Capitalism, Past Its Prime

TV makers are pushing 4K television in homes. I predict this fizzles like 3D TV. Does anyone honestly think we need higher resolution than HD? Absurd.

As far as I can tell, companies are spending an incredible amount of resources creating crap to push on consumers. The computer companies are pushing consumers towards buying new computers. That's really all iPhone and iPads and tablets and iWatch and various "wearable" stuff is. More computers. Software and Internet companies are pushing consumers to spend more time facing their screens to attract ad revenue. That's it. They want content and games and eyeballs.

All of this is crap. This is not technology to substantially improve the lives of people. It does not inspire wonder. It does not advance human understanding. It is, in my opinion, a lot of waste.

There are major questions about the future that need answering (some bigger than others):

1. Can human life survive a catastrophic event such as an astroid, nuclear war, or a major solar eclipse, sunspot, etc?

2. Can the West successfully subdue barbarian movements around the world (most notably in the Islamic world)?

3. Can the earth sustain continued population growth and development of 3rd world countries?

4. Can we contain the skyrocketing costs of higher education and health care?

Those are just a few. And it strikes me, new technology could be useful towards solving many of these things. And yet, we're spending a tremendous amount of time, resources, and energy making crap. We don't get those resources back.