Persistent Advertising - Will It Ever Stop?

Ads are everywhere and are directed at you. Opt out? Think again. 

As advertisements become more common everywhere: on phones, tablets, Facebook, Google, you name it, we become less attentive and brainwashed into a consumer society. Targeted ads, saturated ads, holiday ads, app ads, ads on your lock screen, ads on your urinals, ads ads ads.

Could you consciously count how many you're forced to lay eyes on in a day?

Take a look at your screen now, or your phone. how many ads are in your face. Did you even realize they were there? Have you just become complacent in the never ending psi-ops for your consumer dollar compliance?

"Well, yeah but i can x them out!", You say. How many times do you do that a day without thinking of it. How long does the video take to skip, or for you to wade through the flying, in-your-face, begging, nagging visuals yearning for a click. That's time spent doing other things instead of mumbling at your phone to stop the peddling of random wares.

 

Is that app really free? Find out now with this one weird trick. Why are free apps not free? Ads! Shocker! Did you know you're being solicited right now, personally tuned to your phone usage, just using a phone? You are Google's product. Every phone user is a ripened fruit for Google's harvest. Do you know when someone is advertising? Solicitation bombing you every click. Spam assaulting you every refresh. Hard to notice sometimes. Engaging, flashing, whirling entertainment in the media distract and deliver. Very subtle.

Good advertising is a boon to marketing, sure. It's a necessary evil. We all gotta' eat. Why did Facebook and Google fail so hard at it? They sold out, that's why. Smaller company networks have to push things hard to get noticed. Hence, annoying. Big brand adverts are more natural, pleasing to behold, and very adept in subconscious propaganda. No incentive exists at the big companies to mask their dominance of marketing. These corporations will exist forever and plop ads in your face until you're 90. Your great grand-kids will parrot their slogans mindlessly as have generations for eons. Have a Coke!

 Hard to avoid advertising when it becomes that ubiquitous. Corporate shills, paid reviews, slogans, marketing saturation. A scourge of our era. Google Glass isn't supposed to display ads neither are smart watches? But for how long? When Augmented Reality becomes mainstream and virtual reality devices are common there will exist a new, terrifying, ever-present delivery medium. We have already lost the war. Signing off now, I have to go install adblock on my eye augments. 

How Would People from the Past Interpret Technology Today?

How bizzare would it seem from their perspective? Random thoughts on modern devices that have revolutionized the recent past.

My dad passed away when i was young. I often wish he could have seen the amazing technological developments that have occurred since his passing. Growing up in Las Vegas, all the slots back then were coin operated. You couldn't hear anything but the "Tink Tink" of coins. Plastic buckets. Everywhere. For the tokens of course. Coins evolved into tokens, tokens turned into simple paper receipts. "Comps" were personal and owners respected their player's patronage. Now patronage is measured by a machine ticking points for each dollar.

Computers fit in pockets. I'm still amazed by that actually. I love my android device. I try to cram as much function in this old gingerbread because of how impressive technology really is. I remember computer desktops larger than the desk they're supposed to go on. Talk to text would look like magic not long ago. Or space exploration. In less than 100 years we went from powered flight to landing on the moon. Funny how star trek tech mostly all exists today except for space travel and weird transporter stuff. Wish you were here, Dad.

Why the LG35c Optimus was the Best Android Device Ever Made and What They Can Learn from it.

Material design. Small form factor. Efficient screen. Low power consumption. Bill gates-esque 'enough' memory for anyone.

Maybe I'm a bit too nostalgic. Yet, there's something incredibly aesthetic about a phone that fits perfect in the palm of the hand, smaller than a deck of cards, and efficiency to drool over.

Small devices will help improve implanted cybernetics efficiency and ergonomics. They need to be low power to enjoy a usable power cycle. Phones these days are unwieldy, awkward to hold and can barely go a day without seeing a charger. If phones were dinosaurs they'd be heading toward an extenction event. Technology doesn't necessarily have to adapt to live unlike us biologic models. Evolution doesn't get to choose what it wants to become, it selects what works.

 Small 32 bit embedded devices will be in people someday. Sounds creepy. But if you told someone back in time your phone is in your pocket and anyone can track your movement they'd think you're creepy weird too. It will happen someday. Cue technological singularity.

Service Apps are the Future, but will the economy survive it?

A few lines of code can turn an institution into nothing.

With technological progress we eliminate man-made labor. Jobs are lost, corporations adapt or falter. (Blockbuster, anyone?) Uber single handedly ravaged an entire sector of the economy. When trains, subways, buses, and taxis stop making money, who would risk running a non profitable transport business?

When will be the next app like Uber? Amazon predicts pretty soon.

Drones are beginning to threaten a service mainstay: Shipping. With Amazon's delivery drones pioneering this market, it's only a matter of time before the mailman goes the way of the milkman. We can be sure our dogs will hate the new mail carriers all the same, so at least some tradition of the post office will remain.

Will technologies that replace humans help, or hurt the economy? I'm sure this question mired the peoples of the industrial revolution. That was definitely a historical net-positive transformation of industry. Still, many feared then that the removal of entire populations of workers from labor would cause irreversible damage to society. They were wrong, of course, so is this current Industrial Revolution 2.0 speculating just fear mongering? Only history will tell.



One thing's for sure, mankind is due to become much more lazy and complacent with machines taking care of most menial tasks.

Bitcoin's amazing future

I made a prediction in this post several years ago about Bitcoin's prominence in our technological future. Sure enough, my humble post made a suggestion to buy some BTC at around 100 dollars each. Oh my.

With Bitcoins current price at $14,137 as of this writing, I am sure kicking myself over not holding on to my coins. Long story, I was shook out during the Bitfinex fiasco in 2016. I had lost 2/3 of my holdings and sold at a loss. Goes to show it takes a stong gut to hang on to those coins in price drops.

I hope this goes as a message to all those seeing BTC's price lowering, wondering if this 'fad' will continue. Well, if a 'fad' lasts a decade I think we should start calling it something else.

TL;DR = HODL!