This isn't something revolutionary. It's just I'm so happy to actually come across this article. I'm a person who has followed technology developments ever since I was a kid. I believe in the power of technological innovation. But not all things are additions. For an example, Bitcoin's Lighting Network is a great piece of tech. But there are some very good proofs that it is not scalable globally and we already have technologies like DPoS which had already made LN obsolete years before it was even released. This is the same kind of madness I see in things like Meditation and Nutrition apps. When it comes to meditation, if you are using an app you are already doing it wrong. Here is one of the best talks on meditation I've come across (it was @bobinson who shared it with me)
When it comes to nutrition you don't really need an app to count your calories or give you food plans. If you have a good understanding of your body and food you'll naturally do fine. Checklists and apps are turning everyone back into students at school. Schools are built telling students what do do and think and accept things without properly understanding them. I have a use for a AI photo editing app. But why should I listen to some mass marketed guide on meditation with a progress bar or preset activities plan. It's not like I'm learning to code. I don'need a guided map for my mind. But that's what Silicon Valley is selling because it is what is cool right now.
But there's more money to be made selling diet pills than vegetables, so there's no technology company looking to fix our problems. We can hope that some California genius will create the solution to our woes, but it's not going to happen. Even the sales patter is the same: Buy our Atkins Juice and drink yourself thin for $10.99 per month. We're helping you move toward your dream and making the world a better place at the same time.
"When we help more people move with fewer, fuller and more efficient cars, we can save fuel and improve air quality." That's Uber's pitch about how great for the environment Uber is now that everyone can become a taxi driver. The company's former CEO, Travis Kalanick, once wrote that cities that welcome Uber will be ones "where people spend less time stuck in traffic."
Transportation experts disagree, with Bruce Schaller writing that ride-sharing "added 5.7 billion miles of driving" in just nine metro areas. The former New York official said that Uber and Lyft do little beyond clogging the already-full roads with yet more cars. "Deadhead" miles, where cars shuffle between paid rides, help exacerbate the problem. The EPA says that one mile of driving emits an average of 404 grams of CO2; multiply that by 5.7 billion and the problem becomes clear.
But we already know that more cars won't solve the problem of congestion or air quality. We always have. Take Amsterdam, where cycle-friendly planning and segregated lanes let 58 percent of locals cycle every day. And no tech company made that happen; it was pressure from individuals who organized themselves and made their voices heard that forced the change. Holland's association with big oil means it's hardly a green paradise, but its transportation policies are facing in the right direction.
And we know that no startup, no billionaire visionary, no titan of industry is going to help us get where we need to be. So it's time to stop expecting them to do so and start acting in a way that'll actually make a difference. I'm going to walk into 2019 not waiting for a magic wand that'll enable me to fit into those size 32 jeans I mistakenly bought from H&M. I'm going to start doing things, and I'm expecting all of you to join me before we all die from our apathy.
I'd also liked to link my @discutio post where I opened a discussion on a related subject on social change: https://steemit.com/discutio/@vimukthi/is-individual-change-the-only-way-to-change-a-society--
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