You and billions of other people would only need an extra $1,000 a month. Then you could get Elon Musk's Starlink. As you can see, Elon Musk is the richest man in the world, and wealth isn't distributed fairly. Internet for everyone, and for free... sponsored by Elon Musk.

 

Giant innovations can still happen. You could look at all the major happenings in audio that now seem like "giant leaps", because everyone else thought the status quo was all there was until someone came along and flipped things again. Midi, Computer based sequencers, digital audio, cd/dvd audio and storage, laptops capable of production. The iphone/tablets, etc. None were reinventions of the wheel, per se; and the reason why certain ones are remembered were because no-one really saw them coming. People had gotten comfortable where everything was at during that time frame.

Since the proliferation of internet, specifically broadband, innovation actually seems more incremental than ever. There really is no "no-one saw this coming" moment anymore, because of the constant barrage of information about development of anything. We wait for products to arrive that we have known about since the day the developer thought it up and posted it somewhere. Companies used to be much more secretive, or at least had no method of maintaining a public-facing progress report.

 

All well and good but that's not what I'm saying. Sure new sounds can be generated, but it's no different.... it's just a pile on to what's already available. It's like coming up with a new paint color. Big deal. Whoop-de-doo.
What's got to change is what can be done to experience music in a totally different way than just hearing it. This probably isn't going to happen until humans become, possibly like those 'singularity' proponents go on about, some sort of cybernetic beings with hyper advanced sensory capabilities and simulation immersions that us plain old mortals are incapable of.

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2026 at 7:27 PM

strangely enough, I use StarLink so I can do my work. Their router is an utter pile of *****, so I ended up going down the Ubiquiti route

 

I hear what you're saying, and it makes sense - on the surface.

Lois Lane already covered most of what I was going to say: you have a CFO and COO/VPs/GMs or division managers to handle the day to day business. The CEO is the visionary, the one who talks to investors and other CEOs, who sets course for the company, who hires and fires the CFO and COO and VPs. The CEO can't be bogged down in operational details - just as the captain of a ship doesn't go down to the machine/engine room and tell the engineer how to do his job.

But what I really want to point out, and that you forgot to take into account in your reasoning, is how many Fortune 500 companies have faltered, or failed, that were in fact run by MBAs.

Let's see, off the top of my head:

• Apple (before they brought back Steve Jobs - the guy without any degree, no MBA, no humanities, nothing)
• Blackberry (memba them?)
• Nokia (regrettably)
• Sony*
• Sears
• Xerox
• Yahoo
• Kodak
• Polaroid
• MySpace
• Toys R Us
• Blockbuster
• Worldcom
• WorldSpace
• Lehman Brothers
• GM (filed for bankruptcy due to decades of mismanagement, quality issues, and failure to innovate - sound familiar?)

A quick google tells me a whopping 52% of the USA's Fortune 500 companies have disappeared since the year 2000. Those are top flight companies. No humanities there (literally or figuratively) in the C-suite, mate.

Food for thought.

**********************

* Sony is a special case - they faltered and failed - all divisions, about a decade and a half ago.
The only thing that's kept them afloat and the reason they're still around is thanks to their Financial divisions (banking, savings, life insurance - all Sony branded) that were and are still very popular (i.e., well funded by consumers and all Sony employees) in Japan.

 

Yes I'm sure old muskrat would love that. Everyone on his internet service, nice and close and monitored, under his watchful thumb... talk about a wannabe puppet-master.

 

You forgot Radio Shack (tandy corporation). Really felt the loss of that one. I know they are technically still around, but the entire franchise has been gutted down to what amounts to a toy store anymore.

 

oh, you do not want to know.

 

you think waldorf or nordelius could buy something which costs about 100m but does not work?

 

Funny I remember Xerox, One CEO saved the company ( Read Xerox: American Samurai ) the next one destroyed it and he got millions
in a balloon package for doing so. Trust me I know first hand.

 

Beyond the financial mechanism he reveals that may have taken place in the case of NI, I find this passage here more emblematic and shocking:

❝What happens if one day they buy Arturia, Focusrite, or any other companies that are struggling, for example because of the AI world? I’m starting to think this could be some sort of earthquake for the audio industry. AI might stop people from making music in just a couple of years. People will simply develop different habits and needs, especially younger generations who are just entering adulthood. They won’t be interested in making music anymore, because music has changed its substance. It’s no longer something you create — it’s something you order from AI. And that becomes ‘music.’

Then, some desperate companies will end up being bought by private equity firms. The story of leveraged buyouts, stripping companies down to the bone based on loans, could become our bread and butter — and it could eventually kill the audio industry. I hope this doesn’t happen.

But what I want to say is that I’ve discovered something very serious, very concerning, something I really don’t like. And it’s not about leftist propaganda. I’m not even a leftist. I have many traits of a conservative guy, and I’d call myself a typical centrist. There aren’t too many centrists nowadays, I know, but that’s what I am. And still, this is scary❞.

So, this vision is extremely concerning, and honestly, it’s what I believe could happen in the medium to long term. The human brain is already being constantly reshaped by the use of artificial intelligence: we are becoming lazier, operating more and more within comfort zones. Right now, brain chemistry itself, habits, and customs are being altered by the massive use of AI.

Now, imagine: I am someone on the left, and I see a centrist saying they are very worried... That worries me even more (!!!), 'cos perhaps this is precisely the apex of capitalism: reducing the critical mass that thinks, produces, and keeps the gears turning, into mere ‘orderers’ of AI services. And in the medium to long term, turning everyone into passive consumers of AI.

I remember a conversation with an art diretor (at the very beginning of 2025), who told me about a chat with the producer of a major project (a renowned lawyer who diversified his income by investing in advertising). My colleague opened quotation marks and cited him literally: “— It will be wonderful the day AI frees us from all the ego and arrogance that artists and creators have. Because unfortunately, we still depend on those types, those prima donnas. But with the advent of AI, the day will come when those types will be a thing of the past, and finally we’ll profit without the drama, the traumas, or the problematic processes that those types usually go through”. Honestly? I think we’re heading full steam into that kind of dystopian reality... (dystopia for us, deluxe package for them... they’ll call it innovation while we call it struggle for survival!)

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2026 at 11:26 PM

I also live in the woods... but without a dog.
My only companions are a coulpe of paridae and a great spotted woodpecker.

Like a merciless mirror, total solitude confronts us with our true nature and value, which is why most people prefer to continue living with someone they want to strangle everyday rather than stay alone with themselves.