I recommend lecture by economist Dr. Sergei Guriev about how Putin
s autocracy works. Most of the material is explained in the first 10 minutes, then come the examples. Based on actual research papers.
> are there ways to stay true to values (which in some cases might be in direct opposition to growth and profit taking) with the way our society is structured?
Purism is trying to do exactly this by being Social Purpose Corporation: https://puri.sm/about/social-purpose/. However, I would not call them a "major company" yet.
Tech Luddism has nothing to do with these arguments. I do not want tech that someone else controls, because it benefits 'them', not me. I want tech that I can control. See, e.g., Free Software Foundation and Purism.
"The universe does not expand "into" anything and does not require space to exist "outside" it. Technically, neither space nor objects in space move. Instead it is the metric governing the size and geometry of spacetime itself that changes in scale."
They shipped out a "phone" that can't place phone calls.
They also shipped a devkit, whose screen did not work. But a software update made it work. Same here. This is the only phone, where updates make it better, not worse.
"First hardware kill switches; first replaceable cellular modem and Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth (on M.2 cards); first smart card reader (for 2FF OpenPGP card); first running 100% free software; only current phone to offer convergence as PC without special hardware"
I hope they make something similar for the laptops
From https://puri.sm/faq/:
"We cannot share the schematics nor design currently because it is copyright encumbered from Intel reference designs. In the future, on future versions we plan to be able to release those."
They do remove all binary blobs at least by the definition of the Free Software Foundation, who already recommed it:.
"The Purism Librem 5 cell phone is another exciting addition to the Giving Guide this year: we're giving it a tentative recommendation because the company has publicly committed to doing the right things for prioritizing user freedom and privacy."
While Pine64 phone is promising, it does not remove all the proprietary blobs. For those who need even more freedom and privacy, Librem 5 should be more suitable: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
I don't understand why you would force your children to depend on an unethical for-profit corporation. Why not LibreOffice? 99% of what normal people need is covered in it.