Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either) - Boing Boing →
Doctorow is too tied up in the whole “maker” ethos. Frankly, most people aren’t’ makers and very soon, consumer tech will move to the point where most objects are essentially solid state. Imagine a 20th generation iPad that is extruded like a 8.5X11 inch piece of plastic. Toss it in the recycle slot and extrude another. You can’t take it apart because it IS one part. Not as far away as you’d think.
Gadgets come and gadgets go. The iPad you buy today will be e-waste in a year or two (less, if you decide not to pay to have the battery changed for you). The real issue isn’t the capabilities of the piece of plastic you unwrap today, but the technical and social infrastructure that accompanies it.In the midst of all the iPad hype you need to hear another point of view. And no one delivers a more persuasive counter-argument than Cory Doctorow. Unsurprisingly, that argument centers around freedom, openness, fairness, consumption and waste. Paradoxically, it is just as much What We Believe In as What We Believe In.
