A hat tip to my cousin in Barcelona for sending me the link to this video, which is a European production aired by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.
This is a documentary that examines the history and present implementation of "planned obsolescence." It begins with the worldwide Phoebus cartel that controlled light bulb manufacturing in the early 20th century, then looks at computer printers - at least some of which are manufactured with a chip that locks up the printer after X number of pages are printed.
Probably not 1 in 100 readers of this blog will have the time to view an hour-long program, but I encourage those interested to at least skip ahead to see the effects of global e-waste dumping and Ghana and listen to some of the arguments for "de-growth."
Cue unnuanced remark: Isn't this basically what allows a capitalist system to thrive in the first place?
ReplyDeleteHad a second cup of coffee this morning and watched. Wow.
ReplyDeleteIn software engineering courses in 1993, it was taught that we should move away from purchased software to a subscription based service. Adobe and Microsoft now have that :-)
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