Tech people are fundamentally afraid of the concept of death, and want to defeat it, because they are empty control freaks. They also think we're soulless hogs without philosophy, who they can sell commodified, cheapened versions of their fantasies to.
December 10, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Tech people are fundamentally afraid of the concept of death, and want to defeat it, because they are empty control freaks. They also think we're soulless hogs without philosophy, who they can sell commodified, cheapened versions of their fantasies to.
I know fads have always been a thing but it feels like every human experience and joy is being squeezed, flattened, and commodified into something to post about on social media
Cafes across the U.S. are embracing the low- and no-caffeine lifestyle, with options that are a far cry from dusty tea bags and rewarmed decaf. nyti.ms/3XKlqoj
December 10, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I know fads have always been a thing but it feels like every human experience and joy is being squeezed, flattened, and commodified into something to post about on social media
(a) No, death is important.
(b) The laughable idea this would ever last for more than even one phone iteration’s worth of compatibility/iOS/version, and/or wouldn’t be commodified into "Sorry, loving conversations are only available with Grandma Subscription Gold + service! Want to upgrade?"
(b) The laughable idea this would ever last for more than even one phone iteration’s worth of compatibility/iOS/version, and/or wouldn’t be commodified into "Sorry, loving conversations are only available with Grandma Subscription Gold + service! Want to upgrade?"
IN DEPTH | If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?
www.independent.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 8:47 PM
(a) No, death is important.
(b) The laughable idea this would ever last for more than even one phone iteration’s worth of compatibility/iOS/version, and/or wouldn’t be commodified into "Sorry, loving conversations are only available with Grandma Subscription Gold + service! Want to upgrade?"
(b) The laughable idea this would ever last for more than even one phone iteration’s worth of compatibility/iOS/version, and/or wouldn’t be commodified into "Sorry, loving conversations are only available with Grandma Subscription Gold + service! Want to upgrade?"
WHAT THE FUCK THEY COMMODIFIED THE LONG FURBY???
December 10, 2025 at 8:45 PM
WHAT THE FUCK THEY COMMODIFIED THE LONG FURBY???
See also: degrees have been commodified and devalued to such an extent that their value in the job hunt is no longer equal to or greater than the effort required to obtain one.
I'm going to float this nuclear take: maybe students are increasingly turning to ShitGPT and other deskilling devices because the structure of the modern university has made it impossible for them to acquire skill in a deep way.
Let me paint a picture for you.
Let me paint a picture for you.
December 10, 2025 at 8:26 PM
See also: degrees have been commodified and devalued to such an extent that their value in the job hunt is no longer equal to or greater than the effort required to obtain one.
Car-centric, commodified-housing sprawl is survival-of-the-fittest, psychologically-punishing torture, and the transportation system that consumes all public space for its own sake is still so fragile that it collapses when one person finally snaps. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/12/09/i...
December 10, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Car-centric, commodified-housing sprawl is survival-of-the-fittest, psychologically-punishing torture, and the transportation system that consumes all public space for its own sake is still so fragile that it collapses when one person finally snaps. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/12/09/i...
And about a 25% chance of getting a relatively common but commodified condition that, maybe you could pay out of pocket.
But the remaining 25% get hit with stuff that would be hard to pay for even if you came from a family where your father could give you a small loan of a few million dollars.
But the remaining 25% get hit with stuff that would be hard to pay for even if you came from a family where your father could give you a small loan of a few million dollars.
December 10, 2025 at 5:40 PM
And about a 25% chance of getting a relatively common but commodified condition that, maybe you could pay out of pocket.
But the remaining 25% get hit with stuff that would be hard to pay for even if you came from a family where your father could give you a small loan of a few million dollars.
But the remaining 25% get hit with stuff that would be hard to pay for even if you came from a family where your father could give you a small loan of a few million dollars.
Because they are. Outrage has become commodified because it drives clicks and increases engagement. We don't carry phones any more, we carry argument machines.
December 10, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Because they are. Outrage has become commodified because it drives clicks and increases engagement. We don't carry phones any more, we carry argument machines.
