When I go to a protest with friends/family we leave our phones at home and then use basic walkie talkies. It’s open channel, so no privacy, but the main goal is to just communicate basics like “I’m safe.” We predetermine a couple of locations to meet up at if things get rough and we’re separated.

Specifically more female billionaires, so women can finally achieve equality!

True. I often hear a criticism of universal healthcare is long waits to see a doctor, and so the right claim socialism fails. But the reality is, as you mentioned, it is the lack of investing in free higher education that causes having too few doctors. Everything is connected.

It does seem like AI slop to me

Yeah, its AI slop for sure

Yeah, it’s pretty bad. My alt text cleaned it up for them, lol

At that point, it basically circles back to horses.

In sci-fi proper that is also a plot point of Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation. The giant galactic empire collapses and all the scholars are holed up on a planet to preserve knowledge. They then go out to other planets and give technology, but everyone is so ignorant that it seems like magic and the scholars kind of roll with it.

They would not sell (nor profit) something that people refuse to buy.

So they are wasting money on hiring advertising and marketing companies?

Then there’s also planned obsolescence and licensing deals that make it impossible to continue using and repairing things (even mechanical things like tractors, and living organisms like crop seeds).

Sure, people can try their best, but there is only so far we can go before it gets so inconvenient to not fall into the consumerism trap.