But planned obsolescence isn’t the most powerful problem a company can generate. The most powerful problem a company can create is the “I can’t live without it” problem. If a product replaces a human skill, we become reliant on it, and making us reliant is the ultimate long-term growth strategy. Monopolization isn’t just about pushing out the competition. It’s about monopolizing human capabilit…
This isn’t the case with our reliance on digital devices. With technology, we aren’t becoming dependent on another person — we’re becoming dependent on corporations. Even if our relationship with a company is mutually beneficial in the short term, the chances of a…
In the 1950s and 1960s David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel conducted experiments on the brain of mammals and suggested a model for how mammals perceive the world visually. They recorded activity from neurons in the visual cortex of a cat, as they moved a bright line across its retina. During their recordings, they noticed a few interesting things