Fuck Everything.

In our modern world, we have many growing issues, and many of them can be traced back to what is called deliberate, or planned obsolescence. Deliberate obsolescence is a manufacturing decision by a company to make consumer products in such a way that they become out-of-date or useless within a known time period. The main goal of this type of production is to ensure that consumers will have to buy the product multiple times, rather than only once. This naturally stimulates demand for an industry's products because consumers have to keep coming back again and again.

Deliberate obsolescence in all its forms – Technological, psychological, or planned – is a uniquely American invention.

“Not only did we invent disposable products, ranging from diapers to cameras to contact lenses, but we invented the very concept of disposability itself, as a necessary precursor to our rejection of tradition and our promotion of progress and change. As American manufacturers learned how to exploit obsolescence, American consumers increasingly accepted it in every aspect of their lives.”

I would like to address this growing problem in modern technology. Recently, technology is getting less reliable as time goes on. Certain things that, if made ten years ago, might still be around, manage to break in one year. For instance, every iPod I have owned has broken in between ten and fourteen months. Notice I said EVERY IPOD: this is exactly what Apple wants me to say. They know that I am still going to get a new one once it breaks, so they have no incentive to build them more durable. Companies like Apple know that they can use cheaper, less durable components, assuming that I am not going to want to own my iPod for more time than the components last. This also causes landfills to fill up with things like cell phones, cathode-ray-tube monitors and similar obsolete technology.

Usually, software pushes hardware to be more powerful, then hardware pushes software. This cycle is the heart of technological advance. Recently, software has been getting much better, while hardware is just being pushed to more and more fragile points to keep up with the software. People care more that they can fit 160GB worth of music in their pocket than they do about shelling out $250 every 12 months. In essence, an iPod is a small hard drive with some software and a user interface. I have owned a different small hard drive for upwards of 6 years, with almost daily use, and it still works just fine.

Some products aren't just built fragile, they are deliberately made to break around when their warranty expires. The XBox 360 is a prime example, where more than 50% of owners have had a hardware failure in the first year of ownership. Part of the reason for that is that the cooling system was errored when the console launched November, 2005. That's four years ago, and yes, I've been through three of them. There is even a commonly used trick to kill your xbox, just so you can send it in for replacement before the warranty ends.

For a point of reference, think of older technology that's still around. For instance, I have a computer from 1999 that still works as if it were new. Think of old VCRs, or CD players. They didn't die of old age. What will happen to modern technology in ten years? If companies would start building their hardware for long term use, this wouldn't happen. Another possible solution would be to boycott fragile products, but we all know that people are too lazy to live any way but with 40000 songs in their pocket, and don't get me started on that.

Fuuuuck

Fucking Social Cues

So don't you hate it when you think something about someone, and they perpetuate that feeling, only for you to find out they were thinking of someone else the whole time? Yeah.

Pent Up Frustration

So I work with a residential theater company over the summer this year. I get to live on Cape Cod, and I get fed for free, but make very little money.

I'm on the set crew, building sets and scenery for nine shows in ten weeks. Very stressful job. I'm also really big on carrying around my own tools, and I like to be ready for everything. I just found out today, that somebody bent the shaft of my $200 drill. This doesn't quite render it useless, but it's a very annoying little problem that I would never have if I hadn't shared my tools with everyone. If I were to ask who dropped it, nobody would fess up. If I asked for reimbursement, I would receive none.

Some times you need to think about it before you decide to be nice.

Will people appreciate it? Will people respect it? Will people return the favor?

The answer to all three is probably "no," so don't be nice if it does nothing but cause problems for you.

The Meaning of Life

So as I lay on the couch, trying to sit through a splitting headache, with people having sex in my room, I ponder the meaning of life... or at least the value of it.

Most (educated) people believe that time stretches on to infinity in both directions, right?
Well I then think to the laws of conservation of mass and energy.
Together, these theories form the basis for my theory that all of the matter and energy must form and reform every possible combination, infinite times.

Still with me?

Well if you still agree with me, think about this:
The concept of infinity then dictates that every single thing we have ever done, will ever do, or are currently doing will be repeated over and over again endlessly. Everything that you have ever done has been done before by a perfect copy of yourself.

If you believe that the universe extends in every direction to infinity, then you also need to accept the fact that there are also infinite instance of yourself out there, having the same thoughts and making the same decisions as you.

If you've ever heard the theory that there is a different universe for every single choice made, you might think of this. Every single world where you decided to blink just now, or not has happened before, infinite times. In some past instances of yourself, you decide to stand up, do three cartwheels, then sit back down. However, the chance that you would do that is far less than the chance of you staying seated, and reading the rest of this post. For every single choice, there is an absolute chance of its occurrence, but doing cartwheels is also infinitely less likely than staying seated.

I conclude that if the aforementioned theories of existentialism are true, there is no meaning of life, but to be a sheep in the never ending cycle that is the universe.

I may come back to this topic, but my headache finally went away, and I need to sleep for work tomorrow.