>It's like we collectively decided that "it's just numbers, man."

People with no scruples realized it's easier/cheaper to confuse and persuade people something is better than actually producing something better and that conventional wisdom was wrong.

It's a lot easier to invest in propoganda that convinced improved perceived value than actual value. It's win-win, the consumer thinks they're happy and the producer doesn't have to deal with the mess of hurdles in reality to continue to make money. Conventional wisdom says people are smart and will see through your snake oil, meanwhile, empirical data says people will drink the snake oil if you tell them it's from the fountain of youth.

Waaaaay back in the day, the Electro Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors make railroad locomotive. They had the GP-20 with 2000 horsepower, and the SD-24 with 2400 HP. Then General Electric entered the business with the U-25, having 2500 HP. EMD's next model was the GP-30, with (ahem) 2250 HP. This was in 1961.

So, yeah. This is nothing new. Marketers gonna market.

>2G, 3G, 4G used to mean something, not anymore.

Did they really, though?

2G was accurately labeled (in my experience), sure, but I remember when Verizon started relabeling their HSPA+ (3G) stuff as 4G in my hometown. Not even "4G LTE" (which allowed them to get away with it since it's not actually 4G), they just straight up called it 4G on my Motorola Droid Turbo. When I rooted it, I found out exactly what it was connected with and learned it was all a lie. (When I actually did experience real 4G, the speed difference was shocking.)

AT&T relabeled their 4G network as 5G fairly early on. [0] Then, Verizon decided to copy them. [1] But this wasn't a trend that started with 5G.

[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21265048/att-5g-e-mislead...

[1] https://telecoms.com/505584/verizon-told-to-stop-lying-about...

> >but it was in the past two decades and got particularly ridiculous beginning around "28nm" up to now.

> I wonder if that is some kind of cultural shift that is taking place that started around 2009, or if it's always been like this and I just never noticed.

> BMW model numbers used to more or less accurately reflect engine sizes, not anymore, it's just numbers now.

When was that and which number? Just looking at the 7 series (surely you didn't mean that number) the E32 build between 86 and 94 had engine sizes between 3 and 5 liters.

> 2G, 3G, 4G used to mean something, not anymore.

So what did the G mean? AFAIK it was generation, but that's a very vague term. Just look at human generations, people are born continously, so you could have two people who are the same age but technically a generation apart because one had very old parents and the other has very young parents/grandparents are they the same generation?

> I could add a remark about the federal reserve, but... I'll just stay away from that. Don't want to be too edgy/turn this into a political discussion (I just think it's interesting from a cultural perspective).

> It's like we collectively decided that "it's just numbers, man."

Advertisers ruin everything.