Techocalypse

There are huge environmental and societal issues in today's computing, and permacomputing specifically wants to challenge them in the same way as permaculture has challenged industrial agriculture. With that said, permacomputing is an anti-capitalist political project. It is driven by several strands of anarchism, decoloniality, intersectional femi... See more

permacomputing

Well, I’m hard already.

I personally think it makes people less attractive, authentic and worth connecting to. Anything that strips us of our imperfections is missing the point. The AI images, music and video are another. Of note, I actually think the meme uses are fine (it’s entertainment, not art, and that’s something else).

Adam Singer • The rise of AI nihilism

The Zeitgeist Is Changing. A Strange, Romantic Backlash to the Tech Era Looms

Ross Barkan theguardian.com

“The new romanticism has arrived…Backlash is bubbling against tech’s dominance in everyday life, particularly the godlike algorithms - their true calculus still proprietary - that rule all of digital existence.”

After the forest expands, we will become deeply sceptical of one another’s realness . Every time you find a new favourite blog or Twitter account or Tiktok personality online, you’ll have to ask: Is this really a whole human with a rich and complex life like mine? Is there a being on the other end of this web interface I can form a relationship wit... See more

maggieappleton.com • The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI

The Importance of Inconvenience

youtube.com

The “convenience” that tech invites replaced what people/ social connections used to do. You can play a video game with someone online on the other side of the world - but now you miss the casual whateverness of your co-player sitting next to you on the couch. Or, hell, the person sitting on the other side of the Scrabble/ Chess board

When I had the flip phone, I had to put in effort to get to places, to talk to people. Everything was a task. Now it’s easy to do things. I guess I still don’t like needing the crutch of a smartphone, though I couldn’t figure out how to go on without one.”

Link

Productivity tools shape our thinking in ways that favor standardization, efficiency, and predictability. They demand structure before inspiration has a chance to strike. They ask for timelines when the problem itself is still hazy. But creativity is not linear. Often, it involves struggling down several blind alleys before finding the right path.