Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jun 23, 2022 23 tweets 22 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Daycare apps are insecure surveillance dumpster-fires; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/06/23/pee…

#Pluralistic 1/ A Black baby playing with alphabet blocks; the blocks have c
Sponsor me for the @ClarionUCSD Write-A-Thon! I'm writing 10,000 words on my prison-tech thriller "Some Men Rob You With a Fountain Pen" and raising scholarship money for the Clarion SF/F workshop, which I graduated from in 1992.

clarionwriteathon.com/members/profil… 2/
Daycare apps are insecure surveillance dumpster-fires: Apps are like software, only worse.

3/ Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wik
Hey look at this

* The Jovian Duck: LaMDA and the Mirror Test rifters.com/crawl/?p=10269

* Taking the 6th edition of Car Wars for a test drive boingboing.net/2022/06/21/tak…

* Agnes Giberne's The Story of the Sun, Moon, and Stars (1898) publicdomainreview.org/collection/sto… 4/
#15yrsago Open Source Consortium to regulators: Stop the BBC’s DRM! web.archive.org/web/2007021006…

#15yrsago Broadcast Treaty wounded and dying! web.archive.org/web/2007062610…

#15yrsago Podcasting @BruceS's "Hacker Crackdown" craphound.com/news/2007/06/2… 5/
#10yrsago St Colin and the Dragon: great torn paper kids’ comic memex.craphound.com/2012/06/22/st-…

#10yrsago EFF joins the defense in Charles Carreon v. The Whole Goddamned Internet eff.org/press/releases…

#10yrsago @BruceS interviewed about the New Aesthetic web.archive.org/web/2012062607… 6/
#10yrsago Top US drug cop can’t tell the difference between marijuana and heroin web.archive.org/web/2012062413…

#10yrsago Science fiction in Africa bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00…

#5yrsago A Chinese vitamin MLM cult is replacing healthcare for poor Ugandans web.archive.org/web/2020092511… 7/
#5yrsago For the first time, Jeremy Corbyn overtakes Theresa May in UK polls independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

#5yrsago US Copyright Office recommends sweeping, welcome changes to America’s DRM laws vice.com/en/article/d3z… 8/
#5yrsago Crowdfunding a pro-vaccination bus to follow the anti-vaxxer bus gofundme.com/f/craigs-prova…

#5yrsago Canada: Trump shows us what happens when “good” politicians demand surveillance powers cbc.ca/2017/what-happ… 9/
#5yrsago A DRM-locked, $400 tea-brewing machine from the Internet of Shit timeline gizmodo.com/a-400-smart-te…

#5yrsago John Oliver dared a coal exec to sue him, and now he’s being sued washingtonpost.com/news/morning-m… 10/
#5yrsago Tumblr is now owned by a phone company, so it’s stopped fighting for Network Neutrality theverge.com/2017/6/21/1581…

#5yrsago A history of artist Anish Kapoor and his assholic mission to own the color black wired.com/story/vantabla… 11/
#1yrago Peloton bricks its treadmills pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vap…

#1yrago Juul's junk science pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vap…

#1yrago Improving the #ACCESSAct: Six ways to make the most important tech law of the legislative season even better pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vap… 12/
Monday's threads: The sex industry isn't technophilic; Schroedinger's streaming service just died; and more!

13/ Image: Come As You Are Co-operative https://commons.wikimedi
My latest book is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books, now in paperback, wherever books are sold.

Signed copies at @darkdel:

darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co… 14/
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… 15/
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/ 16/
Upcoming appearances:

* A New @HOPEconf (NYC), Jul 24
hope.net 17/
Recent appearances:

* Supp-Lie Demand (Bad Faith podcast with @briebriejoy):
patreon.com/posts/67550669

* The Sci-Fi Feedback Loop: Mapping Fiction’s Influence on Real-World Tech
csi.asu.edu/calendar/event…

* Privacy is the New Celebrity
buzzsprout.com/1806101/106430… 18/
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… 19/
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/2022/06/23/pee… 20/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these essays - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest column is "Reasonable Agreements: On the Crapification of Literary Contracts"

doctorow.medium.com/reasonable-agr… 21/
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 22/
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… 23/

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More from @doctorow

Apr 2
It's not that the Republicans and the Democrats are the same...obviously. But for decades - since Clinton - the Dems have sided with neoliberal economics, just like their Republican counterparts.

