Back to roots

This isn't a piece about reggae—though I do like reggae.
This is a piece about what tech used to be, what it became, and where we might go next. These are the roots I want to talk about.

In the beginning, personal computers were highly customizable. Nerds were having fun—building things, breaking things, pushing boundaries. Then came the internet, and suddenly we were all connected. It was exciting—but it was also the beginning of something much bigger.

Cloud computing changed the game entirely. And now, big tech is starting to look a lot like big tobacco: getting people hooked on something that might just be poisoning them from the inside.

But here's the thing: I'm getting excited again. Sure, I’m concerned about AI, deepfakes, and the spread of disinformation. But I’m also looking forward to the growing ability to rely less on cloud computing and big corporations to host our data or provide essential services. We’ve reached a point where we can easily self-host many of these services ourselves.

Lately, I've been wondering where the European tech scene will head. Besides the usual reaction to EU-US relations, there's a growing push towards innovation that prioritizes user privacy, open-source systems, and decentralization. Where will these efforts take us?

I’m also excited about the rise of decentralized projects. The growth of federated social networks and off-grid communication tech feels like the beginning of something important. These movements could be the antidote to the corporate-controlled systems we’re currently stuck in. And that gives me hope.