processed-audio

0:37

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All right, I'm going to advance the first slide to sync up the video feed.

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Three,

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two,

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one,

0:43

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

go.

0:43

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Hello,

0:59

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everyone.

1:00

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

This

1:04

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is a magnetic tape reel.

1:05

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This is how computers used to store data.

1:08

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Now this particular tape reel is from a computer system my grandfather installed

1:12

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

in the 60s.

1:13

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Back then,

1:14

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a lot of computers had these.

1:15

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

We still use them today,

1:17

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sometimes, but your computer at home probably doesn't have one.

1:20

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Now this stuff is durable.

1:22

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

There's probably still data on here.

1:24

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

But this tape reel is entirely unreadable because we don't have the hardware to read it anymore.

1:28

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Let me show you something else.

1:32

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This is a technical manual,

1:35

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

also from the 60s.

1:37

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This in particular is a handbook for radiological monitors,

1:40

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

but that's not important.

1:42

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

The important thing is that I can read this.

1:44

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

You can read this.

1:46

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

People a hundred years from now will be able to read this.

1:49

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

It's funny.

1:50

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

That tape reel was state -of -the -art technology in the 60s.

1:53

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

It promised to phase out paper records forever.

1:57

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Well, now it's landfill.

1:58

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This paper is still here.

2:00

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Let me show you something else,

2:03

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

something a bit more modern.

2:04

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This is a Nintendo DS Lite.

2:07

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It came out in 2006.

2:09

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I had one of these when I was a kid,

2:12

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and I still use it.

2:13

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

You know,

2:14

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

it can still play games,

2:15

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

you can still use PictoChat,

2:16

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

if you remember that.

2:17

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

20 years later,

2:19

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and this thing works just like it did in 2006.

2:21

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Honestly,

2:23

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it even installs pretty good battery life,

2:24

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

all things considered.

2:29

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This is a Nexus 5.

2:30

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This was Google's flagship phone in 2013.

2:33

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

It was actually my phone in high school.

2:35

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And this phone is a paperweight.

2:37

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You can't install apps on it.

2:39

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You can't connect to the internet.

2:40

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You can't really do much of anything useful with it.

2:43

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It's the same story as that tape reel,

2:45

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

right? This smartphone is a supercomputer compared to the DS.

2:49

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But the DS,

2:50

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the older technology,

2:51

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is the one that survived.

2:52

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

What's going on here?

2:56

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Computers are supposed to get better,

2:58

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they're supposed to get faster,

2:59

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

more capable.

3:00

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That's always been the promise of big tech.

3:02

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But what's happening instead?

3:04

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There's five more main points I want to make for you today.

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Let's walk through them.

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One,

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we're designing tech for the privileged few who can afford it.

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The modern world demands we have faster computers and faster internet,

3:19

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but we're closing the door on billions of people who don't have access to that stuff.

3:23

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Who does this technology serve,

3:26

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and who are we leaving behind?

3:30

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Two, we're building tech with an expiration date.

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The technology we rely on comes at a high cost.

3:38

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To us,

3:38

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yes, but also to the environment.

3:40

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Yet our phones and laptops still rarely last more than a few years,

3:44

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and often that's by design.

3:46

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With all the technological advances we've made,

3:49

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how will we not fix this,

3:51

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

right?

3:51

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Three,

3:54

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we're relying on fragile tech infrastructure that might not be around

3:58

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

tomorrow.

3:58

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There are tech companies with the power to single -handedly...

4:02

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Take down half the internet.

4:04

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How many eggs should we be putting in one billionaire's basket?

4:08

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Four.

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We're building social platforms that polarize and divide us.

4:15

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Social media,

4:16

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it's not just bad for our mental health,

4:18

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it's a catalyst for civil unrest and violent conflict.

4:21

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Is it really worth the cost?

4:23

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And five.

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We are losing our history because we don't know how to store it long term.

4:30

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I'm a digital archivist.

4:32

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I run a community archive project to document the histories of queer communities.

4:37

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And I'm terrified because the so -called information age is an existential threat

4:41

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to our history.

4:41

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How do we preserve our digital legacy for future generations?

