Cloud computing is all the rage nowadays. Despite the fact that it is functionally similar to the Mainframe/Workstation architecture, Cloud Computing is being sold as a great advance into the future.
It has a few positives, which I won't go into here, because they aren't really compelling. The more important issue is this;
People don't want to be burdened by taking responsibility for their information. They want someone else to do it for them; store their data, manage it, back it up, safeguard it, and make it available. It isn't progress, it's simply a reflection of the cultural death of personal responsibility.
Capitulating responsibility for information comes at a price, and that price is loss of control over that information. Loss of privacy, and ultimately loss of individuality and self worth. One is further reduced to a quantum of production and consumption. It is ironic that in an age of "diversity and individualism", we are being willingly conformed into identical consuming automatons. Those that truly are individualistic are castigated.
A true advancement would be to make it easier for individuals to manage their responsibilities, rather than slyly convincing them to give them up in the quest for all-encompassing consumerism.
You are warped. Just because I want to store some files I use often on a centrally managed server somewhere you think that is 'loss of individuality and self worth'?
ReplyDeleteWhat a drama queen!
Why the second blog by the way?
"ultimately..."
ReplyDeleteDid you read the post? Did you comprehend it? Who builds a billion dollar data warehouse, that costs millions to run, for charity? They want something in exchange. And that something is information about you. Why? to form you as a consumer. That's the end game. It's not about progress or choices or any of those other rosy lala land bullshit dreams. You are a unit of production and consumption. No less, and certainly no more. Engineer? Husband? Father? those are just parameters of your central existence as consumer.
Warped? I'll accept that. I was cursed with a higher than average intelligence and insight, coupled with an insatiable appetite for truth and knowledge, and zero tolerance for bullshit. A terrible combination. I'd rather be a bucktoothed, barefoot simpleton, because ignorance is bliss, evidenced by everyone pursuing it like it was a drug.
ReplyDeleteI'm too curious to pick a pre-packaged belief system and skip along through life la-de-da