Post #9163

2025-11-19 18:39 UTC

Fucking GROSS. So because »gestures at this timeline«, the first appliance from Cory Doctorow's ( @pluralistic@mamot.fr ) "Unauthorized Bread" is now on the market. A 'smart oven' you buy and subscribe to the company's meals, which bear a QR code you scan so the oven, amidst its ongoing datastream to the mothership, 'knows' how to cook it. The company, which I will not name (and you please won't either), claim you can use the oven to cook your own food, too. But you have to have their app and a wifi connection to set it up and to operate most of its controls, which means at any moment the company can go "lolnope" or put controls (or the ability to cook unauthorized food) behind a paywall, or brick the thing deliberately, or sell your food logs, or do any of the other things Doctorow described better than I, which is why I've linked the story here. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

Replies (16)

@annehargreaves@ioc.exchange 2025-11-19 20:07

@isocat @pluralistic printer vibes😂

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@Viss@mastodon.social 2025-11-19 20:07

@isocat @pluralistic fucking hell. like, i get that you can categorize going to the grocery store and buying stuff as 'a subscription to food', but a pay to use oven is absolutely bonkers. what dipshit investors decided that was a good idea? do they expect to get a return on their investment?

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@float13@masto.hackers.town 2025-11-19 20:18

@isocat @pluralistic Juicero 2.0

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@kudra@aus.social 2025-11-19 20:25

@isocat @pluralistic *endless screaming*

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@alienghic@timeloop.cafe 2025-11-19 20:42

@isocat @pluralistic So that story makes me feel icky. Here's a fancy solar oven that has no wiring of any kind and works fully off grid. https://gosun.co/products/sport (They have some more expensive models that can use electricity to warm up too, but that isn't as good of brain clenser after a story about a DRMed oven.)

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@pteryx@dice.camp 2025-11-19 20:46

@isocat @pluralistic Why would you *not* name it? Do you not want to help people avoid it? Are you afraid they're going to send assassins?

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@allpoints@mstdn.social 2025-11-19 20:55

@isocat @pluralistic why is it all the tech bros see dystopian science fiction as a playbook instead of a warning? I, for one, am not looking forward to our Blade Runner future.

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@gavin57@toot.wales 2025-11-19 21:27

@isocat @pluralistic Can I guess it is from one of those Silicon Valley ready-meals companies, where you can buy the same microwave curry you can get at the grocery store, but from an app with a subscription attached? Hello Fresh, Factor, crap like that…

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@adamrice@c.im 2025-11-19 21:31

@isocat @pluralistic I hope they called it the “cooksero.”

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@daedalus@eigenmagic.net 2025-11-19 21:40

@isocat lol. "What if Juicero, but for fire?"

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@monkeyben@mastodon.sdf.org 2025-11-19 21:58

@isocat Like HP who've locked their printers to their own ink. @pluralistic

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@ppxl@social.tchncs.de 2025-11-19 22:32

@isocat @pluralistic cautionary tale yadda yadda company builds machine tormenting nexus™ inspired by cautionary tale

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@ecoscore@aus.social 2025-11-19 22:56

@isocat @pluralistic Adult toys next 😬

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@Vaneshi@bitbang.social 2025-11-19 23:16

@isocat @pluralistic Today we're performing brain surgery on a toaster... we replace its guts with an arduino and a button.

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@riotnrrd@mastodon.social 2025-11-20 06:24

@isocat @pluralistic This enshittification is a deliberate design choice. I have a “smart” washing machine, but it can be operated entirely offline via its front panel. The “smart” features are: it sends me a notification when it’s done, so I can hang the clothes out to dry, and I can use the app to program weird washes that I can download from the net (sneakers, super-delicates of various types, etc). If those get discontinued at some point, I’ll shrug and keep washing.

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@moondog548@nerdculture.de 2025-11-21 13:58

We're swiftly shifting to a Torment-Nexus-based economy.

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