4:46

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This is unsustainable.

4:50

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All of this is unsustainable.

4:51

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My name is Lark Astor.

4:53

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I use they it pronouns.

4:55

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And this is After Big Tech,

4:57

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Building a Sustainable Digital Future.

5:03

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Let's talk about Barbie Riding Club.

5:04

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

All right,

5:06

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

so recently a friend wanted to play a video game from their childhood with me.

5:09

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

The tagline of this box,

5:11

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it says, software for girls.

5:13

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Great message,

5:14

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very empowering.

5:15

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Wasn't quite accurate in the case of my friend,

5:17

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but he wouldn't discover that until he was a teenager.

5:20

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Unfortunately,

5:22

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Linux support for this Windows game from 1998 isn't great,

5:26

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so I installed Windows XP on my computer so we could play it together.

5:31

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And while I was doing that,

5:32

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I just took the opportunity to kind of poke around.

5:35

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You know,

5:35

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I grew up with Windows XP,

5:37

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but I hadn't used it really since high school.

5:39

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I was kind of enamored with it.

5:41

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Like,

5:42

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I'm not a Windows user,

5:43

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

but something about this experience was really drawing me in.

5:46

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It was making me yearn for a time when

5:50

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computing was simple.

5:51

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

You know, computers were a tool that sat on your desk,

5:53

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not an omnipresent everything machine infiltrating every facet of your life.

5:57

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To be clear,

5:59

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I'm not nostalgic for the aesthetic.

6:01

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I'm feeling grief.

6:02

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I'm feeling grief for a relationship with technology that we used to have.

6:06

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And to be honest,

6:09

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I've been feeling this way for a while.

6:10

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About the internet,

6:11

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especially.

6:12

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I wasn't around for this era of the internet back in the 90s,

6:15

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but I feel a lot of second -hand nostalgia for it.

6:18

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It just feels like the internet was simpler back then.

6:21

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And I know,

6:22

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that's probably naive.

6:23

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But I also know I'm not the only person to feel this way.

6:27

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There's been a whole wave of 90s

6:31

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

-era internet nostalgia in the air lately.

6:33

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Some of it rooted in idealism,

6:35

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

perhaps.

6:35

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You know, all cultural trends come in cycles,

6:37

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but I think there's real things we can learn from the early internet.

6:41

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Things we forgot.

6:42

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Take NeoCities,

6:46

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

for example.

6:46

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Now,

6:47

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

some of you might remember GeoCities,

6:49

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

a platform where folks could build and host their own personal webpages.

6:52

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Well,

6:53

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that platform went defunct in 2009.

6:55

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NeoCities is an open -source continuation of the concept.

6:59

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They offer free hosting for small websites and some basic tools for

7:03

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building them.

7:04

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And this platform has exploded in popularity over the past few years.

7:08

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Let me share an example of the kinds of things people are building in this space.

7:12

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This is my friend Loaf's personal

7:16

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

website.

7:17

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I think it looks pretty nice.

7:19

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But if you poke around long enough and click the right link,

7:22

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okay, look in the lower left corner,

7:24

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you see that wolf hand holding up a little match.

7:26

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Obviously,

7:29

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

if you take the match,

7:30

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

you can use it to burn down the website and find the

7:34

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

secret second website hidden underneath.

7:37

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Now I won't spoil too much more here,

7:39

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

but if you go down here,

7:40

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you're going to find a sprawling labyrinth of surrealist art.

7:43

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And I think that's really beautiful.

7:45

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There are thousands of people rediscovering

7:49

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the fun and artistry of creating websites.

7:51

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Not for clicks or likes or revenue,

7:54

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

just for the sake of it.

7:56

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It feels like at some point during the social media revolution,

7:59

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we lost the joy.

8:01

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People are getting tired of social media.

8:04

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They're looking for alternatives.

8:06

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That's what I'm here to talk about today.

8:09

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What have we lost in the past 20 years of computing?

8:12

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And where can we go from here?

8:15

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Let's find out.

8:17

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Part 1.

8:20

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We're designing tech for the privileged few who can afford it.

