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
Progress for the status quo – on the Chamber of Progress
“There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and we solve nothing fundamental by cloaking ourselves in technological glory.” – Neil Postman A … 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
Stop Using “Google” as a Verb
Here is a hypothetical for you: imagine that someone asks you a question to which you do not know the answer. However, it is the type of question that you … Continue reading
The technology giants didn’t deserve public trust in the first place
Amazon may have been expecting lots of public attention when it announced where it would establish its new headquarters – but like many technology companies recently, it probably didn’t anticipate … Continue reading
Challenging the Tech Companies from Within
“The myth of technological and political and social inevitability is a powerful tranquilizer of the conscience. Its serve is to remove responsibility from the shoulders of everyone who truly believes … Continue reading
Be Wary of Silicon Valley’s Guilty Conscience: on The Center for Humane Technology
2017 was a somewhat difficult year for the tech titans, and it looks as though those problems persist in 2018. Of course, the key term in the previous sentence is … Continue reading
Betrayed by the giants
A common feature in thrillers is betrayal: that moment when suddenly one individual reveals that (surprise!) they are not actually the protagonist’s friend. Calamity ensues as the hero must face … Continue reading
Google unveils more of the same
Here is a question: have you heard about the new smartphone that’s being released? Here is a completely legitimate way to answer the above question: which smartphone do you mean? … Continue reading
Google learns the Alphabet
“You still have to learn the ABC. The ABC says: They will get you down.” – Bertolt Brecht The way to spell “Google” has changed, and now the way to … Continue reading
Google Wants to Get Into Your Pants
This is not meant as an insult, really it isn’t (please do not be offended), but your pants are stupid. And your skirt, your jacket, your dress, your sweater, your … Continue reading
On Broken Glass
Depending on one’s personal stance, the news that Google is halting production of its polarizing product Glass is either cause for celebration, disappointment, or – for most people – simply … Continue reading
Who’s Driving? Not You…
Occasionally a new technology is unveiled for which the politics and ideologies driving it are thinly veiled, at best. Sometimes a new device’s ideology is secreted away in the trunk … Continue reading
Trading One Myth for Another – Seeing through Google’s Glass
A compelling argument could be made that myths have played, and continue to play, an important role in human societies. Granted, these myths appear in as many shapes and bizarre … Continue reading
Who Watches the Watch Wearers?
People have no lack of options when it comes to smartphones and tablets. Indeed, it may well be the case that a point has been reached at which there are … Continue reading
No Longer in Google’s Tentacles…wait, what?
Generally speaking, companies committed to consolidating ever more power under their corporate identity do not blithely toss away provinces of their empires. True, this may happen as a result of … Continue reading
This Isn’t Really About Buses…
There is some bizarre aspect about consumer technology companies that leads many people to look upon them through one-lens-red and one-lens-blue glasses. In an era when distrust of big corporations … Continue reading
In Google’s Tentacles – Nest!
Evidently, Google found some coins wedged between the seats of the vehicles in its automated fleet. How that much change fell between the cushions is somewhat uncertain (tax avoidance perhaps?) … Continue reading
In Google’s Tentacles – Robots!
At what point do we need to revisit the way that we have come to use the term “Google” in everyday conversations? Since entering the popular vernacular the term has … Continue reading
A win for Google? Yes. A win for you? Maybe…
With all of the things that Google is involved with, it can be easy to forget that they have also digitally scanned somewhere in the range of 20 million books. … Continue reading
How Cheaply We Are Bribed…
Without meaning to be rude or insulting, here is a question for you to ponder: how cheaply can you be bought off? How lavish a bribe would need to be … Continue reading
Coming to an Advertisement Near You…it’s You!
The government may still be shut down in Washington D.C., but the companies that thrive in the realm of devices that a user can “shut down” remain as busy as … Continue reading
Falling Under Technology’s Spell – Chromecast
Technology has society under quite a powerful spell. It may seem odd to invoke magic when mentioning machines, but as the technologies we use become ever more complex there is … Continue reading
The Car is Moving, but Who’s driving?
Science fiction is a powerful colonizer of the collective imagination. Through it’s cultural tendrils (books, comics, film, television, video games etc…), science fiction is able to supply goals for technologists … Continue reading
It’s a Verb! It’s a Company’s Name! It’s…a country!? Google, the nation state.
Living in a country with a nominally functional government has its annoying aspects. There are laws that you are expected to abide by, taxes that you are expected to pay, … Continue reading
YouRube! (YouTube has never been free)
Since its premier (in 2005) YouTube has become one of the Internet’s best loved sites of (supposedly) free content. Music videos, amateur news, how to videos, personal narrative, video game … Continue reading
Tomorrow’s Authoritarian Regime (brought to you by Google)
To what extent does a motto such as “Don’t be evil,” truly mean anything? After all, such smiling simplicity in a mission statement may sound good even as it solicits … Continue reading
While We Were Distracted…CISPA Passed in the House
When the news cycle is focused on tragic events it is all too easy for other important stories to be ignored, particularly stories that might not have garnered much attention … Continue reading
Through the Google Glass
Did you know that secretly recording somebody is illegal in California? James O’Keefe, the conservative provocateur behind such doctored classics as “ACORN assists in prostitution,” has recently received a pricy … Continue reading
7 Questions for New Technology (Part 1)
Our hands have become very full of late. I mean this in a very literal sense. When I ride the subway in the morning it seems that almost every person … Continue reading
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