Big Tech: "You'll own nothing & you'll be happy"
Big Tech: "You'll own nothing & you'll be happy"
The mantra of the WEF has been adopted by Big Tech. And it should terrify all of us.
Back in 2016, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published the (now infamous) “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” campaign. Pushing for a future that, to most of us, sounds like a dystopian nightmare.
“Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.”
That core mantra was repeated, over and over again, by the WEF — and appears to have been a core motivation behind so much that the WEF, The Democratic Party, and others have tried to do in the years since.
But, here’s the thing, it’s not just the political entities that have been attempting to make this bleak future come to pass…
Big Tech has been working on exactly this for years.
Where once we could purchase software in a box, now we get temporary licenses to digital copies of a software that can be taken away from us at any time.
Where once it was common and encouraged to purchase physical copies of movies, now we are encouraged to pay for streaming services… where we only have access to what they say we have access to.
Where once we could purchase modular, repairable computer hardware… now we can’t even change the batteries on our laptops or phones.
Our ability to purchase and actually own things is rapidly being taken away, and the few things we are allowed to own… we have drastically reduced control over.
It’s not just one Big Tech company actively working to bring about the “Own nothing and be happy” future… it’s all of them.
But it wasn’t always this way.
The Apple Case Study
When talking about the extreme changes to the Computer Industry over the last few decades, there is no better company to use as an example than Apple.
Apple (originally named “Apple Computer”… but they dropped the word “Computer” from their name some time back) has been around since almost the beginning of the Personal Computer industry.
They’ve seen it all. Massive success and spectacular failure. Deals with partner companies and bitter rivalries. More hardware and software platform changes than you can shake a stick at.
But, through it all, Apple always had a general attitude of being “on the side of their customers”.
Their earliest hardware came with schematics for easy repairs.
They made a point of freely giving away as much software as they could to people who purchased their hardware.
And they tried to make much of their hardware as modular as possible (with hot swappable batteries and drive bays on their laptops, and machines where you could service the entire machine — RAM, CPU, drive, everything — by simply pulling a tab and opening the computer).
They were never perfect. Heaven knows I’ve had many criticisms of Apple since the 1980s.
But, in many ways, they tried to be one of the most “pro-user” computer companies.
Boy-howdy, how that’s changed.
Nowadays, on most Apple hardware:
You can’t replace the batteries at all.
You can’t upgrade the RAM.
Heck, you can’t even open most Apple computers.
Right to repair? Ha! From Apple’s point of view, you don’t even really have a right to own your computer.
One of my favorite examples of this drastic change… is Apple’s approach to music.
Rip. Mix. Burn.
In 2001, Apple launched an iMac with a CD burner in it. When combined with the recently released iTunes… you could:
Insert an Audio CD.
“Rip” all of the songs into DRM-free MP3 files.
Create playlists of those MP3 files.
“Burn” new Audio CDs of your playlists.
And, with it, Apple produced an ad campaign they called: “Rip. Mix. Burn.”
The core of this idea was simple and obvious — you bought a music CD. You should be able to listen to that music however you want, whenever you want, and on whatever hardware you want.
These features — the software and hardware combined — were all about empowering the individual (read: “Apple’s Customers”) with more power and more freedom — and more ownership — over their digital life.
Flash forward to today… and things have changed dramatically.
Music ownership is discouraged. In its place is an Apple-branded music-streaming service where you can only stream the songs that The Company says you can listen to, only on the devices that The Company says you can use... and that right can be taken away at any time.
While Apple still has some music for sale that is free of DRM… the emphasis has shifted to locked down, streaming only services. It seems clear that any remnants of DRM-free downloads are not long for this world from Apple.
This reduction in flexibility, freedom, and ownership expands to all aspects of Apple’s product line: Software and Hardware alike.
It’s not just Apple
If this was simply a matter of one company pushing forward on the “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” agenda… it wouldn’t be that big of a problem. We could simply point, laugh, and then use the products of a different company.
But it is, quite simply, every major Tech company on Earth.
Google has many of the same issues:
Un-Repairable, Un-Upgradeable hardware.
Software that is increasingly locked down.
Media services trending away from “downloads” towards “streaming only”.
Massive surveillance and selling of personal data.
And people are convinced to submit themselves to this in exchange for convenience and easy entertainment.
In other words: “I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.”
You can watch this happening, at an almost breakneck pace, throughout the industry.
Microsoft moving major software (such as MS Office) to subscription and on-line only models.
Video game companies moving to a DRM-ified, On-Line only format for many game titles and features.
When was the last time you saw a laptop with a user-replaceable battery?
Been to an electronics store lately? Notice how there’s no software that you can purchase physical copies of?
We own less, and have less control, over our computers. By design. And it’s getting worse.
WEF. Big Tech. They have the same goals.
They told us, out loud, what their goals were.
We will own nothing.
We will have no privacy.
We will thank them for it.
And, at least as far as computers are concerned, they’ve almost completely achieved that goal.
There are a few that stand against them — against the likes of Big Tech and the WEF — and thank God for them. The more people that stand up to that sort of tyranny, the better.
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