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The Year In Bad Tech
Our tech overlords continue to destroy legacy tech and throw a torrent of new technologies at us
In the relentless pursuit of making the world a better place (read: making shitloads of money, normally at our expense), our tech overlords continue to destroy legacy tech and throw a torrent of new technologies at us.
This year might be the most overwhelming yet. With the continued wave of AI products and services flooding every aspect of our digital lives and daft trends like VR headsets going mainstream for a moment, it has felt like we’ve had to endure a record number of The Next Big Thing. Like in most years, the reality is that only a small percent of this tech is good; an even smaller fraction is genuinely revolutionary — most of it is unnecessary, unwanted, and designed with no market or problem in mind.
I’ve reflected on the past year and picked out some of the biggest offenders.
Vision Pro
Apple’s VR headset was insanely expensive, didn’t look as lush as its other product lines, gave people sore necks, had very few use cases, and, frankly, entered into a market that failed to get on board with the idea of strapping on a headset to perform daily tasks. There may be hope for humanity yet.