Finally getting around to reading #theinternetcon by @pluralistic . The discussion around the Gopher protocol reminds me very much of bridging software (RSS bridges, Matrix bridges, etc) we have today to act as an intermediary to force interoperability with the "walled gardens". Is it overly optimistic to hope that these bridges also become redundant due to a paradigm change in the way we access Internet services?
My spouse is hosting his annual gentleman's holiday party. My evening of treating myself has begun. Wine, coffee, and the last chapter of C Doctorow's #TheInternetCon
@pluralistic Loving your latest book The Internet Con! But I can't find the TikTok logo in the quadrants of evil chart (upper right corner), p.36, or "off the charts" on the inside back cover. Am I missing something?
Background: The text mentions that TikTok is "off the charts" on the inside back cover. The inside back cover is a blank page.
There's a cheat-code in US #antitrustm it's been increasingly used since the #Reagan administration, when the "#ConsumerWelfare" theory ("#monopolies are fine, so long as the lower prices") shoved aside the long-established idea that antitrust law existed to prevent monopolies from forming at all.
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:
I. Start with traditional antitrust remedies (breakups, bans on unfair or deceptive practices)
II. Mandatory APIs that allow tinkerers, co-ops, nonprofits, and startups to interface with dominant platforms and offer their users and suppliers better services and deals;
Sure, sometimes it makes sense to do your own research. There's times when you really do need to take personal responsibility for the way things are going. But there's limits. We live in a highly technical world, in which hundreds of esoteric, potentially lethal factors impinge on your life every day.
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We must get over our reflexive cynicism towards public administration. In my book #TheInternetCon, I lay out a set of public policy proposals for dismantling Big Tech and putting users back in charge of their digital lives:
My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through Kickstarter:
My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through Kickstarter:
My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through Kickstarter:
My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through Kickstarter:
My next novel is #TheLostCause, a hopeful tale of the climate emergency. As with all my audiobooks, Amazon refuses to sell this one, so I made my own indie audiobook and I'm pre-selling it right now through #Kickstarter:
The Lost Cause is my next novel. It's about the climate emergency. It's hopeful. $LibraryJournal called it "a message hope in a near-future that looks increasingly bleak." As with every other one of my books #Amazon refuses to sell the audiobook, so I made my own, and I'm pre-selling it on #Kickstarter:
I wrote a whole-ass book about this and it came out less than a month ago; it's called #TheInternetCon and it lays out an audacious plan to halt the internet's #enshittification and throw it into reverse:
I record my audiobooks with #SkyboatMedia, a brilliant studio near my place in LA. Back in August, I spent a week in their recording booth - "The Tardis" - doing something I'd never tried before: I recorded a whole audiobook, with directorial supervision: #TheInternetCon:
Reading #theinternetcon by #corydoctrow and you realize what an insane system we have built where corporates have developed #copyright laws which no one has voted for but which are enforced everywhere by the #WTO and which punish most of humankind in allowing companies to extract rents across humanity.
Back when I was writing on @boingbot, I'd slam out 10-15 blog posts every day, short hits that served as signpost and public notebook, but I rarely got into longer analysis of the sort I do daily now on Pluralistic. Both modes are very useful for organizing one's thoughts, and indeed, they complement each other:
If that's piqued your interest and if you can make it to #LosAngeles, come by #ChevaliersBooks this Wednesday, where Brian and I are having a joint book-launch (I've just published #TheInternetCon, my Luddite-adjacent "#BigTech Disassembly Manual"):
#RightToRepair has no cannier, more dedicated adversary than #apple whose most innovative work is dreaming up new ways to sneakily sabotage repair while claiming to be a caring environmental steward, a lie that covers up the mountains of #ewaste that Apple dooms our descendants to wade through.
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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:
Congress needs to rid us of this scourge, to let us bring back all the benefits of #interoperability. I explain how this all came to be - and what we should do about it - in my new #VersoBooks title, #TheInternetCon: How to Seize the Means of Computation.
Just finished The Internet Con by @pluralistic. It was an excellent read. Horrifying to learn of the many ways big tech works to screw us over, but it also inspired confidence that things can change.
I just wish there was more I could do to help! I feel kind of powerless when the battle seems to be a legal one, and I'm no lawyer.