An Updated User's Guide for the Aged and Alt-Brained
Chapter 4.1 - Technical Sidebar on Code
New Microsoft Gaslight
I just now came across this graphic describing Microsoft’s plan for future communication between human beings, and this set me on fire:
This is from Microsoft trying to explain the release of a new AI-infused platform that glorifies a future-perceived advance in our business communication that will surely roll into our home communication; rest assured.
My point, dear reader, is that that picture tells a thousand words that explain what we are up against whenever communicating online.
Code. Code is manipulating us. It’s nothing more than that, and that Code is now between you and your young son, your grandmother, your lover, and anyone and just about anything you care about.
This Code can create more code, baby Codes, that fill the space between your thoughts and your loved ones with an entanglement more twisted than an Escher print (watch for quantum Code, coming to a dealer near you by next Christmas).
Humans create code. Sometimes, they are subhuman, but let’s not begin a rant.
They say that machines can make Code very well now. Super-humanly well. It’s a techno concept called Baby AIs (could they think of ways to name coded-things so they don't scare us or make us want to cry?)
But why put Baby AIs and massive amounts of other Code between you and a loved one? (Hell, it could be just ten lines of code, coders are not sharing, so we don’t know.)
I’ll tell you why. Money. And the professional ushering in of a period where all communication on Earth between those you love and cherish ends. Yeah, I said that.
You may think I am a loon or a Luddite or worse by now, but if you read Chapters 1,2,3, and 4 of this user’s guide, you will likely agree: I am not. I am just a rational human being trying to explain what’s happening to me, my family, and the broader community in which I love. Most will want to avoid hearing what I want to say, but here goes anyway…
This entire gaslight that technology improves communication is a hoax.
In many cases, the hoax may seem to have improved communication along the way, but instead, it is just fracking things up. In some cases, our Mr. Code prevents communication all the time and at any time.
You have all experienced the tip of what I describe — in a million ways since the mid-2000s. Around that time, something broke down regarding our communication vehicles. They went off the rails. There was a crash.
The problem of global communication between peoples across vast distances turned hard, and the issues with bad interpersonal communication got worse. The solutions delivered to date, from that timeframe of “right after the world turned to shit — to “there goes the world again, turning to shit,” are currently fragging society and crumbling social order between governments, communities, and everyone else, down to the little girl selling lemonade at her homemade stand, who was arrested for violating some regulation or another. All roots of these evils can be traced back to the Code and the CEOs who released the Code.
Let me ask if any of my writing makes sense now, my dear reader. My SO screams “ NO!” from the background and yells, “Shut up already!” That’s real family communication, delivered directly and to the point. However, let’s look at an example of how techBro tech fails us.
Example
I must find my kid; this is important. But I forgot to top up my cell phone, and then my PayPal was locked for security purposes so that I couldn’t get money to my cell provider, and in essence: my life, along with my ability to communicate, had dried up. So, without my digital quarters to make a call, I can’t make the call.
Once I sort that out, with my digital wallet full of something, who knows what, bits and coins, I can use that to ring my kid, but now he’s turned off his cell, and he is online down at the gaming parlor, firing away at some digital enemy dressed like a Russian or a Chinese person. So I log into a site used by gamers (and now everyone) called “Discord” — could they have picked a more unsettling name?
Now I have to warn all folks over 50 here: do not open Discord, or your brain will instantly melt. If you ignore my advice, you soon realize that you have entered a Casino Royal like no other, filled with one-armed bandits, flashing lights, and ringing bells — even hookers!
Discord will make you scream, but no one can hear you scream in (a techBro communication) space.
But I must get ahold of my kid. I have a super important message for him tonight, and I think he’s in Discord with his gaming buddies. Somewhere. After a few hundred taps and clicks, I give up after creating an account with 2-factor authentication, passkeys, and other things I don’t give a rat’s butt about. I want to find my kid and talk to him, that’s all!
So, I resort to the Internet of Things. Good lord, don’t click that link for a definition unless you have to! This marketing buzzword/gaslight of Things was supposed to solve all problems between you and the Internet and between you and me and our toasters. Not sure. That’s just nuts. But the point is that I opened the Find My app (part of that “Internet of things) and told Siri — Apple’s version of a baby AI that has a learning disability — to find my son.
So now, instead of talking to my son, I am conversing with a toy. Granted, it is a more powerful toy than an IBM 360 Mainframe, but it is a toy nonetheless. So I focus on a radar map as if I am bunkered down and spotting for an enemy combatant, and then I spot him. Find My shows he’s in bed upstairs, and as I ping like sonor closer to his bedroom door, I feel stupid and silly. Then I find his vibrating phone bouncing off his nightstand. He must have forgotten this one and, more than likely, has a burner or spare I could then try tracking down. Kids these days, eh?
I could go on to complete this painful example of discord and confusion, but I would have to describe every aggravation and foible presented 24/7 when using today’s tech. Let me end this story with this: My son came home 15 minutes after I contemplated smashing my phone:
“Hey, Dad, what’s up?”
“I want to die.”
“Why, Dad, what happened?”
“I tried to call you but couldn’t.”
“Ur such a boomer. What did you want to tell me?”
“I *&#@%* can’t remember; I just want to die, and I will if I ever have to go through that again.”
Discussion
Now, this is just one scenario that shows where we are locked. Older folks are offing themselves trying to find their kids, who might also be offing themselves, for other reasons related to techBro Code. This technology kills elders by making us fall and then just give up. For teens, it’s worse.
Agree or disagree, or are you in the middle on this one? Let me know below, but don’t try to IM me; I am waiting on a customer support ticket to process my request to fix my messaging app of choice, which has been broken for a month.
This technical note is dedicated to the Pareto Investor (whoever the hell that is) as that graphic above set me off, and I just had to dump this out of my head; thank you, whoever or what you are, Pareto.
In addition to sharing insights, I’m involved in a cause providing pizza to underprivileged children in Kathmandu, Nepal. If you wish to support them, please contribute through my [Buy Me a Coffee](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nepalihipph) page; there is an excellent video on my simple project. Each donation brings joy to these children that you would not believe (but I will send you pics). Your generosity, big or small, makes a difference. Thank you for any support you can offer.