How about a cell phone that intentionally causes boredom?

I’m currently interested in the concept of via negativa – to put it simply: leaving things out instead of compulsively optimizing them (more on this in “Antifragility” by Nassim Taleb). In this context, this find from Wired founder and author Kevin Kelly’s blog comes at just the right time: He outlines the concept of a “boredom device” that learns from our preferences – but then only plays us the opposite. “Like Tiktok, but in reverse”. So it’s about the negative of smartphone logic: The idea is that you will pick up your phone to scan what’s going on in the world, and not see anything worth reading. Bored, you put your phone away. You have satisfied the itch of “what’s going on in the world” and been assured “not much, get back to what you were doing.” I like the thought game: Instead of using AI to tie people’s attention even more closely to the devices, you could use it to make the devices less attractive. I anyway appreciate Kevin Kelly as a smart tech optimist without commercial interests (at least with fewer such interests than Zuckerberg or Pichai). Here’s another interview with him from brand eins that’s worth reading: //www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-thema/it-dienste-2024/kevin-kelly-optimismus-kann-man-lernen