This is gonna sound like engagement bait but whatever. Don’t answer if you think it is. What is the biggest scam in technology, if you don’t count NFTs.
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Between Crypto and NFTs and the like, we've created and allowed ways to pass off funds without tracking, often also targeting people who are vulnerable (like hackers forcing people to pay in Bitcoin). I see AI and online betting as extensions of this, but I also see the same with SuperPacs.
Planned obsolescence and restrictions on right to repair. "Standing the test of time" is just a phrase now, and we provide you the solution for a premium price because we're the only supplier of parts.
carbon capture maybe? it could be viable in the future but the promise of it basically gives carte Blanche for continuing to pollute right now instead of using viable alternatives
I want to say crypto...I legit had someone else at work try to tell me I could quick quit my job if I invested in it. But I also had some say I could set up my retirement plan through bets on Draft Kings like sites so....
The belief that Elon Musk is the smartest man alive, and will save humanity. That is technically of the technology sector as it’s where he is from, and quite a few people were conned into believing some variation of that (and still do.)
This might be a little outta the scope of the question but my answer is the DMCA and the willful misuse and abuse of it that’s had devastating downstream consequences
AI but not so much proper AI but the labelling of anything as AI which means nothing and offers no real AI. A lot of what's going on the tech sector with it is a giant bubble of nothing that's gonna burst.
Wrapping MLMs in pretty packaging and convincing millions they can do it. Social media rebirthed the pyramid scheme and it’s still going on in a lot of circles.
This results in a scam in economics because Durable Consumer Goods get added to GDP but they are not subtracted as they Depreciate to compute Net Domestic Product.
In fact economists hardly ever mention NDP, Net Domestic Product.
Marketing "generative" AI as AGI when that has been the name for the concept of general AI. It's meant to sound adjacent. They're as similar as a stuffed animal puppy and a real puppy.
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If not... I guess it's bandwidth? Paying to de-throttle communication pathways at ever-increasing costs.
Half-a-century after the Moon landing. Economists cannot figure out Planned Obsolescence in automobiles.
Where is depreciation data on automobiles since Sputnik?
Rah! Rah! GDP!
In fact economists hardly ever mention NDP, Net Domestic Product.
Maybe I'm delusional.
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