Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-Seventh Week
Don’t say we’re in deep shit say cyclospora outbreak. Don’t say we’re screwed say screwworm in Texas. Don’t say we’re in hot water say the climate is changing. Don’t say … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-Sixth Week
I asked the historian if in this current moment the situation is actually as terrible as we fear or if in this current moment we are just focused on the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-Fifth Week
Upon returning from attending his 20 year college reunion over the weekend, my cousin asked me: “do you ever miss the person you were back in college?” and I told … Continue reading
New Initials, Old Issues: How Remembering Y2K Can Help Us Think about AI
When imagining the sorts of AI-related hazards that threaten the future, there is a tendency to focus on the most disastrous possibilities. There is the doomsday scenario in which AI … Continue reading
You can’t spell “machinery hurtful to commonality” without AI
“I have a reputation as being anti-technology; in fact, as being something of a neo-Luddite. People who have labeled me as such usually know nothing about the Luddites. If they … Continue reading
Apocalypse When – Y2K and the end of the world as we knew it
“We discovered we were more dependent on technology than we had thought,” – Cathy Hotka of the National Research Foundation There is a tendency to remember Y2K as the … Continue reading
An open letter to students considering submitting AI generated work
“We have concluded a Faustian pact with our science and technology generally, and with the computer in particular. So it seems to me. And in such a pact with Mephistopheles … Continue reading
If the work seems fake, does that mean the crisis is too? – A Review of Leigh Claire La Berge’s “Fake Work”
“There is a general agreement that the Y2K transition went more smoothly than any of us would have imagined. In fact, as noted in the week since the rollover, some … Continue reading
Digital Technology Will Not Set You Free – A Review of David Golumbia’s “Cyberlibertarianism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology”
“This is how cyberlibertarianism works: it is not so much about party politics as it is about controlling the terms of discourse and the conversation itself. This ensures that only … Continue reading
Do Draugveil’s roses have AI thorns? – What the debate about a black metal album says about AI and art
“I feel like we are nearing to the end of the times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.” – Hayao Miyazaki If you spent much time online in the … Continue reading
No, university students aren’t all using AI (and the idea that they are just helps AI’s advocates)
“The myth of technological and political and social inevitability is a powerful tranquilizer of the conscience. Its service is to remove responsibility from the shoulders of everyone who truly believes … Continue reading
Tell No Lies, Claim No Easy Victories : Libraries as Sites of Oppression and Resistance
Friends, I wrote the following on the topic of libraries and their relationship to resistance for the second issue of a nascent journal. But in the year+ since I first … Continue reading
“The bargain we are being asked to ratify” – AI as technological bribery
“The bargain we are being asked to ratify takes the form of a magnificent bribe.”- Lewis Mumford (1964) Something has changed. At least in the way that AI is … Continue reading
A Few Eggs of Advice in These Trying Times
Hello, long-lost other blogger here. So, uh, it’s pretty bad out there! You are probably trying to figure out what the hell to do about it. Here are some words … Continue reading
What to Know About Y2K, Before You Watch Kyle Mooney’s Y2K Movie
Nearly 25 years after the year 2000 began without the much-hyped possible computer catastrophe, Y2K is enjoying a resurgence as Americans become nostalgic for the late ’90s and early ’00s. … Continue reading
Mix CDs, instant messenger, and the end of the world – a review of Kyle Mooney’s Y2K (the movie)
“Y2k is an opportunity to educate ourselves first hand about the nature of 21st century threats. Technology has provided the U.S. with many advantages, but it also creates new vulnerabilities. … Continue reading
In the Shadow of Future Catastrophe – A review of Jean-Pierre Dupuy’s “How to Think About Catastrophe”
“from now on we must learn to think in the shadow of future catastrophe.” In recent years, as images of disaster-wrought destruction have proliferated throughout the media—and across social media—concern … Continue reading
Y2K Sent A Warning. The CrowdStrike Outage Shows We Failed to Heed It
* We were warned that our embrace of computer technology would lead to disaster. By incorporating computers into ever more areas of our lives, we were told, we had created … Continue reading
“the ultimate religion of our seemingly rational age” – Revisiting Mumford’s “megamachine”
“If you fall in love with a machine there is something wrong with your love life. If you worship a machine there is something wrong with your religion.” – Lewis … Continue reading
Who are you calling a Luddite? – A review of Blood in the Machine
“If the Luddites had never existed, their critics would have to invent them.” – Theodor Roszak There are two kinds of work about the Luddites. One of these takes … Continue reading
“Y2K was a very real threat indeed” – a review of the HBO documentary Time Bomb Y2K
“Ironically, the greater our success, the more ‘evidence’ critics will cite for declaring that Y2K was an illusion. But it’s always easier to predict the future after it becomes history.” … Continue reading
If Only Beating Climate Change Was This Easy – A review of the boardgame Daybreak
“I’m a pessimist about probabilities, I’m an optimist about possibilities.” – Lewis Mumford (1977) If you’re a fan of complicated boardgames, chances are good that you have some experience sitting … Continue reading
Okay, what now? – Thoughts in the Aftermath of Students Submitting AI Generated Work
“To be ‘against technology’ makes no more sense than to be ‘against food.’ We can’t live without either. But to observe that it is dangerous to eat too much food, … Continue reading
