Camera Repair Course (2019)
&gt; In the past, it was possible for an aspiring camera repair technician to go to school for it, just as one would do to learn many other skilled trades. Unfortunately, that is no longer true. The trade schools that once trained workers for the photographic equipment repair industry have all closed down. Camera manufacturers still train their own service techs, but that training is only available to those who are hired to work for them.<p>In general it feels like the world is heading towards un-understanding. The human world has become so big that we have relinquished our knowledge.<p>Oh sure, there are the John Deeres&#x27;s, Monsanto&#x27;s, many many many of us programmers here, actively or passively reducing how knowable, how manipulable the real systems of the world are to end consumers. Computing for so long gave enormous powers, but lately it feels like it winnows &amp; narrows down what is possible, what is understandable, what is visible.<p>But I also feel like this was part of the direction, part of what globalization does, part of what productization does. Talent &amp; skill are no longer dispersed widely, but concentrated, in very large enterprises that make gobs &amp; gobs &amp; gobs of money, that own the seemingly ever complexifying means of production &amp; supply chains behind it. We have lots of great means in the world, but as our consumer expectations rise &amp; produce quality increases, there&#x27;s less interest in what the small local shop can do, with it&#x27;s couple camera gurus, who once would have been a formidable force.<p>Trying to articulate the values of knowability, of understandability, of systems that we can be involved with is very very hard, especially after access has already faded, especially as the visible, humanizing upsides have decayed. This was mentioned by @adamhjk in his recent thread on Copilot, &amp; FOSS[1], and this is one of the prime things that keeps me up at night: the world is becoming manufactured, and it doesn&#x27;t need us, but if we could be here, if our souls were given some self-determinism, I think the world &amp; our souls would both be much richer places.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;adamhjk&#x2F;status&#x2F;1413173304014241793" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;adamhjk&#x2F;status&#x2F;1413173304014241793</a>