8:23

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Let's talk about hardware.

8:26

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Now,

8:27

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

we've been living in a golden age of consumer electronics,

8:29

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

to be honest.

8:29

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Over the past few decades,

8:31

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computers have gotten faster at an exponential pace,

8:33

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and prices for consumers have plummeted.

8:36

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So on the left,

8:37

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you can see a portable computer that sold for under $18 ,000 in the

8:41

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80s.

8:42

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Adjusted for inflation,

8:43

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

that's more like $77 ,000 today.

8:46

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

In 2026,

8:48

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you can buy a laptop for less than $200.

8:50

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And for decades,

8:54

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this trend has been pretty consistent.

8:55

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You know, hardware gets cheaper year over year.

8:57

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Memory and storage especially.

8:59

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From 2003 to 2023,

9:02

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memory prices fell by a factor of 100.

9:04

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Ever since the turn of the millennium,

9:08

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you know, computers started to become everyday appliances.

9:11

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Upgrades have been cheap and routine.

9:14

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Compared to the expensive business machines of the 80s,

9:16

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

electronics have practically been disposable.

9:18

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Well,

9:20

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

this era of cheap commodity hardware is ending,

9:22

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

and it's not because we all just suddenly decided we care about the environmental

9:26

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impact.

9:26

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It's because computers are about to get a hell of a lot

9:30

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more expensive.

9:31

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Between October 2025 and

9:35

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February of 2026,

9:37

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

the price of RAM,

9:39

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a common computer component,

9:40

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increased by a factor of six.

9:42

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

And it's only gotten worse since.

9:46

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Why?

9:46

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Why is this happening?

9:47

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

We all know why.

9:51

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

AI companies are buying

9:55

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so much memory that the demand has outpaced the global production capacity.

9:59

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And unlike...

10:00

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the rest of us,

10:00

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AI companies don't care how much they got to pay to get it.

10:03

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Already,

10:04

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one of the three major suppliers of computer memory,

10:06

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Micron, has fully left the consumer market.

10:09

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Because why bother,

10:11

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right? Like, why bother with marketing and retail logistics when there's guaranteed volume on the

10:15

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table from AI companies?

10:16

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And this isn't just like a blip in the market

10:20

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

either.

10:20

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Western Digital,

10:22

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one of the world's major suppliers of hard drives,

10:24

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they already sold every hard drive they plan to manufacture in 2026.

10:28

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

By February.

10:31

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Right, so by February,

10:32

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

they had sold every hard drive they were going to manufacture,

10:34

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

hadn't even manufactured yet,

10:36

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

for the rest of the year.

10:37

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These AI companies are buying up capacity years out.

10:41

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Some of them just have open -ended orders.

10:43

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They'll buy as much memory as the manufacturers can pump out.

10:46

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Like,

10:47

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

we're in this for the long haul.

10:48

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What we're seeing is a strategic reallocation of the world's resources,

10:52

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and it's going to cascade through the consumer electronics sector.

10:56

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Just look at the price hikes we've seen in

11:00

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

game consoles over the past few months.

11:02

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

This might not seem catastrophic yet.

11:04

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

You know, game consoles are a luxury good,

11:06

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

after all, but pretty soon it won't just be game consoles.

11:09

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And the people who already have the least access to technology are going to get

11:13

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hit the hardest.

11:14

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Remember when I talked about how computers have been getting

11:18

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

faster at an exponential pace?

11:19

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Well,

11:20

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

this graph shows how powerful our most powerful computers have been

11:24

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

every year since the 90s.

11:26

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Supercomputers,

11:26

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

right? Now,

11:28

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

note that this is a log -scale graph,

11:29

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

meaning that each of these horizontal lines is a factor of 10.

11:35

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And this is kind of a benchmark for computers as a whole.

11:37

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Now,

11:38

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

do you really feel like your new computer is 10 times as fast as the one you bought

11:42

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

five years ago?

11:43

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Do you feel like it can do 10 times as much as one you bought

11:47

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

five years ago?

11:48

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Because I certainly don't.

11:49

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

If our computers really are getting faster year

11:54

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over year, why doesn't it feel that way?

