Ask HN: What technology has mass adoption ruined?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25906133

by worker767424 • 5 years ago

12 15 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

eesmith• 5 years ago

Could you explain what you mean by that?

Would leaded gas and CFC refrigerants be included? Or whale oil, which used to be a major energy source?

Or the overuse of antibiotics, leading to antibiotic-resistant bacteria far earlier than might otherwise have been?

timonoko2• 5 years ago

There are so many. Some might even wish there was some of kind of IQ-test and permanent branding in social media. In the old-time Usenet everybody was associated with an academic institution, which already implies some mental capabilities perse.

lcabral• 5 years ago

LOL

kleer0014• 5 years ago

Or just a lack of advertising of explicit social need. Like, Aunt Betty who's 56 and lives with her cats doesn't need to be on the same network as half the planet and posting daily.

Facebook did try to do a "True Names" policy, but it was too little too late.

I think a gov't issued id for a permanent login would have (will?) be great. Ya want to be anonymous? Sure. Here's a pseudononimous id that only courts can track back to your real id. Want another one? Sure, that'll be 100$ a year (taxes that go directly to server costs). Want another one? Sure, every additional id costs 10x as much as the last.

giantg22• 5 years ago

I think anytime you're getting the government involved to that degree you run the risk of it getting messed up even further, especially if the politicians realize they now have the keys to give themselves political advantage through information censorship, fraudulent accounts, etc.

MildlySerious• 5 years ago

Pesticides. If they had been used to control the environment of small areas it would have been largely fine.

Using pesticides to control the environment of large swathes of land was bound to cause all sorts of problems, and it did, well beyond the areas they are used on.

timonoko2• 5 years ago

Wikipedia: "Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochlorine. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts"

I actually remember in 1963, we had an invasion of ants. Just regular brown ants common in north European countries. They were everywhere. In beds, in food stores, inside the insulation. And they were also of the biting kind. Traditional solution was to abandon the house for in midwinter and let it freeze up. Just a few buffs from a tiny cardboard box of DDT and they were all gone. Excellent, fuck the environment.

LocalH• 5 years ago

General-purpose computing

meowster• 5 years ago

Personal computers.

stakkur• 5 years ago

The Web.

viburnum• 5 years ago

Cars. When everyone has one then traffic and sprawl cancel the speed advantages. Without all the highways and parking lots and overbuilt roads you could walk in the same time.

Ask HN: What technology has mass adoption ruined?

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