In Memory of David Golumbia
“The lesson from the work that this book deploys is that we have to learn how to critique even that which helps us (much as computers help us to write … Continue reading
“If you don’t have a printing press, you don’t have a movement,” – A Review of Kathy Ferguson’s “Letterpress Revolution”
“Anarchists fiery, revolutionary publications embodied their determination to struggle. Their aesthetically pleasing publications embodied their beautiful ideal.” What comes to mind when you hear the word “anarchist”? A crust … Continue reading
“Y2K is real. It’s coming” – On the Righteous Gemstones and Remembering Y2K
A furious crowd had gathered in front of a prominent televangelist’s church. With placards denouncing the church’s leadership—accusing them of lying—the former members of the flock chanted angrily. And when … Continue reading
What I Wish I Had Known About Applying for Academic Jobs
The start of August brings with it the first smattering of academic job postings. Professors from all over begin excitedly posting “come work with me” messages on social media, academic … Continue reading
What I Wish I Had Known Before Writing My Dissertation
So, you’re getting ready to write a dissertation. Or, you’re contemplating going down a path that (if taken) will eventually require you to write a dissertation. Good for you. Normally, … Continue reading
“Computers enable fantasies” – On the continued relevance of Weizenbaum’s warnings
“The computer has long been a solution looking for problems—the ultimate technological fix which insulates us from having to look at problems.” – Joseph Weizenbaum (1983) Trying to keep … Continue reading
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch : Labor in Open Source Systems Implementations
This post is adapted from a presentation I gave at the Amigos Library Technology Roadmap conference earlier this month. I supervise the library systems unit at a public R1 university … Continue reading
A Luddite Library
“If the Luddites had never existed, their critics would have to invent them.” – Theodor Roszak One way of telling that controversies about technology are intensifying is to watch … Continue reading
Waiting for the Fail Whale – What Y2K can teach us about Twitter
“What we use is not ours simply because we use it.” – Erich Fromm Breakdowns have an annoying habit of not arriving on time. It often seems as if … Continue reading
Theses on the Techlash
“The problem is not to use technology but to realize that one is used by it.”- Paul Virilio Once a term gets widely adopted by the press, and earns … Continue reading
The Internet is Broken. Can We Fix It? – A Review of Ben Tarnoff’s “Internet for the People”
Can you remember the moment when you first suspected that there was something wrong with the internet? Was it when you started to get creepily specific targeted ads? Was it … Continue reading
Life’s a Glitch – what the non-apocalypse of Y2K can teach us
As families watched from home, Dick Clark stood on the steps of the town hall hosting the final New Year’s Rocking Eve of the millennium. The excited crowd chanted the … Continue reading
Where We’re Going, We’ll Probably Still Need Roads – a Review of Paris Marx’s “Road to Nowhere”
You can learn a lot about your society’s relationship to technology by looking at its streets. Are the roads filled with personal automobiles or trolley-cars, bike lanes or occupied parking … Continue reading
Singing About the Dark Times – Theses on Doomerism
In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times. – Brecht It sure seems like things aren’t going particularly … Continue reading
Jonah, Cassandra, and the Doom-Sayers — Reading Lewis Mumford During the Pandemic
“If we would conquer the hell that now threatens to engulf us, we must not seek merely for a little less hell, we must not content ourselves with a sort … Continue reading
“Technology in the Present Tense” – Notes from a Weary Luddite
“The future is not a blank page; and neither is it an open book.” – Lewis Mumford 1. Here is a confession from a weary, self-identified Luddite: For someone … Continue reading
Balance of Terrors – on Günther Anders
“You should not begin your day with the illusion that what surrounds you is a stable world.” – Günther Anders It has been 70 years since Bert the Turtle instructed … Continue reading
“I’m so sick of Y2K!” – A review of Y2K: The Movie
“I’m so sick of Y2K!” Contrary to the stereotype that every disaster movie begins with the experts being ignored, there is at least one disaster movie that begins with … Continue reading
“Things Just Go On” – More Theses on Doomscrolling
“That things just go on is the catastrophe” – Walter Benjamin. One of the risks of declaring victory is the possibility that your declaration will prove to have been premature. … Continue reading
Look Around – Yet Another Piece about “Don’t Look Up”
Truly, I live in the dark times! The guileless word is folly. A smooth forehead Suggests insensitivity. The man who laughs Has simply not yet heard The terrible news. – … Continue reading
Inventing the Shipwreck
“Our societies have become arrhythmic. Or they only know one rhythm: constant acceleration. Until the crash and systemic failure.” – Paul Virilio “Conversations about technology tend to be dominated by … Continue reading
Against Technological Inevitability – On 20th Century Critics of Technology
“The myth of technological and political and social inevitability is a powerful tranquilizer of the conscience. Its service is to remove responsibility from the shoulders of everyone who truly believes … Continue reading
The Magnificent Bribe
“The bargain we are being asked to ratify takes the form of a magnificent bribe.”- Lewis Mumford (1964) “Nearly 50 years ago, long before smartphones and social media, the social … Continue reading
Specters of Ludd – A Review of Gavin Mueller’s “Breaking Things at Work”
A specter is haunting technological society—the specter of Luddism. Granted, as is so often the case with hauntings, reactions to this specter are divided: there are some who are frightened, … Continue reading
