Eclectic Spacewalk Profile picture
Your guide to thinking about the future with wisdom from the past, so you can navigate the present. We live in the greatest time Humanity has ever experienced.
Nov 6, 2022 20 tweets 5 min read
#Digitization, #Surveillance, #Colonialism via @CarissaVeliz in @readliberties

"Iron Law of Digitization: to digitize is to surveil."

libertiesjournal.com/articles/digit… "There is no such thing as digitization without surveillance. The very act of turning what was not data into data is a form of surveillance."
Nov 6, 2022 11 tweets 4 min read
#FossilFuel profits ⬆️ & atmospheric concentrations ⬆️
Coincidence? Doesn't look like it

Profits at world’s seven biggest oil firms soar to almost £150bn this year
theguardian.com/business/2022/…

Atmospheric levels of all three greenhouse gases hit record high
theguardian.com/environment/20… "Scientists warn world ‘is heading in wrong direction’ amid rise in nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane"
Nov 5, 2022 13 tweets 4 min read
REIMAGINING COMMUNITY SAFETY IN CALIFORNIA via @CatalystCali and @ACLU_SoCal

From Deadly and Expensive Sheriffs to Equity and Care-Centered Wellbeing

catalystcalifornia.org/campaign-tools… "This new report, produced in partnership with ACLU SoCal, reveals how sheriff’s departments across the state engage in patrol activities that undermine community safety, waste tremendous public dollars, and inflict devastating harms on communities of color. Highlighted counties
Nov 4, 2022 8 tweets 2 min read
Exposure to environmental toxins may be root of rise in neurological disorders via @ninalakhani

Doctors warn exposure to omnipresent yet poorly understood chemicals such as microplastics could play a role in dementia

theguardian.com/us-news/2022/o… "Humans may encounter a staggering 80,000 or more toxic chemicals as they work, play, sleep and learn – so many that it is almost impossible to determine their individual effects on a person, let alone how they may interact or the cumulative impacts on the nervous system over a
Nov 4, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Start your weekend off with:

12 Mind-Bending Perceptual Illusions via @SteveStuWill in @NautilusMag

"They show us in a clear and unambiguous way that we don’t directly experience the world."

nautil.us/12-mind_bendin… 1. The Power of Top-Down Processing
2. The Skye Blue Café Wall Illusion
3. Confetti
4. The Rice Wave Illusion
5. The Tilted Road Illusion
6. Lightness Illusion
Nov 3, 2022 9 tweets 2 min read
Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios

pnas.org/doi/full/10.10… Abstract

Prudent risk management requires consideration of bad-to-worst-case scenarios. Yet, for climate change, such potential futures are poorly understood. Could anthropogenic climate change result in worldwide societal collapse or even eventual human extinction?
Nov 3, 2022 25 tweets 6 min read
Two great @ISSUESinST pieces

Public Access to Advance Equity via @WHOSTP’s @AlondraNelson46 @csmarcum @JedidahIsler46
issues.org/public-open-ac…

A Vision for Democratizing Government Data via @NYUWagner’s Julia Lane (CC: @allergyPhD)
issues.org/democratizing-… "The American public should have access to the knowledge produced by the nation’s research and innovation enterprise. Here’s how to ensure that access to federally funded research is open, equitable, and secure...
Nov 2, 2022 26 tweets 6 min read
Public Options as Industrial Policy via @BuddyYakov

building-a-ruin.ghost.io/public-options… "But as happy as I am to have my pet issue become much more salient, I am very concerned by how pundits like Klein are discussing a "supply-side progressivism." Klein identifies two blocking coalitions. First, these mainstream liberal appeals rely on "innovation" as the main
Nov 2, 2022 25 tweets 5 min read
Elite Capture via @nwhittaker10 in @the_point_mag on @OlufemiOTaiwo incredible & thought-provoking book

thepointmag.com/politics/elite… "Georgetown philosophy professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò’s 2022 book, Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), seeks to help us change the world. In doing so, Elite Capture has its feet planted firmly on the ground. Táíwò has crafted a political
Oct 3, 2022 19 tweets 23 min read
Officially finished the second semester @TUM_STS!

Was asked recently: "What would you say are the most impactful pieces you've read so far?"

To mark this accomplishment of completing the first year of graduate school - here is an #STS inspired reading list (12 total)

📚 🧵 They are broken up into two broad themes:

- Most impactful to me personally (First 6)

- Most impactful and now foundational to #STS as a discipline (after the person graduated from the field) (Second 6)

*Just my opinion, so eager to hear what others might choose*
Sep 8, 2022 33 tweets 17 min read
Since @_reallifemag is closing down, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite pieces from over the years.

Here are 30 insightful, incisive, and critical writings on #technology and its interactions with society at large. Follow & hire these writers!

🧵 below: #LuxurySurveillance

People pay a premium for tracking technologies that get imposed unwillingly on others via @hypervisible & @dgolumbia

reallifemag.com/luxury-surveil…
Sep 6, 2022 12 tweets 3 min read
Science and mathematics may never fully capture the physical universe.

