How We Volunteered for Digital Slavery

Once upon a time, software was free — not in the “free trial” sense, but actually free.
It lived in the halls of universities, passed between curious minds on floppy disks, shared in the spirit of collaboration and discovery. Hardware was the business; software was the art.

Then came a young man named Bill Gates. Fueled by BASIC and caffeine, he learned to code thanks to that culture of openness — and then, he turned freedom into monopoly. Gates dropped out of Harvard, founded Microsoft, and declared that software would no longer be shared; it would be sold. The age of commercial code had begun.

Microsoft’s first weapon was MS-DOS, a text-based operating system that quietly took over the newborn PC world through IBM’s early machines. Then came Windows, the glossy illusion — a friendly graphical interface that promised empowerment while locking users into Microsoft’s walled garden.

Like a corporate version of The Godfather, Microsoft “made offers” competitors couldn’t refuse. DR-DOS? Made intentionally incompatible. Linux? Targeted in internal memos. Internet Explorer? Forced onto every desktop “for your convenience.” The result: a near-total monopoly achieved not by innovation alone, but by control, coercion, and corporate muscle.

Fast forward to today. Microsoft’s empire no longer needs to hide its power — it runs your computer, your documents, your identity. Telemetry, the friendly name for mass surveillance, quietly records how you use your device. With Windows 11, you can’t even log in without a Microsoft account — the digital equivalent of Big Brother’s stamp of approval. Imagine Orwell’s 1984 rewritten for the 21st century: Winston Smith doesn’t fear the telescreen anymore. He bought it, installed it, and clicked “I agree.” Even students are being tracked through Microsoft Office. Their learning curves analyzed. Their data stored. Their digital lives quantified — all under the illusion of “productivity.”

Steve Ballmer once called Linux “a cancer.” But history, ever fond of irony, flipped the metaphor: Microsoft became the cancer instead — feeding on the open-source world it once despised. Today, Windows happily integrates Linux as a feature, commodifying the very freedom it tried to destroy. Microsoft didn’t defeat open source; it absorbed it. Like the Borg. Like the Matrix. Like capitalism always does.

Meanwhile, the cost of this corporate control extends far beyond money. Windows 11’s unnecessary hardware requirements have already forced millions of functional computers into landfills — a quiet environmental catastrophe disguised as an “upgrade.” The planet pays for your shiny new taskbar.

The illusion of control doesn’t stop at your desktop. As Edward Snowden revealed, Microsoft has shared user data with the NSA — turning your operating system into a global surveillance node. When the International Criminal Court made decisions the U.S. didn’t like, its staff found their Microsoft email access revoked. That’s not science fiction. That’s administrative reality. And it could happen to anyone. We once feared governments might use technology to control us. Instead, we let corporations do it — and we pay a monthly subscription for the privilege.

But not all hope is lost. There’s still the red pill — Linux. It’s not perfect, but it’s free, open, and community-driven. No forced logins, no corporate backdoors, no hidden surveillance. Just software built by people, for people. Switching to Linux isn’t rebellion for rebellion’s sake. It’s a vote — for transparency, for sustainability, for democracy. The blue screen of illusion can still be escaped.

All it takes is the courage to press “uninstall.”

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The real problem with AI-generated artworks...

First of all, I would like to assure you that I am completely open to and enthusiastic about #technology. I don't believe that Pandora's box can be closed again. However, #AI will change our #society forever, and I #fear that no one is aware of the real implications.

A major problem with AI is interpersonal alienation. With every #online #communication, I can no longer be sure whether I am even talking to a #human being, and if so, how much AI that person is using. AI #advertising even shows us how to score points with the perfect AI responses during #dating. You can have the other person screened by AI and then respond perfectly to their wishes and hobbies. But is the other person even real anymore, or do they just want to manipulate me for quick pleasure and then throw me away?

Even when friends show me their #artwork, it could always contain AI. The perfect vacation photos or the painted picture. Even at #school, I no longer know whether the presentation is real or generated by AI. In the past, you could copy something, but you still had to make the effort to find good material. Today, AI does all the work, and I no longer know whether the funny introduction or the punchline is even real. Assuming that this is all real and true work, then I can no longer appreciate it because I consider it to be AI. This totally alienates me from my friends.

