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Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
@doctorow
Aug 13, 2021 • 25 tweets • 22 min read • Read on X
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Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Smart cities are neither, 2021 edition; End of the line for Reaganomics; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/pos…

#Pluralistic

1/
I'm a guest of honor and keynote speaker at Salt Lake City's Quills Conference on writing, Aug 12-15:

quillsconference.com

2/
Smart cities are neither, 2021 edition: "Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition)."

hhttps://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1426195851056058370

3/
End of the line for Reaganomics: The OG antitrust is back, baby!



4/
#20yrsago "State-of-the-industry" letter from the year 2021 web.archive.org/web/2001082201…

#20yrsago Our faulty intuition about open systems ft.com/content/641671…

#15yrsago NBC: Hair-gel terrorists posed no risk last week web.archive.org/web/2006081319…

5/
#15yrsago Defending against the last plot won’t save us from the next one schneier.com/blog/archives/…

#15yrsago RIAA to grieving family: We depose your children in 60 days recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2006/08/riaa-w…

6/
#10yrsago AT&T merger leak: it’s all about raising prices and reducing competition dslreports.com/shownews/Leake…

#10yrsago Doctor tried to "cure" homosexuality by tasping gay man while he had sex with female sex worker web.archive.org/web/2011100408…

7/
#10yrsago My panel with Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf and Al Gore at Mexico City’s Campus Party

#10yrsago 1968: when Britain’s Daily Mirror tried to overthrow Parliament bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurt…

8/
#10yrsago Stasi spywear: the inept art of commie disguise web.archive.org/web/2011080210…

#5yrsago How removing headphone jacks opens the door to DRM (and how to close the door) fastcompany.com/3062741/the-ip…

10/
#5yrsago Cash grants to people with unexpected bills successfully prevents homelessness science.sciencemag.org/content/353/63…

#5yrsago Forget Skynet: AI is already making things terrible for people who aren’t rich white dudes nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opi…

11/
#1yrago Trump's Solicitor General says bribery is legal pluralistic.net/2020/08/12/fai…

#1yrago Payday lenders are CFPB's pandemic aid pluralistic.net/2020/08/12/fai…

#1yrago Sorting machines snatched from post offices pluralistic.net/2020/08/12/fai…

#1yrago Failed State pluralistic.net/2020/08/12/fai…

12/
#1yrago Mexico's terrible copyright is in trouble pluralistic.net/2020/08/12/fai…

#1yrsago Florida sheriff bans masks pluralistic.net/2020/08/13/bet…

#1yrago My origin story pluralistic.net/2020/08/13/bet…

13/
Wednesday's threads: Canada's got the world's worst internet ideas; IRS leaks reveal billions reaped through ultra-wealthy lobbying on the tax bill; and more!



14/
My latest novel is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books. @washingtonpost called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance."

Get signed books from @darkdel: darkdel.com/store/p1840/Av…

15/
My book "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" is a critique of Big Tech connecting conspiratorial thinking to the rise of tech monopolies (proposing a way to deal with both) is now out in paperback:

onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy…

Signed copies here:
darkdel.com/store/p2024/Av…

16/
My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."

craphound.com/shop/

17/
Upcoming appearances:

* Launch for @Ben_Rosenbaum's The Unraveling, Aug 23 (@Booksoup)
booksoup.com/event/benjamin…

* From Wayback to Way Forward: The @InternetArchive turns 25, Oct 21
eventbrite.com/e/from-wayback…

18/
Recent appearances:

* Privacy Without Monopoly (@Defcon)


* Building the Digital Commons (@moneyontheleft)
moneyontheleft.org/2021/08/01/bui…

* Reset the Internet? (Project Syndicate)
project-syndicate.org/podcasts/reset…

19/
My first picture book is out! It's called Poesy the Monster Slayer and it's an epic tale of bedtime-refusal, toy-hacking and monster-hunting, illustrated by Matt @MCRockefeller. It's the monster book I dreamt of reading to my own daughter.

pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poe…

20/
You can also follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/pos…

21/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

22/
My latest @Medium column is "Expectations management," part five of a series on themepark design, queing theory, immersive entertainment, and load-balancing.

doctorow.medium.com/expectations-m…

23/
If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is also ad- and tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "🩱". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

Subscribe here: pluralistic.net/plura-list

24/
Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @pluralistic@mamot.fr.