“Nation of organised productive labor” - Einstein
“Millions of political prisoners, writers, priests, engineers, and common citizens were commodified and used as units of cheap, disposable labor for massive projects where their lives were sacrificed for the state's economic plan.” - Solzhenitsyn
“Millions of political prisoners, writers, priests, engineers, and common citizens were commodified and used as units of cheap, disposable labor for massive projects where their lives were sacrificed for the state's economic plan.” - Solzhenitsyn
December 10, 2025 at 8:27 AM
“Nation of organised productive labor” - Einstein
“Millions of political prisoners, writers, priests, engineers, and common citizens were commodified and used as units of cheap, disposable labor for massive projects where their lives were sacrificed for the state's economic plan.” - Solzhenitsyn
“Millions of political prisoners, writers, priests, engineers, and common citizens were commodified and used as units of cheap, disposable labor for massive projects where their lives were sacrificed for the state's economic plan.” - Solzhenitsyn
It’s always pretty sad to me when a hobby gets commodified beyond what was supposed to be a niche and fun entertainment, but I kinda knew deep down that this was inevitable with the advent of the internet.
December 10, 2025 at 5:50 AM
It’s always pretty sad to me when a hobby gets commodified beyond what was supposed to be a niche and fun entertainment, but I kinda knew deep down that this was inevitable with the advent of the internet.
if you truly believe in the case that games are art, you need to stop taking swings at a ghost of a foe who does not and likely did not ever even know you exist and look at the arts as a whole as they are right now and the way they have been increasingly commodified for decades
December 10, 2025 at 4:36 AM
if you truly believe in the case that games are art, you need to stop taking swings at a ghost of a foe who does not and likely did not ever even know you exist and look at the arts as a whole as they are right now and the way they have been increasingly commodified for decades
it's the most commodified, "#FGC!!!!", pavlovian "i know that clip!!!!!" that anyone just plays in any circumstance to the point where it's lost all meaning
the fucking clip is almost as old as i am. it does a disservice to this community to keep acting like we peaked in 2004.
the fucking clip is almost as old as i am. it does a disservice to this community to keep acting like we peaked in 2004.
December 10, 2025 at 1:44 AM
it's the most commodified, "#FGC!!!!", pavlovian "i know that clip!!!!!" that anyone just plays in any circumstance to the point where it's lost all meaning
the fucking clip is almost as old as i am. it does a disservice to this community to keep acting like we peaked in 2004.
the fucking clip is almost as old as i am. it does a disservice to this community to keep acting like we peaked in 2004.
Great read...
"Today’s tech billionaires do not treasure humanity but instead see human beings as treasure, as generators of data and money, as resources to be manipulated and commodified and plundered. 1/
"Today’s tech billionaires do not treasure humanity but instead see human beings as treasure, as generators of data and money, as resources to be manipulated and commodified and plundered. 1/
The explosion of artificial intelligence is overseen by people who will do and say whatever it takes for them to maintain their dominance. Adam Lowenstein reports on the lust for power sweeping Silicon Valley:
trib.al/8gSJ5kO
trib.al/8gSJ5kO
Artifice in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - The American Prospect
To understand the tech mindset is to see that the ultimate goal is domination. Silicon Valley elites apply a different standard to themselves because, quite simply, they believe that they deserve a different set of rules and expectations.
trib.al
December 9, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Great read...
"Today’s tech billionaires do not treasure humanity but instead see human beings as treasure, as generators of data and money, as resources to be manipulated and commodified and plundered. 1/
"Today’s tech billionaires do not treasure humanity but instead see human beings as treasure, as generators of data and money, as resources to be manipulated and commodified and plundered. 1/
Hear hear! And we’ve commodified public spaces and privatised them; made neighbourhood roads too dangerous, paved over green space and put up a parking lot. Skate parks — if the nimbys agree to them at all — are often at the edge of towns and hard to reach, and reinforce social exclusion.
December 9, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Hear hear! And we’ve commodified public spaces and privatised them; made neighbourhood roads too dangerous, paved over green space and put up a parking lot. Skate parks — if the nimbys agree to them at all — are often at the edge of towns and hard to reach, and reinforce social exclusion.
In a way they're nearly opposites - one had the potential to become capital and is also a commodified thing while the other requires the expenditure of resources to maintain authority because they're the official demarcation of where an institution can enforce their dictates.
December 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM
In a way they're nearly opposites - one had the potential to become capital and is also a commodified thing while the other requires the expenditure of resources to maintain authority because they're the official demarcation of where an institution can enforce their dictates.
