<![CDATA["The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born"]]>"The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born"

Link Preview Image
The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born

Writing at the end of the world, from Hveragerði, Iceland

favicon

(www.baldurbjarnason.com)

This ones leans a bit more into theory and politics than I usually do when writing about the industry, but this moment in time warrants it, I think.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/28441ad7-ed6d-458b-b723-ce0cbe484423/the-old-world-of-tech-is-dying-and-the-new-cannot-be-bornRSS for NodeMon, 25 May 2026 20:45:27 GMTFri, 15 May 2026 10:40:00 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 14:10:57 GMT]]>@abetterjulie Yeah, that too was a big one.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578992626685167https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578992626685167Fri, 15 May 2026 14:10:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 14:10:35 GMT]]>@eniko I actually think that some optimism, at least about trying to think about how software can mitigate some of the other stuff, is entirely reasonable.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578991187791321https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578991187791321Fri, 15 May 2026 14:10:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 14:04:48 GMT]]>@baldur I suspect the societal role of software and computing machinery as a whole will be scaled back, as the perpetual propaganda gives way to keeping the oppressed too ignorant and disconnected to resist on the one hand, and the well-governed will be delivered material benefits instead of video game consoles and whatever the mass market does with PCs as babysitters to pacify them in the depths of deprivation and isolation on the other. It's been baffling to watch the arc of the personal computing industry over the past 50 years. Typewriters, photo albums, film reel collections, album collections, and calculators aren't really that fascinating to hybridise, even with video game arcade machines thrown in, and no fundamentally new material benefit comes of doing so, unlike genuine physical engineering or medical advances. There's a place for hardcore number crunching machines and microcontrollers in various things, but the entire basis of software's undue prominence has been corrupt ab initio.

(This from the point of view of someone whose study was oriented round the number crunching but ended up doing operating system kernels in industry instead.)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/nyc/statuses/116578968451072683https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://discuss.systems/users/nyc/statuses/116578968451072683Fri, 15 May 2026 14:04:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:59:50 GMT]]>@baldur yes, and to further your point, we (the us) cut aid in a reckless, sadistic manner, and no one in those countries will forget that, either.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/abetterjulie/statuses/116578948880543484https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://wandering.shop/users/abetterjulie/statuses/116578948880543484Fri, 15 May 2026 13:59:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:56:17 GMT]]>@baldur is it messed up that this piece makes me more optimistic about the future of tech than anything else i've read in ages?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.gamedev.place/users/eniko/statuses/116578934934127422https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.gamedev.place/users/eniko/statuses/116578934934127422Fri, 15 May 2026 13:56:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:49:25 GMT]]>@peter_sc My pleasure! 🙂

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578907945405563https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578907945405563Fri, 15 May 2026 13:49:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:49:07 GMT]]>@buck 🙂

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578906743199132https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578906743199132Fri, 15 May 2026 13:49:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:42:29 GMT]]>@baldur Fantastic as always, thanks for writing it!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/peter_sc/statuses/116578880675269319https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://chaos.social/users/peter_sc/statuses/116578880675269319Fri, 15 May 2026 13:42:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 13:33:02 GMT]]>@baldur This is a really great, really thoughtful, piece. 🙏

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/buck/statuses/116578843492743037https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/buck/statuses/116578843492743037Fri, 15 May 2026 13:33:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:50:31 GMT]]>@baldur My favorite thing by Björk is the music video for "It's Oh So Quiet": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htobTBlCvUU

It's just full of joy, she looks like she's having a blast, and that's timeless, kind of like the Beach Boys sounding like they're having a great party while recording "Barbara Ann" (I like when they crack up for some reason while singing about Peggy Sue... I guess someone made a mistake? But I didn't hear it.)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://jawns.club/users/skyfaller/statuses/116578676371603304https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://jawns.club/users/skyfaller/statuses/116578676371603304Fri, 15 May 2026 12:50:31 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:38:17 GMT]]>@ireneista My pleasure!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578628211377952https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578628211377952Fri, 15 May 2026 12:38:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:34:58 GMT]]>@baldur excellent piece. thank you for it.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://adhd.irenes.space/users/ireneista/statuses/01KRNT3X6TG9N99X2V48JKNQY2https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://adhd.irenes.space/users/ireneista/statuses/01KRNT3X6TG9N99X2V48JKNQY2Fri, 15 May 2026 12:34:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:28:54 GMT]]>@skyfaller Always guys and it was always a red flag because it wasn’t actually her music they disliked but her nonconformity

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578591366070231https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578591366070231Fri, 15 May 2026 12:28:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:22:36 GMT]]>@baldur Bjork is great, don't listen to the haters. Or, well, maybe she's played out for you and that's also valid. But like if people find her weird, and she is weird, that's a silly thing to dislike a pop star for. If you want a pop star who is boring and incapable of surprising you, you can just have generative AI produce statistically likely pablum from the corpus of actual artists.

Were these haters all guys? Did they simply hate her because she's a woman who is famous and successful?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://jawns.club/users/skyfaller/statuses/116578566565327281https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://jawns.club/users/skyfaller/statuses/116578566565327281Fri, 15 May 2026 12:22:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:05:45 GMT]]>@audunmb @baldur there's a lot to choose from, but let's start with "billionaires"

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/http_error_418/statuses/116578500341287958https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/http_error_418/statuses/116578500341287958Fri, 15 May 2026 12:05:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:03:48 GMT]]>@baldur I like the opening! looking forward to reading the whole thing later

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/splendorr/statuses/116578492636369996https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/splendorr/statuses/116578492636369996Fri, 15 May 2026 12:03:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:00:34 GMT]]>@bjoreman @baldur that line made me snort-laugh.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.lol/users/annie/statuses/116578479939452220https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.lol/users/annie/statuses/116578479939452220Fri, 15 May 2026 12:00:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 12:00:33 GMT]]>@bjoreman 😎

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578479848201393https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578479848201393Fri, 15 May 2026 12:00:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 11:53:18 GMT]]>@baldur “Christ’s chaotic transit schedule”, chef’s kiss!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/bjoreman/statuses/116578451364300046https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/bjoreman/statuses/116578451364300046Fri, 15 May 2026 11:53:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 11:46:54 GMT]]>@FaithfullJohn Thanks!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578426167004300https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578426167004300Fri, 15 May 2026 11:46:54 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 11:13:32 GMT]]>@audunmb Thanks! 😁

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578294993670037https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578294993670037Fri, 15 May 2026 11:13:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 11:11:12 GMT]]>@baldur yes, this is fucking brilliant! Though, when you quote Gramsci, I keep adding "... This is the time of monsters.", and wonder what the monsters are.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://todon.nl/users/audunmb/statuses/116578285792464881https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://todon.nl/users/audunmb/statuses/116578285792464881Fri, 15 May 2026 11:11:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 11:00:44 GMT]]>@amlor 😝

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578244625724888https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cafe/users/baldur/statuses/116578244625724888Fri, 15 May 2026 11:00:44 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to "The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born" on Fri, 15 May 2026 11:00:26 GMT]]>@baldur > I’m guessing my name helped prompt those.

Anyway, how's your gate doing?








sorry

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fux.am/users/amlor/statuses/01KRNMPY606HC28DYS0E2DV379https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://fux.am/users/amlor/statuses/01KRNMPY606HC28DYS0E2DV379Fri, 15 May 2026 11:00:26 GMT