Imagine the End of Facebook
“On the one hand the computer makes it possible in principle to live in a world of plenty for everyone, on the other hand we are well on our way … Continue reading
Librarian Was My Occupation – Remembering the Occupy Wall Street People’s Libary
In the fall of 2011, the angry shout of “we are the 99%!” could be heard echoing in localities big and small across the US. The movement had seemed to … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-Fourth Week
Whenever someone laughs my friend’s three-year-old shouts: “not funny,” and as my friend and I exchanged a bleak laugh while discussing the state of the world his three-year-old child shouted: … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-Third Week
I am self-aware enough to know that I have a tendency to see dark omens wherever I look. Yes, I am self-aware enough to know that about myself. But this … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-Second Week
It is quite understandable, my friend, if at this point you are feeling burnt out from trying to stay safe in the face of all these public health crises, but … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirty-First Week
As you return to work after the holiday weekend you will find that everything is just as you left it, unfortunately this also includes the state of the world. * … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirtieth Week
Protect yourself this week: stay well hydrated, wear sunscreen and sunglasses, stay inside or in the shade, use a fan or air conditioning, and should you go out wear a … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Ninth Week
I have a friend whose goal for the summer is to go to the beach. I have a friend whose goal for the summer is write a book. I have … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Eighth Week
If, my friend, as the week begins, you find yourself feeling saddened and furious disappointed and worried, please understand that as uncomfortable as these feelings may be all of them … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Seventh Week
You cannot know for certain (even at this point) which of the four horsemen will dominate the headlines this week. But you can be quite certain (even at this point) … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Sixth Week
As the week begins I look at the news and wonder which of the four horsemen will take the lead this week? And as the week begins I look at … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Fifth Week
Please note: if at some point today your friends or family ask “what’s the deal?” chances are they aren’t referring to the war or to the outbreaks, but just talking … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Fourth Week
A large number of doctors is called: a dose. And a large number of surgeons is called: an incision. And a large number of patients is called: a virtue. And … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Third Week
When you hear them say (and you will) what frightens them the most about a hantavirus pandemic is that it would mean the return of lockdowns, calmly but firmly reply … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-Second Week
When my friend, the ethicist, asks if I am “doing good?” I say, “I’m trying.” And when my friend, the ethicist, asks if I am “doing well?” I change the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twenty-First Week
I asked the professor how her semester was wrapping up and she replied: “it feels like it’s been a really long semester,” and after a moment she added: “it feels … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twentieth Week
As we discussed the news my work friend asked if I ever feel like we are all just stuck in an episode of the Twilight Zone but I replied that … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Nineteenth-Week
As the week begins I often wonder how it is that all of us just keep going to work when everything is falling apart. And as the week begins I … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Eighteenth Week
As we waited for the elevator my work friend told me “I have a really bad feeling about this week,” and though I wanted to joke “hey, stop stealing my … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Seventeenth Week
When you hear them reminiscing about the early weeks of this pandemic by asking: “Remember baking sourdough?” by asking: “Remember zoom hangouts?” by asking: “Remember the tiger show?” ask them: … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Sixteenth Week
Based on the weather outside my office I fear sweater season is ending. Based on the coughs inside my office I fear plague season is enduring. * With everything else … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Fifteenth Week
It was on this day six years ago that many found themselves wondering how long they and their coworkers would work from home. It is on this day six years … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Fourteenth Week
Today, when you hear people groan that they thought, that they really thought they had more time than this, it may be tempting to interpret this comment as a woebegone … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Thirteenth Week
When they tell you (and they will tell you) that it is ridiculous to care about viruses in the midst of a war calmly but firmly try to remind them … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Twelfth Week
As we rode the elevator another passenger looked up from her phone and said: “I have a bad feeling about this week,” and though I was unsure exactly what news … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Eleventh Week
When asked if aliens are real a former President replied: “they’re real,” though he later clarified that he had seen no evidence they’ve made contact with us, and while I … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Three-Hundred-and-Tenth Week
If you look at the news you will see who won the big game, and if you look at the news you will see who won various Olympic events, and … Continue reading
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