Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
The figure of the feminist killjoy teaches us how the minimization of harm and the inflation of power often work together.
Sara Ahmed • The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way
Susan Leigh Star, a sociologist and theorist of infrastructure and networks, wrote in her 1999 influential paper, “The Ethnography of Infrastructure”:
“Study a city and neglect its sewers and power supplies (as many have), and you miss essential aspects of distributional justice and planning power. Study an information system and neglect its standar... See more
“Study a city and neglect its sewers and power supplies (as many have), and you miss essential aspects of distributional justice and planning power. Study an information system and neglect its standar... See more
Maria Farrell • We Need to Rewild the Internet
Even an elderly woman who doesn’t know how to use a smartphone and doesn’t watch TV is constantly feeding data into this network by turning lights on and off, using the toilet or turning on the stove. ‘With this eye of wisdom,’ Li gestured to the building around us, ‘everyone will be looked after.’
Long Ling • Article
German research team proved in 2011 that a careful study of the micropatterns of electricity use made newly observable by digital meters can reveal what appliances you have running and even what television program you are watching—as long as the program is being broadcast on scheduled TV, as signatures can be compared only with known possible outpu
... See moreGretchen Bakke • The Grid
Sept manières de penser : De l’économie du XXe siècle 1. Changer le but PIB 2. Voir l’ensemble du tableau marché autonome 3. Cultiver la nature humaine l’homme économique rationnel
Kate RAWORTH • La Théorie du donut
“These [groups] are pockets of democratic self-governance within a largely antidemocratic space,” Beth Simone Noveck, one of the report’s authors, told me over the phone. In fact, the Groups feature was promoted, in part, to rehabilitate the company’s “antidemocratic” reputation.
The Atlantic • The Communities Trapped on Facebook
If anyone should be considered the original source of digital gardening, it's Caufield.
Maggie Appleton 🧭 • A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden
Elite capture is the “presence of unequal access to power...and consequently the ability to influence the transfer of funds/resources disproportionately” toward outcomes that benefit those with access.
Here, funds/resources mean currency, so in some situations they can refer to things like housing and healthcare but they can also refer to “knowledge... See more
Cydney Hayes • The elite capture of Substack
Donella Meadows, one of the authors of Limits to Growth.