Are there hard limits to human intelligence?

Here are ten questions to ask via David H. Wolpert from #SanteFeInstitute in @aeonmag
aeon.co/essays/ten-que… 1. On some ill-defined objective scale, are we smart or are we stupid?

2. Why does there appear to be a major chasm between the cognitive capabilities of our hominin ancestors and the cognitive capabilities of modern scientists, artists and philosophers?
Mar 10, 2022 15 tweets 9 min read
Exclusive: Inside the Military's Secret Undercover Army via @warkin in @Newsweek

newsweek.com/exclusive-insi… @warkin @Newsweek "The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called "signature reduction."
Mar 9, 2022 16 tweets 33 min read
🎞️ Our fourth #STSshorts episode is live! 🎙️

We talk with @ashleyshoo about #STS, Technology & Disability, #DisabilityStudies, #technoableism, philosophy of tech, #cripsinspace, amongst other topics.

Watch & subscribe:
Image @ashleyshoo This is the 4th episode of #STSshorts, a new video series in which we dialogue with a researcher, lecturer, writer, and eclectic human in the #STS discipline or related fields.

~30 mins in length.

The goal is to highlight and hopefully introduce a new audience to their work.
Mar 9, 2022 19 tweets 19 min read
Warnings of ‘Civil War’ Risk Harming Efforts Against Political Violence via @anjalikdayal, @AlexMStark, @Megan_A_Stewart in @WarOnTheRocks

warontherocks.com/2022/01/warnin… @anjalikdayal @AlexMStark @Megan_A_Stewart @WarOnTheRocks "A year on from the Jan. 6 insurrection, experts warn of catastrophic political violence, while political commentators invoke the specter of the 1860s and throw out sensationalist headlines about a second U.S. Civil War. “The unimaginable has become reality in the United States.
Mar 8, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
"Realism, taken seriously, entails a never-ending cognitive and emotional challenge. It involves a minute-by-minute struggle to understand a complex and constantly evolving world, in which we are ourselves immersed, a world that we can, to a degree, influence and change..." but which constantly challenges our categories and the definitions of our interests. And in that struggle for realism – the never-ending task of sensibly defining interests and pursuing them as best we can – to resort to war, by any side, should be acknowledged for what it is...
Mar 8, 2022 18 tweets 11 min read
Deus ex Technologica via @LisaMargonelli in @ISSUESinST

"Today, our collective belief in the deus ex technologica seems tragically misguided."

issues.org/deus-ex-techno… @LisaMargonelli @ISSUESinST "Today, our collective belief in the deus ex technologica seems tragically misguided. And our experience with COVID-19 should make us reexamine other problems that we’ve framed as technological—climate change being a prime example. Global warming has long been portrayed as a
Mar 7, 2022 14 tweets 8 min read
Climate pledges from top companies crumble under scrutiny via @jefftollef

"Study (by @newclimateinst) reviewing commitments from 25 high-profile businesses highlights the urgent need for a thorough system to evaluate industry’s promises."

nature.com/articles/d4158… ImageImage @jefftollef @newclimateinst "In the run-up to the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, UK, last year, many of the world’s most powerful businesses joined governments in pledging to reduce their carbon emissions to zero in the coming decades. But an analysis of publicly available corporate documents,
Jan 22, 2022 25 tweets 16 min read
Wanna blow your mind?! 🤯

An Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculation Machine Reveals New Secrets via @uclmecheng in @sciam

"Scientists have a new understanding of the mysterious #AntikytheraMechanism that challenges assumptions about ancient technology"

scientificamerican.com/article/an-anc… @uclmecheng @sciam "One object recovered from the site, a lump the size of a large dictionary, initially escaped notice amid more exciting finds. Months later, however, at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the lump broke apart, revealing bronze precision gearwheels the size of coins.
Jan 22, 2022 19 tweets 11 min read
Nonhuman Life as Infrastructure via @maanbarua in @SocietyandSpace

"Infrastructures are rapidly expanding to include nonhuman life, heralding a new age of animals as infrastructure."

societyandspace.org/articles/nonhu… @maanbarua @SocietyandSpace "From ecosystem engineering to the mitigation of risk, from cyborg assistants to partners in economic assembly, the casting of nonhuman life as infrastructure affirms, but also troubles, what constitutes infrastructure. In this intervention, I map some of the modalities of
Jan 21, 2022 19 tweets 11 min read
MSCI, the largest ESG rating company, doesn’t even try to measure the impact of a corporation on the world. It’s all about whether the world might mess with the bottom line. via @CamSimpsonNews @AkshatRathi

bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-… @CamSimpsonNews @AkshatRathi "No single company is more critical to Wall Street’s new profit engine than MSCI, which dominates a foundational yet unregulated piece of the business: producing ratings on corporate “environmental, social, and governance” practices.