[brookst]

I’m confused. Are we judging a product category based on how it’s promoted, or how it’s used?

I don’t think my opinion of smartphones would be any different if early promotions had shown the downsides, or bigger upsides, or bizarre and unrealistic scenarios. Am I wrong to be anchored on how they’re actually used, which literally nobody foresaw?

[lolinder]

I don't think OP is saying smartphones aren't dystopian in practice, just that no one set out to create the dystopia. That part of the Vision demo showed that the designers thought that this additional contribution to our dystopia was a positive thing, and that's concerning.

[alexvoda]

Precisely. And you can withness this in sibling threads. For some reason, today some people actually openly desire or pretend to desire the dystopia.

My suspicion is that this is related to the longtermist movement.

[sanderjd]

We're judging it based on the vision for how it will be used, as evidenced through its initial promotion.

[brookst]

Do you judge Viagra based on how well it reduces blood pressure?

I agree that demo was dumb and dystopian. But it's silly to latch on to one imagined usage, ignore the others, and have no interest in what the reality will be.

[sanderjd]

It would be silly to latch onto it, if it were the vision of some random fan, but it is the vision of the company creating the product, so no, it's not silly to consider it critically.