladly pay extra for that.
In some way, the endless search for profit by big companies (in this case, tech ones) doesn’t allow for any “collateral” moments, anything that isn’t actively creating marketable value. By coincidence (or not, who knows), those same moments are the ones of human interaction, empathy, creation and discovery. I fear we are being pushed towards a future in which we might only interact through “services”, platforms that somehow manage to monetize our most basic social necessities
there's a concept in meditation of a book full of stamps that we always tend to flip through & marvel at, so much so that we forget to look up from it and see the sky, the birds, the garden we are sitting in.
in the original metaphor, the "book of stamps" represent our thoughts and the larger environment backdrop is our awareness. Lately my book of stamps feels a lot like the algorithm; some attentional blackhole i get sucked into and have a hard time climbing out of. thank you for creating a feeling more expansive and sky-like, and for a much needed reminder to walk around & invite serendipity more often
also, i'm a friend of john's and enjoy hearing about your travels together
I’ve felt the same way about not using delivery apps but never quite put this part into words! It just always felt better to go walk somewhere, look someone in the eyes and say thank you, and eat my food without it sitting in someone else’s back seat for 30 minutes first.
This is exactly why I prefer not ordering books online, even with my eccentric taste in books. It takes a lot more effort to go to different bookstores looking for it to be in stock, or asking local bookstore owners if they could get it for me and then taking a follow up and going to collect it. But, but, the beauty of the process, the time spent waiting for it, how one comes across so many other books, the conversations with bookstore owners and friends who accompany you, and the dopamine rush of finally getting it!
Eliminating serendipity is an apt term for what has happened to so many towns and cities as places that rely on foot traffic continue to struggle. I live in thailand where travelling by motorcycle is the norm and it's clear that relying on foot traffic is not a sustainable business plan anywhere outside major tourist city centres. I think it's a similar situation across much of south and southeast asia
i was just coming to flesh out this emotional crisis as well. where i live, the name of the game is convenience. everything is about convenience. going somewhere, doing something, everything is made easy. you always have cell coverage.
on one hand, this means everyone can access everything. on the other, it means that travel and daily life have both become pre-packaged, limited to what is provided. exploration and creative expression are sidelined. you miss a large portion of the “authentic” experience, you seldom struggle for something beyond the daily grind. again, this is “good,” but you lose that edge that more rugged living forces you to hone. you feel catered to, set on rails, not striking out on your own (even if it’s mostly an illusion). i miss that aspect of life.
"The more predictable we are, the more profitable we are, because it’s easier to guess what we’re going to buy and click on." This chimes with something I heard on a podcast yesterday about concerns regarding the rise of AI - because AI runs on predictable patterns, there will be a push for behaviour an actions to be more predictable to make it easier for AI to grow as a useable system/tool/part of life.
THANK YOU thank you thank thank you…!! I want basically everyone to read this, to know this, to be aware of this development of the internet, which is at once a different world/dimension, and something we are depending on more and more (at least it feels like an increasingly integral part of our lives) (our LIVES)… God. Time to get a job so I can upgrade my subscription to creators like you! Hope u have a great day
The concept of serendipity is very close to my heart and I am glad you intertwined it into this article so beautifully.
As someone who moved completely alone to a new country, new city - this speaks to me on a deeper level. Digitalizing everything and making it so accessible without any need of human contact takes away from fully experiencing a country, its culture and people - the community. It makes us lazy, demotivated to learn the language and lacking human connection in general.
I regularly take a one hour train from my smaller town to the capital city just to visit my favorite, and one of the oldest, bookstores. The act of touching the books, sitting there and reading, knowing that they were chosen by real people with thoughts, opinions and feelings makes me feel alive. Could I order these books from Amazon? Yeah, sure. Would that make me feel alive? No, it would most probably make me feel dead inside. So from time to time I buy the books at that store, fully aware that I am paying more for them than on the internet. I always like to think that the difference in price goes to people who take enough care to keep this store thriving.
I love serendipitously finding a record store just to talk to the owner and find out that he moved from Greece 40 years ago, which makes me think of my dear Greek friend and how he would have the chance to speak Greek. I love going around and constantly meeting Italians and listen to them speaking the language I adore, even though I am not in Italy. I could give more and more examples.
Anyway, modern technology, AI, digitalization - this is no joke and I am glad you write about it in such an elegant, captivating manner.
This was one of the things I missed when teaching on Zoom during lockdown. The in between. The conversations with my students on the way from class. On Zoom, we disappeared.
Interestingly enough, this article covers one of the glaring omissions from Yanis Varoufakis's Technofeudalism: the collection and sale of user data.
I do agree people need to make an active decision to become more social. Yesterday I bought an iPad just for this, so that I can write in spaces beyond just my bedroom.
(talking about when he tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope) Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals.
Kurt Vonnegut
Came to the comments to talk about this same story from Vonnegut. I think about it everytime I have the feeling of “ugh I don’t want to have to leave my house to go get ___”
I love this comment. And the article its commenting on.
I learned something today on substack!! The experience-clarifying word “technofeudalism." I’ve long thought of that mega-corporation Amazon as a company store — you know, the store where sharecroppers MUST purchase all their supplies at whatever price the storekeeper sets. Stuck in debt. We are stuck in debt, mostly attention indebted...for now. But attention is hugely valuable.
(Rabbit hole: There’s also a catalog business called “The Company Store” which sells sheets and towels. In the same psycho settler-colonial retail-naming system as "Banana Republic." Doubtless there are others. Humans are weird.)
Where I live, it can take half a day to go to the Village store for a pint of milk.
And it’s only a couple of hundred yards away!
