Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Feb 9, 2023 26 tweets 26 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Copyright won't solve creators' Generative AI problem; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-…

#Pluralistic 1/ A poster for the 1933 movie 'The Monkey's Paw.' The fainting
I'm in #Australia, touring my book #ChokepointCapitalism* with my co-author, @rgibli. We're doing a remote event for #NZ on Feb 13. Next are #Melbourne (Feb 14), #Sydney (Feb 15) and #Canberra (Feb 16/17). More tickets just released for Sydney!

chokepointcapitalism.com 2/
Copyright won't solve creators' Generative AI problem: The machine-learning monkey's paw.

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

* AI psychosis blog.piekniewski.info/2023/02/07/ai-…

* White Collar Crime Risk Zones whitecollar.thenewinquiry.com/#9q8yyzf (h/t @JWZ) 4/
#20yrsago etoy vs. eToys: anarcho-Dadaist clash of the titans liketv.com/leaving/

#10yrsago #PACER capers: the sordid story of America’s for-pay lawbooks arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20… 5/
#10yrsago Beige politics: unbeatable bland politicos advocating “beige policies that nobody wants” antipope.org/charlie/blog-s…

#10yrsago Publisher launches $3,000,000 suit against academic librarian who criticized its books leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2013/02/s… 6/
#10yrsago Hobbit producers to #NewZealand: if you tell people how we got our sweet tax/labor deal, no one will want to make movies in your country nzherald.co.nz/nz/threats-fly… 7/
#5yrsago @eff tells the @CopyrightOffice: we don’t know how to make voice assistants better, but here’s how not to make them worse eff.org/deeplinks/2018… 8/
#5yrsago Cable operator Fidelity Communications admits it that secretly created the fake-grassroots “Stop City-Funded Internet” campaign to kill Missouri municipal net theregister.com/2018/02/07/fid… 9/
#5yrsago Chinese transit cops deploy face-recognition glasses to spot indebted people, oppressed ethnic/religious minorities and criminals businessinsider.com/china-police-u… 10/
#5yrsago Tennessee sheriff who ordered deputies to kill driver of slow-moving car and gloated over his corpse faces excessive force lawsuit theguardian.com/us-news/2018/f… 11/
#5yrsago Your #SmartTV is trivial to hack and leaks your personal information like crazy unless you disable all its useful features consumerreports.org/televisions/sa… 12/
#5yrsago A pair of leaked powerpoints reveal the earliest-known evidence of the Republican #gerrymandering plan that gave us Trump salon.com/2018/02/06/how… 13/
#5yrsago Leaked presentation from AI snake-oil salesmen to AAA game company promises horrific, dystopian manipulation of players to drain their wallets techpowerup.com/240655/leaked-…

#1yrago UK #Tories want a national database of porn-viewing habits pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wal… 14/
#1yrago Wall Street's #landlord business is turning every rental into a slum pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wal…

#1yrago Pixels of You: A illustrated tale of love and photos pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wal… 15/
Yesterday's threads: The Collective Intelligence Institute; and more!

16/
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… 17/
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… 18/
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/ 19/
Upcoming appearances:

* Chokepoint Capitalism: A Kiwi Perspective, 2/13
…alism-a-kiwi-perspective.lilregie.com/booking/attend…

* Future of Arts/Culture/Tech, @ACMI, (#Melbourne), 2/14
acmi.net.au/whats-on/in-co…

* @statelibrarynsw (#Sydney), 2/15
sl.nsw.gov.au/events/chokepo… 20/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* ANU/@canberratimes Meet The Author (#Canberra), 2/16
anu.edu.au/events/in-conv…

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

* #Antitrust, Regulation & Political Economy (#Brussels), 3/2:
brusselsconference.com/registration 21/
Recent appearances:

* How popular movements can topple Big Tech (@tninstitute)
tni.org/en/podcast/how…

* A theory of how internet platforms die (@Marketplace Tech)
marketplace.org/shows/marketpl…

* Graeber's Pirate Enlightment (Everyday Anarchism)
pca.st/w58ald39 22/
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/2023/02/09/ai-… 23/
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 "Small Government: refs have to be more powerful than players"

doctorow.medium.com/small-governme… 24/
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 25/
Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? You can read my work elsewhere, but it is now a #TwitterCrime to tell you how. Please visit my site, pluralistic.net, for links to find me on less-unhinged places (I can only imagine that my days here are numbered). 26/

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More from @doctorow

Nov 4
Science fiction isn't collection of tropes, nor is it a literary style, nor is it a marketing category. It can *encompass* all of these, but what sf really is, is an *outlook*.

1/ The Harpercollins cover for Neal Stephenson's 'Polostan.'
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/2024/11/04/bom…

2/
At the core of sf is an approach to technology (and, sometimes, science): sf treats technology as a kind of crux that the rest of the tale revolves around.

3/
Read 39 tweets
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

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