Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Feb 16, 2023 25 tweets 29 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Google's chatbot panic; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/02/16/twe…

#Pluralistic 1/ Tweedledee and Tweedledum, standing at the bottom of Humpty
This is the last day (Feb 17) of my #Australian tour for my book #ChokepointCapitalism with my co-author, #rgibli. We'll be in #Canberra at the Australian Digital Alliance Copyright Forum:

digital.org.au/2022/11/08/doc… 2/
Google's chatbot panic: On the infinite insecurities of a self-styled creative genius who really just buys other people's ideas.

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

* Homemade soccer balls around the world jessicahilltout.com/work/personal/… (h/t @Kottke)

* Amazon Takes a 50% Cut of Seller's Revenue marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazo… (h/t @DanGillmor)

* A Concerning Trend neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-t… (h/t @Metafilter) 4/
#20yrsago Google buy #Pyra interconnected.org/notes/2003/02/…

#20yrsago Altrustic routers would optimize the Internet web.archive.org/web/2003020100…

#10yrsago Economic recovery in the US actually made 99% of Americans poorer, top 1% captured 121% of gains nakedcapitalism.com/2013/02/yes-vi… 5/
#10yrsago #BBC betrays the public, demands #DRM for #HTML5 web.archive.org/web/2013021604…

#10yrsago Holmes scholar files suit to put #Sherlock unambiguously into the public domain web.archive.org/web/2013021902… 6/
#10yrsago Memoir of raising an autistic boy who found himself with ##DisneyWorld’s help memex.craphound.com/2013/02/16/mem…

#5yrsago FDAAA Trials Tracker: leaderboard for pharma companies that break FDA clinical trial rules biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 7/
#5yrsago A public-key #cryptography primer in the form of #Ikea instructions idea-instructions.com/public-key/

#5yrsago Once again, a #stalkerware company’s had its servers pwned and wiped by a hacker who thinks they’re selling an immoral product vice.com/en/article/3k7… 8/
#5yrsago Surge-taxing Uber as a way relieve urban congestion wired.com/story/uber-lyf…

#5yrsago Debullshitifying #Uber’s financial statement reveals a hemorrhaging fountain of red ink with no path to profitability nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/can-ub… 9/
#5yrsago The #DHS’s “#ActiveShooter” printable wallet card, for when “thoughts and prayers” fail web.archive.org/web/2018021719…

#5yrsago New York Federal judge rules that embedding tweets can violate copyright law eff.org/deeplinks/2018… 10/
#5yrsago The independent experts who favorably evaluated #Facebook’s “Messenger Kids” were funded by Facebook wired.com/story/facebook…

#5yrsago Judge slams ICE for targeting migrants based on their political opposition to ICE shadowproof.com/2018/02/09/fir… 11/
#5yrsago The #pharma billionaires whose family company created the #opioid epidemic are disintegrating into a bickering mess theguardian.com/us-news/2018/f…

#5yrsago London demonstrates the stupid, janky future of #SmartCities theatlantic.com/technology/arc… 12/
#5yrsago The West Virginia Democrat candidate who was dragged away for calling out gas-money-dependent lawmakers has raised record-breaking sums theintercept.com/2018/02/13/can…

#1yrago #McKinsey For Kids (no, really) pluralistic.net/2022/02/15/man… 13/
#1yrago Oh great, there's #DRM in printer PAPER now pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/una…

#1yrago The extremely shady "educational integrity" industry pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/una… 14/
Wednesday's threads: Nathan J. Robinson's "Responding to the Right: Brief Replies to 25 Conservative Arguments"; and more!

15/
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… 16/
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… 17/
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/ 18/
Upcoming appearances:

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

* #Antitrust, Regulation & Political Economy (#Brussels), 3/2:
brusselsconference.com/registration 19/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* @SXSW #ChokepointCapitalism reading (#Austin), 2/10
schedule.sxsw.com/2023/events/PP… 20/
Recent appearances:

* The Gould Standard
pod.link/thegouldstanda…

* @RNDrive:
abc.net.au/radionational/…

* How popular movements can topple Big Tech monopolies (@tninstitute)
tni.org/en/podcast/how… 21/
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/2023/02/16/twe… 22/
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 "Of Course Mastodon Lost Users"

doctorow.medium.com/of-course-mast… 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? 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). 25/

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More from @doctorow

Feb 20
The commercial surveillance industry is almost totally unregulated. Data brokers, ad-tech, and everyone in between - they harvest, store, analyze, sell and rent every intimate, sensitive, potentially compromising fact about your life.

