Technology Is Over: Why We've Reached Peak Information
In a personal essay, Taylor Foreman argues that our cultural obsession with ever-advancing technology has plateaued, drawing parallels to the hot water heater. He reflects on his 90s childhood, where tech was a magical frontier, and contrasts it with today's saturation, where kids passively consume and parents restrict access. He distinguishes 'Technology Is Over' from being anti-technology, suggesting our appetite for information is finite, and we're now seeking a 'diet' from the digital deluge.
We’re informationally obese and looking to go on a diet.
- jvanderbot
Everyone seems to be attacking this as a statement about the obviousness of technological limits.
That is exactly what the article is not.
The article seems (at least to me) to be about the uses of technology, and how deeply that interacts with both a) what people want and b) what people are willing to tolerate to get what they want.
The examples here are not architectures or benchmarks, they are stories about the slow change of real life, even if the rate of technological change blurs and accelerates to some degree. It's about the flattening curve of demand and deployment (markets), not of capability.
Yes, the internet, cpu speeds, etc etc, and now LLMs, but the water heater example is an analogy for how "We only want so much of this stuff, and eventually we'll figure out how much is enough". Steve Jobs quotes pin this to consumer tech even more: You don't want the prettiest thing, you want what solves people's real problems in a way that works for them.
TFA is trying to show that you can make a better widget, but its impact might fade into the background, countering the "technoptimist" "singularity" "exponentionaly blah blah", or whatever narrative.
- brotchie
Technology is stacked sigmoids. There's a lot more to unlock.
What's becoming more important in human's relationship with technology is restraint. Dopamine comes from the journey, not the destination, and for a journey to be meaningful, there needs to be some amount of challenge / struggle. The increasingly important skill to lead a fulfilled existence is learning how to optimally balance ease vs. challenge.
- fullshark
"The Internet is over" - Prince in 2010.
A quote that we all laughed at but I think he maybe was right.