Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Nov 15, 2022 22 tweets 21 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Tracers in the Dark; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/11/15/pub…

#Pluralistic 1/ The cover for the Penguin R...
Hey #DC! There's a *very special* invite-only book party for "Chokepoint Capitalism" this Thu (Nov 17) and while it's not a public event, there's a limited number of spaces I can distribute on a first come/first serve basis. If you'd like to come, email doctorow@craphound.com! 2/
Tomorrow (11/16) I'm in #DC to receive the Arthur C Clarke Award:
clarkefoundation.org/2022-awards-ev…

11/17, I'm on a @library_futures webinar:
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

11/18, I'm in #Baltimore at @ThePeale:
thepeale.org/event/book-tal…

11/19, It's Sky Live #London:
news.sky.com/bigideaslive 3/
Tracers in the Dark: Andy Greenberg's gripping true crime tale of cryptocurrency forensics.

4/ Image
Hey look at this

* We’ll all lose unless we stop platforms squeezing creators theconversation.com/chokepoint-cap…

* All People Are Created Educable, a Vital Tenet of Modern Democracy exurbe.com/educable/

* DIY Pirates of the Caribbean Ride (h/t @ridetheory) 5/ Image
#20yrsago Alan Moore’s alternate history of the DC universe groups.google.com/g/alt.comics.a…

#15yrsago Daily Show writer explains writers’ strike — if digital content isn’t worth anything, how come Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion? 6/ Image
#10yrsago Cufflinks that open hand-cuffs sparrowslockpicks.com/products/sparr…

#5yrsago Congress’s spending proves the GOP believes life begins at conception and ends at birth theintercept.com/2017/11/15/new… 7/ Image
#5yrsago Motherboard’s excellent, accessible guide to internet security vice.com/en/article/d3d…

#5yrsago Senate Democrat is about to take the brakes off predatory payday lenders huffpost.com/entry/payday-l… 8/ Image
#5yrsago Teardown of a consumer voice/location cellular spying device that fits in the tip of a USB cable ha.cking.ch/s8_data_line_l…

#5yrsago Social media’s “engagement”-based algorithms are intrinsically hospitable to conspiracies and fake news nytimes.com/2017/11/12/tec… 9/ Image
#5yrsago Consumer groups’ labs advise parents not to buy connected toys, claim risk of strangers listening and talking to kids over the internet theguardian.com/technology/201… 10/ Image
#5yrsago 65 out of the top 100 most-cited scientific papers are behind a paywall, with a weighted average cost of $32.33/each web.archive.org/web/2017111321…

#5yrsago P2P downloaders spend more than non-downloaders on music, but pollster can’t do math web.archive.org/web/2012111723… 11/ Image
Yesterday's threads: Even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product; and more!

12/  Image: Cryteria (modified)...
My latest book is Chokepoint Capitalism (with @rgibli), nonfiction about monopoly and fairness in creative labor markets.

chokepointcapitalism.com

Signed copies available from @BookSoup:

booksoup.com/book/978080700… 13/
My latest novel 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 ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, @BeaconPressBks et al) 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/ 15/ Image
Upcoming appearances:

* Arthur C Clarke Award (DC), 11/16
clarkefoundation.org/2022-awards-ev…

* @library_futures Webinar, 11/17
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

* Chokepoint Capitalism at @ThePeale Museum (Baltimore), 11/18:
thepeale.org/event/book-tal… 16/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Big Ideas Live (London), 11/19
news.sky.com/bigideaslive

* Conversation with @superwuster, #Informed22/@knightfdn (Miami), 11/30:
informed22.interkinnect.com

* @Aus_Digital Copyright Forum (Canberra), 2/17:
digital.org.au/2022/11/08/doc… 17/ Image
Recent appearances:

* How big tech traps consumers and shafts creators (@IrishTimes)
shows.acast.com/inside-politic…

* Copyright Waffle (@UKCopyrightLit)
soundcloud.com/user-243274189…

* Surviving Apocalyptic Economics (@teamhumanshow)
teamhuman.fm/episodes/survi… 18/ Image
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/2022/11/15/pub… 19/
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 Medium column is "They Want to Kill Libraries"

doctorow.medium.com/they-want-to-k… 20/
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 21/
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… 22/

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Keep Current with Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK

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More from @doctorow

Nov 1
"Switching costs" are one of the great underappreciated evils in our world: the more it costs you to change from one product or service to another, the worse the vendor, provider, or service you're using today can treat you without risking your business.

