I saw somebody here talking about how "tech isn't exciting anymore is bullshit, here's some really niche stuff" and like
listen
when people say "I wish forums were still a thing," the response isn't "well I use a forum every day" because what they mean is "forums are no longer a common manifestation of online communities and have been relegated to ultra-niche status." it doesn't mean "forums don't exist," but that forums aren't a thing. saying "well permacomputing exists and THAT'S pretty exciting" doesn't change the fact that mainstream consumer or even prosumer tech has reached a point where even incremental improvement isn't a thing anymore
there's effectively no new things that the average person is getting to experience in tech! what new things do exist are often already outdone by existing things like phones. like right now there's some bullshit AI... badge thing that you wear. you wear it and it sucks ass and the problem is that everything it does is already done better by the magical shiny rectangle you have in your pocket at all times. and the thing is, if this absolute piece of shit garbage AI badge thing came out 15 years ago and sucked just as much ass?
well it'd fucking tank because it costs like $700 but it would be interesting because there would be space for it to exist. the nascent consumer smartphone scene would have had nothing on this even though it sucks. siri wouldn't come out for another two years so this weird AI assistant badge would have been an interesting and novel thing. even google glass was interesting even though it sucked! and if you go even a tiny bit further back, you've got everyone trying to figure out what to do with the very idea of portable mp3 players and how they'd interface with home systems
this is what people mean when they say tech isn't interesting anymore. tech has crystallized. saying there's some niche thing out there that relies more on a manifesto than it does on being interesting doesn't change this! and this isn't even a "oh well that's just consumerism" thing because it really is more than that. it's about seeing something new and about the way a new thing shapes our lives and is shaped by our perception of it but also without it being a markedly bad thing. it is largely neutral and we can marvel at it like it's some sorta weird bug we saw when we lifted up a rock
please try and think about what people are actually talking about. if it were as simple as you think it is, nobody would talk about it