cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/42644056

Consumers may be aware of some forms of enshitification but most consumers seem to be mostly ignorant about most forms of enshitification. They don’t know, for example, that washing machines now come with kill switches as a form of designed obsolescence. They don’t generally know that PCs made after 2013 have spychips.

So new rule:

Cities with more than 1.5 million inhabitants must each create something that can serve as a “museum of enshitification” as a public education effort.

Some of the exhibits might be:

• A washing machine where every component functions but it will not run any programs because the manufacturer’s secret kill switch has been tripped. It should be a hands-on exhibit so people can experience the frustration of trying to run it.

• Laptops with soldered-in components like RAM and batteries. Apart from a torn open laptop for display, there should be a list of brands and models.

• Laptops which reject power supplies that match the voltage and current specs but reject other brands.

• A room that shows how some washing machine brands use the same spare parts for 10+ years, while others change the design every year with spare parts that are hard to find because of the scarcity.

• A “positive UX room” of old PCs and a simulated 1995 Internet where people can use the web, IRC, etc free from Cloudflare and CAPTCHAs.

• A documents and media room where letters to and from manufacturers are on display to show their shitty refusals to support their customers. Visitors should be able to stick a USB drive into a port that fills the drive with copies of all such letters in the archive, organised so it’s easy to review by supplier and product.

• A media room showing how 1980s appliances came with complete manuals and repair steps, and wiring diagrams. Next to modern manuals which are a shitty template that starts with “You have purchased a high-quality product” without even enough competency to name the product (which is really a piece of shit).

What else?

The museum should be tailored for secondary school students and university students who lack an understanding of the evolution of enshitification… who only have experience with the enshitified products that they over-rate.

The museum may simply be an extension of current museums of capitalism or museums of old computers.