If you haven't read my previous post, it ties nicely into this one and will provide a bit of context and more of my thoughts on the matter discussed below. You can read it here.

Earlier this year Jeff Bezos gave a speech at the DealBook Summit (you can read more about it here). It was ramble-y but in short, he was advocating for cloud computing, i.e. something he has a huge stake in, you know, on account of him owning AWS. There is little surprise as to why he said what he said, but it got a lot of people thinking. Valve delaying the release of their new Steam Machine also got a lot of casual gamers somewhat confused and lost. Posts were made here and there discussing the future of personal computing and what have you and people seem to finally be coming to grips with reality. There is one thing that bothers me though and its that casual consumers still don't understand computers that well.

Its true that if the cloud and AI bubbles don't burst (or burst much later than predicted) we will see a serious price surge for personal computers and parts. We already saw GPUs skyrocket circa 2017, and then shortly after SSDs followed suit, and now we see this happening to RAM. At the current rate of operations, unless major players in the AI and cloud computing game switch to a different architecture we will see this happen to other components. There are flash chips on many other components and if the trend continues we will soon see shortage of motherboards and hard drives alike. There really is very very little we as consumers can do to avoid that happening; we learned as much when Micron announced that they will no longer be selling RAM to consumers and their stock went up. We can speculate for days as to what will eventually happen, its clear that the current trend is unsustainable but what we cannot afford is to do nothing about it.

So what can you do as an average consumer? Here lies the crux of my issue with most speculation relating to the topic at hand and something I wish more people would consider before doomposting all over the Internet. I have a lot to say on the matter but I will try to make it readable.

First things first, assuming that the trend continues and that eventually nobody will be able to afford a new PC (notice the keyword here), most people would assume they will have no choice but to pay for cloud computing. That really isn't true. I've been trying to make a point for years about how we should take better care of older hardware, fuck, I've been preaching about it like a crazed meth head on a street corner to anyone who'd spare a minute of their time. Millions upon millions of computers end up in landfills every year. That is for the most part perfectly working hardware, as we've seen with what happened when Microsoft announced the end-of-life for Windows 10. Most companies would renew their contracts with major PC manufacturers to upgrade their fleet like they usually do and their protocol often requires that old hardware is to be destroyed or scrapped, not resold.

This leaves you, the consumer with two options. Assuming you get your hands on a cheaper, older computer you can install Linux on it if you'd rather be up-to-date and play modern games. Linux offers fantastic performance benefits even on very old hardware and there is a ton more you can squeeze out of a thing you thought nobody would want anymore. Otherwise, you're more than free to keep your older operating system and just play era-appropriate games. The gaming industry at large is wasteful and plays into this entire kerfuffle by skimping on optimization and locking out players with weaker hardware. Indie games however have always and will always be a thing. We see new games being made for older systems even in the current year! Assuming the worst case scenario where everyone is forced to dust off their old office computer, developers will adapt. Its the same thing as voting with your wallet; when the entire market shifts to using older hardware, so will those that sell to this market. There is no reason to let big companies strong arm you into skipping rope with them, but most people refuse to go out of their comfort zone even if it costs them their retirement savings.

Secondly, the Internet. This is what I discussed in part in my previous post and what I will now touch on more in depth. IMHO the Internet as a whole is a much stronger driving force behind the "forced" upgrade mentality. Websites have gotten bloated, and simultaneously, everything we do has moved online. New Windows versions ship with Copilot, One Cloud and their Office suit built in, designed to take your data off your computer and onto the cloud. The minimum required computing power to access content online has skyrocketed and people seem to be okay with that. Just to remind you, the Vic 20 could connect to a network and it only had 3 kilobytes of RAM. Open your Task Manager and see how much RAM this tab is taking up. As before, we have two things we can do in this situation. Move your social presence from the common social networks onto your own website. Its not that hard, there are a plethora of exhaustive guides out there and its easier to learn than you think. The network won't work without you, add content, write about the things you're passionate about, make new friends. The second outcome is much more speculative but still something that can bring you some peace of mind. Assuming the Internet at large stops functioning entirely for older computers and the requirements fall out of scope for the hardware you're left with, intranets will pop up. There are billions of units of older networking hardware that still works and it doesn't take a genius to wire up a small neighborhood together, assuming others were willing to join the network.

Really, things aren't that bad. Its weird to think about stepping out of your comfort zone but its something that should be done sooner than later. Most people I talk to nowadays have never existed outside of the modern Internet, haven't seen the age of personal websites, forums, IRC chats, and the decentralized web. They haven't had to wait an hour to download something, haven't had to wait for their game to load before they can play. But the sooner we accept what is happening the sooner we can show the big companies that they don't own us. It won't be easy, it never is, but short of taking up arms I think this form of protest is the best one. By all means, vote, call your representatives to let them know that companies attempting to institute a surveillance state where you live is not something you want to happen, but remember that you also have personal freedoms you didn't even know of, such as owning an older piece of hardware that is way more capable than these companies want you to think it is.

Deuces.