1/   A towering figure with the head of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' surmounted by Trump's hair, wearing a tailcoat with a Google logo lapel pin. It peers through a magnifying glass at a distressed, tiny Uncle Sam figure perched in its monstrous palm.   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/2025/02/20/pri…

2/
Late last year, I testified at a Consumer Finance Protection Bureau hearing about a proposed new rule to kill off data brokers, who are the lynchpin of the industry:



3/pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the…
Read 41 tweets
Feb 18
In 2013, Thomas Piketty had an unexpected bestseller (a 750 page economics book translated from French!) *Capital in the 21st Century*.

1/ A Gilded Age editorial cartoon of a frowning Uncle Sam giving a blood transfusion to a gargantuan business-man whose waistcoat is labeled 'protected monopolies.' The businessman's head has been replaced with the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The background has been replaced with a halftoned EU flag whose blue field is covered in circuit-board traceries. The floor beneath the figures is an abstract, pinkish pattern.  Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg  CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed....
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/2025/02/18/pik…

2/
It offers a very convincing explanation of our political decay, and it continues to serve this purpose as the decay undergoes alarming acceleration:



3/memex.craphound.com/2014/06/24/tho…
Read 62 tweets
Feb 17
Theory-free inference is a hell of a drug. For years, Big Data advocates - the larval form of today's AI weirdos - have insisted that if you have enough data, you can infer causal relationships between complex phenomena without ever having to understand how x causes y.

1/ https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/17/caliper-ai/#racism-machine   A phrenological illustration of a man's face in profile, with his skull divided up into sections with illustrations of what each area is meant to govern, e.g., appetite, artistic aptitude, aggression, ardor. A pair of gleaming silver calipers, wielded by the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' measures the figure's skull.   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/2025/02/17/cal…

2/
Thus, we can slay the dread "correlation is not causation" beast. This is cousin to Milton Friedman's famous economic catechism:



3/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essays_in…
Read 36 tweets
Feb 12
Remember the Tiktok ban? I know, it was ten million years ago (in Musk years, anyway), so it may have slipped your mind, but let me remind you: Congress passed a law saying Tiktok was banned. Trump said he wouldn't enforce the law. The end.

1/ An official portrait of the US Supreme Court, with the justices sitting and standing before a red velvet curtain. Their faces have been replaced with the green 'Mr Yuck' logo. Floating in the middle of the image, obscuring several judges, is the Tiktok logo, with Trump's hair.
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/2025/02/12/you…

2/
No, really. I mean, sure, there's a bunch of bullshit about whether Trump will pick up the ban again after Tiktok's grace period ends, depending on whether they sell themselves to his creepy wax museum pal Larry Ellison. Maybe he will.

3/
Read 39 tweets
Feb 11
Let me tell you about the most wasteful US federal government spending I know about. It's a humdinger. You and everyone you know are mired in it for weeks, or perhaps months, every year.

1/ A halftoned 2025 IRS 1040 form. To the left is a bloated billionaire figure in top hat, white gloves and tux, with the pouting face of Elon Musk. With one hand, he is yanking on a lever made out of a gilded dollar-sign. With the other hand, he contemptuously dangles a street urchin. The podium to which the lever is attached bears the Turbotax logo, a white checkmark in a red circle. To the left is a cascade of gold coins, falling out of an upended sack.   Image: Wcamp9 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elon_Musk_-_March_28,_2024_%28cropped%29.jpg  CC BY 4.0 https://creative...
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/2025/02/11/dou…

2/
It will cost you, personally, thousands of dollars over your lifetime. I'm talking about filing your taxes.

Not *paying* your taxes. Paying your taxes is fine.

3/
Read 29 tweets
Feb 5
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

NOTE: I DID NOT BUY A BLUE TICK. IT WAS NONCONSENSUALLY ADDED TO MY ACCOUNT.

Inside: MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing; and more!

Archived at:

#Pluralistic

1/ pluralistic.net/2025/02/04/pow…A vintage ad for Amway Nutrilite supplements; the illustration in the center of the ad has been replaced with a WPA mural depicting trade unionists rising up against capitalism.
This week, Barnes and Noble are offering a 25% discount on pre-order of my next novel, *Picks and Shovels* (use code PREORDERS):



2/ barnesandnoble.com/w/picks-and-sh…Image
MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing: In the mirror world, community organizers are community predators.



3/ Image
Read 29 tweets

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