zlacker

I mean I think FOSS is objectively bad for humanity. But I'm an outlier.

>>analog+(OP)
why?

>>analog+(OP)
What ? Why?

>>analog+(OP)
You think FOSS is bad for humanity relative to proprietary software, or you think that all software (including FOSS) is bad for humanity?

>>analog+(OP)
Well we've reduced the price of computing and made it ubiquitous. This coupled with worldwide networked communications systems has led to today, where we have impossible polarization and a large fraction of humanity that can no longer tell reality from fiction - we got the "worldwide communications and ubiquitous computing" part of the tech tree done before we got the "society able to handle worldwide communications and ubiquitous computing" trait.

Also, everyone wants to see "their struggle" as being "good for humanity" - but it's demonstrably false when it comes to FOSS software. All it's done has enabled our current tech monopolies to be built on the backs of free labor, enabled negative social effects, and led to our current digital panopticon. It's also skewed the labor market terribly because of network effects - there are comments on here where people left developing medical software to go sling javascript. Basically that's enabled by cheap, ubiquitous computing enabled by FOSS software.

Also, FOSS eases not only our current dystopian digital panopticon (adtech, tracking, biometric feature tracing) and it's meant to look like "fun work I do for free!" but what it really is, is Palantir getting an infinite supply of labor and code for nothing (and all other tech monopolists). Basically the entire FOSS movement plays into it and doesn't seem to recognize it. "Good for humanity"? The opposite.

In the long and the short, FOSS is not only not "good for humanity" - it's objectively bad for humanity, imo.