The long read: From the generic hipster cafe to the ‘Instagram wall’, the internet has pushed us towards a kind of global ubiquity – and this phenomenon is only going to intensify
It's not just coffee shops. It's hotel rooms and restaurants and homes. Hell, even our cars only come in two shapes now: Egg and Box. And three colors: White, gray, or black
I’m feeling conflicted with these trends, on one hand it seems like things are becoming more accessible, while on another, feels like a loss.
This especially may be relevant with generative AI - at least for the very few generative arts I look at, at some point they start to feel the same, impersonal.
This is part of the reason I love driving a (BMW) Mini. It’s not the best car in the world, but it looks different to all the other cars. And drives like a go kart.
One of the most obvious signs of the arrival of Idiocracy times was the 21st Century truck designs that all have a square, flat front end like a massive brick wall. As if no engineer who worked on the design of those has ever heard of wind resistance and fuel efficiency.