Yeah - territory or borders are different from land property, because the latter is commodified and changes hands and is valued in one way or another (often in terms of how it can be developed, thus capital) while borders are an official demarcation of where force can be directed.
December 9, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Yeah - territory or borders are different from land property, because the latter is commodified and changes hands and is valued in one way or another (often in terms of how it can be developed, thus capital) while borders are an official demarcation of where force can be directed.
Our goal should be to figure out how to "commodify" housing production -- just like solar panel production, which got so standardized and commodified that manufacturers are practically giving them away
ourworldindata.org/learning-curve
ourworldindata.org/learning-curve
Learning curves: What does it mean for a technology to follow Wright’s Law?
Technologies that follow Wright’s Law get cheaper at a consistent rate, as the cumulative production of that technology increases.
ourworldindata.org
December 9, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Our goal should be to figure out how to "commodify" housing production -- just like solar panel production, which got so standardized and commodified that manufacturers are practically giving them away
ourworldindata.org/learning-curve
ourworldindata.org/learning-curve
"Today’s tech billionaires do not treasure humanity but instead see human beings as treasure, as generators of data and money, as resources to be manipulated and commodified and plundered."
The explosion of artificial intelligence is overseen by people who will do and say whatever it takes for them to maintain their dominance. Adam Lowenstein reports on the lust for power sweeping Silicon Valley:
trib.al/KwAc9Nd
trib.al/KwAc9Nd
Artifice in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - The American Prospect
To understand the tech mindset is to see that the ultimate goal is domination. Silicon Valley elites apply a different standard to themselves because, quite simply, they believe that they deserve a different set of rules and expectations.
trib.al
December 9, 2025 at 8:50 PM
"Today’s tech billionaires do not treasure humanity but instead see human beings as treasure, as generators of data and money, as resources to be manipulated and commodified and plundered."
It is *essential* that AI-produced work stays in the public domain, because this means it cannot be commodified, which means there is an incentive for capital to hire actual humans to make things.
(Obviously, best of all would be to abolish capitalism.)
(Obviously, best of all would be to abolish capitalism.)
December 9, 2025 at 5:44 PM
It is *essential* that AI-produced work stays in the public domain, because this means it cannot be commodified, which means there is an incentive for capital to hire actual humans to make things.
(Obviously, best of all would be to abolish capitalism.)
(Obviously, best of all would be to abolish capitalism.)
Good for her. This is a hoary truism that I first heard in college, but it’s true: I don’t know what I know until I write. Writing is a voyage of self-discovery; and leaning on generative AI leaves you forever ignorant, passive, and commodified for those who control the technology. No thanks.
December 9, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Good for her. This is a hoary truism that I first heard in college, but it’s true: I don’t know what I know until I write. Writing is a voyage of self-discovery; and leaning on generative AI leaves you forever ignorant, passive, and commodified for those who control the technology. No thanks.
Cosplaying as a commodified Guy Fawkes is extremely silly to me. So to each their own.
December 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Cosplaying as a commodified Guy Fawkes is extremely silly to me. So to each their own.
like ya i do get the point behind why ppl don't want to use it and the way society and culture has commodified every little thing. i just. have struggled with not saying this one word lol
December 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
like ya i do get the point behind why ppl don't want to use it and the way society and culture has commodified every little thing. i just. have struggled with not saying this one word lol
These companies have commodified Christmas into this horrible storm of consumerism and then try to commodify the reaction to it.
December 9, 2025 at 12:38 PM
These companies have commodified Christmas into this horrible storm of consumerism and then try to commodify the reaction to it.
Like in 18th century Europe or whatever there was a very prescriptive mono-culture with the avant-garde relegated to the far fringes, but the current monoculture is paradoxically pluralist. In other words, it has absorbed and commodified the counter-culture…
December 9, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Like in 18th century Europe or whatever there was a very prescriptive mono-culture with the avant-garde relegated to the far fringes, but the current monoculture is paradoxically pluralist. In other words, it has absorbed and commodified the counter-culture…
stop renting music
reject commodified culture
reject commodified culture
You can also buy and own music instead of streaming - it rocks. I use Bandcamp, Beatport, and when necessary I'll put up with iTunes. I don't use any streaming at all.
December 9, 2025 at 12:30 AM
stop renting music
reject commodified culture
reject commodified culture