Here's today's edition: mamot.fr/@pluralistic/1…

25/
Today's top sources: Bruce Schneier (schneier.com).

eof/

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Apr 24
Patrick "patio11" McKenzie is a fantastic explainer, the kind of person who breaks topics down in ways that stay with you, and creep into your understanding of other subjects, too. Take his 2022 essay, "The optimal amount of fraud is non-zero":



1/ bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/optima…A rainforest in Chiapas, green and intergrown.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/04/24/her…

2/
It's a very well-argued piece, and here's the nut of it:

> The marginal return of permitting fraud against you is plausibly greater than zero, and therefore, you should welcome greater than zero fraud.

3/
Read 55 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Apr 22
Astrophysicist Adam Becker knows a bit about science and tech - enough to show, in his book *More Everything Forever* that claims tech bros make about space colonies, mind uploading, and other skiffy subjects are nonsense dressed up as prediction:



1/ hachettebookgroup.com/titles/adam-be…The Basic Books cover for Adam Becker's 'More Everything Faster.'
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/04/22/vin…

2/
Becker investigates the personalities, the ideologies, the coalitions, the histories, and crucially, the *grifts* behind various science fictional pursuits.

3/
Read 24 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Apr 21
Have you heard that tariffs are going to drive prices up? Me too. There's a good reason we're hearing a lot of talk about tariffs prices: tariffs are a tax that is ultimately paid by consumers.

1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/04/21/tru…

2/
Trump plans to raise $6t in tariffs, making them the largest tax increase in US history:



But that $6t is just for starters.

3/ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/04/03/as-…
Read 42 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Apr 18
It's damned hard to prove an antitrust case: so often, the prosecution has to prove that the company *intended* to crush competition, and/or that they raised prices or reduced quality because they knew they didn't have to fear competitors.

1/ A naked, sexless pull-string talking doll with a speaker grille set into its chest. It has the head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar, and a pull string extending from its back. A hand - again, from a Zuckerberg metaverse avatar - is pulling back the string. The doll towers over a courtroom.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/04/18/cha…

2/
It's a lot easier to prove *what* a corporation did than it is to prove *why* they did it. What am I, a mind-reader? But imagine for a second that the corporation in the dock is a global multinational.

3/
Read 64 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Apr 15
A lawsuit filed in February accuses Tesla of remotely altering odometer values on failure-prone cars, in a bid to push these lemons beyond the 50,000 mile warranty limit:



1/ thestreet.com/automotive/tes…A scene out of an 11th century tome on demon-summoning called 'Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros. Anno 1057. Noli me tangere.' It depicts a demon tormenting two unlucky would-be demon-summoners who have dug up a grave in a graveyard. One summoner is held aloft by his hair, screaming; the other screams from inside the grave he is digging up. The scene has been altered to remove the demon's prominent, urinating penis, to add in a Tesla supercharger, and a red Tesla Model S nosing into the scene. Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified)...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/04/15/mus…

2/
The suit was filed by a California driver who bought a used Tesla with 36,772 miles on it. The car's suspension kept failing, necessitating multiple servicings.

3/
Read 62 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Apr 12
A jury has ordered Blue Cross of Louisiana to pay $421m to a hospital specializing in a much sought-after type of breast reconstruction, primarily for cancer survivors.

1/ A 19th century medical illustration of a topless woman whose left breast has been consumed by a tumor. She is being menaced by an engraved illustration of a looming skeleton, who raises one hand as if to strike her. Behind them is a faded and distressed Blue Cross logo.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/04/12/pre…

2/
The insurer "preapproved" surgeries for thousands of patients, but then held back 92% of the payments it owed, with CEO Steven Udvarhelyi insisting that "authorization never says we’re going to pay you":



3/documentcloud.org/documents/2588…
Read 34 tweets

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