LaaS - Life as a Service

Introduction

This essay was written by me, Brandon Nolet, in the we’re becoming too reliant on the x as a Service economy.

Gaming as a Service

When it came to software as a service, a lot of it I could understand and do tolerate. Between paying for email hosting and streaming music instead of owning the infrastructure used to entertain yourself with a local library of music, there’s a lot of headroom. You’ve got the likes of online storage, you’ve got website designers and online editing suites (even in the enterprise).

When Gaming as a Service (or GaaS for short) was first unveiled, I thought it would flop. But then it continued to be advertised by more and more companies. When Google announced their GaaS, I was none too enthused.

Housing as a Service

When property was for sale in the early days of selling property, it was being sold left-right-and-center to every Joe Schmoe who had a nickel to his name. The land wasn’t so scarce and there also wasn’t that many people.

As the population continues to balloon past the point where it seems to that the majority of people in life will never own a home. I’m sure that we’ve even already been through a small generation of that.

More and more folks are being forced to rent, to live in a place that does not belong to them. A place that they’re borrowing for an extended period of time, in exchange for money. Less and less folks are experiencing what it’s like to live in a place that is tranquil, a place that is peaceful and (mostly) protected.

That’s not to say that you can’t live a decent life in an apartment, but that the ratio of people who live in houses that have a decent life is higher.

Personal Transport as a Service

When it comes to personal transport, I can admit that there are a lot of advantages to either leasing a car or habitually taking an Uber. However, I find the experience of owning a car a lot more rewarding.

You’re the one directing where the car should end up, and you’re the one calling the shots as to when you leave. You don’t have to be in a more populated area to get better service.

Besides, you don’t take the kids to the waterpark in a taxi.

Perhaps my curmudgeon is starting to show, but at the age of 25, I don’t see how that would be possible.

Food as a Service

When Amazon Fresh came about I again scoffed at the notion of this newfangled thing. But again, it had staying power. Perhaps it’s moreso because that’s not something that’s available in my area but I didn’t think that it would actually be something that would work.

Today, more than ever, it’s easy to see Amazon Fresh being useful. Heck, I sometimes get my own groceries delivered from time to time. Either I’ve been injured (this happened a few times in the past 6 months) or I just don’t have the free time.

That being said, there are some who have set up their Amazon Fresh to deliver the exact same things over the exact same periods of time. It’s a little creepy, I would say, to eat the exact same meal every two weeks, like clockwork. It sounds too robotic to me.

But then you think about the potential for this with sugars and processed foods and usually I see people getting a whole bunch of junk delivered rather than decent food like fresh vegetables and fruits, or at least some white meat stuff. Nope, it’s all TV dinners and takeout-style foods.

Conclusion

This may have just been a rant and I wouldn’t even realize. I just hope it was entertaining. Please send me a message on Mastodon if you have something to comment, please do so in the potential embed below, or click here and click Reply.