Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-Seventh Week
A mantra for a Monday morning: I just have to survive one more week of this pandemic and then next Monday I shall wake up and repeat this mantra one … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-Sixth Week
Now that the emergency has ended the CDC maps the nation’s current rate of plague deaths on a scale from minimal to high and while this is an understandable way … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-Fifth Week
That our leaders and our institutions and our employers and even most of our neighbors have surrendered to the plague is the real emergency it is an emergency that persists. … 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
My Favorite Books from 2021
“We read books to find out who we are.” – Ursula K. Le Guin I would like to say that I spent 2021 alternating between reading related to my … 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
The Climate of Despair – Climate Change, COVID-19, and the Feeling of Impending Doom
“It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us.” – Walter Benjamin Whenever the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issues … Continue reading
All our grievances do, in fact, remain connected
[hi, long-lost other writer here, apologies for the long absence] Two things got libraryland heated last week, and at first glance they have little to do with each other. First … Continue reading
Technological Lessons from the Pandemic
“The public be damned is the private motto of the majority of our citizens: which means that they are damning themselves; and at a serious crisis like the present one, … Continue reading
Theses on Technological Pessimism
We fly over the mountains As though there was nothing to it Great are the works of humans! But bread for all? We can’t do it. Child, ask why Can … Continue reading
Theses on Techno-Optimism
“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 Mumford … Continue reading
Burn it All – a Review of “Your Computer is on Fire”
It often feels as though contemporary discussions about computers have perfected the art of talking around, but not specifically about, computers. Almost every week there is a new story about … Continue reading
They meant well (or, why it matters who gets to be seen as a “tech critic”)
“We need technology to live, as we need food to live. But, of course, if we eat too much food, or eat food that has no nutritional value, or eat … Continue reading
Broom-Scrolling? Assume-Scrolling? Bloom-Scrolling? – what comes after Doom-Scrolling?
“The true path is along a rope, not a rope suspended way up in the air, but rather only just over the ground. It seems more like a tripwire than … Continue reading
Authoritarian and Democratic Technics, revisited
“The viability of technology, like democracy, depends in the end on the practice of justice and on the enforcement of limits to power.” – Ursula Franklin I. Is technology a … Continue reading
The Cassandra Conundrum
“We hate the people who try to make us form the connections we do not want to form.” – Simone Weil One Let us begin with a riddle. Question: … Continue reading
“The Tree of Science” an English translation of Eugene Huzar’s “L’arbre de la Science” [Part 1]
When the locomotive of progress carries us away, it is quite permissible to ask the mechanics who direct it to be prudent and to moderate its speed before having assumed … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-Fourth Week
When I despair my spiritual friend tells me to keep in mind that things may be rough here but that there are a nearly infinite number of world and realities … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-Third Week
They say don’t be too presumptuous all of this is new nobody can honestly tell you what will happen to you after you’ve had it ten or twenty times, and … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-Second Week
Here is a joke: What does this latest concerning variant have in common with the previous concerning variant? This latest concerning variant like the previous concerning variant is sure to … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixty-First Week
Walking is good for you at least that’s what was said in an article I read the other day and that is surely a comforting idea to keep in the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Sixtieth Week
Forgive me but I must confess that I do not find the claim that this virus which still ranks as the third leading cause of death is no longer a … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Ninth Week
At first, I told myself that I just had to make it to the summer then I told myself that I just had to make it to the vaccine after … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Eighth Week
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a welcome reminder that the pandemic is not the only crisis where we know what we need to be … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Seventh Week
My apologies I am not trying to be pedantic but it is dangerous to confuse having survived three years of the pandemic with having survived the pandemic. * In case … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Sixth Week
We tell ourselves that the current affliction overwhelming all of us is a cold just a particularly brutal cold and because that is all it is we need not bother … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Fifth Week
We blame the pandemic for everything, it is at fault: for our unsatisfactory jobs and our dating prospects for our children’s grades and our political divisions. Yes, we blame the … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Fourth Week
I often wonder when it will be that my efforts will have been enough when I can stop with all of these precautions once and for all and go back … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Third Week
All of the attention on unidentified flying objects is a pleasant distraction from needing to think about the airborne virus we’ve identified. * Where once images of the cheering crowd … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-Second Week
While it is refreshing to see so many people grow concerned about an airborne threat I just wish that what worried them was the plague and not a balloon. * … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fifty-First Week
When she asks me to grab her one of the test-kits from the stack under the sink I notice that it expired months ago it is as if the test-kit … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Fiftieth Week
No one really cares if you are afraid just so long, that is, as you keep it to yourself if frightened you may be pitied but mainly you will be … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Ninth Week
Everybody loves a good post-apocalyptic tale for it reassures us that though the present moment may be quite bad the future could always be worse. * According to the news … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Eighth Week
I can acknowledge that I panicked during the first few days of the pandemic I stocked up on too much toilet paper and hand sanitizer bagged rice and dried beans … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Seventh Week
The year is new the plague is old. * A mantra for the start of the year: I will spend less time staring at screens and more time gazing at … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Sixth Week
When you unwrapped holiday gifts with your family I hope that you received exactly what you wanted and if what you received was not what you wanted I hope it … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Fifth Week
What sets this winter apart from last winter and the one before that is that this winter we really cannot pretend that we haven’t been warned. * The newspaper of … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Fourth Week
Is there a prayer to say at the start of a new wave? Yes, there is a prayer to say at the start of a new wave: I pray that … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Third Week
Please be advised: when they told you that you could bring a plus one to the holiday party they were not inviting you to bring the plague. * It’s nothing … Continue reading
Plague Poems – The Hundred-and-Forty-Second Week
When they hear you say that you are sick and tired they will ask if you mean it literally or figuratively to which you are free to reply with a … Continue reading
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