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>It’s like saying my car isn’t really a car because I can’t adjust spark timing.

What if it only drives along select predetermined monetised routes?



What if my aunt had three wheels?

I don’t see the value in hypotheticals like that. If the claim is that a computer is not really a computer unless every user can do any low level operations they want, is it also true that a car is not really a car unless every user can do any low level operations they want?


Manufacturers are taking away right to repair too! I think you picked a bad example. Back in the 60s you absolutely could change every low level component on a car.


Even a car that you are not allowed to drive at all is still a car. It just isn't your car.


Sure. But a taxi is a car yet it doesn't quite take up the same mental spots. People will say they came by taxi instead of by car. People won't say they don't see the value in selfdriving capabilities or repairability because they can just get a taxi. Etc


Exactly!

Our argument shouldn't be about the device's capabilities, but about its ownership. And increasingly, as this enshittification progresses, the person buying the device is becoming less and less its owner.


I think we call those buses, usually!


No, a Bus is a big car with more space for passengers. The Route has no relation to the naming.


That’s still a car.

You could own a race car that cannot legally be driven on any public roads and it’s still a car.

I agree with brookst that this sort of redefinition is a poor rhetorical tool.


Well it's still a vehicle but once something sufficiently deviates in form or function or the like it will no longer primarily be called that. People usually say they took a taxi for example rather saying they came by car even when every taxi is a car. Once that happens they start taking up different mental spots and comparisons between them start to make less and less sense. (saying you don't see the value of self driving capabilities because you can just get a taxi for example.)


> it will no longer primarily be called that

This isn’t relevant. Taxis are still cars and that’s something the vast majority of people would agree with. The fact that they have a more specific name doesn’t change anything.

A Bungalow is still a house. A skyscraper is still a building. A panini is still a sandwich. A taxi is still a car.


Then it's a streetcar




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