1/ The ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, taken in the late 18th century, overlooking a stretch Lebanon. It has been emblazoned with the 1970s-era logo for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Before it stands a figure taken from an early 1900s illustrated bible, depicting a Hebrew priest making an offering to the golden calf at the foot of Mt Sinai. The priest's head has been replaced with the head of Milton Friedman. The calf has been adorned with a golden top-hat and a radiating halo of white light.
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/2025/04/02/me-…

2/
So the major differences between the two related to overt discrimination, to the exclusion of the economic policies that immiserated working people, with the worst effects landing on racial minorities, women, and gender minorities.

3/
Read 78 tweets
Mar 31
Trumpism is a mixture of grievance, surveillance, and pettiness: "I will never forgive your mockery, I have records of you doing it, and I will punish you and everyone who associates with you for it."

1/ The Las Vegas Sphere as seen by night, with the lights of Vegas behind it. The Sphere itself has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' and centered on it is a Madison Square Garden logo. The Sphere has been topped with Trump's hair.   Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
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/2025/03/31/mad…

2/
Think of how he's going after the (cowardly) BigLaw firms:



3/abovethelaw.com/2025/03/skadde…
Read 66 tweets
Mar 25
A law professor friend tells me that LLMs have completely transformed the way she relates to grad students and postdocs - for the worse. And no, it's not that they're cheating on their homework or using LLMs to write briefs full of hallucinated cases.

1/ Norman Rockwell’s ‘self portrait.’ All the Rockwell faces have been replaced with HAL 9000 from Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ His signature has been modified with a series of rotations and extra symbols. He has ten fingers on his one visible hand.    Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
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/2025/03/25/com…

2/
The thing that LLMs have changed in my friend's law school is *letters of reference*. Historically, students would only ask a prof for a letter of reference if they knew the prof really rated them.

3/
Read 36 tweets
Mar 22
I have an excellent excuse for this week's linkdump: I'm in Germany, but I'm supposed to be in LA, and I'm not, because London Heathrow shut down due to a power-station fire.



1/ mystgalaxy.com/32425DoctorowA bloody mary stacked high with many absurd, over-the-top garnishes.   Image: TDelCoro https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasdelcoro/48116604516/  CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
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/2025/03/22/omn…

2/
Which meant I spent all day yesterday running around like a headless chicken, trying to get home in time for my gig in San Diego on Monday (don't worry, I sorted it):

3/
Read 50 tweets
Mar 19
Paula Le Dieu is one of the smartest, most committed archivists I know. Many years ago, she shared a neat analogy with me about the paywalling of public archives.

1/ The Columbia University library, a stately, columnated building, color-shifted to highlight reds and oranges. The sky behind it has been filled with flames. In the foreground, a figure in a firefighter's helmet and yellow coat uses a flamethrower to shoot a jet of orange fire.   Image: Ajay Suresh https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajay_suresh/52009406881/  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
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/2025/03/19/sel…

2/
This phenomenon has become rampant as public institutions have been pushed to seek private funding to close the gaps left by swingeing cuts.

3/
Read 26 tweets
Mar 18
AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman (Elon Musk) can convince your boss (the USA) to fire you and replace you (a federal worker) with a chatbot that can't do your job:



1/ pcmag.com/news/amid-job-…The capital building, crossed by a yellow hazmat tape emblazoned 'DANGER ASBESTOS.' Behind the tape stands a figure in an old-fashioned hazmat suit. In the background are the blown-up faces of a group of grubby, miserable child miners. The capital dome has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.'     Image: Krd (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DASA_01.jpg  CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en  --  Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creati...
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/2025/03/18/asb…

2/
If you pay attention to the hype, you'd think that all the action on "AI" (an incoherent grab-bag of only marginally related technologies) was in generating text and images. Man, is that ever wrong.

3/
Read 26 tweets

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