Our #society is based on understanding and interpersonal intimacy. To find your place in society, you need #feedback but also #acceptance. But if everyone optimizes themselves to the max with the help of AI, what is there left to accept? This will make society cold and apathetic, and more than “you have tried your best” is no longer possible. If someone does have a genuine flash of inspiration or develops something groundbreaking, everyone will just shrug their shoulders because they suspect it's the next AI #hype. This makes it impossible to reveal oneself to others or to understand them, which destroys a fundamental human requirement.

Before the AI era, #art was a form of communication for which words were insufficient. #Music, in particular, has the power to touch your heart. But today, I always find myself wondering: isn't this AI music designed to trigger these emotions in me in order to manipulate me, and isn't there actually a real musician expressing their heartbreak in this #song? In future films, I won't be able to tell whether humans were involved in writing the script at all, or whether humans even wrote the #lyrics for the songs on the new album in the charts.

We will be trapped in a #matrix where it doesn't matter whether you take the red or blue pill. Either something is clearly AI, or you can't be sure how much AI is in it. We simply won't be able to tell anymore. This is exactly what is intended. People are already falling in #love with AI or having #therapy sessions with it. The corporations at the forefront of AI want precisely this #dehumanization in order to #control us more easily and turn us into mindless consumer victims. #SiliconValley #ideology seeks immortality in artificial bodies, with the future of #humanity playing only a subordinate role as a means to that end.

#politics #future #mankind #science #problem #fail #apocalypse #doomsday #world #education #emotion #internet #dystopia #mindset #propaganda #fake #manipulation #power #economy #cyberspace #cyberpunk #warning #danger #news

Why artificial intelligence is not intelligent at all and is only called that for marketing reasons.

Admittedly, today's AI models not only consume a lot of electricity but also deliver results that surprised me, but also absurd errors that are trivialized as hallucinations. One fact that is often overlooked, partly due to good marketing, is that today's AI models are based on calculated probabilities. The AI does not really understand what it is doing, it only calculates probabilities. Admittedly, it often does this very well until a “hallucination” occurs. This means that AI can only reflect human knowledge, human perspective and human bias and racism. Everything is based on human training data and the AI calculates with which probability the human user would like to have which knowledge. Wouldn't you expect much more from real intelligence? I just wonder how people can attribute intelligence to this well-calculating machine? There are people who even fall in love with today's AI models or see them as real artificial life. Fueled by marketing that promises us a real super intelligence in the near future in order to get even more venture capital to maintain the whole hoax, which devours vast sums of money in data centers and electricity. Another more serious problem in my view is that today's AI models are destroying the jobs that we need to continue creating good training material for AIs. Today's AIs can easily replace graphic designers, translators, authors, musicians and poets. As a result, the internet is already flooded with AI-generated content. This will eventually become the new training data, which will further reduce so-called intelligence. How a superintelligence will ever emerge from this is a mystery to me.

#ai #technology #training #internet #user #marketing #economy #money #business #future #humanity #problem #ethics #philosophy #fail #knowledge #science #intelligence

The companies and venture capitalists therefore believe they can make a higher profit with AI than by protecting the location factor earth and thus the future of humanity.

They burn billions that are more harmful to the climate, as AI consumes a lot of energy and water. They are driving climate change in the misleading hope that AI will eventually generate profits. I don't think this absurdity can simply be explained by stupidity.

Please realize that money is being invested and burned here like never before in human history. However, they are not being invested in fighting hunger, stopping illiteracy or the climate crisis, but in the very deceptive hope of making a profit.

I don't believe that Pandora's box can be closed again. But the bug in capitalism is obviously that you can make a profit by ruining the environment. There should be a profit for the common good and environmental protection in order to ensure the survival of humanity.

please read: theregister.com/2025/08/18/gen…

Maybe you can share this with your friends, the companies and politicians and start a discussion about this negative destructive behavior and why nobody is willing to save our planet?

#ai #technology #capitalism #future #humanity #finance #profit #money #earth #climate #energy #water #crisis #politics #education #hunger #humanrights #economy #business #emissions #co2 #intelligence #discussion #problem #news #fail #share #system #matrix #survival #environment #nature