11:56

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Like,

11:57

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

why is Google Chrome still eating up all my memory?

11:58

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Well,

12:00

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the answer is that software is actually getting slower.

12:03

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In the early days of laptops and smartphones,

12:05

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

they didn't have a lot of processing power.

12:07

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So developers had to put in a lot of work to make software that's efficient enough to

12:11

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

run on them.

12:12

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But over the last two decades,

12:15

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smartphones and laptops have actually gotten incredibly powerful,

12:17

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

which means developers don't have to be so careful.

12:20

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Now,

12:21

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

part of the story is that writing slow software is cheaper.

12:24

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Software developers are expensive,

12:26

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

so it doesn't make financial sense for companies to spend all that extra time optimizing.

12:32

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So then what's the point of faster hardware if it's going to result in slower software?

12:35

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This is a matter of equity.

12:39

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

Remember,

12:40

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

the median internet device,

12:41

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

the computer that most people around the world are using to connect to the internet,

12:45

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

is an Android smartphone that costs an average of $93

12:49

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

US dollars.

12:50

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Most people aren't using laptops.

12:52

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

Most people aren't using $800 iPhones.

12:55

S… Speaker 1 (processed-audio)

But modern software is built for these expensive high -power devices.

13:00

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That means people who can't afford to ride the upgrade train are getting left behind.

13:04

S… Speaker 2 (processed-audio)

You know,

13:06

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phones are getting faster,

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and again, software is getting slower.

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And that harms the people who already have the least access.

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There's another problem with modern software,

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beyond just that it's slow.

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Most modern software requires internet access.

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Now, I'm not talking about software that obviously needs to be online,

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right, like web browsers or chat apps.

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I'm talking about software that used to work offline,

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but has been replaced by services.

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Used to download an app to edit documents.

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Now we use Google Docs or Office 365.

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Except that globally,

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most people don't have access to the kind of fast internet that you need to use those services.

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So if we're building software that most people can't use,

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who are we building it for?

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Part two,

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we're building tech with an expiration date.

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Let's talk about hardware again.

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We've seen how software keeps getting slower,

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which means we need to buy ever more powerful computers to keep up.

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And like we talked about,

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this is a matter of equity.

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We should also consider the outsized environmental impact.

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We're wasting precious metals,

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we're burning carbon,

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we're generating toxic e -waste,

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and for what?

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We're buying more and more powerful computers to do the same stuff.

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And thanks to AI companies,

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our devices are only getting harder and more expensive to replace.

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Remember,

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this is a manufactured problem.

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Because who benefits from the status quo?

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Who benefits from you buying a new device every five years?

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Now,

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we've talked about how companies are trying to replace apps with online services.

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Yeah, big tech really wants you using those services.

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Take Microsoft,

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for example.

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Now, to their credit,

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they do still sell a standalone version of Microsoft Office that doesn't

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require an internet connection.

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Great.

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And even,

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you know, earlier this year,

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they were even selling it for a bargain price of 20 US dollars.

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Even better.

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Except this turned out to be a rug pull.

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Because two weeks ago,

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two weeks ago from today,

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Microsoft permanently bricked Office 2019 on Mac OS.

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I don't mean that they released that software update that accidentally broke it.

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I mean the software had an expiration date baked in from the start.

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Like you can no longer use the software that you purchased a lifetime license

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for. Now,

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Microsoft recommends you pay for Office 365 instead.

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Because of course they do.

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Speaking of Microsoft,

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they're ending support for Windows 10,

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you've probably heard.

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And they're requiring that users upgrade to Windows 11.

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Except that hundreds of millions of PCs don't meet the requirements

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to upgrade.

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Yes, hundreds of millions.

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Microsoft decided they're okay with that.

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They're okay with perfectly usable computers becoming e -waste.

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And the people who don't have the means to replace their device,

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I guess they're just excommunicated from this digital world of ours.

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And Microsoft's okay with that too.

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Part three.

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We're relying on fragile tech infrastructure that might not be around tomorrow.

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So we talked about software becoming increasingly

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dependent on the internet.

