Remarkable how many responders to your comment quickly illustrated your point. And missed it. You may be on to something!

I also suspect there is a technical+legal reason for the bizarre limitation. A better way to handle all this: Should be OFF by default. You can turn it ON. If you toggle OFF and ON a couple more times within X time (a year, whatever), then the button should be grayed out, stuck to OFF. There can be a link to explain why (you are limited to toggle X times...) and maybe the date it can be toggled back on.

Back when I was on MacOS last time ended in 2021. I think?) I recall iPhoto/Apple Photos coming up collections of photos based on faces it recognized. I don't recall any toggle or opt in. It may have been on-device, though, which would be significantly more appealing to me than any cloud implementation. Does anyone know the story around that feature?

Here is to hoping these sorts of things do move on-device, with increased processing power and NPU going into new processors. Unfortunately I fear our data are too valuable to tech companies for them to implement this; unless an outfit like Microsoft has some sort of major change in their business orientation (toward the interests of those who buy their OS, apps, and devices, not those buying data about them) we will probably not see it from the usual suspects.

Good questions. I think its interesting in that it seems this round of Meta glasses users might end up as popular as the "glassholes" of about a decade ago. If so, that would be the death-knell for Meta's new product. I'd find that notable, as tech companies have been trying to succeed at some version of "strapping a screen to your face, with cameras" for some time now.

what about all the folks working "gig economy" jobs in big cities, like Uber eats? I looks to see if there are required checks for those, and I see there has been a recent crackdown. I wonder if digital IDs will make it harder for those businesses, and for folks in the cities to get their food deliveries? Or at least make them costlier?

..the merger of MacOS and iPadOS?

Excellent comment, you give the broader picture that many are missing. I have a somewhat related response when folks say they must pirate some particular media because the companies make it difficult to see or own. People often forget that you don't have to consume that content.

Critical thought is quite rare online, but its good to see some out there! Cheers.

Excellent question! My thought was that these computer programs are not really "knowledge" engines- they are engines that produce a statistically-driven facsimile of a reasonable answer to a question. Though clearly the area is developing very fast and I am not keeping up with everything, I think this is still the case.

Great post- This is some helpful insight for those in the US to understand differences with other parts of the world. I am in the EU at the moment and I can attest that life for drivers here is much tougher (and more expensive). In EU cities though, there are solid public transport alternatives. Add to that the fact that these older (compared to most US) cities were not designed for large numbers of cars and .. well, it makes sense here. People (and to an extent, systems) will do things that make sense in their context.

Ol Olsoc, thank you- interesting information there, and certainly worth considering. I believe at least the current administration's focus on the "TQ++" part of "LGBTQ++" bears out what you are saying. And I agree with you, I think very few people in the U.S. can be accurately classified as fascists.

As always, an amalgam of different factors were at play for different people; the issues you identify might indeed have been important to many. Giving some attention to what the Democrats have done to contribute to the current state of affairs makes a lot of sense.

In that vein, my wife feels another important factor in the election (and shunning of the Democrats) is that people felt Democrats lied to them regarding the condition of Pres. Biden. Especially by his VP. There might be something to that as well.

Thank you for your thoughtful post and perspective. From the POV of this American I would share this: In the U.S. I believe a key factor that propelled Mr. Trump to electoral victory was the attitude and responses to "right wing" thoughts just like Mr. Herbst's. I don't mean this in a way to deride him at all- I actually can understand why he feels that way (your post helps too!) and I personally don't like the "thin blue line" analogy. However, we are learning that reacting by attacking the person, denying the validity of their experience or point of view, or enforcing an orthodoxy that not all members of society agree on seems to be a terrible idea if you don't want those ideas to gain currency.

Check out the new DOGE website. Notice the recurring themes of "eliminating discrimination" and also about removal of certain social projects and attitudes that were not commonly agreed on (i.e. were only favored by one side). This is a response to people feeling like they were not being treated fairly and their concerns were not listened to.

If indeed what is happening in the U.S.A. is coming to the rest of the world, as you suggest, I think those opposed to such would do well to consider: Don't alienate those you disagree with, including by calling them fascists. Rather: Engage, try to understand, and discuss. I believe this is the point VP Vance made to the EU just a few days ago, albeit rather brutally and -to many- in an offensive way. The time is now, because for years we have seen strengthening right-wing populist movements globally with variations (over the past years you can see Hungary, Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, etc). Alienating those we disagree will not change minds or end well.

Incidentally: I don't agree with most of what I hear from the populist right, and have been on the other side of just about every issue. I'd hate to see them gain any more ground in the hearts and minds of my fellow human beings- on most topics.

Also: I hope the upcoming elections in Germany go well and that people feel enfranchised and confident enough to reject toxic populism. We shall see.

I appreciate your taking the time to explain your thinking in detail. I disagree with several parts, especially on where the primary responsibility for overspending lies: This is the role of Congress. They should be driving the reforms, and I believe there are very good reasons why that is the job of Congress in our Constitution. You let them and the president off the hook by saying they are just corrupt (hard to disagree there) and so that justifies all other actions. But I also see that it will be hard to improve the situation in Congress, since Congress itself must do this and is uninterested.

I believe a state-by-state campaign to create term limits could help the situation. Maybe.

Anyway, my thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Yes, I thought the "hassle" factor of making sure you have charged ear buds could be a factor in folks deciding to just use speakers- together with improved sound quality from on-board speakers. In any case, its baffling to me why people think its OK to play audio from their phones in crowded public spaces. Maybe taking their cues from the TV sets with CNN, Fox, or other content that many of these public waiting places have on?

Censorship is not the same as promoting harmful content. I believe this case is about the latter.

I agree with you. Some details, like the fact that Apple previously promised to make this feature optional, are particularly shameful.There will be a lot of metal gymnastics from some quarters to justify this.

Its a little worse than some general mention of "freedom". This system calls home to Cupertino when you launch an app. This has been the case for some time, unfortunately and is a big reason I moved away from MacOS- I am not OK with needing permission from the mothership to run a program on my computer.