1/ A painting of Moses parting the Red Sea, with taerrified and grateful Israelites around his feet and an onrushing army of charioteers in pursuit. Moses has been replaced with a vintage editorial cartoon depicting Uncle Sam as a stern cop holding out a billyclub, on his breast is the crest of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. The roiling Red Sea has been overlaid with a US $100 bill.
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/2024/11/01/ban…

2/
Businesses set out to keep switching costs as high as possible. Literally. Mark Zuckerberg's capos send him memos chortling about how Facebook's new photos feature will punish anyone who leaves for a rival service with the loss of all their family photos.

3/
Read 43 tweets
Oct 29
I think it behooves us to be skeptical of stories about AI driving people to believe wrong things and commit ugly actions. Not that I like the AI slop that is filling up our social media, but when we look at the ways that AI is harming us, slop is pretty low on the list.

1/ A man lying in a hospital bed, wearing a sinister mind-control helmet. His hands are clenched into fists and he is grimacing. Through a hole in the wall we see a prancing vaudevallian, whose head has been replaced with the head of Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse avatar. Behind this figure is the giant red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' At the end of the bed stand a trio - Mom, Dad and daughter - in Sunday best clothes, their backs to us, staring at the mind-controlled man's face.  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC ...
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/2024/10/29/hob…

2/
The real AI harms come from the actual things that AI companies sell AI to do. There's the AI gun-detector gadgets that the credulous Mayor Eric Adams put in NYC subways, which led to 2,749 invasive searches and turned up *zero* guns:



3/cbsnews.com/newyork/news/n…
Read 57 tweets
Oct 26
Two decades ago, I was part of a group of nerds who got really interested in how each other managed to do what we did. The effort was kicked off by @mala, who called it "Lifehacking" and I played a small role in getting that term popularized:



1/ craphound.com/lifehacksetcon…A 1930s-era suited male figure seated at a formal desk that is mounted high with papers. His head has been replaced with that of a grinning elephant. Reaching through the papers, parting them like the Red Sea, is a giant, friendly male hand, along with a bit of shirt and suit-cuff.
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/2024/10/26/one…

2/
While we were all devoted to sharing tips and tricks from our own lives, many of us converged on an outside expert, David Allen, and his bestselling book "Getting Things Done" (GTD, to those in the know):



3/gettingthingsdone.com
Read 53 tweets
Oct 24
A paradox: in 1970, most Americans found it relatively easy to afford a house, and the average US house cost 5.9x the average US income. In 2024, Americans find it nearly impossible to afford a house, and the average American house costs...5.9x the average American income.

1/ A cowboy-hatted, tuxedoed, cigar-smoking Ronald Reagan sits at a coffin/table with the angel of death, which is gesticulating wildly. Reagan holds a green Monopoly house; several more, and a hotel, rest on the coffin before him. The hazy edges of the scene give way to a sepia-tinted, vintage aerial photo of the Levittown suburbs
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/2024/10/24/i-d…

2/
Feels like a puzzler, right? Can it really be true that the average American house is as affordable to the average American earner as it was in 1970?

3/
Read 32 tweets
Oct 23
If Trump's norm-breaking is a threat to democracy (and it is), what should Democrats do? Will breaking norms to defeat norms only accelerate the collapse of norms, or do we fight fire with fire, breaking norms to resist the slide into tyranny?

1/ A rearing GOP elephant (with Trump's hair) facing off against bucking Democratic mule. Between them is a grimacing Statue of Liberty, leaning to one side. Behind the Trump elephant looms a clown with a MAGA clown-hat, brandishing a pistol. Behind the Democratic mule is a science worker using a set of tongs to add a glowing atom to a giant test-tube full of technological artifacts. Behind them roil dark purplish storm-clouds.
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/2024/10/23/eis…

2/
Writing for @TheProspect, @rickperlstein writes how "every time the forces of democracy broke a reactionary deadlock, they did it by breaking some norm that stood in the way":



3/prospect.org/politics/2024-…
Read 42 tweets
Oct 21
One of the most consequential series of investigative journalism of this decade was the @Propublica series that @eisingerj helmed, in which Eisinger and colleagues analyzed a trove of leaked IRS tax returns for the richest people in America:



1/ propublica.org/series/the-sec…A 19th century Puck editorial cartoon of Uncle Sam standing between two funhouse mirrors, one of which depicts him as an emaciated, terrified figure; the other depicts him as a fat and happy fellow. The background is a highly magnified US $100 bill. Over the 'fat' mirror the text from US banknotes: 'This note is legal tender for all debts private and public.'
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/2024/10/21/we-…

2/
The Secret IRS Files revealed the fact that many of America's oligarchs pay no tax at all. Some of them even get subsidies intended for poor families, like Jeff Bezos.

3/
Read 86 tweets

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