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Well,

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now it's not just software that assumes you have an internet connection.

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Hardware is becoming internet connected too.

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Companies sell these as smart devices.

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They call it the internet of things.

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Like this fridge with a big heckin' touchscreen on it.

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Now at least this fridge will still cool your food without an internet connection.

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Right?

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Yeah.

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We'll see.

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A few years ago,

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users of this particular brand of oven reported that they woke up one morning and

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their ovens didn't work.

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It turns out the company had remotely updated the software

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on the ovens overnight.

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That's a thing that can happen now.

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And they bricked them.

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They were completely inoperable.

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Which actually,

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like, they did it so bad,

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they prevented the company from pushing out new software updates to fix it.

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Now,

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thankfully, the company was able to release a workaround.

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This is an actual image from the actual instructions they sent customers.

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You had to fold a piece of tinfoil in a particular way,

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partially disassemble your oven,

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and tape the tinfoil to a sensor overnight.

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This is an actual thing that happened.

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Like, people couldn't cook their food.

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And for what?

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This is a relevant comic,

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XKCD.

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The person on the left says,

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This dehumidifier model features built -in Wi -Fi for remote updates.

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Person on the right says,

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great, that'll be really useful if they discover a new kind of water.

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Why do we need this?

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Why do we need everything to be smart and connected to the internet all the time?

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A consequence of smarter devices

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is that a lot of the things your computer does don't happen on your device anymore.

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We're not storing data on our devices.

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We're not running software on our devices.

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We're doing that in the cloud.

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All of this is happening in massive data centers like this one.

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And who controls those data centers?

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Hyperscale cloud providers.

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Most data centers in the world are operated by one of these three companies.

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Amazon,

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Google,

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Microsoft.

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Most internet traffic goes through one of these three companies.

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That means if AWS,

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Amazon,

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goes down,

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half the internet goes down with it.

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And that's not like a theoretical issue.

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Like, this has actually happened a number of times in recent years.

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But this consolidation of power goes deeper

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than just who's running the servers.

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It goes down to the fundamental way the web works.

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Now, nominally,

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decisions that affect the web as a whole are made by standards bodies,

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like the Internet Engineering Task Force or the World Wide Web Consortium.

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If a company wants to change the way the web works,

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they need to come to the table with the rest of us,

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and we need to reach a consensus.

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In practice,

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this isn't the way it always works.

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The thing about the web is that 70 % of

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the browser market share is Google Chrome.

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And it's not just the web either.

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Like many of the apps on your phone or laptop are actually secretly web

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apps that are also running on Google Chrome,

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just like under the hood.

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And when almost everyone is using Google Chrome,

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Google has a lot of leverage.

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Like they control the operating system,

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Chrome OS.

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They control the browser,

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Chrome.

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They control some of the biggest platforms on the web,

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the services that we all use.

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They fully close the loop.

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They don't need the W3C's permission to change the way the web works.

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That means they can decide that my phone can't connect

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to the internet anymore.

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means they can make it easier for companies to track us and sell our data to the highest bidder.

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At the root of it,

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this is the same problem that causes ovens to brick themselves,

19:46

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right?

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We're relying on fragile digital infrastructure that we don't control.

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We're consolidating power in the hands of big tech.

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We're enabling a surveillance state of unprecedented scale.

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And we're...

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creating a single point of failure for the whole system.

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Part 4.

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We're building social platforms that polarize and divide us.

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I'm going to be serious for a moment.

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I don't think I need to explain why hyperscale social platforms

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are dangerous.

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Remember when Cambridge Analytica weaponized social

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media to influence elections in 68 countries?

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Remember when Twitter was used to incite an insurrection

20:29

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against the United States?

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I'm going to stop myself here,

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because I don't want this to be that kind of talk.

20:35

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But I want you to understand that hyperscale social platforms are a mechanism of control.

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And that's by design.

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This is what's at stake when we let scale be the goal.

20:45

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Speaking of control,

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you've probably noticed that social platforms are starting to roll out age verification.

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Some places like Australia now require this by law.

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But even in jurisdictions where this isn't mandated,

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