It's fun sci-fi to think that people are machines, too. Descartes started it.

It's a sign that the developers built a product with demand.

At a $300M sale, the project achieved its goal and it's time to exit.

Uh, huh. Sure we are.

We can add you to the list of smart folks who have lost their minds over this topic, and all for a failure to understand the basic computer science on which they're built.

I guess if you get too far away from the metal (and too high up in the boardroom), it's easy to lose touch.

Whoever is collecting these is, himself, a poor writer.

Next time sometime gives you an answer or tells a story, see how many "no information" words they add. Lots! Most people's speech isn't information-dense. It's full of junk phrases, stalling techniques, and non-answers.

If you doubt Amway's power, a key family member was the Secretary of Education! I don't suppose we'll start educating children that all MLMs are scams.

Typewriter regulation is also pointless and would not have prevented the Unabomber. He preferred an Underwood.

We already have laws against bad human behavior. Trying to blame a machine is another form of delusional anthropomorphosis.

People are responsible for what people do. Not machines. And not corporations.

I'd be willing to bet the geography won't allow such a line underground. Texas is full of caverns, oil, and underground gas.

This small physical constraint sits on top of (underneath?) the rest of the reasons it's ridiculous.

You don't think the Play Store or the App Store are just giving out those apps and not making money from it, do you?

The app platforms are not only complicitous, they're enabling gambling by allowing these apps at all. It would be very simple to take them all away with TOS that banned gambling apps.

What platform has the ethics to do that? None.

This is how we get people who "prefer" to be sick, tired, angry, hungry, dirty, afraid, etc. -- all things humans generally don't want.

We can train ourselves to "want" to be sick or angry if we're not careful to steer things the other way. It's much easier to control people who are sick and angry (and sell them things), so most messaging in society amplifies these negative emotions.

Apps like this are inventing problems in order to offer a solution. Folks can already split a bill, or they can stop being petty and quit worrying about every dollar between friends and family.

Mitigating and monetizing every human activity through an app is anti-human and unhelpful.

HN doesn't have that auto-gatekeeping but has taught me to really soft pedal posts about my own stuff. When I've managed to present it as a useful thing and not just my thing, I've gotten significant and sustained lift here.