Unintended consequences are a huge part of the tech world. Facebook was going to bring the world together, remember? Instead, we got fake news, reality filters, abuse & stalking, depression & alienation, erosion of privacy, and the destruction of local journalism. So much for social media.
How about the sharing economy? Well, for Uber, we’ve got price surging, physical abuse of drivers & passengers, drivers who can barely make ends meet, drivers with criminal records, cabbies being put out of business, and a corporate culture that looked like a cross between Animal House & The Wolf of Wall Street. For Airbnb, we’ve got party houses, destruction of historic neighborhoods, stolen & damaged items, breaking of local laws, exorbitant fees, and illegal subletting. So, so much for that.
Amazon? Twitter? WeWorks? Don’t make me laugh.
I wonder if Jobs had any regrets. I mean other than Foxconn suicides, sweatshops, slave & child labor, overpricing, walled gardens, planned obsolescence & incompatibility, anti-competitive practices, tax dodging, spin, secrecy, environmental issues, digital addiction, Apple maps, scandals (Fortnite, batterygate, John Wiley & Sons, Think Secret), as well as what an awful person Steve Jobs actually was ...
Honestly, maybe the only unintended consequence he really cared about was getting found out.
Or maybe that reality distortion field really did work - perhaps even on himself.
