Most of the kids I know who have this attitude would also call IT if they accidentally opened the Command Prompt or BIOS.
Personally I love being part of the evolution of computers. I was born at a time where I could be part of “moderne” or rather “not too nerdy” phase of computers, and to see the whole evolution of electronics and so on. I don’t envy the younger generations that kind of skipped to the “end part” (computers being “easy”). I know that a lot of things will still be developed and we are only seeing the first of AI stuff now and VR is also still a minor thing but could evolve into a much bigger thing. Electrification of cars is in full swing. Robots do more and more things by theselves (lawnmowers, vacuums, cars) because the “brain power” in the devices are pushed all the time, enabling more advanced sensors to be taken more advantage of.
Is so crazy to explain people I played games in an spectrum in 1987 back when many didn’t knew what a “computer” was in my country cause like less than 10% of the people in my country. And now you put a helmet and you’re inside the game!
Older X’er here - I keep telling my wife - for all the shit we’ve had to live through, we damn sure better get first contact with ET in our lifetimes too!
Best I can do is “ET” for the Atari 2600
Best I can do is AI deepfakes of first contact.
I want to believe
I feel both cuddled and attacked
Ah yes the people who ran their video games on DOS are being left behind.
Help son, how do I open this app?!? With my finger???
I stood in line for VHS tapes. I also know that the blockchain is slow as hell and that cryptocurrency is glorified gambling for people with too much money - and I had a friend in the early 2000s that was trying to make a Bitcoin exchange.
The Bitcoin network initially went online in 2009. Was your friend a time traveller?
lol That dude has no fucking clue what he is talking about just making shit up about non existent “friends”. Any time someone talks shit about Bitcoin I always ask them what money is. None of them have given me a correct answer yet, most of the people who DO answer correctly already agreed about BTC except those who have never learned details about it, once they do they seem to always get real interested real fast. Either way, not exactly on topic here but damned amusing.
Ah yes, you have figured out that if you consider whatever you believe to be the “correct answer” people who give the “correct answer” likely also agree with you about closely related topics.
Except there is a correct answer to the question most people have just never even stopped to consider the question at all. So what is money? What is the inherent value of a dollar bill since that is the complaint anti BTC folks always spout off “it has no inherent value”. So what is the inherent value of a dollar or a euro or any other currency?
Money is anything that someone is willing to exchange for goods and services in a stable and semi-predictable way (i.e. you need to be able to plan ahead at least long enough to know if what you get for your current transaction, e.g. your paycheck, will be able to buy you what you need to buy in transactions in the foreseeable future) and that is easier to store and/or exchange than actual direct bartering (good/service for good/service directly).
By that general definition most crypto currencies are not money because they are too volatile and transactions are too complicated and slow.
But that is asking the wrong question. The real question isn’t “What is money?”, the real question is “What is value?”, as in why does money have value at all, what backs that value. Money only has value because a large amount of providers of goods or services with inherent value are willing to exchange those actually valuable things for your money. And the number of those can vary over time because supply or demand for a good or service increases/decreases.
Most crypto-currencies are not equipped to deal with those fluctuations in the availability of actually valuable things by adjusting the money supply. Not to mention that the required money supply also depends on the velocity of money and how much people store away in savings and don’t touch at all.
Or in other words crypto-currencies are an incredibly primitive attempt to solve a complex problem with a solution so simplistic it is not fit for purpose.
Time gets wonky when you get old. You’ll be surprised too when stuff that you were certain happened at a specific point in your life, that you remember it alongside so much else from that era, seems to turn out to be a chronologically misplaced memory from years later.
A slightly different example of the wonky-ness of time is that 2016 was… Almost 10 years ago.
I’m not even old and this has happened so many times, I think about something random I think was only a thing after 2021 but turns out I had been using it since 2018.
Can confirm, am getting older and making the timelines from my teens and early 20s make sense is getting harder and harder.
The “2000s” also has no meaning for defining a specific time period. It should mean 2001-2010, but I’ve also never heard anyone seriously refer to 2011-2020 as the “teens” and 2022-2025 as the “twenties.” Those words are already associated with decades that we still culturally reference.
We’re are quarter of a century in and I still don’t know how to precisely refer to a 21st-century decade.
Yup, I just say the numbers (2001-2010) to make sure I’m understood properly. It’s dumb.
“It was back it the early 2000s, around 2013 or so….”
But crypto is borderline useless that consumes more electricity than the entire AI industry while enabling alot of illegal activities and money laundering. I was quite susprised when my drug money found their way into normal people’s lives.
But crypto is borderline useless
As decentralized money it’s great. Even central banks are making their own crypto. It’s a great technology for supply chains.
that consumes more electricity than the entire AI industry
AI and cryptocurrencies consumed around 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity
Bitcoin is estimated at 155 TWh per year to 172 TWh per year
while enabling alot of illegal activities and money laundering.
Given the public and immutable nature of crypto, it’s a really bad way to do anything illegal. In 2024 Illicit volume dropped to USD 45 billion, down 24% since 2023. This represents 0.4% of overall crypto transactions
As decentralized money it’s great.
I think you mean, it’d be great if it took off… as money. Right now it’s an investment barely more useful for buying things than corn futures.
As decentralized money, it’s great
It’s not money. It’s not accepted as money anywhere that matters.
It’s a market speculation vehicle built on the fucking aether, that you can currently sell easily enough in small quanties in order to get some actual currency that retailers will accept.
But it sure as fuck ain’t money. It’s just a bunch or techno-utopians huffing farts.
