I've already written about this but it bears repeating: if you do not have control over the tech you use, you should assume that it can – and probably will – be used by those who control it or later gain control of it for nefarious purposes.

This is why I have never owned a smart speaker, smart doorbell, or other such devices, and why I am constantly wary of using an iPhone or a conventional (“Googled”) Android phone.

I understand that my iPhone is not truly mine. Apple ultimately decides what software I am allowed to run on it and they have the ability to completely brick it or turn it into a surveillance tool without my knowledge or consent.

So why do I keep it? Because I'm expected to use a phone for work and church purposes, some of the apps I need to use do not run on de-Googled Android, and from my perspective, “Googled” Android phones are even more of a privacy nightmare than iPhones. So it's a situation where I have to choose the lesser of the evils.

To mitigate risk, I try to use my iPhone only for the purposes required, and I have a second phone running de-Googled Android with OS-level tracker blocking (/e/OS) for everything else. It's not perfect, but it's better than doing nothing.

This is just one of many adjustments I have made by assuming that tech I don't control can be used to spy on me.

Beware of the dangers of using Imperial tech and make adjustments accordingly. Every change you make, no matter how small, makes a difference.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 129) #tech #privacy #AI #smartphones #internet

The second season moves fast. It has to – they had to condense 4 more seasons of material into one. It's brilliant, but the first season is still my favorite. A lot of people didn't like the pacing of Season 1, but I absolutely love it. The intentionality, the deliberateness of it. So much is conveyed in the drawn-out scenes and moments without speech. The music and thoughtful cinematography in those moments tell important parts of the story that action sequences and dialogue could never tell. They give space for the viewers to contemplate what they've seen and heard. They allow room for imagination.

It's so compelling and meaningful because it's so relatable. And it's also terrifying for the same reason. Just replace some fictional names with some real-world ones, change a few minor details, and many of the sub plots and story arcs of the series could be real-life stories that have played out and are playing out right now.

The stories also apply in different contexts. As I once again reevaluate my relationship with technology, one part of Nemik's Manifesto stood out to me this time.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

It got me thinking, what are acts of technological insurrection?

Any time we choose to use a piece of technology that is not controlled, tracked, or surveilled by Big Tech, it's an act of technological insurrection. Any time we choose to resist the urge to look at a screen for no reason, it's an act of technological insurrection. And no matter how small the act, it pushes our lines forward.

How awful is the current state of things that writing this blog post using my own brain and my own fingers, without the assistance of an AI LLM chat bot, is now an act of technological insurrection?

2025 started strong for me, and then, for reasons I'm still trying to understand and sort out, I took an emotional, mental, and spiritual nosedive to finish out this year.

I have never felt so uncertain, confused, and directionless in my life.

Whether a symptom or a cause, I've been using technology most of this year without restraint and without intent.

I want 2026 to be different. I need it to be different.

My technological insurrection resumes now.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 121) #tech #TV #intentionism #DigitalMinimalistm #AI

I do not use or consult AI in the research or writing of my blog posts or in any other aspect of this blog. What you read comes from my own mind as typed by my own hands. I also do not willingly or knowingly post AI-generated images here (I did that once in 2022 when DALL-E was a new thing, but have since deleted that image).

I believe it is wrong to train AI on human-created content without the consent of the humans who created it. While there is little I can do to prevent it, I do not consent to the scraping of my blog content for the purposes of training AI.

My blog is written by a human for humans.

Discuss...

#100DaysToOffload (No. 102) #AI #tech

But I have the same concerns about AI as I have with virtual reality and the “Metaverse”, social media, smartphones – media and computer technology in general. We talk a lot about what we gain by embracing these technologies, but we talk too little about what we might be losing or giving up.

I recently finished reading The Good Neighbor, the biography of Fred Rogers. The following excerpt (p. 341-342) echoes my concerns:

Over the years, Fred Rogers grew fearful that the dominance of television and the computer would overwhelm the simple human values he held most dear.

Excerpts from two university speeches he made in midcareer capture his concern: “It really has been very effectively communicated in many circles that computers and their relatives are more clever, are much quicker, make fewer mistakes and are more to be valued than human beings. But without human beings there never would have been a computer or anything else that we call advanced technology. That's something I like to help children remember: that, no matter what the machine may be, it was people who thought it up and made it, and it's people who make it work.

“And as we . . . find ourselves being concerned about the conditions that make life on Earth possible, we will recognize the need to make people more important than things, and we will join hands with young and old alike by putting our dominant energies into developing a sane design for living.”

He even suggested, only somewhat tongue-in-cheek, one answer to all this complexity: Turn off the machine. In an appearance at the opening of a Fred Rogers exhibit at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum in 1998, he said, simply: “I've always said the best time for our program is once it's over and the television is turned off.”

Technology has advanced significantly in the twenty years since Fred Rogers died, and his concerns have become only more relevant. It's not the technology itself that is the issue, it is how we use it and what we do with it that matters.

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic we relied heavily on video call technology to stay connected and interact with one another safely and over great distances. My siblings, father, and I live in four different states. In 2020 we started doing weekly video calls with one another, and we have enjoyed it so much that we have kept them going ever since.

However, video calls are still a poor substitute for meeting with others in-person. Since 2018, I have worked from home either part of the time or full time. And while I am thankful that video calls exist and allow me to have the flexibility to work from home and meet virtually with my colleagues, I still travel across the country to visit the office every three or four months. Why? Because there is no substitute for in-person interaction and connection. There is a social and cultural aspect to being in the office that is very hard to cultivate with full-remote employees. Some managers of remote workers try to build some social time into virtual meetings. Mine does not. Social interaction with work colleagues fosters a sense of belonging and camaraderie that you just can't get in a 15 minute daily video call.

Likewise, the weekly video calls with dad and siblings are great, but if time and distance weren't an issue, I'd visit them in-person often, too.

#tech #intentionism #LessConvenient #AI

Topics of Focus

#faith – thoughts related to my religion #tech – self explanatory

Other Topics

#100DaysToOffload #accessories #AI #automobiles #Bandcamp #books #business #cassette #charity #Christianity #Christmas #ChurchOfJesusChrist #climate #community #compactDisc #contention #COVID19 #decentralization #DigitalMinimalism #economy #electronicMusic #EveryDayCarry #eWaste #family #FOSS (free-as-in-freedom and open source software) #friends #gratitude #haiku #health #hobbies #HomeOffice #humor #intentionism #internet #laptop #LessConvenient #libraryMusic #life #Linux #loneliness #media #meditation #mentalHealth #misc #movies #music #news #nostalgia #physicalMedia #planning #poetry #politics #privacy #prophets #retro #smartphones #SocialMedia #synthwave #travel #TV #Twitch #unity (not the game engine) #Utah #vaporwave #writing