[Wowfunhappy]

> “but desktops/laptops are already a necessity of life”

No they're not! You need either a desktop or a laptop or a tablet or a smartphone, but you don't need more than one.

I'm okay living in a world where everyone needs access to some type of computer, in the same way that everyone probably needs access to some type of writing utensil. However, people should be able to choose the form factor that lets them live their best life.

[Teever]

> However, people should be able to choose the form factor that lets them live their best life.

Especially when one particular form factor leads to surveillance of your location.

[theamk]

I assume you mean phones?

This is not a form factor result, it's a result of a function.

If you want to have internet access without being near internet AP, you have to accept surveillance. This applies equally to phone, or tablet with SIM card, or laptop with external 3G modem.

If you are OK with only accessing internet in specific location, you can turn off cell subsystem in your phone -- this functionality is present in every phone I have seen.

(Same applies to bluetooth, wifi and other ways to track device remotely)

[spaniard89277]

Mobile phones could be open systems like PCs are. But they aren't. So we should oppose this movement to use phones for everything until the situation changes.

Not to mention that old people is suffering (at least here in Spain) a lot because services push everyone into apps etc.

I cancelled my fathers bank account for this very reason and moved him to a credit union. It was painful but their customer support was so awful that it was worth it.

The last straw was that they told him he couldn't do a money transfer from his local office but he had to use a mobile app. He called me to help him with that. That got me angry.

[Wowfunhappy]

I agree. However, phones are also uniquely addictive, which IMO is a strong case for dropping them if they interfere with your life. We should at least make sure it is possible to drop them.

(I don't love using the word "addictive" here because phones are not chemically addictive, but any other term makes the point less clear.)

[rhn_mk1]

> If you want to have internet access without being near internet AP, you have to accept surveillance. This applies equally to phone, or tablet with SIM card, or laptop with external 3G modem.

That is true in practice, but not true in theory. There are urban WiFi networks that already operate without spying on the users. Nothing prevents mobile networks from being applied in the same way on a technical level.

In fact when you're using a mobile network, you are near an internet AP in the form of a cell tower. Taking 5G NR, you even have to be nearer to it than you would be to your WiFi AP.

Surveillance is not a result of form factor or function, it's a result of social organization.

[xdennis]

> I'm okay living in a world where everyone needs access to some type of computer

Some people don't want any technology at all. What happens to them in your future?

[epistasis]

I'm sure plenty of people would have appreciated never having to learn to read to fill out paper forms in the past either.

This has gone off on a weird tangent; the article is about how a new standard can greatly simplify account passwords, the very hardest and frustrating thing about modern life on the web.

Changing that into "we shouldn't have any rich if we don't want to" is a strange reaction to making tech more accessible. But perhaps if one wants to eliminate tech from people's lives then making tech as bad and painful as possible might be one way to do that; but it seems like a foolish way to pursue that goal.

[Wowfunhappy]

> Changing that into "we shouldn't have any rich if we don't want to" is a strange reaction to making tech more accessible.

I am 100% in favor of giving people the option to log in with their phone instead of a password, if they want to. If that's all the article meant, I stand corrected.

But, I got the impression that the people quoted in the article were working to eventually remove passwords as a method of authentication. That's not cool, because it requires users to have a secondary device.

I don't think my impression was entirely unreasonable, because we're already seeing it in the number of websites forcing users to set up two factor authentication. Note that many of these so-called "two-factor" solutions allow the user to reset their password using only their phone (which is what really makes SIM-swapping such a problem), which means your password is effectively optional, but a phone is required.

[Wowfunhappy]

> Some people don't want any technology at all.

That's a shame. They must get very cold in the winter without the ability to build a fire.

[ajsnigrutin]

What tech do you need to build a fire?

[Wowfunhappy]

A controlled fire is itself a form of technology.

[msh]

If you don't want any kind of medical technology it will most likely be a rather short future...

[throwawayboise]

You don't need any of it.

I grew up without any of this mobile or home computing technology, and I don't see anything essential today that I cannot do without it. It's all about convenience.