I've gotten quite good at recognizing crosswalks, fire hydrants, chimneys and the like. Though I refuse to identify that one mailbox as a "parking meter" even if it means another trial to prove my humanity. Users of the platform get treated as spammers already.
It's a reference to Google's recaptcha, which in my experience always asks you to try to identify features in tiny blurry low-resolution photos (and I always wonder how users with poor vision can deal with it). And it's not unusual for it to be wrong and insist that a street decoration is a bicycle, or something like that, and not let you proceed unless you agree with its misidentification.
Oh I intentionally select the wrong things on that mixed with the right things. Just to screw with google for trying to automate some BS by making us do it.
I don't doubt it. At least on non-server machines. They might not even do it intentionally. When every new machine manufactured in the last 20 years has some kind of secure boot system that prevents "unauthorised" operating systems from being installed, what then? Are you just going to keep your laptop from 20 years ago?