It’s not accepted as money anywhere that matters.
You can buy houses and cars with crypto.
It’s a market speculation vehicle built on the fucking aether
Heard of futures, options and swaps? Aren’t they equally built out fucking aether.
But it sure as fuck ain’t money
It is accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts.
The estimated amount of money laundered globally in one year is 2 - 5% of global GDP, or $800 billion - $2 trillion in current US dollars.
If crypto was so great for money laundering and illegal activity, we’d see so much more of it. The number is as high as it is because Bitcoin is super convenient, so people go out of their way to try to make it work.
Agreed. The upper estimate is that only 5% of money laundering goes through crypto.
If we can somehow kill off the bulk of the pump and dump nonsense and discourage speculation, maybe we can get somewhere with crypto.
First wave was ICOs
Second wave was NFTs
Third wave was (is) memecoins
Are the waves are getting smaller?
I’m old enough to remember going to Hollywood video or blockbuster with my grandma on Fridays. Have a movie night. Those were some amazing memories.
I remember going to friends places for sleepovers, we would all go down to the video rental and pick one movie each, then pick up takeaway on the way home. We’d stay up all night watching each video and pigging out on food
Im still not convinced that crypto is worth it. It seems like just about everyone either loses money in crypto or makes very little, chasing a dream laid out to them by some youtuber who is part of the very small group to make any nice amount from it. Just seems too volatile and sketchy
everyone either loses money in crypto or makes very little
And this is why people misunderstand crypto. The point isn’t to make money, and it never was. Profiteers have twisted it into that to make a quick buck from pump and dump schemes, but it shouldn’t be considered “investing” in any sense of the word.
Cryptocurrency should have two primary uses:
- Facilitate transactions - needs successo widescale adoption by merchants and fast, cheap transactions
- Store of value, like a bank account
BTC transaction costs are way to high and slow for #1, so it’s unlikely to get enough volume of regular transactions to even out valuations. The lightning network helps, but I think it also has problems. And unfortunately, coins with lower transaction costs that should scale better either get banned (e.g. privacy coins in some areas) or don’t catch on.
I’m still holding out hope that it’ll stabilize and become useful for transactions, but I’m not putting any significant money in until that happens because I don’t see it as an investment.
Im still not convinced that crypto is worth it. I
That’s because it isn’t. In fact it is a completely destructive concept, which utilises a shitload of energy which could have been better applied elsewhere, and only facilitates scams and other crimes.
Crypto is basically a ponzi-scheme. I made a little bit off of it, then sold too early. Then bought back in, and sold way too early. Then bought back in, then lost a lot. The only real benefit is anonymity, which I don’t really need and only really benefits criminals. I don’t see it taking over if someone like the EU introduces fee-free digital transactions.
Most crypto is only pseudo-anonymous. One identified transaction and everything becomes public.
In 2024 Illicit volume dropped to USD 45 billion, down 24% since 2023. This represents 0.4% of overall crypto transactions
It’s a decentralized pyramid scheme. It’s a way for the rich to syphon money from the gullible and gambling addicts.
That’s all there is to it, it’s not really hard to understand.THIS. This is not being communicated enough.
The issue is the new(er) generations think they have discovered something never seen before, all the while truth being - the only new thing is the way people are being manipulated into investing in trickster scheme.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been there when internet was born. We have witnessed it and we have learned from our mistakes. It is not you who are smarter, it is us knowing not to buy tulips.
May I interest you in renting this fine pineapple?
Intellectually I know that all currency systems are constructs and are volatile. That said, what bothers me so much about crypto is how it’s either an obvious scam or it appears to behave like company scrip requiring various exchanges or participating vendors, etc. It’s annoying enough using credit cards or systems like PayPal cash app, and crypto reads like a more annoying PayPal with all of the instability of a stock.
I rarely place much value on authority, but I trust a central bank or national treasury much more than three dudes at a startup promising to disrupt how we think of money.
I thought you were talking about NFTs for a moment there
“before 1990” ffs. I was expecting “before 1960”
I’ve been called an “elder millennial” before and I thought that was funny. But just “elder”… bitch, fuck you!
Feels like licking a 9v battery!
Vhs? We used to be plopped into the local movie house to allow mom to go out on play. Videotape was something arcane used by the TV news crews
Okay, as someone born in 1988, I am not an elder (but also I will accept you being kind to me please, thank you 🫠)
My grandparents lived in houses before electricity and lived long enough that computers in their pocket could talk to them. Hopefully it is a few centuries before that much happens in 103 years
Is it really so hard to just stay somewhat connected to the world around you?
It’s not like it was a rapid shift, this shit has been progressing for DECADES and some just refused to learn. I’ve talked to 30 yos who can’t do anything beyond basic computer usage, and I’ve seen a 80 year old who was extremely with it and troubleshooting with me.
It’s not an age problem, it’s a lack of effort
Up until… Id say 2005 or so… using the internet, or even a computer, wasn’t a requirement for a large number of jobs.
Up until around then, you could still live a very full, and productive life, without ever touching a computer (embedded doesn’t count here).
That point was about just under half my life…
The summers of the 90s? I barely touched a computer, and almost never on weekends.
There has been a massive, and rapid shift in paradigm for people who lived through that gap.
That said, yes, people can keep up, but it wasn’t required until it caught loads of people by surprise.
Exactly. I’m 61, and I first used a computer in 1980. My uncle was receptive, so as I helped him over the years, he became more and more proficient until now. He can do most of his troubleshooting on his own, and he’s ten years older than I.
