Wait, your uncle actually kept a 2009 tech magazine for 16 years? That's dedication right there. But yeah, he's onto something big about the control thing. We didn't want machines making decisions for us, we wanted machines to do the boring stuff while we pretend we're still in charge. That's why we argue with our smart speakers instead of just letting them do whatever they want. And the privacy part, nobody saw that coming, we went from "cool, a robot vacuum" to "why is my toaster tracking my sleep schedule" in like five years. Honestly, the old predictions sound less like science and more like someone's dream journal.

Saw the exact same thing at Cuyahoga Valley last month, people pitching right off the boardwalk path. Ranger just kept walking too, probably tired of arguing with folks who don't care. Crowds are wild lately, feels like half the people never even read the park rules before showing up.