Road Scenes

It appears that jetpack is giving us prompts for stories. That’s just one more thing for me to ignore. My prompts come things I read, listen to, see or hear in real life. It seems that every sort of AI is trying to control us.

I had to laugh today while I was listening to Kara Swisher’s podcast. She was discussing (not her — she’s out sick) all of the dating apps. There are apps for every kind of person. Young, old, straight, gay, every orientation. If you look carefully they all sort of seem the same.

That’s because they are all owned by Match.com. Everyone of them.

Another roll up.

Music labels have been rolled up into four majors, which is a great reason to go indy. Photographic agencies are really rolled up into one major — Getty — and three or four minor players who wish they could be bought by Getty. Book publishers? Three or four majors.

And, so it goes. And, goes and goes.

How is this good for anybody?

Every product becomes muted and vanilla. Creativity is stifled.

The only people making money will be at the top of the corporate heap. How is that good for anybody?

Maybe all of these digital layoffs are a good thing in disguise. Despite the short term pain that I don’t wish on anyone, there could result in some former employee breaking free and making something we didn’t know we needed. Using real creativity.

I have high hopes.

But, I had high hopes for the lockdowns forced on us by CoVid 19 resulting in real change, the only change I see is even more arrogance.

And, so that goes.