Without action, or even the faintest form of resistance, hope remains nothing more than unrealized potential. The system is built to preserve inequality and control, and AI is merely the latest instrument in its arsenal.Just terriffic!!!

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2026 at 8:06 PM

A little made-up story of mine:

In 30 years, we'll be using carrier pigeons again to send private, unmonitored messages. There will be a "Free Sunday" where everyone who wants to participate stays offline. There will be analog vacations where you spend your holidays in a hotel completely offline. A group of hackers will form who make it their life's work to hack and disable everything; they will be the most wanted people on the planet.

After Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and several others died of old age, a new generation took the reins of corporations. They started a war with AI robots against another major country. Then humanity finally had enough and pulled the plug. The power stopped flowing, the AI ceased to function, and thus the new analog age without PCs, smartphones, and AI began.

 

PC Gamer is mainstream media.
If post-2020 hasn't confirmed this for most people yet: Fearmongering and misinformation are what mainstream media exists for.
So when I see an article called claiming that "many consumer manufacturers of electronics will go bankrupt" I can't help but look at it and LMAO a little bit.

Is AI causing a negative impact on consumer electronics? Absolutely. Use your brain though and you will find that it's very unlikely that it will cause the apocalypse people are saying.
People speculate so much on the end of the world it's as if they are subconsciously begging for it to happen.

Moral of the story: People will write all this crap online instead of getting a real job.

 

Right now it does seem like it could be true. Prices for raw materials are going up a lot. So that alone will lead to manufacturers getting in trouble or, in the worst case, going out of business. The prices for metals went up between 10% and 80% since 2024. For copper, it went from $7661/t in the beginning of 2024 to $13000 in January this year. This will not be sustainable for a lot of manufacturers.

 

These are nothing but excuses to drive consumer prices thru the roof. First it was covid - petrol prices went up everywhere "due to the ukraine/russia war" or covid - whatever flavor of bullshit was ripe on any given day. Then there was the "electronic materials shortage" which ran along side covid and the petrol price hike. These conglomerates are still trying to ride those "excuses" to this day wanting to keep the gravy train flowing. Meanwhile, fossil fuels continue to wreak havoc with the planet, and those same giant conglomerates still continue to prevent viable methods of alternative fuel/energy that have been around for decades from moving to the mainstream.

Recycling of old electronic components, which is a huge multi-billion $ business in/of itself btw, consists of dumping the stuff into landfills. All that electronic stuff you "recycle" - that's where it ends up. In the fucking ground. IF a mere 1/10th of this old stuff was actually recycled there wouldn't ever be cause to whine about there being a shortage of anything.

Where there's big money and prizes to be had by the richest individuals and corporations in the world, everyone else (including the planet we live on) is left in the dirt. This is the way it has been in one form or another for centuries.

Now there's the "AI" scare? Personally, I believe the term "AI" is being used in a way that is completely contrary to its definition. At least in reference to the level of technological progress present in society today. "ChatGPT" type junk being referred to as "AI" wherein dumb algorithms are performing meta searches of databases, and summarizing what is found. This resulting in making human parsing thru the hundreds of articles returned on a normal web search unnecessary. A lazy persons web search if you will. This is not "AI". There are many other instances where the use of the term "AI" falls short of its definition, but no one seems to give a shit, or are even aware of this simple fact. Like the use of the word "literally" in every sentence, or the morons walking around with 90° neck bends looking at their idiotic 24/7 boat anchors (cell phones) running into walls and trees.

"AI", "shortages", "apocalypses", the media, on the payroll of big corporate and big banks, will say whatever trash the ones holding their puppet strings tell them to say. It's no wonder that most of the worlds population more resemble sheep than autonomously self-aware, and independently thinking beings.

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2026 at 12:48 AM

You’re right that mainstream media often feeds on fear, and yes, apocalyptic headlines deserve skepticism. But what was cited here didn’t come from speculators, it came from CEOs who know far more about the realities of the market than any of us.

To dismiss the impact of AI on consumer electronics as mere exaggeration is not just misleading, it’s a dangerous illusion. Companies are already facing supply chain disruptions, layoffs, and competitive pressure directly tied to AI-driven changes. Claiming this won’t matter is to ignore structural risks: concentration of power, technological dependency, and growing inequality.

Regarding the gaming industry, what you say may be partially true if you’re thinking about ready-made consoles (which could, in fact, become much more expensive), but it’s completely wrong when it comes to PC gamers, who rely on extensive customization.

And more: reducing all of this to "people without jobs writing nonsense online" doesn’t erase reality. Sarcasm doesn’t pay for layoffs, doesn’t solve inequality, and doesn’t dismantle systemic risks... That’s where your argument fails.

As I said before, I believe it’s important to keep a horizon of optimism as a general life goal... as long as it doesn’t blind or delude us in the face of the transformations unfolding around us!

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2026 at 12:44 AM

A truly complex dystopian scenario… you could turn this into a short story!

 

I am going to commend everyone on here and say thank you now early, as this thread I imagine will continue as we watch events develop over the coming months. I appreciate the civility it is a credit to all of you, that you all maintained a superb level of intelligent discourse in a topic I nearly did not post due to concern that it might go off the rails. So I bow to you all.

The comments mostly are amazingly solid, intelligent, founded in common sense, history, intrigue, potential, investigation and critical thought. I sincerely appreciate it and bow to you all. Thank you.

P.S. - As I alluded in the main post when it is everywhere, I will be less cynical and see it as reality that may or may not be reversible when it is stated in every major electronic authority. We all know it is real, it is the how far it extends that none of us are in a position to completely know. If any of us were, we would not be on this forum.

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2026 at 3:41 AM

(In ironic humor) George Orwell is clapping you from beyond
That aside, great post