A lot of the sci-fi of the era was based off of the assumption that corporate power would rise to rival that of governments. That runaway capitalism would birth “high-tech low-life” as the state of society at large. Yes, the stars are aligning between the interests of the powerful in the present, and the future postulated in those stories; those stories were made on the basis of human nature and self-reflections on the contemporary. They are being proven right because they assumed plausible futures with likely outcomes. Want a solar punk world? We have to buck the trend and disrupt the trajectory we’re on now. Will we have pivotal moment like that of Americana circa 1929, or slide further in a hellscape? I know what future I want but I don’t know if we’re going to get it.
Tech billionaires: I’m going to live forever so I have to figure out how to get all the money in the world for myself by taking it away from everyone else. Me, me, me, I, myself, me, I, me, myself, me and not you
I have very little belief that any of the major tech billionaires were Sci-fi “readers”. All were brought up rich and maintained their wealth by failing upwards in an industry that basically threw money at aristocratic families and their offspring. All the sci-fi from prolific figures specifically target those groups as the reason for societies hardships. Herbert, Asimov, Heinlein, etc. all have major works which denounce the inherent vileness of those classes that rule from privileged positions without merit. If they did read any of those most influential books of the genre they definitely took the wrong messages from them. More likely than not, they probably only paid attention to the hypothetical technology in those universes to copy to theur model for “their” ideas, rather than paying any attention to the moral messages usually described about the use of the technology… Which usually ends up fucking the people who use it. Musk driving for human computer integration chips with reckless abandon tells me he has not read any sci-fi which would help him understand the possible hiccups he’s going to run into. I also doubt his endeavour is anything more than a stunt which conflates the use cases of the technology which is probably just revamped HCI technology that already exists to transmit motor cortex impulses to areas of the body that have been damaged due to injury. (I work in neuromodulation research) Even if they read the best scifi now, they would probably take away the wrong messages from them, the lens that you bring to a reading changes how you view it. As a billionaire, they just lack the ability to ground themselves enough to understand the social cautionary messages.
Cable used to have no commercials. Then they had some commercials, but less than OTA. Now there's no difference. Streaming services started out with no commercials, then it was commercials, but you can pay for no commercials. Soon it'll be pay more, for less commercials, I think there's a service already doing that? Don't reward them for this shitty behavior by throwing more money at them.
TV used to be free over the air. Commercials were in-show. Often done buy the hosts themselves talking up a product. Pretty much exactly like YouTube and podcasts do now.
Then cable was invented and they charged for it. But commercials never went away.
I’m getting there. I don’t mind paying for good content. Though I am starting to mind paying so much across the board and I’m getting tired of everyone having their own platform with its own quirks. Still can’t bring myself to go for Paramount+.
Now Amazon wants me to pay for ad removal… but makes sure to note that even if I pay, “some channels” will show ads anyways.
Haven’t seen that yet. What does that mean, “some channels?” Like for AMC content and shit like that?
The pre-order page for ad removal (a sentence which makes me feel irrationally angry) notes: “Live TV, Freevee, and channel subscriptions may continue to have ads.”
The email I got seems to define channels as “…like Max, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME, BET+, MGM+, ViX+, Crunchyroll, PBS KIDS, NBA League Pass, MLB.TV, and STARZ…”
Yeah, that was the point. The service I signed up for remains unchanged and I am still pleased with it. Prime Video was originally a quirky perk full of awful low budget content. If there is anything I like, I will pirate anyway because streaming services cannot be trusted to keep content available. So ultimately nothing has changed for myself or Amazon.
Other than The Boys and Wheel of Time, is there anything else worth watching on Prime?
PS: Never “buy” digital content with DRM. Buy physical media of the stuff you love. It supports the creators and it safeguards your purchase.
They must want people to cancel, because this is how you get people to cancel. I’m using Amazon less for shipping, there’s so many knockoffs these days, I’m not interested in returns.
More people need to cancel their subscription. (They most likely won’t though) I am tired of corporations getting away with charging for ads. Not a trend that should ever have been allowed, imo.
I chose to cancel a while back. I stopped using prime video, (really didn’t like prime original ads at the start of everything), and usually didnt order enough to warrant the cost for free shipping. Especially since it would take a week or more before delivery.
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