site banner
MelodicBerries  virtus junxit mors non separabit  1yr ago (freddiedeboer.substack.com)   3922 thread views

It's So Sad When Old People Romanticize Their Heydays, Also the 90s Were Objectively the Best Time to Be Alive

freddiedeboer.substack.com
18
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Smartphones (why do we call them this again?)

Pedant answer: smartphones are capable of more general-purpose computing, while a "dumb phone" or "feature phone" is more purpose-built and focused down. It's not exactly a clean delineation, as pre-iPhone cellphones had built-in operating systems of their own and could even run some Java-based games. I guess the best distinction is if you can ask "is this basically just a computer that can take a SIM card and make phone calls?" and answer that with "yes."

I don't think smartphones were originally designed for addiction's sake, it's just more that phones combine the already-extant superattraction of desktop computers with the ability to take that computing potential literally anywhere. It's really in the 2010's where smartphones became "good enough" in terms of specs to really displace regular PCs for browsing the internet and other things--plus, having a built-in camera and microphone on top of that makes it very handy for some things. I think that's pretty much why you see the whole "always online" thing nowadays: without smartphones, we'd still have some of the same problems, but laptops and desktops are less, well, mobile (laptops have portability, but may require wi-fi connections only--no cellular internet, no real mobility). You have to get up to do stuff away from the computer at some point. Not so much with phones.

From a UI perspective, Spotify is horrible for creating unique memory-spaces

Oddly enough, I find the music service Bandcamp to be kind of a solution to what you and Freddie criticize Spotify for. You don't need to subscribe (instead, you can just pay for albums a-la-carte like iTunes, except also many artists make their releases pay-what-you-want), and while you can listen to your collection from the desktop website or the mobile app, you can also just download it to your PC and listen on a program like VLC. I find I have no trouble remembering some albums I've bought, whether I've streamed them from Bandcamp's servers or played my local copy.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats