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Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
@doctorow
Mar 20, 2023 • 38 tweets • 47 min read • Read on X
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Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Podcasting "Gig Work Is the Opposite of Steampunk"; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/03/19/lov…

#Pluralistic 1/
Today (Mar 20), I'm doing a remote talk for the @Ostrom_Workshop's Beyond the Web Speaker Series

iu.zoom.us/meeting/regist…

On Weds (Mar 22), I'm doing a remote talk for the @IFTF's "Changing the Register" series:

iftf.zoom.us/webinar/regist… 2/
Podcasting "Gig Work Is the Opposite of Steampunk": Why today's Luddites should be smashing apps.

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

* Hospitals require nurses to pay back as much as $15,000 in training fees if they are fired nbcnews.com/politics/econo… (h/t @Jstruan)

* Burning Men crookedtimber.org/2023/03/08/bur… (h/t @Metafilter)

* Dana Sibera's Alt-Universe Tech bitbang.social/@NanoRaptor 4/
#20yrsago Revolution is Not an #AOL Keyword web.archive.org/web/2003032215…

#20yrsago United Way will provide cheap #WiFi and PCs to poor people in Philly web.archive.org/web/2005031613…

#20yrsago Indigineous prior-art database to fight #biopiracy news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolog… 5/
#20yrsago Disney parks are #NoFlyXones cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/03…

#20yrsago #MITPress takes gutsy #FairUse stand web.archive.org/web/2003031323…

#15yrsago Every issue of #Elfquest free — oldest independent comic goes online web.archive.org/web/2008031919… 6/
#15yrsago How #MortgageDerviatives tanked the economy nytimes.com/2008/03/19/bus…

#15yrsago #StateDepartment employees canned for snooping in #Obama’s passport records web.archive.org/web/2008032211… 7/
#15yrsago CEO of #SubprimeMortgage broker fined $29,000 for dropping 73 f-bombs during deposition web.archive.org/web/2008032210…

#10yrsago Canadian government trying to launder secret #copyright treaties into law web.archive.org/web/2013032315… 8/
#10yrsago Is it worth spending half your profits “fighting piracy”? techdirt.com/2013/03/19/ind…

#10yrsago #RayBradbury’s fan letter to #RobertAHeinlein flavorwire.com/377707/10-illu… 9/
#10yrsago #HTML5’s overseer says #DRM’s true purpose is to prevent legal forms of innovation memex.craphound.com/2013/03/20/htm…

#10yrsago #Heinlein on #Kirtsaeng memex.craphound.com/2013/03/19/hei… 10/
#10yrsago My talk on copyright, ebooks and #libraries for the #LibraryOfCongress

#10yrsago #SCOTUS to #Wiley publishers: your bananas theory of copyright is wrong yro.slashdot.org/story/13/03/19… 11/
#10yrsago More on the impact of UK #PressRegulation on blogs, websites, tweeters, and social media theguardian.com/media/2013/mar…

#10yrsago #BrianKrebs talks to hacker who may have #SWATted him and attacked Wired’s Mat Honan krebsonsecurity.com/2013/03/the-ob… 12/
#10yrsago In-depth explanation of @eff’s courtroom victory over the #FBI’s “#NationalSecurityLetters” eff.org/deeplinks/2013…

#10yrsago Tavi “Style Rookie” Gevison on strong female characters and being a young feminist 13/
#10yrsago Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom read-aloud part 01 ia903200.us.archive.org/8/items/Cory_D…

#10yrsago Casino cheats used house #CCTVs to score $32M web.archive.org/web/2013040919…

#10yrsago Minimalist #Parenting: Getting Things Done meets childrearing memex.craphound.com/2013/03/19/min… 14/
#10yrsago #Oklahoma Republicans are tearing themselves apart as they confront the economic wreckage of their policies apnews.com/article/us-new… 15/
#5yrsago People are stashing irrevocable child porn links, dox, copyright infringement, and leaked state secrets in the #blockchain fc18.ifca.ai/preproceedings… 16/
#5yrsago #GPS routing increases city throughput by shifting traffic jams onto residential streets ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/77956…

#5yrsago Machine learning has a #reproducibility crisis petewarden.com/2018/03/19/the… 17/
#5yrsago More than a decade’s worth of #Facebook catastrophes techcrunch.com/2018/03/18/mov…

#5yrsago For #GoldmanSachs execs, momentarily working for the government means hundreds of millions in tax savings nypost.com/2018/03/18/why… 18/
#5yrsago Now that public companies must publish the CEO-median worker wage ratio, cities and states can tax the most unequal firms theguardian.com/business/2018/…

#5yrsago #Marx’s birthplace celebrates his bicentennial with #Communist traffic-lights bbc.com/news/world-eur… 19/
#5yrsago Chinese surveillance/tech giant #Alibaba joins #ALEC, will start co-authoring US legislation theintercept.com/2018/03/20/ali…

#5yrsago The future legal shenanigans that will shift liability for pedestrian fatalities involving self-driving Ubers antipope.org/charlie/blog-s… 20/
#5yrsago Alabama Sheriff legally appropriated $750K from #prison meal budgets to build himself a beach house, locked up his whistleblowing gardener npr.org/sections/thetw… 21/
#5yrsago 1.7 million viewers tuned into @SenSanders’ Inequality Town Hall webcast huffpost.com/entry/bernie-s…

#5yrsago Billionaire #Cartier boss returns from fishing holiday gripped with terror that the poors are going to start building #guillotines bloomberg.com/news/articles/… 22/
#5yrsago Why no one has made a tool to turn off Facebook oversharing eff.org/deeplinks/2018…

#5yrsago Just because #CambridgeAnalytica tells its customers it can sway elections, it doesn’t follow that they’re any good at it wired.com/story/the-nois… 23/
#5yrsago RIP #AnnaCampbell, a British woman who joined an all-woman #KurdishProtectionUnit in #Syria telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/1…

#5yrsago A recipe for the deliberately obscured task of changing your Facebook settings to opt out of “platform” sharing eff.org/deeplinks/2018… 24/
#5yrsago Sara Varon’s New Shoes: a kids’ buddy story about the jungles of Guyana and redemption memex.craphound.com/2018/03/20/sar…

#1yrago @KatheKoja's Dark Factory: Taking Bohemia seriously pluralistic.net/2022/03/20/a-w… 25/
Saturday's threads: SVB's investors will get $2b in public bailout money; and more!

26/
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… 27/
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… 28/
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/ 29/
Upcoming appearances:

* @Ostrom_Workshop: Beyond the Web Speaker Series, 3/20
iu.zoom.us/meeting/regist…

* @IFTF Changing the Register, 3/22
iftf.zoom.us/webinar/regist… 30/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Antitrust and Competition Conference - Beyond the Consumer Welfare Standard (#Chicago), 4/20-21
chicagobooth.edu/research/stigl…

* Red Team Blues at @MystGalaxyBooks (#SanDiego), 4/25
mystgalaxy.com/event/42523Doc… 31/
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues event with @TimHarford (#Oxford), 5/29
eventbrite.co.uk/e/cory-doctoro…

* @uclcs Peter Kirstein Lecture, 6/1 (#London):
eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-kirste… 32/
Recent appearances:

* @RuBlackListNET Privacy Day


* Factually With @adamconover:
stitcher.com/show/factually…

* Making Big Tech Better vs Making it Smaller (@BruxConf2023):
33/
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/2023/03/19/lov… 34/
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. 35/
My latest @Medium column is "Culture War Bullshit Stole Your Broadband: Your internet sucks because telco monopolists kept Gigi Sohn off the FCC"

doctorow.medium.com/culture-war-bu… 36/
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 37/
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). 38/

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More from @doctorow

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Sep 17
Conspiratorialism is downstream of the trauma of institutional failures.

Insitutional failures are downstream of regulatory capture.

Regulatory capture is downstream of monopolization.

Monopolization is downstream of the failure to enforce antitrust law.

1/ A four-doll matrioshke, unpacked and arranged 2x2. In order, the dolls' faces have been replaced with: the Qanon logo; an Oxycontin pill, the face of Robert Bork, and Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. Image: Vicent Ibáñez (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nina_Rusa._Mu%C3%B1eca_Rusa.JPG CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en -- RootOfAllLight (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon.png CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/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/2025/09/17/cau…

2/
Start with conspiratorialism and trauma. I am staunchly pro-vaccine. I have had so many covid jabs that I glow in the dark and can get impeccable 5g reception at the bottom of a coal-mine.

Nevertheless.

3/
Read 57 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Sep 8
This was the plan: America would stop making things and instead make *recipes*, the "IP" that could be sent to other countries to turn into actual *stuff*.

1/ An organ grinder with a monkey. The organ grinder's head has been replaced with a Gilded Age caricature of a sneering millionaire. The monkey's head has been replaced with the head of a miserable child coal miner. The background is a blurred, halftoned view of a vast square in Beijing with a giant official building in the background, and a Chinese flag on a flagpole. On the organ is a blurred portrait of John Philip Sousa.
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/2025/09/08/pro…

2/
This would happen in distant lands without the pesky environmental and labor rules that forced businesses accept reduced profits because they weren't allowed to maim their workers and poison the land, air and water.

3/
Read 77 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Sep 6
Trump's doing a lot of oligarch shit, and while some of it very visible and obvious, other moves, like throwing the door open to "stock buybacks" are technical and obscure.

1/ An old-timey carny barker, waving a cane and shouting. He is standing in front of a vintage photo of the NYSE trading floor.
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/2025/09/06/com…

2/
But it's worth paying attention to this, because this form of stock swindle stands to make billionaires a lot richer (and thus more powerful).

3/
Read 48 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Aug 20
Forget surveillance capitalism - let's talk about *surveillance infantalism*: the drive by the wealthy to spy on you in order to pursue the toddler's goals of getting everything they want from the people around them, without any reciprocal obligations.

1/ Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse avatar's head atop the body of a figure from a earth 20th century editorial cartoon; the figure wears a suit, holds a long fork, and stares into the eyepiece of a microscope. The microscope is attached to a sinister scientific apparatus. The microscope is trained on a tiny human figure, limned in red, who shouts through a megaphone back up into the microscope's lens. The background is a 1980s NASA oil painting of the red, rocky surface of Venus.
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/2025/08/20/bil…

2/
After the Snowden revelations, I started to wonder about something fundamental: why spy at all?



3/theguardian.com/technology/201…
Read 40 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Aug 18
When Elon Musk disagrees with someone, he calls them an "NPC" (non-player character). In video-games, an NPC is a machine-puppeted sprite that engages in predictable movements (e.g. Pac-Man ghosts) and utters some scripted (or AI-generated) dialog:



1/ futurism.com/elon-musk-inte…Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar, perched on a legless nude Ken doll body; its eyes are psychedelic pinwheels. Behind the figure is a group shot of child laborer miners from the 1910s, glitched out, blue tinted, and covered with scan lines. The background is a psychedelic swirl of moody colors. They stand atop a filthy checkerboard floor that stretches off to infinity.
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/2025/08/18/see…

2/
Seeing people as automata is probably a side-effect of sitting in the command-center of a big online service, in which you primarily interact with users as statistical aggregates in an analytics dashboard.

3/
Read 30 tweets
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Aug 16
When LLM users describe their experience with their chatbots, the results are so divergent that it can sound like they're describing two completely different products.

1/ A vintage photo of two men in front of a slot machine. The men's heads have been replaced by the heads of hooded figures wearing Guy Fawkes mask. The image is sepia toned: the only color is the pay-line of the slot-machine, which is showing three glaring red eyes of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The slot machine has a sign over the rotor-window that displays the Openai logo and wordmark. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en -- Frank Schwichtenberg (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/2025/08/16/jac…

2/
Previously, I've hypothesized that this is because there are two distinct groups of *users*: "centaurs" (people who are assisted by a machine - in this case, people who get to decide when, whether and how to integrate an LLM into their work)...

3/
Read 27 tweets

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