Sure, why not?

Fast forward a couple of months:

• you lost contacts with 95% of your contacts you used to hear through apps. Last time you met a group of friends was when you randomly met them in a restaurant having a dinner together. "We invited you but you didn't reply". The 5% still calling you wants your money.

• your bank started charging an extra fee because you did not object when they notified a change in the contract via email. You missed a notification from the tax office and now you have to pay a small fine.

• your car cannot circulate anymore because you live in Europe and cities may ban old polluting engines.

• you read less because it started to be expensive to buy all those magazines. On the flip side you are more fit because you have to walk 2km to reach a place that sells them.

Yes, add to the third panel ordering food by phone call, going to the store when you want every small thing, buying your groceries in person, stopping taxis on the street, no file sharing, etc., etc.

That last panel hit me like a truck because... yeah, that's what people think happens when they do their little personal choice things to pretend they matter.

Like, they really buy like a paper book once and go "ah, yes, Bezos is fuming right now" while he makes another billion.

We have lost all sense of how to influence society and all ability to gauge scale. For all the folksy traditionalism in this (which includes driving a gas guzzler from the 70s, apparently?) the Internet has created this entirely disproportionate sense of our footprint on the world and this strip is as much a result of the hyperconnected dystopia as everything it's complaining about.

In my experience this is extra bad for Americans who, frankly, didn't need that much of a push to go from their individualist, self-centred perception of society to this vision of sitting on a couch listening to a walkman as activism.

I think that's more aimed at Internet connected vehicles than those with an ECU.

Pretty sure they mean computerized interiors like infotainment systems. Probably not talking about ECU and internal computerized parts.

We have lost all sense of how to influence the world and all ability to gauge scale.

Absolutely correct!

I believe in "voting with your wallet" and I do little sacrifices to respect my ideas, but I'm conscious that I'm just one step above people clicking on petitions online in terms of impact.

I can't tell if you think those are terrible things or not.

Because that's how most people live their lives even today.

Nah, mechanical injection diesel engines are awesome.

We're techy enough nerds to know there's another way to be free of billionaire influence while still keeping some resemblance of modern communication: self-hosting.

But all displayed item from bottom panel is item from the 80s and 90s though, so precomputerised kinda either mean carburetor or primitive ecu that only control very limited function and can't scanned with a scanner tool, which is still imo bad. As an automechanic I certainly doesn't want to go back to scratching my head trying to figure out what's wrong.

Edit: not to be too pedantic about it, but that's what i get from this comic.

The comic is bullshit, your bullet points even more so. Except the one second to last. But then again, why the fuck are you driving in the city center? You are part of the problem.

My favourite cars to own were made between 2003 to 2011. They’re so peaceful to drive compared to modern cars that constantly fucking screech and ding at you just for starting the damn thing.

I’ll buy something other than a ‘gas guzzler’ the second I’m not required to trade away my privacy to go electric, and can disable every single last beep, ding, screech and other unnecessary sound some stupid fuck thought was a good idea.

Wow, your arguments are so solid! I'm totally convinced!

Good luck self hosting something to message your contacts.

E-mail is a thing.

Pre-telemetry cars from the naughties are the sweet spot. No cell connection either. New cars are icky.

You could get one by installing an aftermarket ECU and a fuel injection system in a car from those eras. It's probably harder than most people would be willing to do, but it's definitely doable

All your friends are on a group chat and they will periodically mail you the updates. Sure, why not?

Oh how I long for the day someone invents a car without a touchscreen.