I too came to the comments because this reminded me so much of the same story by Vonnegut. And I also love both this article and that story, Thank you!
Eliminating serendipity is merely one aspect of technofeudalism.
Primarily you know technofeudalism when you no longer know the person you're doing business with. Who receives your money. Let alone having any physical contact with that person. That's the biggest indicator.
By patronizing local merchants, the regular, simple social exchanges of greetings -- even just acknowledgement of existence -- during Covid lockdowns were some of the highlights of my otherwise-indoor day. It truly is community.
Certainly much more community than sending jobs, profits, and taxes away from your neighborhood to an out of state profit center run by Amazon. I will gladly pay extra for that.
In some way, the endless search for profit by big companies (in this case, tech ones) doesn’t allow for any “collateral” moments, anything that isn’t actively creating marketable value. By coincidence (or not, who knows), those same moments are the ones of human interaction, empathy, creation and discovery. I fear we are being pushed towards a future in which we might only interact through “services”, platforms that somehow manage to monetize our most basic social necessities
your work is so refreshing, thank you.
there's a concept in meditation of a book full of stamps that we always tend to flip through & marvel at, so much so that we forget to look up from it and see the sky, the birds, the garden we are sitting in.
in the original metaphor, the "book of stamps" represent our thoughts and the larger environment backdrop is our awareness. Lately my book of stamps feels a lot like the algorithm; some attentional blackhole i get sucked into and have a hard time climbing out of. thank you for creating a feeling more expansive and sky-like, and for a much needed reminder to walk around & invite serendipity more often
also, i'm a friend of john's and enjoy hearing about your travels together
I’ve felt the same way about not using delivery apps but never quite put this part into words! It just always felt better to go walk somewhere, look someone in the eyes and say thank you, and eat my food without it sitting in someone else’s back seat for 30 minutes first.
This is exactly why I prefer not ordering books online, even with my eccentric taste in books. It takes a lot more effort to go to different bookstores looking for it to be in stock, or asking local bookstore owners if they could get it for me and then taking a follow up and going to collect it. But, but, the beauty of the process, the time spent waiting for it, how one comes across so many other books, the conversations with bookstore owners and friends who accompany you, and the dopamine rush of finally getting it!
Eliminating serendipity is an apt term for what has happened to so many towns and cities as places that rely on foot traffic continue to struggle. I live in thailand where travelling by motorcycle is the norm and it's clear that relying on foot traffic is not a sustainable business plan anywhere outside major tourist city centres. I think it's a similar situation across much of south and southeast asia
i was just coming to flesh out this emotional crisis as well. where i live, the name of the game is convenience. everything is about convenience. going somewhere, doing something, everything is made easy. you always have cell coverage.
on one hand, this means everyone can access everything. on the other, it means that travel and daily life have both become pre-packaged, limited to what is provided. exploration and creative expression are sidelined. you miss a large portion of the “authentic” experience, you seldom struggle for something beyond the daily grind. again, this is “good,” but you lose that edge that more rugged living forces you to hone. you feel catered to, set on rails, not striking out on your own (even if it’s mostly an illusion). i miss that aspect of life.
i have this essay printed out and pinned to my dorm wall now, my friends think im weird which is fine, thanks adam
"The more predictable we are, the more profitable we are, because it’s easier to guess what we’re going to buy and click on." This chimes with something I heard on a podcast yesterday about concerns regarding the rise of AI - because AI runs on predictable patterns, there will be a push for behaviour an actions to be more predictable to make it easier for AI to grow as a useable system/tool/part of life.
This is possibly my favorite article of yours
Another amazing read, Adame! Glad to have found you and your maline on here and on tiktok 💐
THANK YOU thank you thank thank you…!! I want basically everyone to read this, to know this, to be aware of this development of the internet, which is at once a different world/dimension, and something we are depending on more and more (at least it feels like an increasingly integral part of our lives) (our LIVES)… God. Time to get a job so I can upgrade my subscription to creators like you! Hope u have a great day
The concept of serendipity is very close to my heart and I am glad you intertwined it into this article so beautifully.
As someone who moved completely alone to a new country, new city - this speaks to me on a deeper level. Digitalizing everything and making it so accessible without any need of human contact takes away from fully experiencing a country, its culture and people - the community. It makes us lazy, demotivated to learn the language and lacking human connection in general.
I regularly take a one hour train from my smaller town to the capital city just to visit my favorite, and one of the oldest, bookstores. The act of touching the books, sitting there and reading, knowing that they were chosen by real people with thoughts, opinions and feelings makes me feel alive. Could I order these books from Amazon? Yeah, sure. Would that make me feel alive? No, it would most probably make me feel dead inside. So from time to time I buy the books at that store, fully aware that I am paying more for them than on the internet. I always like to think that the difference in price goes to people who take enough care to keep this store thriving.
I love serendipitously finding a record store just to talk to the owner and find out that he moved from Greece 40 years ago, which makes me think of my dear Greek friend and how he would have the chance to speak Greek. I love going around and constantly meeting Italians and listen to them speaking the language I adore, even though I am not in Italy. I could give more and more examples.
Anyway, modern technology, AI, digitalization - this is no joke and I am glad you write about it in such an elegant, captivating manner.
This was one of the things I missed when teaching on Zoom during lockdown. The in between. The conversations with my students on the way from class. On Zoom, we disappeared.
thank you for writing this piece! youre so true about the random artwork and certain nostalgia. those kind of things slow me down in a beautiful way.
Interestingly enough, this article covers one of the glaring omissions from Yanis Varoufakis's Technofeudalism: the collection and sale of user data.
I do agree people need to make an active decision to become more social. Yesterday I bought an iPad just for this, so that I can write in spaces beyond just my bedroom.